South China Morning Post
Nirupama Rao and Lin Minwang on India-China fault lines
Day: August 12, 2026
Nearly 200-country study shows China’s Belt and Road Initiative cuts debt and corruption
A study analysing data from hundreds of countries and regions suggests China’s Belt and Road Initiative is linked to better governance and economic development, according to researchers from Nanjing University. They found the trade and investment scheme – which spans Africa, Asia, Europe and beyond – was also associated with improved corruption control and that it reduced debt risks. The team – from the university’s Centre for Asia-Pacific Development Studies and led by Mao Weizhun – said their findings challenged characterisations of the trade and infrastructure initiative as a “failure”,…
With Hollywood struggling in China, can the Odyssey draw a crowd?
The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster juggernaut, has overcome an onslaught of attacks from the world’s richest man and stared down criticism from a classicist who translated the poem, to become one of the year’s most celebrated and highest-grossing films. But this week, the film faces one of its biggest challenges yet. Released in China on Friday, Nolan’s latest epic will test whether Hollywood blockbusters can still draw audiences in China, a market that is increasingly dominated by domestic films. For now, the signs are good: the Odyssey is set…
Zhu Rongji, Former Premier Who Transformed China Into a Market Economy, Dies at 97
new video loaded: Zhu Rongji, Former Premier Who Transformed China Into a Market Economy, Dies at 97 <img src="https://www.chinastrategy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/zhu-rongji-former-premier-who-transformed-china-into-a-market-economy-dies-at-97.jpg" data-testid="betamax-poster" sizes="(width Zhu Rongji, the former Chinese premier, died in Beijing on Wednesday at the age of 97. He helped guide China toward a market-based economy in the 1990s and later into the World Trade Organization that skyrocketed the country’s exports. By David Cheung August 12, 2026 NYT
US charges 11 over sham marriages involving Chinese nationals and American soldiers
US prosecutors have charged 11 people over an alleged decade-long network that arranged more than 1,000 sham marriages, primarily for Chinese nationals seeking green cards, including matches with at least 14 active-duty American soldiers. About 11 of the soldiers, who were stationed at a US Army base in Kentucky, were paired with Chinese citizens between May 2023 and August 2025, according to a 21-page indictment unsealed on Wednesday in federal court in New York. The indictment did not identify the military installation or the soldiers, who were allegedly recruited by…
China offers Colombia quake relief as new president’s US pivot leaves Beijing waiting
China said on Wednesday it would help Colombia recover from the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the country’s west on Monday, killing more than 200 people. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing would do what it could in suitable ways, in line with what Colombia requested, in response to questions from Xinhua and Telesur at a briefing in Beijing. Guo said no Chinese nationals had been reported killed or injured in the disaster, and that the embassy in Bogota was “working to verify the safety of Chinese citizens in…
Singapore and South Korea eye science opportunities as last main US-China link shatters
This field has been one of the most durable links in the US-China relationship, but a series of new security-related restrictions on federally funded collaborations with Chinese institutions mark the latest, and arguably most consequential, step in a years-long shift away from cooperation. Experts say the measures are unlikely to halt Chinese scientific progress. Instead, they are reshaping where international collaboration takes place – creating opportunities for intermediary research hubs while narrowing one of the most enduring channels of bilateral engagement. The timing is striking. The latest restrictions arrive as…
Zhu Rongji used economics to exert greater control over Tibet
The late former premier of China Zhu Rongji wielded the economic hammer during China’s rapid economic rise in the 1990s and 2000s to increase Beijing’s influence over Tibet, an expert told Radio Free Asia shortly after Zhu’s death on Wednesday. Zhu, 98, died at 11:06 a.m. in Beijing of an unspecified illness, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. As premier alongside President Jiang Zemin from 1998 to 2003, Zhu had spearheaded China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and ushered in an era of rapid economic growth and full integration…
US sets up task force to combat birth tourism, revokes more than 600 visas
The Trump administration announced on Wednesday the establishment of a task force to end birth tourism in the latest push to curtail the practice after the Supreme Court recently rejected US President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict constitutional birthright citizenship. Working alongside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the US State Department wrote in a fact sheet that it is “using all available tools to defend the integrity of US citizenship, ensure non-immigrant visas are used only for their lawful and intended purposes, and prevent their exploitation through birth tourism”.…
China projects ‘outward confidence’ amid economic anxiety, US congressional panel says
A US congressional advisory body on China said the country is projecting an image of confidence even as concerns about its economy and future growth remain beneath the surface, following a week-long visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou in July. Members of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) discussed their observations during a wide-ranging press briefing on Wednesday, offering new details about meetings with Chinese officials that had not previously been disclosed. “I think there’s an outward confidence,” USCC chairman Randy Shriver said. “There’s a lot of anxiety…