Year: 2025

China accused the United States at the United Nations on Tuesday of violating international law and destabilising the Caribbean region, as Washington defended its seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers and vowed to intensify pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government. Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council requested by Venezuela and backed by China and Russia, Beijing said US actions carried out under the banner of counter-narcotics enforcement amounted to unilateral coercion and a direct challenge to the principles of sovereignty and freedom of navigation. “The US actions…

In its push to secure supplies of critical minerals, the Donald Trump administration has increasingly looked abroad to reduce vulnerabilities in supply chains that underpin many of the world’s most advanced technologies. From China to the Democratic Republic of Congo to Ukraine, key strands of US foreign policy in recent months have centred on access to these materials – a group of roughly 60 minerals that the US Geological Survey considers vital to national and economic security, including rare earths that have become a focal point of Washington’s trade war…

All eyes are on how Beijing’s “Chinese dream” of eventual Taiwan reunification will unfold at a time when the leader of the United States – Taipei’s top international backer – appears less likely to intervene in case of a cross-strait conflict. In the second of a three-part series, Amber Wang looks at the challenges facing the new Kuomintang leader. Read the first part here. There have been seven chairs of the Kuomintang, Taiwan’s main opposition party, since President Xi Jinping took the top job in Beijing in 2012. But few…

That may sound like diplomatic low-hanging fruit, since it would be hard to find a reasonable person willing to argue that we should hand control over nuclear weapons to AI. But with the Chinese government, there is no such thing as low-hanging fruit, especially on weighty security matters. The Chinese are inherently sceptical of US risk reduction proposals. Russia had opposed similar language in multilateral bodies. Because bilateral talks with the US on AI and nuclear security would open daylight between Russia and China, progress on this front was not…

In a decisive trade move against China’s semiconductor industry, the US Trade Representative Office said it had determined that Beijing’s drive for dominance in the sector is “unreasonable and discriminatory” and poses a direct threat to US commerce. In a formal Notice of Action filed with the Federal Register, the agency said the US is implementing a tariff action on a wide range of Chinese semiconductors, with an initial rate of 0 per cent. The rate is set to rise in 18 months, on June 23, 2027, to a higher…

Though it did not come as a surprise, the US’ formal ban on the sale of new drones produced by China marks a “milestone” in the two countries’ strategic competition and technological decoupling, analysts said, with their rivalry continuing across numerous fields despite the temporary trade truce agreed between their leaders in October. Washington’s telecommunications regulator said on Monday that it is adding all foreign producers of drones and critical components – including those made by… South China Morning Post

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Second reusable rocket recovery failure in a month puts China 10 years behind US The Long March 12A, China’s first state-owned reusable rocket, made its debut launch on Tuesday morning but the recovery of the first stage was a failure. 2. ‘Urgent’: has mainland China changed tone for Taiwan peaceful reunification? Analysts examine Taiwan-related policy… South China Morning Post