Day: March 24, 2026

Taipei aims to leverage geopolitics by positioning itself as an Asia-Pacific drone hub built on a supply chain decoupled from mainland China, though challenges relating to scale, politics and timing threaten its ambitious industrial strategy. The push reflects a broader effort by the administration of Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te to position the island as a node in what officials have described as a “democratic supply chain” free of mainland Chinese components amid rising geopolitical tensions. Under a government blueprint, Taiwan plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.38 billion) between 2025…

Meltwater from snow-capped mountains is fostering an emerging trout-farming industry thousands of kilometres from the sea in western China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Advertisement Landlocked Xinjiang started large-scale farming of trout in 2021, and industry insiders said it was not only the fish that were growing quickly. “The local farming scale has expanded rapidly in recent years, with an increasing number of farmers entering the sector,” said Shi Lianyu, a researcher at the government-backed Xinjiang Aquatic Products Development Centre. Advertisement While official output data for last year has not been…

Backchannel talks between the United States and Iran are unlikely to result in a breakthrough, according to Chinese analysts, who said the core conditions for a ceasefire were unlikely to be met. However, the US and Iran have given conflicting accounts about peace talks, with Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, describing media reports that Iran had been talking to key Trump aide Steve Witkoff as “fake news”. Advertisement Other reports have said that third countries, including Oman, Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan, were all trying to broker a…

Chinese self-driving technology developers continue to expand outside the mainland as WeRide seeks to launch robotaxi services this year in Hong Kong and Singapore, according to an executive. WeRide’s planned entry into Hong Kong was set to cover both robotaxis and robobuses, said senior director of public relations and marketing Maeve Zhang in a media briefing on Tuesday, without disclosing the operation areas or a launch date. Meanwhile, the Guangzhou-based company said it planned to launch Robotaxi GXR, one of its robotaxi models, in Singapore in collaboration with Grab. Starting…

The strategic value to Beijing of a new military base in the contested Paracel Islands is likely to be limited, according to Chinese observers, as the South China Sea remains a focal point of regional tensions. The assessment comes amid rising concern over China’s land reclamation at Antelope Reef, believed to be its most significant project in the strategic waters since it declared a halt to such activities about a decade ago. 09:23 History, money and military: why the South China Sea is so important to Beijing History, money and…

As Tokyo moves to downgrade the description of ties with Beijing in its annual diplomatic report, mainland China says the Japanese prime minister’s “erroneous remarks on Taiwan” are the root of their current tensions. Japan will describe China in its 2026 diplomatic bluebook as an important neighbour, and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial”, Reuters reported on Tuesday. In the diplomatic bluebook last year, ties with China were characterised as “one of Japan’s most important bilateral relations”. Japanese PM ‘open’ to talks with China Japanese PM ‘open’ to talks…

Global trade flows are facing severe disruption amid the US-Israel war on Iran and unpredictable tariff policies. But logistics giant DHL still expects its revenues to soar in the coming years thanks in large part to Chinese companies’ rising global ambitions. The resilience of China’s outbound trade is a major reason DHL has maintained such an ambitious growth target even amid the Middle East crisis and constantly changing trade barriers, according to Oscar de Bok, CEO of the firm’s global forwarding and freight business. The German-headquartered multinational has set a…

People’s Daily, a mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party, has warned Japan that higher military spending and what the newspaper called a looming “defence bubble” will not save an economy weakened by the falling yen and Iran war energy crisis, amid a protracted diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo. In a Tuesday commentary published under the “Zhong Sheng” pen name – a pseudonym used to voice Beijing’s position on global affairs – the paper said the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was pursuing a “political gamble” that was…

A senior Chinese financial regulator and former graft fighter has been placed under investigation for corruption, officials announced on Tuesday, marking one of the highest-profile purges among China’s financial regulatory apparatus in recent years. Zhou Liang, vice-chairman of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law”, a euphemism for corruption, bribery and abuse of power, according to an announcement by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Commission of Supervision, the country’s top anti-corruption watchdogs. The career of Zhou,…