Month: January 2026

New regulations issued “recently” aimed to standardise the process of military fuel management in areas such as procurement, transport, storage and disposal, the official PLA Daily said on Tuesday. The rules were also designed to introduce strict controls and joint military-civilian oversight to prevent misuse and to ensure operational readiness. Advertisement “Recent wars around the world clearly show that the victorious side has consistently excelled in integrating support plans with operational plans to ensure a high degree of coordination between support and combat operations,” a separate PLA Daily commentary said.…

China carried out naval and air patrols around Scarborough Shoal on Saturday – just days after joint US-Philippine drills nearby – underscoring tensions in the disputed South China Sea waters. The PLA Southern Theatre Command issued a statement on the “combat readiness patrols” near the shoal, which China calls Huangyan Island. They were aimed at countering “infringement and provocative actions by individual countries”, it said, in a thinly veiled reference to the United States and rival Scarborough claimant the Philippines. Advertisement In an unusual move, the People’s Liberation Army also…

That plan was revealed at a closed-door CEO round table on Friday during the UK-China Business Forum, where Starmer met a group of Chinese business leaders that included Pop Mart founder and CEO Wang Ning. “London stands at the heart of the global creative ecosystem, and we are thrilled to plant our European roots there,” Wang said in a statement released by the British government. Advertisement As part of that move, Pop Mart would also open seven new bricks-and-mortar shops in the UK, including new outlets in Birmingham, Cardiff and…

Flight routes between Europe and China are suddenly crowded with prime ministers and presidents, giving the impression of a continent pivoting eastward. A flurry that began late last year with visits to Beijing by the Spanish king and French president has continued with leaders of Britain, Ireland and Finland, with Germany’s chancellor to follow next month. Advertisement Speculation is rife that Europe, scorned by its ally of eight decades, is taking a leaf out of Canada’s book in tilting towards China. “China is not Europe’s friend and its values are…

Chinese regulators have slapped a 26 million yuan (US$3.7 million) fine on a unit of Kuaishou Technology, operator of the country’s No 2 short video platform, over multiple violations and misconduct in its live-streaming e-commerce operations, signalling tighter oversight of this market segment. Chengdu Kuaigou Technology, a unit of Beijing-based Kuaishou, was found to have committed seven breaches including failure to disclose information in accordance with the law, charging unreasonable fees on merchants and inadequate consumer protection, according to the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) in its WeChat post…

Wingtech Technology, the Chinese owner of chipmaker Nexperia, is expected to post a loss of between 9 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) and 13.5 billion yuan in 2025, owing to the Dutch government’s takeover of the semiconductor firm, the Shanghai-listed company said in a statement on Friday. Wingtech said that its authority over the chipmaker continues to be “temporarily restricted” since the October 7 ruling of the Dutch Enterprise Chamber, a special division of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, remained in place, despite the government’s suspension of its September 30 order…

Enterprises across China’s semiconductor industry recorded hefty profit growth last year, according to their unaudited financial results, driven by the country’s artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout and Beijing’s push for tech self-reliance. Graphics processing unit (GPU) designer Cambricon Technologies on Friday reported a net profit of 2.2 billion yuan (US$316 million) in 2025, its first profitable year, on the back of “the continuous rise in computing power demand within the AI industry”, according to its Shanghai Stock Exchange filing. Other GPU designers, also viewed as alternative AI chip suppliers to Nvidia,…

China’s factory activity faltered in January as weak domestic demand dragged down production at the start of the new ‍year, an official survey showed on Saturday. The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to 49.3 in January, from 50.1 in December, below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction. It missed a forecast of 50 in a Reuters poll of analysts. Sub-indexes of new orders and new export orders also saw declines, respectively, down to 49.2 from 50.8 ⁠in December and 47.8 from 49.0 in December. Advertisement The non-manufacturing PMI, which…