Day: May 17, 2026

As the impasse continues, here is where things stand. Iran prepares new transit mechanism Tehran is moving to formalise its control over the strait with a “professional mechanism” to regulate shipping. Advertisement “The necessary fees will be collected for the specialised services provided under this mechanism,” Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, wrote on social media on Saturday. He said only commercial vessels and parties cooperating with Iran would benefit, adding: “This route will remain closed to the operators of the so‑called ‘freedom project’.” Advertisement…

Wu Yongping is one of mainland China’s leading specialists on Taiwan affairs and dean of the Institute for Taiwan Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Here, he shares his views on signals from the Xi-Trump summit, and discusses peaceful reunification between the mainland and Taiwan and how it could be achieved. Advertisement This is a very direct way of emphasising the importance of the Taiwan question and it lays out the most severe possible consequences – something quite rare. Advertisement In Chinese diplomatic practice, “tough words are said upfront”. If…

China has agreed to buy at least US$17 billion in US agricultural products annually through 2028, the White House said on Sunday. The commitment resulted from the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week and will be in addition to soybean purchase commitments that were made in October 2025, according to a fact sheet released by the White House. Trump concluded his highly-anticipated state visit to China on Friday, during which he discussed topics spanning trade, Taiwan and Iran with Xi. Advertisement The White…

Norway’s interior security service, PST, said on Sunday a Chinese man had been arrested in the country’s north for spying, just weeks after a Chinese woman was arrested suspected of spying on satellite data. The suspect was arrested on Friday by the Nordland police district, Eirik Veum, PST’s media spokesman, told Agence France-Presse. Veum said the man was suspected of “attempted illegal intelligence activities in Nordland”, but declined to provide further details on the nature of the activities. Advertisement On Sunday, a Norwegian court ordered that the suspect be remanded…

US plans to build up to 15 battleships designed to serve as a “strike-centric arsenal ship” to deter China have been called into question. Analysts said the ships would not only be vulnerable to anti-ship missiles, but would also be expensive to operate and maintain, and questioned whether the United States had the industrial capacity to build the vessels. On Monday, the US Navy outlined its shipbuilding plan for the next three decades, including a detailed layout for what the White House has dubbed the “Golden Fleet”. Advertisement The plan…

The former Chinese governor criticised for mishandling the Covid-19 outbreak is under investigation for corruption. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), China’s top political disciplinary body, said on Sunday that Wang Xiaodong, 66, who was governor of Hubei province in 2020 as the coronavirus developed into a pandemic, was suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law” – the standard euphemism for corruption. Wang was Hubei’s governor from 2017 to 2021 and was widely ridiculed on social media after he said at a press conference in late January 2020…

Sparks flew in a Beijing conference room this week, as diplomats, officials and experts from Europe and China clashed over their deepening trade problems. Chinese speakers were accused of dismissing Europe’s long-standing complaints and ignoring the harsh economic reality of an increasingly lopsided trading relationship. EU diplomats were accused of “bullying”, while the bloc’s policies were billed as “protectionist” efforts to decouple from China. Advertisement At the acrimonious event hosted by the European Union on Tuesday, the two sides bickered not only over policy but also over who was at…

One formulation emerging from the summit between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Beijing merits particular attention: the reference in China’s official readout to a “constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability” that should guide ties “over the next three years and beyond”. The wording is noteworthy, and not simply because it points to an effort to stabilise a difficult relationship in the short term. It suggests a broader attempt to place the management of that relationship within a more explicit political framework. The reference to “the next…