Month: April 2026

As the French central bank repatriates gold reserves from the United States, analysts say China should seize this “strategic window” to develop itself into the next global gold hub. They added that Beijing can leverage policy stability, alongside Hong Kong’s strengths in fintech such as blockchain, to build a modern gold trading centre, particularly as policy volatility under US President Donald Trump’s second term heightens global concerns and deepens the de-dollarisation trend. “I think [the French central bank’s move] is a signal worth watching – it is unusual,” said Raymond…

The People’s Liberation Army division responsible for the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait carried out a decontamination exercise amid targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States and Israel. A recent training exercise at an Eastern Theatre Command naval base included an emergency response to a simulated nuclear attack, according to a report on Tuesday by state broadcaster CCTV, which did not specify the time or location of the drill. The state broadcaster’s report on Tuesday of the nuclear response simulation did not specify the timing or…

China has implemented a new regulation on supply chain security that hands officials the power to punish any entities deemed to threaten the country’s access to vital resources and the free flow of goods, as Beijing confronts an increasingly turbulent global outlook. The 18-point regulation – which was passed and became effective on March 31, but the full text of which was only published on Tuesday – elevates safeguarding China’s industrial and supply chains to a national security issue. The new rules lay out the responsibilities of national and local…

Taiwanese opposition leader Cheng Li-wun blamed Japanese “imperialist forces” for dividing mainland China and Taiwan, as she paid tribute to Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen at his mausoleum in Nanjing on Wednesday. In a speech delivered after the Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman laid a floral wreath before a statue of the founder of modern China, Cheng said Taiwan became a Japanese colony at a time of national weakness, following the 1895 defeat of China in the first Sino-Japanese war. She said that after the 1911 revolution that overthrew the Qing dynasty (1644-1911),…

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will travel to North Korea on Thursday for a two-day visit, according to the foreign ministry in Beijing. The visit, at the invitation of the North Korean foreign ministry, will be Wang’s first trip to North Korea since early September 2019, when he travelled to Pyongyang for three days. Earlier this year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un cemented his leadership at the latest congress of the country’s ruling party. Advertisement Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his congratulatory message that he was ready to work…

00:00 00:00 1.00x South China Morning Post

Iran hoped China could be one of the security guarantors of peace in the region, Iranian ambassador Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said in Beijing on Wednesday. But he also warned of a strong “fightback” from Iran if the United States betrayed its trust again. “We hope different sides could guarantee that the US would not resume the war, we hope the UN Security Council, big countries like China and Russia, as well as mediating countries like Pakistan and Turkey to work together to guarantee peace in the region,” Fazli told a…

When a friend received a text message from the mainland Chinese tax authorities asking her to ensure that all her declared income – including income from abroad – was accurate, Fan, a finance professional who asked that her full name not be used, was shocked. Her friend was now coordinating with the authorities to settle the outstanding taxes on her overseas trading, she said, adding that “there is no alternative but to comply” with such texts and that the incident had left her on guard about the implications for her…

A Chinese underwater drone was caught by an Indonesian fisherman near a key waterway leading to Australia on Monday, local media reported. The discovery of the “torpedo-like” object near the Lombok Strait comes at a time of increasing Chinese underwater activity in sensitive areas. The waterway between Bali and Lombok is closely watched by the United States and Australia. It is one of the few deepwater routes that can accommodate submarine transits at operational depth and is also suitable for large naval vessels travelling between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.…