Day: December 10, 2025

China’s recent breakthroughs in fracking technology have the potential to usher in a new shale revolution that could solidify the country’s energy security and reshape the international oil order. That would see China join the United States, whose shale boom earlier this century enabled it to become the largest crude oil producer in the world. This fundamentally altered the international oil market, with significant impact on oil exporters, particularly members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). The boom weakened Opec’s market power with a steady supply of…

Reincarnation must follow Chinese laws and be endorsed by Beijing, Tibetan Buddhist leader Panchen Lama has said in an apparent reference to the succession of the Dalai Lama. Speaking at an official symposium in Shigatse on Monday, the Panchen Lama – the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism after only the Dalai Lama – stated that reincarnated “living Buddhas” must be identified within China and approved by the central government. This must be done “without any interference or control from organisations or individuals outside the country”, he added. Advertisement The Panchen…

Chinese artificial intelligence pioneer SenseTime is betting that its roots in computer vision will help it lead the next phase of AI, as the industry shifts towards multimodal systems and embodied intelligence in the physical world, according to co-founder and chief scientist Lin Dahua. In an interview with the Post on Wednesday, Lin said the company’s long-standing expertise in vision-based AI put it in a strong position to become a leader in embodied intelligence, robotics and AI agents operating in real-world environments, at a time when there is growing debate…

A bipartisan commission focused on the rule of law and human rights in China is recommending that the US Congress scale up immersion programmes for Mandarin and other languages spoken on the mainland in American high schools and universities. The recommendation, made as part of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s (CECC) annual report, comes as Washington has scaled back funding for cultural exchange programmes since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration. It also comes as US lawmakers are pushing to restrict Chinese influence in US elementary and…

The Simandou mountain range in southeastern Guinea, once a dense forest where exploration teams relied on GPS and helicopters to navigate, has yielded vast reserves of its sought-after high-grade iron ore after decades of delay. Workers struggled to define the layout of the thick forest before clearing the trees and brush at the site set for the Simandou Iron Ore project, “as it was nothing but darkness”, according to Chris Aitchison, the managing director for Rio Tinto’s Simfer joint venture. Rio Tinto and Chinese firms have spent more than US$20…

The United States is striving for a more “constructive” relationship with China after this year’s trade war and will continue to pursue a “managed” bilateral trade relationship, its chief trade envoy said, despite concerns lingering over China’s grip on critical minerals and pushback over the White House’s recent approval of H200 AI chip sales. The comments by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer came after Beijing and Washington fought fiercely throughout the year for the tariff war. The Chinese government imposed rare earth export controls and also turned away American soybeans…