Day: November 8, 2025

Taiwan faces new unease after Xi-Trump summit leaves island sidelined

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In a high-stakes bilateral exchange where Taiwan has historically been an enduring flashpoint, the unusual silence was deafening. Advertisement Last week’s summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump produced a rare omission – no mention of Taiwan at all in official readouts from both Washington and Beijing. The rare departure from diplomatic tradition has left the self-ruled island with an awkward sense of both relief and unease. While most Western media described the outcome of the summit in South Korea as a “detente”, Taipei has sought…

US and China seek to project power with huge and expensive aircraft carriers

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In port, the 80,000-tonne Fujian aircraft carrier would be impossible to miss. More than 300 metres long and capable of carrying about 60 aircraft, the £5.4bn super-vessel places China second among the world’s navies, with three aircraft carriers, though still a long way behind the global leader, the US, which has 11. Yet for all the great power projection of the new warship, nearly 5,000 miles away from its home port another conflict appears to suggest size may not matter. In the Black Sea, Ukraine achieved an extraordinary military success…

Can a ship-shaped Shanghai shop put wind in China’s luxury sales?

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As you round the corner on Shanghai’s Shimen Second Road, a giant ship appears like an apparition. Suspended from its hull, the anchor that descends to the street is in the shape of two six-foot-tall letters: LV. “The Louis”, a ship-shaped exhibition space and store, is the brainchild of Louis Vuitton and an attempt to navigate the choppy waters of China’s luxury market. Once the driver of global growth, it is now a source of uncertainty for the world’s biggest brands. “It’s not often you see a brand making this…