Day: September 3, 2025

The US government has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeal court ruling that declared US President Donald Trump’s use of emergency executive powers to impose tariffs unlawful. The move sets up a high-stakes legal showdown over the limits of presidential authority in trade policy. Advertisement In its appeal filed on Wednesday, the Trump administration told the high court that the case “addresses the validity” of the government’s “most significant economic and foreign-policy initiative”. “The stakes in this case could not be higher,” the petition said, noting that…

China is training representatives from Southeast Asia this month in an effort to promote its home-grown civilian aircraft, as the region leads the world in accepting Chinese deliveries despite Airbus and Boeing’s dominance. Advertisement Twenty participants from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are taking part in the 2025 China-Asean Civil Aviation Management Capacity Enhancement Workshop in Beijing, which started Monday. Organised by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the 14-day training course covers safety management, airworthiness certification, green development, new technologies and domestically produced large aircraft,…

Xiaohongshu’s valuation surged 19 per cent to US$31 billion in just three months during recent transactions via a major fund, underscoring the intense investor demand for a Chinese equivalent to Instagram. Advertisement The valuation came to light through portfolio documents distributed by a GSR Ventures Management vehicle, which logged shares of the fund changing hands in the first half of 2025. Xiaohongshu comprised 92 per cent of the fund’s total assets as of June’s end, a slight rise from the previous quarter, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg News. The…

China is making progress in artificial intelligence “agentic frameworks”, the tools required to make AI agents, as the country’s tech giants begin to take on US players such as AutoGen and OpenAI Swarm. Advertisement Tencent Holdings was the latest to join the fray after the Shenzhen-based company open-sourced its new Youtu-Agent agentic framework on Tuesday. Developed by Youtu Labs, Tencent’s AI research department, the framework was released on Microsoft’s open-source code-hosting platform GitHub last week. The company said that a Youtu-Agent agent built on the open-source DeepSeek-V3.1 model achieved a…

A local government in China’s provincial economic powerhouse of Zhejiang has announced plans to subsidise the restaurant meals of high-value consumers, in a move that is intended to stimulate consumption but could raise questions about whether it runs contrary to the central government’s austerity drive. Advertisement Shaoxing – a city known for its textile industry and a prized variety of cooking wine – will offer subsidies of up to 5,000 yuan (US$700) to banquet holders if they host five or more tables and spend more than 10,000 yuan, as part…

At the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged member states to accelerate the creation of an SCO development bank, a proposal that could mark a turning point in Asia’s financial landscape. While headlines focused on the high-profile presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Xi’s proposal points to the SCO’s evolution from a security bloc into a financial actor. Advertisement Xi also pledged US$1.4 billion in loans over three years to SCO states and called on the…

Advertisement Among the weapons appearing in public for the first time was the Jing Lei-1, or JL-1, long-range air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM). ALBMs are typically launched from bombers and are considered to be a pillar of a nuclear triad – a three-pronged military force structure for delivering nuclear weapons alongside intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). The missile is China’s first known ALBM and possibly could be launched from an H-6 bomber, completing Beijing’s nuclear triad. 05:50 China showcases new military hardware in massive Victory Day parade…