Chinese military issues new rules to ‘prioritise strict political discipline’

The Chinese military has laid out new rules to strengthen political discipline and party loyalty, vowing to eradicate “erroneous political views and inappropriate remarks” and “fake combat capabilities”. The revisions to the supplementary rules to the implementation of the Communist Party’s disciplinary regulations will come into effect on January 1, 2026, and are part of an ongoing crackdown on corruption that has led to the downfall of several top generals in recent months. Advertisement Under the changes, disciplinary violations now explicitly include expressions of “erroneous political remarks”, failure to comply…

Whereabouts of 6-year-old Chinese boy Yuanxin unknown after ICE detention

The whereabouts of a six-year-old boy from China remain unknown after he was allegedly separated from his father while both were held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York last week. The city’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday raised the issue on social media, saying that the first grader, named Yuanxin, was “arrested and separated” along with his father Fei Zheng during a “routine check-in” with ICE on November 26. “Now he’s in custody, alone. ICE won’t say where. This cruelty serves no one. It must end,”…

Hong Kong will miss its most popular philosopher

Once, when pop diva Faye Wong was seen reading on a plane, the book reportedly on her lap was the perennial local bestseller Art of Thinking by Lee Tien-ming. Food critic, columnist and media personality Benny Li Shun-Yan reportedly said that after learning of her interest, he introduced Wong to Lee, arguably Hong Kong’s most famous philosopher, who passed away last week at the age of 80. I remember that some were surprised by Wong’s philosophical interests. Actually, mainland entertainers often have quite sophisticated literary and language standards. Advertisement According…

Family alarmed over Jimmy Lai’s deteriorating health as he languishes in solitary confinement in Hong Kong

The children of Hong Kong’s jailed pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai have voiced new alarm for his health, describing his dramatic weight loss, teeth rotting and nails turning green before falling off. Lai, who turns 78 next Monday, has been behind bars in Hong Kong since late 2020 as China clamps down on the financial hub to which it promised a separate system when Britain handed it over in 1997. Lai, a diabetic, has been kept in solitary confinement without air conditioning in a jail where summer temperatures rise to…

Beijing woos foreign firms as China seeks bigger role in global shipbuilding supply chain

Beijing is extending an olive branch to overseas companies as it seeks to build a more integrated global supply chain for the shipbuilding industry, in its latest push to project goodwill and support free trade. Gao Dongsheng, chief economist at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said on Tuesday that China was committed to further opening up its shipbuilding sector. Advertisement 01:29 China’s first 076 ‘drone carrier’ amphibious assault ship begins sea trials China’s first 076 ‘drone carrier’ amphibious assault ship begins sea trials He added that Chinese…

China spy case report criticises UK government and prosecutors as ‘shambolic’

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK government and prosecutors have been heavily criticised over the collapse of a China spying case in an official report that described some of their actions as “shambolic”. The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, which has been reviewing the collapse of the case against two British men accused of spying on MPs for China, said its investigation had found that “systemic failures” contributed to the failure in…

Handling of China spying case was ‘shambolic’, security committee concludes

Parliament’s security committee has criticised prosecutors for pulling their charges against two men accused of spying for Beijing, in a damning report that concluded the handling of the case was “shambolic”. MPs said that a process “beset by confusion and misaligned expectations” and “inadequate” communication between the government and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had contributed to the collapse of the trial, while several “opportunities to correct course were missed”. The report concludes the committee’s six-week investigation into the collapse of the high-profile trial of Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher…

Trump seizes on China ‘ban’ in Brazil soy trade, but data shows US gains small

At a lengthy, end-of-year cabinet meeting, US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that “just a couple of days ago, China announced that they were going to halt all purchases from Brazil because they had found some irregularities in some of the soybeans they’re buying from Brazil”. Rollins cast the move as a “continued signal that this country and our farmers produce the best, highest quality soybean, sorghum, etc, in the world”, arguing that Trump had reopened “those markets” and was helping shift farmers away from “reliance on government checks” towards…

Factory of factories: China’s manufacturers join wave of overseas expansions

With domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter. China, known as the “world’s factory” after decades spent manufacturing and shipping much of the world’s consumer goods, is now going a step further: as a number of internal and external concerns create more incentives for the country’s companies to diversify their…

FirstFT: India orders government-developed app to be installed on all smartphones

This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters here Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter: Indian government-developed app triggers snooping concerns OpenAI declares “code red” China’s booming pharma industry We start in India, where the telecoms ministry has demanded that Apple and other smartphone makers install a government cyber security app on new handsets, raising concerns about privacy. Here’s…