South China Morning Post
Xi Jinping meets foreign leaders: tracker, June 2026
Day: June 30, 2026
Will China build an electric rocket launch pad on the roof of the world?
But halfway around the globe, a little-known Chinese town tucked against the Tibetan Plateau could change all that. In late March, the government of the city of Ziyang said a research facility successfully tested a high-temperature superconducting navigation system, which they said was a breakthrough in electromagnetic rocket launch technology. Through this and several other similar programmes across the nation, Chinese scientists are working on a way to catapult rockets off the ground using electricity, before the chemical engines ever kick in. “The concept of building an electromagnetic launch orbit…
US, China should de-escalate from tit-for-tat actions, US lawmaker says
“These are unfortunate developments,” the Republican Senator from Montana said on Monday. Daines is a member of two of the most powerful committees in the US Senate: the Foreign Relations and Finance Committees. “The escalation on both sides here is something I was hoping would not happen,” he added. Weeks after US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to easing of tensions during their summit in Beijing, both sides have resumed retaliatory actions, highlighting the fragility of the truce and the persistent distrust between the world’s two…
US hollows out G20 agenda, casts Miami summit as ‘backdrop for Trump-Xi meeting’: sources
Two delegation members described the effort as the group’s top negotiators, also known as sherpas, met in Washington on Monday and Tuesday for their second in a planned series of sessions to draft the Joint Declaration that leaders are to issue at the summit. They said the US “pressed to strip the text of language on poverty reduction, energy transition and gender” and to narrow the agenda to immigration, transnational crime, terrorism, foreign investment and what it calls “fair trade”. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were…
US must innovate faster to counter China’s tech rise, lawmakers told
A US congressional hearing on Tuesday urged the United States to innovate faster, smarter and better to counter China’s growing technological muscle, even as several lawmakers slammed the US President Donald Trump administration for policies they said undercut US national interests. The testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce comes as the two economic giants increasingly and aggressively face off over standards, economic models and supply chains, despite last month’s summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at easing tensions. “At this very moment, China has…
UK trade secretary hosts Chinese delegation in bid to boost services
UK Trade Secretary Peter Kyle is seeking to boost UK services exports to China as he hosts a delegation from the country on Tuesday. Peter Kyle and China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao will jointly host the 15th UK–China Joint Economic and Trade Commission at Mansion House in London. They will launch a “trade booster” initiative designed to support UK businesses expanding their exports into China during the visit. Brompton Bikes and HSBC are among the British businesses attending, while firms JD.com and ICBC bank will represent China. “The UK is…
Trump ally Steve Daines rejects claims of talks with KMT leader
“She met my staff. She did not meet me,” the conservative lawmaker from Montana told the South China Morning Post on Monday. Cheng visited Washington earlier this month as part of a broader effort to strengthen ties with US policymakers during a multi-city two-week tour that also included San Francisco, Boston and New York. In a June 12 Facebook post, Cheng listed Daines among the lawmakers she visited in Washington, which also included Republican Senator Dan Sullivan and GOP House members from Tennessee, John Rose and Chuck Fleischmann. “We exchanged…
China’s Plan to Save Jobs From A.I.
A Chinese lab recently unveiled another astonishingly powerful and astonishingly cheap artificial intelligence model. GLM-5.2, produced by Z.ai, is almost as good as Anthropic’s latest model but runs at less than a tenth of its price. The A.I. race between the U.S. and China has been front of mind at the highest levels of government in both countries. But creating the most potent model is not the only — and maybe not even the best — way to measure A.I. success. Today I write about an area that’s had less…
Why Foreign Companies Are Re-assessing Their China Portfolio
China has recently gone to great lengths to ensure the world knows it is open for business. President and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, has repeatedly taken it upon himself this year to deliver that message to key world leaders and corporate heads. “Over the next five years, China will continue to promote high-quality development and expand high-standard opening-up,” Xi told Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in January. Xi also expressed a willingness “to step up economic and trade cooperation, seek synergy of development strategies in…
China Increases Military and Economic Pressure on Japan
China is intensifying a campaign of pressure on Japan. In recent days, China has banned more Japanese companies from receiving Chinese exports. It and Russia flew bombers near southwest Japan. It has confirmed that two Japanese businessmen in northeastern China were detained. The campaign started in November, when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan said her country could help defend Taiwan — which China considers part of its territory — in the event of a Chinese invasion. China has since reduced flights and academic exchanges, and continued to ban imports…