Day: January 21, 2026

An adviser to China’s central bank has publicly questioned the stability of the United States’ debt – highlighting growing concerns over Washington’s fiscal trajectory and the risk of a global spillover. “I’ve heard so many people telling me that [debt] as a share of GDP [gross domestic product] has been rising and probably will continue to rise. That’s probably not sustainable,” said Huang Yiping, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China, on Wednesday. The current institutional setting in the United States and the style of presidential policymaking meant that…

A self-taught former factory worker who studied for his engineering degree by night has been elected as the head of one of the world’s leading electronic engineering societies. This year, Gao Huijun will become the first president of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society from mainland China. The society, founded in 1951, is a branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), an organisation with over 400,000 members in more than 160 countries. Advertisement Gao, a professor at the school of astronautics at the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT),…

Tiny carbon nanotubes with walls just one atom thick found on the far side of the moon have provided the first confirmed evidence that a material long thought to require sophisticated human engineering could also be produced naturally. Using high-resolution electron microscopes, a team from Jilin University in northeastern China detected the straw-shaped, ultra-thin tubes in samples collected by the mission. Advertisement The researchers said the structures had probably formed under extreme conditions created jointly by micrometeorite impacts, solar wind exposure and ancient volcanic activity. Although multilayered nanotubes that formed…

The action has put Representative Brian Mast, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on a collision course with Trump’s top AI adviser David Sacks and drawn sharp criticism from Maga-aligned supporters. Some House Republicans have broken ranks to back the measure, raising alarms that Trump could approve sales of even more advanced chips to Chinese President Xi Jinping when the two leaders meet in April. Advertisement The bipartisan push marks a rare instance in Trump’s current term of Republicans breaking ranks to check the president’s power. Trump…

US President Donald Trump’s accelerated push to seize Greenland has transformed a once-quirky idea into a full-blown diplomatic crisis, with observers warning it could deal a near-fatal blow to the post-war transatlantic order. Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said on Tuesday that the island’s population and authorities needed to start preparing for a possible military invasion, even as it remained an unlikely scenario. Trump has threatened to impose a 10 per cent tariff next month and 25 per cent in June on eight European countries to pressure Denmark into selling…

The renewed debate over Greenland has placed Denmark in an awkward strategic position. When a close ally openly flirts with the idea of territorial acquisition – however unrealistic or rhetorical – it exposes an uncomfortable truth for many middle and small powers: alignment does not guarantee protection and loyalty does not always translate into leverage. In an age defined by intensifying competition between the United States and China, governments increasingly feel inclined to show where they “stand”. Yet the Greenland episode should prompt a deeper reflection – not only in…

Beijing and Ottawa reached a “landmark” trade agreement last week, slashing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, in a move analysts said further cements China’s dominance and suggests the US decline in the global EV market. The deal will open Canada up to Chinese EVs, signalling a thaw in diplomatic relations and a major break from the US. The bilateral partnership marks a shift in direction for Canada’s automotive industry, coming during a month that saw China’s BYD topple Tesla as the world’s top-selling EV maker. “It is expected that within…