Day: August 10, 2026

US Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Elbridge Colby avoided naming Beijing or addressing escalating tensions in the South China Sea during a speech in Manila on Monday, adopting a measured tone weeks before an expected meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Despite speaking in the capital of Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia, Colby made no direct reference to recent confrontations between Chinese and Philippine forces near the disputed Scarborough Shoal. Instead, he sought to reassure regional allies that the United States was “definitely not…

China’s rapidly expanding aircraft carrier fleet may be vulnerable to attack from submarines – an area where its defensive capacity lags behind that of the United States – according to a new report. A recent report from the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies outlined a “cost-imposition” strategy that could help the US and its allies threaten China’s carriers. It included the use of land-based strike networks, long-range air strikes supported by satellites, cyber and electromagnetic attacks, and drone swarms. However, the fifth element of this strategy – submarine…

“He who has never been to the Great Wall is not a true man,” former Chinese leader Mao Zedong wrote in a poem while passing through the Liupan Mountains in Guyuan, Gansu, during the Long March of the Red Army in October, 1935. The Great Wall he mentioned refers to the Qin Great Wall built during the Warring States period of Qin (325-251 BC), which has a history dating back 2,300 years. It is one of the earliest ancient Great Walls built in China. Recently, a well-preserved bronze wine vessel…

China has asked to join World Trade Organization consultations that Brazil opened against US tariffs of up to 37.5 per cent. Beijing filed the request in Geneva on Monday, telling the trade body it held a substantial commercial interest in the case. The move was first reported by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo and independently confirmed to the South China Morning Post by a Brazilian government source. In the request, China said Washington could apply comparable measures to Chinese goods, and that such measures would affect all Chinese…

A Chinese citizen faces up to 20 years in US federal prison after pleading guilty on Monday to attempting to purchase US-made military equipment to export to China, in violation of US arms export controls, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Chen Dingwei, 29, was charged with attempting to purchase military-grade satellite modems and radios manufactured for the US military by US companies, which are barred from being exported to China under the US Arms Export Control Act. US District Judge David Sam accepted Chen’s guilty plea in…

The Trump administration is on pace to revoke a record number of visas this year, the State Department said on Monday, as it disclosed that more than 175,000 had been revoked since US President Donald Trump returned to office. The visas were revoked from foreign nationals who “violated the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against US citizens, defrauded Americans, abused our immigration system, or endangered national security”, according to the State Department. A State Department spokesperson told the South China Morning Post that more than 100,000…

US President Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Iran compensate the victims of attacks, conflicts and domestic repression he blamed on Tehran, adding a new condition to negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The demand came after Iran reiterated that Washington must compensate it for damage caused by more than five months of US and Israeli strikes before the strategic waterway can be fully reopened. “It is an interesting idea because now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and…