Day: April 20, 2026

The number of members from China’s leading scientific and engineering institutes in the top ranks of the Communist Party has doubled over the course of a decade, according to a new report. It said the number of academicians in the party’s 18th Central Committee, selected in 2012, stood at 15, accounting for around 3.5 per cent of the total membership. But when the 20th Central Committee started its five-year term in 2022, this total had risen to 30, around 8 per cent of the total, including seven full members. Advertisement…

South China Morning Post

China’s top civilian aircraft manufacturer is reassessing geopolitical risks to its supply chains – particularly for jet engines sourced from foreign firms – according to a source at the planemaker, as deliveries of its flagship C919 passenger jet appear to be late or delayed this year. The Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) is facing external and internal constraints, including reliance on foreign suppliers for critical components and persistent manpower shortages,… South China Morning Post

For Tim Avanzato and the team at Lanca Sales, Monday marked the start of a high-stakes digital scramble to recover tariffs paid after US President Donald Trump imposed steep duties on almost all imports, including from China, last year. While the New Jersey-based company that imports and exports food packaging has become accustomed to operating under tariffs and adjusting its business around them, Avanzato, who handles global trade and logistics at the firm, said the refund process has… South China Morning Post

China has released new regulations that aim to counter the “unjustified” extraterritorial use of foreign laws, the latest move to protect its interests from external threats. Analysts view the move as a shift from diplomatic protests to legal warfare, and some warn it could have wide-ranging applications. The European Chamber of Commerce in China raised concern that the “broad scope, vague language and wide discretion” of the rules went far beyond similar statutes in the West. Amid the US… South China Morning Post

Indonesia says it is not choosing sides. That is true in diplomacy. It is less true on the map. The “major defence cooperation partnership” announced by Washington and Jakarta on April 13 is written in the safe language of official communiques: capacity building, education, exercises, cooperation. But the harder meaning lies beneath the phrasing. The most important line in this new defence partnership is not the reassuring one about “peace and stability”. It is the one about “maritime,… South China Morning Post

China “has to be involved” in nuclear arms control talks, while the US must step up its nuclear modernisation, including deploying more bombers, a senator responsible for overseeing American strategic forces said on Monday. “We need to be able to have a verifiable [treaty] and ensure accountability under treaties, and have them enforced with Russia and with China,” said Deb Fischer, a Nebraska Republican and chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee. The US has… South China Morning Post

First, it was the Panama Canal, then came the Strait of Hormuz. What could be next? America’s actions in the two major shipping channels have grabbed headlines, and global attention is shifting to the strategic importance and potential risks of other critical trade waterways. Some of the chokepoints were examined in a US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) investigation in March last year of unfavourable shipping conditions, signalling America’s heightened focus on international routes and… South China Morning Post