Month: March 2026

The havoc unleashed on global shipping by the US-Israel war on Iran has underlined China’s urgent need to fix its lack of a robust maritime insurance industry, a shipping expert has said. “In the maritime shipping sector, China’s industrial chain for ‘hardware’ is very well-established and mature,” said Chen Jihong, director of the Shenzhen International Maritime Research Institute. “However, when it comes to ‘software’, we are still constrained by others, and it will be difficult to change any time soon,” added Chen, who is also a distinguished professor at Shenzhen…

In these turbulent times, focusing on the World Trade Organization’s 14th ministerial conference (MC14) in Yaounde, Cameroon, is a bit like trying to focus on a picnic sitting alongside a bar brawl, or listening to a lesson in pruning bonsai while a lumberjack takes a chainsaw to a giant redwood. But try we must. Even if the deliverables are meagre and may take years to materialise, the symbolism of Yaounde points to a possible future very different from today’s chaotic hegemonic unilateralism – with multilateral cooperation restored to relevance, Africa…

Nairobi has secured trade and infrastructure financing deals during Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng’s visit, but analysts cautioned that deepening ties were complicated by rising debt and Nairobi’s balancing act between global powers. The “early harvest” Economic Partnership Agreement grants Kenyan products – including tea, coffee and avocados – duty-free and quota-free access to the Chinese market starting in May. President William Ruto hailed the deal, alongside new memorandums of understanding on agriculture and infrastructure, as a major boost for the economy amid growing US-China competition for influence in East Africa.…

Seven members from the parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee will travel to Beijing and Shanghai alongside Engin Eroglu, head of its China delegation. They will meet officials, customs and port authorities, lawmakers and companies, including Shein, Temu and ByteDance, firms that are all in the crosshairs of EU regulators. Xi, Merz vow to strengthen Sino-German ties Xi, Merz vow to strengthen Sino-German ties “We want to send a message that it is vitally important that the internal market is not overflooded with dumped or overcapacity products from China,…

Chinese researchers have shown that a silicon quantum chip can carry out a full set of error-detecting logical operations – the first time this has been done and a key step towards building reliable quantum computers. The study, published in Nature Nanotechnology on Monday, found the device could process quantum information with built-in error checks – something previously achieved in platforms like superconducting circuits but not with silicon. According to the team from the Shenzhen International Quantum Academy, the study showed that the core building blocks needed for a broadly…

Nuclear containment and regional ceasefires are the most viable entry points for potential negotiations between Washington and Tehran, according to a prominent Chinese expert on the Middle East. Niu Xinchun, director of the China-Arab Research Institute at Ningxia University, said the escalating conflict had vindicated China’s insistence on diplomatic and political solutions as the only way forward. He said that although both the US and Iran were open to talks – with Washington “in a much greater hurry” – progress depended on substantial concessions to narrow the divide between their…

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) launched an action plan to enhance its current businesses and seek new growth in 2026, as the largest contract chipmaker in China aims to solidify its role as the backbone of the country’s self-sufficiency drive. Released alongside its annual report for 2025, the plan outlined a commitment to “optimising existing stock and digging for new increments”, the company said in a stock exchange filing on Thursday. The company said two trends would continue to bring new growth opportunities to the domestic semiconductor industry this year:…

China’s airlines are expected to add nearly 2,900 more China-Europe flights to their summer schedules compared with last year, analysts said, as the US-Israel war on Iran hands them an even greater competitive advantage over other global carriers. Unlike many Western airlines, Chinese carriers can fly directly through Russian airspace to Europe rather than taking a lengthy detour, allowing them to offer quicker flights, save on fuel and avoid sending planes over the Middle East. The number of European flights offered by Chinese airlines will rise by a net 2,891,…

Amid uncertainty over the timing of a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, the world is watching closely to see where the two largest economies are leading us. At a time of cascading crises like wars, regional tensions and economic uncertainty, the relationship between Washington and Beijing has become one of the most important variables for global stability. And yet, for all the analysis of military budgets, trade deficits and geopolitical competition, one critical dimension remains stubbornly underappreciated in American policy circles: the deep, historical…