Month: August 2025

China’s top envoy in Washington has rejected suggestions that Chinese ownership of US farmland is a national security threat, saying such claims are “completely unfounded”. Advertisement Addressing a soybean industry event in Washington on Friday, Xie Feng, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, said Chinese investors owned less than 0.03 per cent of the total farmland in the US. “How can it pose a threat to US food security as some have claimed?” Xie said, according to a transcript of his speech published by the Chinese embassy on Saturday.…

A unit of Taiwanese consumer electronics giant Asus is developing a supercomputer, powered by Nvidia chips, that is expected to boost the island’s computing capacity by at least 50 per cent, according to a senior executive. Advertisement That infrastructure, a collaboration between Taiwan AI Cloud and the island’s National Centre for High-Performance Computing, is expected to launch its initial phase with a capacity of 80 petaflops in December, said Peter Wu, CEO of Asus Cloud and Taiwan AI Cloud, in an interview with the South China Morning Post. Located in…

From public transport to postal services, the city of Beijing has tightened security in multiple ways for a rare military parade on September 3 celebrating a World War II triumph for China that will draw state leaders from around the world. Advertisement The parade is among events that will mark the 80th anniversary of China’s victory in the “war of resistance against Japanese aggression”, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and several Southeast Asian leaders among those expected to attend. The march route is due to proceed along Changan Avenue, a…

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo unveiled a mixed-reality headset that resembles Apple’s Vision Pro in name, design and interface, but weighs about 35 per cent less and is likely to cost one third as much. Advertisement The Vivo Vision is similar to the Apple gadget that is controlled with intuitive eye tracking and hand gestures, according to information published on Vivo’s website on Thursday. But the Vivo device weighs 398 grams, much less than its US rival, which weighs at least 600g, addressing one of the most common concerns of high-end…

China is on a mission to turn its military into a modern fighting force. In the second of this four-part series, we look at how its massive defence industry can support China’s military goals, and during wartime could be further bolstered by the civilian manufacturing sector. Advertisement In the northeastern city of Shenyang, the future of China’s defence manufacturing capacity is rapidly taking shape – an enormous new aviation industrial complex that will eventually occupy an area about the size of 600 football fields. Video of the site was aired…

China’s third and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, could be officially commissioned as early as wartime anniversaries next month, a video by state broadcaster CCTV suggests. Advertisement The video released on Saturday sought to draw a parallel between the Japanese naval incursions 88 years ago and the Fujian’s readiness to enter service, linking it with the memory of the Japanese invasion. China will be marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japanese aggression with a military parade on September 3. The CCTV video opened with views of China State…

Following what became a historic countdown, PLA Sergeant Major Zhao Jing tapped the laptop before him, declared “launch sequence initiated”, and exited the cabin of the missile vehicle he had ridden into the dense jungle of Hainan province. Advertisement The rare ICBM test also illustrated a credible second-strike nuclear capability for China, sending a strong geopolitical signal to the United States and its allies. In the launch tied to “the honour of the Rocket Force and the dignity and confidence of the nation”, what Zhao activated was a DF-31AG missile.…