Year: 2026

Just months ago, disorganised planning from Washington in the lead-up to US President Donald Trump’s landmark China visit frustrated Chinese officials. Now, Beijing is watching the same story play out on the other side of the world. With less than six weeks until Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned trip to Washington – his first state visit since 2015 – Beijing finds itself increasingly unsettled by the chaos within the Trump administration. Sources told the South China Morning Post that Chinese officials were once again confronting a disorganised Trump administration that…

Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez’s tribute to Fidel Castro has drawn a blistering rebuke from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, highlighting the political tensions surrounding Caracas’ rapprochement with Washington even as China seeks to preserve its economic interests in the South American country. Rodriguez marked the centenary of the late Cuban leader’s birth this week by praising Castro as a figure who “transcends time” and invoking his commitment to sovereignty, social justice and Latin American unity. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a long-time critic of the communist…

The latest ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit did not remove DJI from the list, but sent the case back to the lower court to reconsider one part of the Defence Department’s justification for designating the company. The Defence Department declined to comment on ongoing litigation. DJI did not immediately respond to a request for comment as of Friday afternoon. The company has repeatedly said it has no ties to the Chinese military. Flying taxis, airships and drones: the rise of China’s low-altitude…

After almost four decades of international cooperation in space affairs, Brazil and China have unveiled details of a new project to launch a powerful meteorological and environmental satellite. It will be capable of monitoring the whole of South America, according to the space sciences department at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Adenilson Roberto da Silva, general coordinator of engineering and technology with the INPE, said the satellite would provide “improved weather forecasting, disaster monitoring and early-warning systems that can save lives”. Details of the CBERS-5 (Chinese-Brazilian Satellite of…

The United States has sent a team of coastguards to train their Taiwanese counterparts as Beijing steps up its presence east of the island. Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said on Friday that its personnel were taking part in a two-week training programme led by US instructors. The training, which started on Monday, includes exercises aimed at strengthening small-boat operations and team coordination. “The US instruction team hopes to deepen the partnership between the two sides through joint training and work together to promote maritime security and stability,” the administration said.…

Chinese scientists have achieved the quantum entanglement of cold atoms across a record-breaking 420km (260 miles), a breakthrough they say lays the groundwork for intercity quantum networks. According to a paper published by the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review Letters on August 11, the distance was more than four times previous demonstrations and exceeded the threshold at which direct transmission encounters fundamental physical limits. “Our experiment provides a test bed for studying quantum-network applications beyond the metropolitan scale,” said the team of physicists, who included Pan Jianwei from the University of…

China has confirmed that its new Y-20B heavy transport aircraft can be converted into an aerial refuelling tanker, potentially boosting PLA Air Force capacities deeper into the western Pacific. A documentary aired by state broadcaster CCTV on August 5 said the Y-20B, an improved variant of China’s Y-20 strategic transport powered by domestically developed WS-20 turbofan engines, could switch between transport and aerial refuelling missions using pallet-ready fuel tanks and removable refuelling equipment. Analysts say converting Y-20B heavy transport aircraft into aerial refuelling tankers offers the PLA greater capacity and…

Chinese museums have been criticised for spelling errors in their information boards, including one in Zhejiang province where one of the captions for an exhibition about the Long March turned the Red Army into a “red car”. Such mistakes are especially embarrassing given the high importance the authorities attach to Communist Party history and come amid an ongoing push to promote “red tourism” or revolutionary-themed attractions. The mistake by Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou was one of a number of similar blunders highlighted by visitors in recent weeks, prompting a…

China should try to make sure that its new international artificial intelligence (AI) body is not seen as “naturally opposed” to the United States and its allies in case it puts off prospective members, analysts have warned. They said the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (Waico) was not designed as an alternative to the US Pax Silica partnership, which was established last December with the aim of reducing “coercive dependencies”. Although China has repeatedly insisted that Waico was designed to advance “AI for good and for all”, it has come…