Month: August 2025

Investments under China’s Belt and Road Initiative surged in the first half of the year – particularly for projects in Central Asia related to metals and mining – leading some analysts to conclude Beijing is seeking access to critical natural resources as a precaution against escalatory trade restrictions from the United States. Advertisement The 150 countries taking part in the global infrastructure initiative received a combined US$124 billion in investments and construction contracts from January to June, more than the US$122 billion reported for all of 2024, the US-based China-Global…

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trump calls criticism of move to admit thousands of Chinese students ‘insulting’ US President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his proposal to admit hundreds of thousands of Chinese students, saying the US is “honoured” to host them and warning that the American college system would “go to hell” without them. 2. As the world watches PLA approach 100, is it truly ‘capable of winning…

US President Donald Trump’s renewed threat to impose tariffs on imported furniture could erode some of China’s exports while doing little to bring manufacturing back to America as he promised, according to analysts. Advertisement And they added that such a move risks escalating tensions between the world’s two largest economies, whose earlier extension of a trade truce, coupled with conciliatory statements, had suggested a more amenable posture in trade negotiations. Trump announced plans to impose steep tariffs on furniture imports in a bid to revive the domestic industry in the…

The United States has developed and tested its own version of a potentially transformative technology that could redefine the future of high-speed warfare and is already being mastered by China. Advertisement The rotating detonation engine (RDE) programme, a collaboration between the RTX Technology Research Centre and Pratt & Whitney, has moved into the practical validation phase after a decade of designing and testing. These trials, conducted at a lab in Connecticut, aimed to integrate the RDE engine into a ground test bed ahead of future flight tests with the goal…

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi didn’t just tour South Asia earlier this month; he redrew the region’s strategic map. In three stops – India, Afghanistan and Pakistan – Beijing offered a tactical reset, a warning and a lifeline. The choreography was deliberate; the message was unmistakable: China is shaping the region’s future, one handshake at a time. Advertisement The stops were not random. They were sequenced with intent, each one revealing something about China’s ambitions, South Asia’s anxieties and the increasingly fragile scaffolding of global power. Wang began in New…

Would mathematician Terence Tao consider leaving the United States for Hong Kong or mainland China in light of funding cuts under the Trump administration? Advertisement When the South China Morning Post put the question to the Fields medallist and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) professor, his response was measured but telling. “The situation is very fluid and unstable right now – far more than it has been at any previous point in the last 30 years,” Tao wrote in an email on August 21. “What happens next depends largely…

Chinese on-demand local services giant Meituan saw second-quarter earnings fall, as it faced off against Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com in a costly instant delivery price war. Advertisement Beijing-based Meituan on Wednesday reported weaker-than-expected revenue of 91.8 billion yuan (US$12.8 billion) in the quarter ended June 30. That was up 11.7 per cent from 82.2 billion yuan a year earlier, but fell short of the 93.7 billion yuan estimate by analysts. Net profit for the period tumbled 96.8 per cent to 365 million yuan, compared to 11.4 billion yuan a…

Advertisement Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for the mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said that representatives from various sectors of society, including Taiwan compatriots, would take part in the parade on September 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II. “All of the Chinese people, including compatriots in Taiwan, made sacrifices and contributions in the war of resistance against Japanese aggression,” Zhu said. “We hope people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait will remember history, honour the martyrs … and work hand in hand to further promote…