Day: June 21, 2026

The US-Iran talks in Switzerland have led to the lifting of the blockade and the release of frozen assets for Iran, Tehran said, but the real test remains deconfliction in Lebanon. “Tireless Pakistani and Qatari mediation has delivered major progress to end Lebanon War,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post on Monday. “Oil and petrochem exports are waived, blockade lifted, some frozen assets released, and major reconstruction & development plan launched for Iran.” Advertisement He added: “1st real test: Lebanon deconfliction cell.” According to…

Nie Huihua, a professor of economics at Renmin University, discusses how an effective understanding of China’s development requires a shift from Western-centric frameworks to an integrated perspective that recognises how formal institutions, informal grass-roots mechanisms and cultural collectivism couple to create a self-consistent and adaptive governance system. You received economics training at Harvard, but your current research and public writing focus on grass-roots governance in China. When it comes to understanding China, what do you think is most lacking in how Western mainstream economists study the country? What gap are…

China-Asean relations are usually described in two ways. One emphasises danger: the South China Sea, US-China rivalry, military pressure and risk of Southeast Asia being pulled into China’s orbit. The other emphasises opportunity: trade, infrastructure, investment, supply chains and shared growth. Both are true. Neither is enough. I recently joined a study tour by the University of Hong Kong’s Centre on Contemporary China and the World to Chengdu, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. During the trip, I was struck by how much the relationship between China and the Association of Southeast…

Telling a Harbin Z-20 and a Sikorsky UH-60 “Black Hawk” apart can be challenging – the two helicopters look almost identical and their dimensions are very similar. The striking resemblance underscores China’s decades-long effort to close the technological gap with the United States and Russia in the important aviation sector of helicopters. Yet, there are differences: the Z-20 has five main rotor blades compared with the UH-60’s four, and its cabin features two front windows instead of the American model’s three. Advertisement The Z-20 is Beijing’s most advanced military helicopter…

Chen Weiqiang, a tenured professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at New York University (NYU), has joined the school of biomedical engineering at Nanjing University as a distinguished professor. “Professor Chen has long been deeply engaged in top overseas universities, achieving remarkable results in cutting-edge fields such as cellular biomechanics and organ chips,” Nanjing University assistant president Jiang Tian said, while introducing him. “He chose to join Nanjing University during his peak academic years and this heartfelt dedication and high level of trust are truly moving.” Advertisement The university held…

The spectacle of US President Donald Trump thanking China for staying “neutral” with regard to the US-Israeli war against Iran would have been unthinkable a year ago. Yet at the Group of Seven summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, on June 17, he credited Beijing – alongside Moscow – with preventing a full-blown catastrophe. His observation that China “could have sent in an oil ship with six destroyers alongside of it, on each side” but chose restraint, captured the essence of Beijing’s strategic poise: a demonstration of power that needed no overt…

Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) has hit out at the island’s government for launching investigations into five agricultural groups over participation in a mainland forum. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) referred the five groups to the Ministry of Agriculture for investigation after they were accused of signing cooperation deals at the Straits Forum in southeastern Fujian province earlier this month. The move triggered a backlash from opposition politicians and farming groups, who argued that the Taiwanese government was penalising legitimate efforts to secure vital export markets. Advertisement In a series…

China’s state broadcaster CCTV has aired footage showing the launch of a DF-17 hypersonic missile, a weapon that analysts believe could strengthen deterrence across the first island chain. On Saturday, a military news programme carried footage of two live-fire exercises, one of which showed a Dongfeng-17, or “east wind”, missile launcher by the side of a road, followed by a vertical launch. The other segment showed training exercises involving multiple branches of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at a rocket force training area somewhere in the Gobi Desert. Advertisement A…