The US added Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, internet search provider Baidu and automaker BYD to a list of companies it believes are aiding Beijing’s military, in a move that could inflame tensions between the countries. The long-awaited update released on Monday supersedes a list from early 2025, and comes less than a month after Donald Trump met China’s Xi Jinping on a visit to Beijing, where the two leaders maintained a delicate trade war truce. The list now includes a broad swathe of China’s top technology firms key to advancing…
Day: June 8, 2026
Tilt towards Beijing? Xi and Kim vow to ‘open new chapter’ in ties
China and North Korea have pledged to strengthen strategic cooperation and defend each other’s sovereignty, according to a North Korean state media report covering Chinese President Xi Jinping’s two-day visit to Pyongyang. The two leaders vowed to “open a new chapter” in bilateral ties and expand exchanges and cooperation in political, economic, cultural and other fields, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday. It quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as saying that strengthening ties with China was the country’s “most important strategic mission”. Advertisement The Chinese leader…
Spying in Xinjiang? No, I was reporting from China’s energy heartland
As the war in Iran disrupts global oil and chemical supplies, China’s coal-heavy energy sector is seizing an unprecedented opportunity. Dannie Peng visited Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to witness the operations of one of China’s four major bases for large-scale, modern coal-chemical production. In this reporter’s note, she documents her observations and experiences during the trip. For her reporting, read the two-part series here. As a journalist working for a non-local, non-state media outlet, gaining access to Xinjiang has never been easy, especially when it comes to its energy sector…
China’s Xi stays at exclusive Pyongyang guest house near shrines to former supreme leaders
Chinese President Xi Jinping has returned to Pyongyang’s Kumsusan State Guest House, the highly secluded counterpart to Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guest House. Xi began a two-day state visit to North Korea on Monday. He was welcomed at the airport by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, before attending a welcoming ceremony at Pyongyang’s Kim Il-sung Square and then heading on to the guest house. The guest house, completed in 2019, was first publicly used during Xi’s visit to North Korea that year. Advertisement Before its construction, North Korea primarily hosted foreign…
Videos Show Chinese Businesses Hawking North Korean Labor
Quick deliveries of large orders for stuffed toys, fake eyelashes and crocheted bags that are made with cheap labor, including some workers who are on the job for 16 hours straight. This is the pitch some Chinese businesses are making on social media to potential customers. But the products they are selling are made in North Korea, like in this video of a wig factory. In the posts, which have proliferated in recent years, some Chinese entrepreneurs say that they own factories in North Korea and openly share contact information,…
Nationals from China, India among 17 new US denaturalisation cases
The Trump administration is stepping up efforts to revoke the citizenship of naturalised Americans, with the US Justice Department on Monday filing lawsuits against 17 people accused of obtaining citizenship through fraud or concealing serious crimes. Among those targeted is a Chinese-born resident of the state of Georgia who prosecutors say hid a prior deportation order and immigration history under a different identity before becoming a US citizen in 2006. The announcement was accompanied by statements from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and Assistant Attorney…
Dalai Lama undergoes left knee surgery in New Delhi
NEW DELHI, India — The Dalai Lama has undergone surgery on his left knee on Monday, his personal physician confirmed. Dr. Tsetan D. Sadutshang, the Tibetan spiritual leader’s longtime personal physician, appeared in a video statement from New Delhi, where the Dalai Lama, 90, is recuperating following the procedure. “Today, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama had a very successful knee surgery on his left knee, and his right knee was done in New York in 2024,” Dr. Sadutshang said. “I am here to relay this message to all the…
US adds Alibaba, BYD and other Chinese tech champions to military company blacklist
The Pentagon signalled on Monday that it was adding Alibaba, BYD, Baidu and dozens of other Chinese companies to its list of entities it says are linked to China’s military, widening a blacklist that increasingly targets sectors at the heart of US-China technological competition. In a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication on Wednesday, the US Department of Defence designated a broad range of Chinese firms as “Chinese military companies” under Section 1260H of the National Defence Authorisation Act. These include electric vehicle makers, artificial intelligence companies, battery manufacturers, biotech…
Friendship or leverage: Why is Xi Jinping in North Korea?
About 2,300 North Korean soldiers have died fighting for Russia against Ukraine, according to a BBC investigation. Pyongyang is also accused of supplying ammunition for Russia’s war effort in exchange for oil and aid, a development that has alarmed Washington and its allies, and quietly rattled China. BBC
Satellite pics reveal Vietnamese construction boom in disputed Spratly chain
Vietnam is building military and maritime infrastructure at 27 sites across at least 18 reefs in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, satellite imagery analyzed by Radio Free Asia revealed. The improvements include ports, runways, military facilities and communications arrays that will improve Hanoi’s maritime and airspace awareness, experts told RFA. “Hanoi is likely hoping that this development will deter Chinese action against Vietnamese economic activity at sea, including fishing and offshore oil and gas,” Harrison Prétat, deputy director of the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, or…