Year: 2026

Washington imposed a sweeping 50 per cent tariff on a broad range of Brazilian products, citing political grievances linked to the prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Advertisement The latest figures, released by the China-Brazil Business Council on Wednesday, showed that trade between the two countries had reached a scale unmatched by any other Brazilian partnership, highlighting how geopolitical shocks were accelerating a long-term reorientation of Brazil’s external commerce. According to the council’s full 2025 report, total trade volume between Brazil and China rose 8.2 per cent year on year…

Iran is a member of the two Beijing-backed forums for the Global South, and analysts said remaining silent on the situation could be damaging for them. But according to one expert, the Iran crisis could also lead to an expansion of security and strategic cooperation within the two blocs. Advertisement US President Donald Trump has threatened a strong response if Iranian authorities begin executing anti-government protesters this week. “If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action,” Trump told CBS News in an interview broadcast on Tuesday…

Chinese chip designer Montage Technology is set to enlist Alibaba Group Holding and JPMorgan Asset Management among the key investors in its upcoming Hong Kong listing, according to people familiar with the matter, in a sign of promising demand for the city’s latest share sale related to artificial intelligence. Alibaba and the JPMorgan Chase asset manager were participating as cornerstone investors, which get guaranteed allocation in exchange for holding the shares for a period of time, the people said, asking not to be identified because they were not authorised to…

China has opened an antitrust investigation into Trip.com Group, the country’s largest online travel services provider, weeks before hundreds of millions of people on the mainland go away on holiday during the Lunar New Year break. The investigation was launched after a preliminary inquiry into the firm’s operations, according to the SAMR. Advertisement In a social media post, Trip.com said it would “actively cooperate with the regulator’s investigation, fully implement regulatory requirements and work with all industry stakeholders to build a sustainable market environment”. It added that all of its…

A leading young Chinese chemical engineer has left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to return home to Peking University. Zheng Yu recently completed her postdoctoral training in bioelectronics in the US but has now joined the Chinese university’s college of chemistry and molecular engineering as an assistant professor. According to her Peking University webpage, Zheng is working on wearable and implantable electronic devices, such as smart bandages that are used to monitor health. Advertisement Her research focuses on special materials that allow electronic devices to understand the biological signals sent…

China is likely to accept Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips following US clearance, driven by immediate demand in the country’s vast tech sector, according to analysts – though they said Beijing would push to replace them over time. The American chip giant’s second-most-advanced AI processor can be exported to China from Thursday, as long as shipments total no more than half the amount sold in the US, according to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security. Washington restricted H200 exports to China about a year ago, at…