Month: February 2026

Was General Zhang Youxia one of the ‘big rats’ eating China’s military budget?

Media Library

The rats were eating away at the PLA’s budget and undermining combat readiness, the military mouthpiece said, and had to be eradicated. “[We] must take strong and forceful measures to crack down on corrupt practices that undermine the building of combat abilities, and thoroughly investigate and root out those ‘big rats’ who tamper with military spending,” the PLA Daily said in a commentary on Friday. Advertisement It was an unusual literary reference for the publication and dates back to the Book of Songs in classical Chinese poetry. Advertisement Authorities have…

Xi calls for China’s renminbi to attain global reserve currency status

Media Library

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Xi Jinping has called for the renminbi to become a global reserve currency, in some of his clearest comments on his ambitions for China’s currency as Beijing seeks to play a greater role in the international monetary system. In commentary published on Saturday in Qiushi, the ruling communist party’s flagship ideology journal, China’s president said the country needed to build a “powerful currency” that could be “widely used in international…

China’s deflation near-miss isn’t the economic story of 2025

Media Library

China did not slip into outright deflation last year and that in itself matters. When weak global demand, geopolitical frictions and a prolonged property correction weighed heavily on sentiment, consumer prices stayed marginally positive. The latest data suggests an economy not in free fall but navigating a transition towards more balanced and sustainable growth, albeit at a subdued pace. December’s inflation figures underline this point. Consumer prices rose by 0.8 per cent year on year, the fastest pace since early 2023, and monthly inflation turned positive after a brief dip.…

In China, is ‘family’ becoming a legal shield for rape?

Media Library

A 45-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Bu, had lost contact with her family for more than a decade. She was found in late 2024 in a rural area in Heshun county in the central Chinese province of Shanxi, more than 100km (62 miles) from her home. Bu had an advanced university education but she also had a history of mental illness, and the discovery that she had given birth to several children with a villager raised suspicion that she was a victim of human trafficking and rape. Advertisement…

Inside Myanmar’s five-year armed resistance – a photo essay

Media Library

In Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, the local resistance has managed to contain the military. After five years of guerrilla warfare, the revolutionary youth there remain determined to restore democracy through armed struggle. A long, narrow stretch of land at the southern tip of Myanmar, between the Andaman Sea to the west and Thailand to the east, Tanintharyi region is one of the areas where the resistance challenges the military’s authority. For decades, the region has been home to an armed rebellion led by the Karen ethnic minority, which…

China is leading the charge to nuclear Armageddon – and Starmer barely noticed | Simon Tisdall

Media Library

Keir Starmer’s tentative pivot to the Dragon Throne has played well in Beijing, though not in Trumpland. That’s partly because, like other needy western leaders, Britain’s prime minister did not dwell on awkward subjects such as human rights abuses, the Jimmy Lai travesty, spying and Taiwan. But in talks with President Xi Jinping, one vital issue was avoided altogether and should not have been: China’s dangerous, unexplained, secretive and rapid buildup of nuclear weapons. More than the climate crisis, global hunger, Kaiser Trump’s Prussian militarism and the ever prevalent threat…