Day: January 23, 2026

This month, when China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence released a list of top 10 defence industry news items for 2025, it shed light on a home-grown aviation success story. The inclusion of the Chinese-made J-10CE and its PL-15 missile marked Beijing’s first official confirmation that the fighter jet had engaged in combat. Last May, the J-10CE – deployed by the Pakistan Air Force and armed with PL-15E missiles – was credited with bringing down Indian Air Force Rafale jets during a brief conflict between…

One potential area of vulnerability is Tajikistan, Central Asia’s poorest country, which has a weak military and a long border with Afghanistan. On the same day as the Kabul bombing, the Chinese embassy in Tajikistan issued a travel warning, telling its citizens and companies to boost security and evacuate from the border region “as soon as possible” – after four gunmen were killed trying to cross the border from Afghanistan. Advertisement Here is what we know about the tensions in the region and what the stakes are for China. What…

Chinese regulators are targeting one of the world’s biggest travel platforms in an anti-monopoly probe after complaints it had hurt travellers and travel operators in China’s expansive tourism market, analysts said. Unlike the broad legal actions against Chinese tech firms and cram schools five years ago, the investigation into Trip.com is seen as a relatively isolated case – yet one that might precipitate others – in response to issues over commissions, exclusivity and the sophisticated use of pricing algorithms. “If a platform is no longer just matching buyers and sellers…

TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance announced on Thursday the official creation of a new US venture – TikTok USDS Joint Venture – to operate the short video app used by 200 million Americans. The deal, the culmination of years of legal and political uncertainty, is part of the effort to comply with a 2024 US law that aimed to push ByteDance to divest TikTok to address national security concerns over the app’s links to Beijing. Without a divestment, the app would have faced a nationwide ban. The new arrangement…

Chinese scientists have created fully flexible fibre chips with circuits that are integrated and embedded within stretchable strands as thin as human hair at a density rivalling those of a home computer’s central processing unit. Scientists have now advanced fibre-based electronics that already enable power supply and sensing functions and have spurred the growth of electronic textiles by developing integrated circuits in threadlike form. This allows the fibres to compute like chips or display information like transistors, effectively enabling machine-washable cloth to work like a computer or television. Advertisement The…

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone call late on Thursday, during which both leaders stressed the need to defend the authority of the United Nations (UN) and to strengthen cooperation across the Global South, according to official readouts. The call, confirmed by both governments on Friday, took place amid heightened geopolitical tension that has strained the multilateral system and produced new frictions in Latin America and beyond. Officials in Brasilia said the two presidents spoke for about 45 minutes, beginning with…