Hong Kong authorities have raided two bookstores and arrested five people on suspicion of selling allegedly seditious publications, according to local media reports, in the latest step targeting independent booksellers. Videos and photos from multiple media outlets on Wednesday showed officers wearing vests marked with “police” seizing boxes from the building that houses Have A Nice Stay, a bookshop founded by former journalists. AFP reporters saw officers also lead away a woman in handcuffs to a van. A few streets away a similar scene played out, with boxes taken from…
Day: July 15, 2026
After floods kill dozens, local Chinese official uses AI to build evacuation app
Every year, summer rains cause flooding in China. They also bring high-stakes work for officials. Once an evacuation order goes out, local governments have long checked on families by calling them on the phone. Xie Yunshi, an official in the suburbs of the Chinese capital, told Beijing Daily that when waters rose in the past, his department would organise a dozen people to call every single family, sometimes at midnight. But this year, Xie spent the price of a latte to solve this problem. He bought 1 billion tokens for…
Senate bill seeks to curb US reliance on China in drug industry
Bipartisan US senators on Wednesday unveiled legislation aimed at increasing transparency around foreign influence in the pharmaceutical industry, amid growing concerns over US dependence on China for critical drug ingredients and medical supply chains. “There is no reason why we should be letting our adversary, Communist China, … control our medicine supply chain,” Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, said. “Right now, we are very dependent.” The Pharmaceutical Investment Oversight and Accountability Act would require the Federal Trade Commission, in consultation with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the…
China and Xi Jinping seen more favourably than the US and Trump in poll of major countries
The world has largely viewed the US more favourably than China for years, but those opinions have flipped in Beijing’s favour this year, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, a remarkable shift driven in part by tensions between the Trump administration and US allies. More people have favourable views of China than the US in 25 out of the 36 countries and territories that were surveyed, including Canada and Mexico. The poll was conducted from February to May, a period when the United States and Israel…
US hardens AI stance on China as Anthropic calls for extending lead
Washington is moving to strengthen its artificial intelligence posture towards China, with lawmakers advancing new export control bills and the Trump administration deepening cooperation with leading US AI firms as concerns grow that Beijing is rapidly closing the technological gap. A senior Anthropic executive said on Wednesday that the United States holds a six-to-nine-month lead in frontier AI models over Chinese competitors, while accusing Chinese companies of using unauthorised “distillation” techniques to replicate American advances. The comments came as the White House launched a new initiative to coordinate cybersecurity vulnerabilities…
‘I must get out into the free world’, dissident who fled China on boat tells BBC
Dong, a police officer-turned-human rights activist, has been jailed in China several times for his activism. In 1999, Dong was fired from the police force after 13 years because he signed a petition to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the brutal Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Then in 2001, he was imprisoned for three years for “inciting subversion of state power”. He was jailed again in 2014 for participating in another Tiananmen commemoration event, according to Amnesty International. Dong had fled China four times previously but was sent back each…
14-nation South China Sea statement is an expansionist overreach
On July 12, a coalition of 14 nations – the United States, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Britain, Japan, New Zealand, and seven European states including Germany, Italy and the Baltic nations – issued a statement marking the 10th anniversary of the South China Sea ruling at The Hague in 2016. The document recycled familiar arguments, urging compliance with the ruling and framing it as a cornerstone of the rules-based international order. But beneath it lies a fundamental disconnect from international law, historical reality and the contemporary political environment in Southeast Asia.…
Trump intelligence pick to play ‘helpful’ role in agreeing economic strategy with China
The United States’ nominee for director of national intelligence told lawmakers on Wednesday he could be “extremely helpful” in shaping economic strategy with China during a confirmation hearing that framed Beijing as a leading economic and geopolitical challenge. Jay Clayton, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, appeared before the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on his nomination, where he was questioned on several key intelligence issues. When pressed on the top three threats to America today, Clayton listed terrorism, then drug trafficking, fentanyl and cartels, adding “lastly, I would…
China’s Chip Champion to Raise Billions in Race for A.I. Control
China’s largest maker of memory chips is raising billions of dollars in a blockbuster public offering to pursue the nation’s agenda of technological self-sufficiency and leadership in the global race to develop artificial intelligence. ChangXin Memory Technologies, known as CXMT, said in a filing on Wednesday that it had roughly doubled the price of its offering on the Shanghai exchange from earlier guidance, based on strong investor demand. It is seeking to raise the equivalent of up to $9.8 billion. That would be the largest initial public offering in Asia…
EU accuses China of seeking to reshape global order in stark new strategy paper
The European Union has accused China – along with Russia – of trying to “reshape the global order in line with their interests” and “fostering a return to a sphere-of-influence logic”, in an explosive new position paper that contains some of the bloc’s strongest ever official criticism of Beijing. The paper, which was adopted by the EU’s 27 foreign ministers on Monday without any announcement, accuses Beijing of being both a “key enabler” and “crucial enabler” of Russia’s war on Ukraine, language previously used by Nato. In stark terms, the…