Day: October 13, 2025

Everywhere they look these days, Europe’s politicians see chaos. Advertisement The United States is helping to trash the global order it built in its image. China is pulling the rug from under efforts to upgrade European industry by weaponising its monopoly on critical minerals. Russia is waging a hot war at the European Union’s borders, with the growing danger that it may spill over. So tumultuous have things become, some officials have turned to Chinese science fiction to describe it. “Where we are now, we’re actually in a time of…

Beijing and Washington conducted working-level talks on Monday despite a renewed escalation in trade tensions, China’s Ministry of Commerce has said, urging the US to “show sincerity for dialogue”. Advertisement “The US cannot engage in dialogue while intimidating and threatening to impose new restrictions. This is not the right way to deal with China,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. “China urges the US to immediately correct its wrong practices and show sincerity for dialogue.” The two sides have maintained communication under the framework of a bilateral economic…

China announced it has begun mass producing the world’s first ultra-low noise, single-photon detector featuring four channels, suggesting that powerful applications loom in everything from daily communications to national defence. Advertisement Dubbed the “photon catcher”, the device can detect a single photon – the smallest unit of energy – making it a core component in cutting-edge technologies such as quantum communication and quantum radar for stealth aircraft detection and tracking. The feat was achieved by the Quantum Information Engineering Technology Research Centre in Anhui province and reported last Friday by…

As China drafts its 15th five-year plan – the next entry in a line of expansive blueprints that have set the tone for the country’s development over more than seven decades – we examine the implications and opportunities for industrial collaboration across the Taiwan Strait. Advertisement For more stories in this ongoing series, click here. Last month on the outskirts of Beijing, a delegation of Taiwanese executives inspected gleaming new electric vehicles at a leading mainland Chinese manufacturer as they explored potential collaborations. The delegation included representatives from major companies…

Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 issued a rare public warning to members of parliament on Monday that they are being targeted by spies from China, Russia and Iran in an attempt to undermine the country’s democracy. Advertisement The warning comes a week after prosecutors said they had to abandon the trial of two British men charged with spying on members of parliament for China because the British government had not provided evidence showing China was a threat to its national security. MI5 warned politicians and their staff to look out…