Day: February 25, 2026

Merz embarks on China trip aimed at rebalancing trade relations

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Friedrich Merz met China’s second-ranked official Li Qiang on Wednesday, kicking off a visit to Beijing in which the German chancellor is expected to confront mounting trade tensions between the EU and the world’s second-largest economy. The Chinese premier welcomed Merz, who is making his first trip to the country in office, with an honour guard at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, according to state media. The…

Japan to deploy missiles to island near Taiwan by 2031, says defence minister

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Japan will deploy missiles to a tiny island near Taiwan within five years, its defence minister has said, in a move that is likely to inflame tensions with China. The surface-to-air missiles, which are capable of shooting down aircraft and ballistic missiles, will be located on Yonaguni – Japan’s westernmost island – by March 2031, Shinjiro Koizumi said. “It depends on the progress of preparing facilities, but we are planning for fiscal 2030,” Koizumi told reporters, giving details about the deployment’s schedule for the first time. Koizumi made the announcement…

China’s Xi Jinping declares defeat of extreme poverty in 2021 – SCMP archive

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This article was first published on February 26, 2021. By Mimi Lau Xi claims victory in eliminating extreme poverty China has declared com­plete suc­cess in elim­in­at­ing extreme poverty, with Pres­id­ent Xi Jin­ping hail­ing the lift­ing of 850 mil­lion people out of des­ti­tu­tion as an “unpre­ced­en­ted accom­plish­ment” unmatched by any nation in mod­ern his­tory. Advertisement In a speech at a cere­mony in Beijing yes­ter­day (February 25, 2021) to com­mend poverty fight­ers, broad­cast live by state tele­vi­sion, Xi said his sig­na­ture cam­paign to improve live­li­hoods had added 100 mil­lion people to the…

Shenzhen dethrones Shanghai, Beijing as China’s top industrial powerhouse, mayor boasts

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The southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen has handed in a glowing report card of technological and economic development, surpassing Shanghai and Beijing as the nation’s largest manufacturing and exporting city while solidifying a lead in artificial intelligence and start-up cultivation, its mayor has revealed. Shenzhen’s economy grew from 2.83 trillion yuan in 2020 to 3.87 trillion yuan (US$560 billion) in 2025. The city’s annualised growth rate of 5.5 per cent over that period also represented Shenzhen’s gross domestic product increase for 2025 alone, outperforming Beijing and Shanghai, which both reported…