Month: August 2025

Chinese military parades are known for their spectacular goose-stepping and formations, but they also provide important hints about the structure of the People’s Liberation Army and its new weapons. Advertisement The history of these parades highlights how the PLA has evolved from being a guerrilla force that relied on captured foreign weapons to a modern force that aims to compete with the US in terms of combat ability and advanced equipment. Mao Zedong 1949-1959 It involved more than 16,400 personnel from the navy, army and air force and featured equipment…

Four years after the USS Connecticut, one of the most advanced nuclear submarines in the US Navy, slammed into an uncharted seamount in the South China Sea, the site of that near-catastrophic grounding may now become a deadly minefield for future naval battles. Advertisement Chinese military scientists are proposing to transform the dangerous underwater terrain where the Connecticut crashed into a strategically engineered kill zone, packed with powerful mines designed to exploit the very same acoustic blind spots that made the area so treacherous for the American sub. In a…

The world’s two most populous countries need to be friends, Chinese President Xi Jinping told visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday. Advertisement Meeting on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, Xi told Modi that the two countries could be good neighbours and play a key part in the Global South, according to footage posted online. “China and India are two of the most ‘civilisational’ countries. We are the world’s two most populous countries and part of the Global South…

As Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomes a host of world leaders for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, he is delivering one overarching message – that China is a stable power that will protect peace and champion the developing world. Advertisement Xi launched a flurry of Chinese diplomacy in the northern city of Tianjin on Saturday by meeting five state leaders and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ahead of Sunday’s start to the SCO’s two-day summit. He told Guterres that China was a “source of stability and certainty” amid global…

Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun says he is trying to establish the Tron blockchain, which he founded and launched in 2018, as the virtual asset industry’s answer to Swift – the main messaging network used by the global banking system – on the back of a surge in stablecoin transactions around the world. Advertisement “I estimate that our facilitated transactions will exceed Swift’s in the next five years,” Sun, 35, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post. He added that the transaction volume through Tron was already expected…

Advertisement “[Citizens and agencies should] improve security precautions, closely monitor local developments, minimise non-essential outings, steer clear of protest crowds and areas, and avoid visiting crowded locations,” the embassy said in a social media post on Saturday. Also on Saturday, Indonesian State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said “domestic dynamics” had prompted President Prabowo Subianto to cancel his planned trip. Prasetyo, who is also the presidential spokesman, said Prabowo wanted to “monitor the situation directly, as well as to lead and find the best solution”. “Therefore, the president apologises to the Chinese…

After Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang survived two mass recall votes, the party’s supporters are hoping it can make more gains in next year’s local polls – and even potentially regain power in 2028. Advertisement But the party is not celebrating. Instead it is consumed by anxiety over who will succeed Eric Chu Li-luan when he steps down as chairman in October, a role seen by some as a poisoned chalice. It is a volatile time in Taiwanese politics. The proportion of voters with a favourable view of the ruling Democratic…