Japan and China are embroiled in a row about Tokyo’s potential military involvement in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. Beijing reacted angrily this month after Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said an attack on Taiwan could trigger the deployment of her country’s self-defence forces if the conflict posed an existential threat to Japan. Insisting that Japan could exercise its right to collective self-defence – or coming to the aid of an ally – Takaichi said Tokyo had to “anticipate a worst-case scenario” in the Taiwan Strait. If…
Day: November 10, 2025
Dollar carry trade defies ‘Sell America’ woes, trounces world’s stocks
The dollar is regaining its crown as one of the world’s most appealing assets, defying talk of a “Sell America” trade that had raised troubling questions about the outlook for the global reserve currency. Advertisement A simple strategy of borrowing in low-yielding currencies like the Japanese yen or the Swiss franc and putting your money in dollars looks set to beat the implied returns on markets such as European stocks and Chinese government bonds once the volatility of these assets is taken into account, according to Bloomberg calculations. That suggests…
China’s favourite tipple falls flat on alcohol bans and Gen Z’s changing tastes
At a rare conference for international executives hosted by China’s biggest liquor maker last month, guests sipped on blueberry juice instead of Moutai’s signature spirit. The teetotal banquet — which came after nationwide prohibitions on lavish government spending, including on alcohol, were expanded in May — is an example of a tougher terrain for the maker of baijiu, an intense spirit favoured by China’s former leader Mao Zedong and for decades a fixture of official functions. Consumers are holding back on spending, as shown by the average wholesale price —…
Taiwanese military struggling to find enough volunteers even as spending rises
Taiwan’s military is facing a worsening manpower crisis as the numbers volunteering to serve continue to shrink. Advertisement The trend has raised concerns that the shortfall could undermine combat readiness even as the government plans record levels of defence spending in response to US lobbying and the growing strength of mainland China’s military. According to a recent report by the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Centre, the overall personnel fill rate – the ratio between authorised and actual troop numbers – fell from 88.6 per cent in 2020 to 78.6 per cent…
Why new model of China’s Moonshot AI stirs ‘DeepSeek moment’ debate
Advertisement Beijing-based Moonshot AI, a start-up valued at US$3.3 billion and backed by Chinese tech giants like Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, has presented another David-vs-Goliath story after creating an open-source model that “set new records across benchmarks that assess reasoning, coding and agent capabilities”. The new reasoning model, Kimi K2 Thinking, was the most popular model for developers on Hugging Face as of Monday, while its release post on X had attracted 4.5 million views. The popularity of the model – a variant of the Kimi K2 model…
UN climate summit looks to China as latest data shows flat emissions trend
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. China’s greenhouse gas emissions have remained largely flat over the past 18 months, according to the latest data from a climate research group, as the UN COP30 climate summit looks to Beijing to take a lead. New analysis published on Tuesday for Carbon Brief found that China’s carbon dioxide emissions were unchanged in the third quarter of 2025 compared with the same period last year. The emissions trend is partly…
China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds
China’s carbon dioxide emissions have been flat or falling for 18 months, analysis reveals, adding evidence to the hope that the world’s biggest polluter has managed to hit its target of peak CO2 emissions well ahead of schedule. Rapid increases in the deployment of solar and wind power generation – which grew by 46% and 11% respectively in the third quarter of this year – meant the country’s energy sector emissions remained flat, even as the demand for electricity increased. China added 240GW of solar capacity in the first nine…
Global markets rise as US senators move to end shutdown
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US-China port fee suspension brings backlash as well as relief
The decision to suspend new port fees on Chinese-built, owned, or operated vessels starting on Monday has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats, who say it undercuts US President Donald Trump’s claims of being tough on China. Advertisement They are not alone in pushing back. While shippers see the move easing costs and boosting trade, labour unions are warning that it could weaken American maritime leverage, send the wrong signal to Beijing, and contradict the administration’s own rhetoric on holding China accountable. Hunter Stires, a maritime consultant who served as a…
As more of China becomes ‘moderately aged’, how will its economy change?
Early in the morning in cities across China, groups of people gather in public squares, moving as one in slow, deliberate tai chi routines. Many are in their sixties or seventies – an age group that has long defined the rhythm of daily life in much of the country. Advertisement While these dedicated practitioners have been a part of the national routine for decades, their ubiquity carries new connotations as the country undergoes a profound shift in population dynamics: China is growing old, fast. As of last year, 20 of…