Day: March 12, 2026

The full implementation of taxation reforms pledged in China’s new five-year plan would substantially ease the fiscal strains on local governments, a leading tax policy expert said, while adding that it would not alter the central government’s dominant role in the country’s fiscal landscape. As a unitary state, China’s systematic advantage lay in strong central government finance that could coordinate fiscal resources in a unified manner and redistribute them through transfer payments, in contrast to a fiscally federalist system like that of the United States, said Zhang Lianqi, president of…

BMW could be approaching the end of the tunnel in China as signs of stabilisation raise hopes of a turnaround after the German carmaker reported that sales dropped by double digits in the key market in 2025. “Transaction prices in the market for our products have stabilised … and are actually improving slightly compared to [the third quarter],” said Walter Mertl, chief financial officer, during a press conference on Thursday. “If the run rate continues this way, we have the opportunity to go back to prior year levels in China,”…

Some Chinese lawmakers and advisers are pushing to secure higher pensions for elderly farmers, underscoring the persistent income disparity between the country’s urban and rural residents. The latest government work report, approved on Thursday, confirmed a 20-yuan (US$2.91) monthly increase to basic pension payments for a third consecutive year, bringing the national minimum to 163 yuan. However, some deputies from China’s top legislature contend that this level is inadequate. “A pension of just over 100 yuan each month is really, really difficult” to live on, said Bi Lixia, a deputy…

Serbia’s president confirmed late on Thursday that his country possesses Chinese supersonic surface-attack cruise missiles, after photos of the weapons attached to Serbian fighter jets leaked online. Photos, which began circulating on social media and defence blogs earlier this week, showed missiles believed to be Chinese-made CM-400AKG cruise missiles attached to Serbia’s Russian-made MiG-29 planes. “We have things we do not show,” President Aleksandar Vucic told Serbia’s national broadcaster when asked about the rockets. Advertisement “We have a significant number of those missiles and we will have even more,” he…

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to visit China with President Donald Trump later this month after appearing to show little interest in previous invitations from Beijing, the South China Morning Post has learned. According to sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly on the matter, Rubio had been invited to visit but had not been receptive until recently. Rubio’s attendance could smooth over some of the problems surrounding Trump’s visit to China. Frustration has been mounting in Beijing because of…

Iran’s new supreme leader has vowed to keep blocking the Strait of Hormuz, attack US bases and avenge the “blood of the martyrs” in his first statement since succeeding his father. “The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely be used,” Mojtaba Khamenei said about the strategic waterway, which supplies a fifth of the world’s oil. Khamenei said the US must close all of its military bases in the region “as soon as possible, because they must have realised by now that the claim of establishing security and…