Liu Jianchao, a senior Chinese diplomat widely seen as a potential future foreign minister, has been detained by authorities for questioning, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Liu was taken away after returning to Beijing in late July from an overseas work trip, it reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. China’s State Council Information Office, which handles media queries for the Chinese government, and the Chinese Communist party International Liaison Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. Liu, 61, has led the Communist party’s…
Day: August 10, 2025
Manus and Benchmark: The AI deal that upset China and the US
On a recent weekday, the Beijing office of the company behind Manus, a popular artificial intelligence “agent”, was quiet. Most desks were empty. Its Chinese social media presence had been wiped clean. Manus’s abrupt exit from China for Singapore came on the heels of a major US financing deal and marks a sharp reversal for the start-up, which just months ago was hailed as the next DeepSeek — further proof that China’s AI innovation matched Silicon Valley. The multimillion-dollar investment deal led by top-tier US venture firm Benchmark and the…
Good vibrations: the music of black holes
If mature black holes had personalities, they would be extremely introverted. They don’t let anything out – not light, not particles, and certainly not music. Advertisement Hawking radiation is a fascinating exception to this rule, but for astrophysical black holes, it is a tiny effect. But before they settle down, during their brief but wild youth, newly formed black holes ring out a strange, pure music. It would be beautiful to experience, and soon we will be able to do it. When a new black hole is formed, say by…
Hong Kong author Louis Cha’s works form the basis of China’s next AAA video game
Advertisement CreateAI, formerly known as the autonomous vehicle firm TuSimple, aims to make Heroes of Jin Yong “one of the largest-scale triple-A, open-world role-playing games (RPGs)” in the market, president and CEO Lu Cheng told the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of the recent ChinaJoy 2025 trade show in Shanghai. “It is a huge software engineering project,” Lu said. He pointed out that the most difficult part of the development process was maintaining the high standards for both the game’s aesthetics and combat features, while handling a massive…
Why China’s baby subsidies may help poorer regions – and how they stack up in Asia
In a major effort to tackle its deepening demographic crisis, China has launched a nationwide childcare subsidy scheme – the first of its kind by the central government. Advertisement The much-anticipated programme offers families 3,600 yuan (US$501) annually for each child under the age of three, building on similar initiatives already piloted in more than 20 provinces. In this explainer, the Post looks into the potential impact of the new scheme – and how it compares internationally. How will the scheme impact different regions? The subsidy – a universal benefit…
US appetite for Australian beef poised to grow on tariff advantage
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Australian beef producers hope to prolong a boom in sales to the US after Donald Trump’s tariffs handed the country an advantage over rival exporters such as Brazil. Cattle farmers feared the worst in April when the US president singled out Australia’s strict biosecurity laws for criticism and warned that the US would stop importing red meat from the Pacific country. “I figured we were about to get railroaded,” said…
South Korea’s Upstage enters global AI race
Trial $1 for 4 weeks Then $75 per month. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism. Cancel anytime during your trial. Global news & analysis Expert opinion FT App on Android & iOS FT Edit app FirstFT: the day’s biggest stories 20+ curated newsletters Follow topics & set alerts with myFT FT Videos & Podcasts 20 monthly gift articles to share Lex: FT’s flagship investment column 15+ Premium newsletters by leading experts FT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition Financial Times
FirstFT: Nvidia and AMD to pay portion of China chip sale revenues to US government
This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters here Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter: Nvidia and AMD’s unusual deal with Trump Singapore’s stock exchange poised for revival What Putin wants at the upcoming Alaska summit Nvidia and AMD have agreed to give the US government 15 per cent of the revenues from chip sales in China, as part…
Trump may hit China with punitive tariffs over purchases of Russian oil
US Vice-President J.D. Vance said on Sunday that President Donald Trump is “thinking” about slapping new tariffs on imports from China in response to the country’s purchases of Russian oil. Advertisement Vance was asked in a Fox News interview whether Trump would move against Beijing as he did against New Delhi last week, when the president announced a punitive 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports over the South Asian country’s continued purchase of Russian oil despite his repeated warnings. “The president said he’s thinking about it, but he hasn’t…
China pressures Bangkok gallery to remove Uyghur, Tibetan, Hong Kong artwork
A Bangkok gallery is pressured — at China’s request — to remove and redact artwork about Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs, Tibetans and Hong Kongers from an exhibit on authoritarian governments, according to a report by the Reuters news agency. Video: China pressures Bangkok gallery to remove Uyghur, Tibetan, Hong Kong artworkIn what the artists called the latest attempt by Beijing to silence critics overseas, the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Center changed multiple works by artists in exile in the exhibit on authoritarian governments collaborating across borders. According to Reuters, works…