Month: September 2025

World’s most powerful flying wind turbine launched in western China

Media Library

Advertisement Between September 19 and 21, the airship-like S1500 – about the size of a basketball court and as tall as a 13-storey building – became the first turbine of its kind to generate one megawatt of power during a test flight at a desert site in China’s western Xinjiang region. The trial involved assembly in desert conditions, pressure checks, and launch and retrieval in strong winds both day and night. “All planned goals were achieved,” according to Beijing-based start-up Sawes Energy Technology, one of the project’s main developers. Dun…

Taipei backtracks on South Africa chip controls in representative office row

Media Library

Advertisement Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Thursday that following discussions with the foreign ministry, it had decided to suspend its first unilateral chip curbs on a foreign government. The export controls unveiled on Tuesday were set to come into effect in late November and would have required prior approval for 47 products – including semiconductor wafers and memory chips – to be shipped to South Africa. Taipei’s foreign ministry said the South African government wanted to discuss the Taipei office dispute. Advertisement The initial deadline was the end…

TikTok: how a viral app navigated turbulent times to secure its place in the US

Media Library

Beijing-based ByteDance launched the international version of its short video app in 2017. TikTok soon became a global hit thanks to its advanced algorithm. This success, however, drew the attention of the US government and others, which raised concerns about data privacy and national security. Advertisement After a rocky few years, TikTok seems ready to secure a permanent foothold in the US market via a deal that would see American investors control the US operations. The following timeline plots TikTok’s journey. 2012 March – Zhang Yiming establishes ByteDance in Beijing.…

China’s trade probes into Mexico seen as ‘clear warning’ not to bow to US pressure

Media Library

As China and the United States approach the next phase of trade talks, Beijing has launched anti-dumping and trade barrier probes into Mexico after the Latin American country proposed higher tariffs on Chinese goods. Advertisement Analysts said the move signalled a warning from Beijing, as Mexico’s planned duties – affecting a range of countries, but sparing the US and Canada – are widely seen as an attempt to curry favour with Washington. On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Commerce launched an anti-dumping investigation into pecans from Mexico and the US, expected…

China’s industrial policy is destroying its economy

Media Library

The writer is research associate at Oxford university’s China Centre and at Soas and an adviser to the China Observatory, Council on Geostrategy. He is a former chief economist at UBS. China’s industrial policy is not well understood. The fiscal price tag, highlighted in the latest IMF report that Alphaville covered on Tuesday, is eye-poppingly large at around 4.4 per cent of GDP. And the Fund reckons it costs the country a further 2 per cent points of GDP each year in lost productivity. The impact of Chinese industrial policy on the…

Senior officials intensify focus on religion and use of Chinese in Xinjiang

Media Library

Senior officials who travelled to Xinjiang with Xi Jinping have remained in the far western region to focus on religious affairs and the increased use of standard Chinese following the president’s return to Beijing. Advertisement On Thursday, during a visit to Korla in central Xinjiang, Wang Huning, the country’s fourth-ranking official, urged Xinjiang – particularly its southern regions – to improve “education in the national standard spoken and written language”, according to state news agency Xinhua. Southern Xinjiang has historically been a hotbed of ethnic tensions and saw a series…

Russia is helping train China’s paratroopers, leaked files show

Media Library

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Russia is helping to train and equip Chinese airborne forces in assault tactics and hybrid warfare, according to leaked documents that point to a deepening Sino-Russian military partnership. A cache of internal papers describes the transfer of enough Russian hardware to equip a People’s Liberation Army airborne battalion, along with command and control systems and training to take place both in Russia and China. The detailed arrangements, taken from Russian…

Beijing leads push against Trump’s bid to reclaim Afghan airbase

Media Library

In a show of united opposition, China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran jointly called for “respect” for the sovereignty of Afghanistan on Thursday, following remarks by US President Donald Trump that his country will “take back” a former military airbase in the country. Advertisement On Thursday, Yue Xiaoyong, a Chinese foreign ministry special envoy for Afghanistan, held an informal meeting with the delegations from Russia, Pakistan and Iran on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, according to the foreign ministry. In a joint statement following the…

In case of trade emergency, break glass: inside China’s policy toolbox

Media Library

Beijing has deployed a wide variety of measures to protect its domestic industries as China’s economy, the world’s second largest, grapples with a number of external tensions. Advertisement In addition to traditional tools accepted in international law such as anti-dumping or countervailing investigations, the country’s Ministry of Commerce has adopted other methods to respond to what Beijing views as encroachment by trade partners, particularly in the months since US President Donald Trump began his second term by levying enormous import duties. Six of those measures are outlined below. Unreliable Entity…