Month: August 2026

Several top US Democratic lawmakers chided US President Donald Trump on Tuesday for easing sanctions recently on Chinese and Hong Kong officials who, they said, were “complicit in Beijing’s dismantling of Hong Kong’s autonomy”. “We write to express serious concern,” the four-page letter said. “It raises serious questions about the durability of US policy towards Hong Kong that we believe warrant a direct response from the administration.” On July 14, the US allowed its designation of Hong Kong as an area worthy of “national emergency” concern to lapse, although a…

Midwestern Americans watching television this summer may have been surprised to see China and bacon appearing together in political advertisements. “The corrupt Save Our Bacon scam in the farm bill – it’s a giveaway to Chinese corporations,” one advertisement declared over images of the Chinese flag and Chinese President Xi Jinping. “Whose side is your senator on? America or China?” Viewers might assume the advertisement was promoting yet another Republican-led effort to counter Beijing. The reality is far more complicated. Behind the aggressive campaign against the Save Our Bacon Act…

Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University are among 30 American institutions ordered to audit their foreign research relationships, according to US officials, as higher education representatives accused the Pentagon of implying wrongdoing without publicly presenting evidence. An American official, speaking anonymously to the Associated Press, confirmed that Harvard, MIT and Johns Hopkins had received notifications. Fox News, citing a US official, subsequently published what it described as the complete list of institutions. It included several of the country’s most prominent research universities, including Cornell, Duke,…

Ahead of next month’s expected summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington, a low profile US regulatory agency has opened a new front in the technology battle between the world’s two superpowers, even as it attempts to avoid sabotaging the vital high-stakes meeting. The move came after months of FCC measures that did not prompt a direct retaliatory response from Beijing, even as the agency continued to expand its restrictions. Although China held its fire ahead of the last Trump-Xi summit in May, that…

China firmly supports Latin American nations in upholding their autonomy and pursuing international cooperation based on their own interests, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Ecuadorian counterpart Daniel Noboa on Tuesday. “Latin American and Caribbean nations should have freedom to choose their international partners without outside interference,” Xi said, in a veiled criticism of US interventions in the region since Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025. Like many of its Latin American neighbours, Ecuador is trying to balance its relations between China and the United States in…

Chinese surgeons have enabled a man to walk again after an accident severed both his legs at the thigh, marking a rare success for advanced reconstructive procedures. After nearly 20 months of intensive post-operative recovery, the patient is reportedly able to walk indoors with a frame and manage most daily tasks unassisted. Crucially, sensation has returned to his lower legs down to his ankles. The double-thigh replantation, performed at an orthopaedic hospital in eastern China, is a global first, according to the Jiangsu Trauma and Treatment Association – a local…

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to visit Seoul days after Donald Trump called for the US to scale back military exercises with South Korea, sending ripples of unease through American allies in Asia. The US president posted his decision to social media on Sunday, raising questions about the durability of Washington’s security commitments in a region increasingly defined by competition with Beijing. He offered several rationales, including cost-saving considerations, a goodwill gesture towards North Korea, and dissatisfaction with Seoul’s refusal to join the US in the war against…

Taiwan’s army has for the first time used first-person view (FPV) drones against armoured vehicles in a live-fire exercise, adopting tactics pioneered during the Ukraine war to strengthen its asymmetric capabilities against the People’s Liberation Army. The exercise on Monday highlighted efforts to broaden strike options beyond traditional firepower such as rocket systems and heavy artillery. The Army Unmanned Systems Training Command brought together six units from the military’s artillery commands, Marine Corps and Military Police for the exercise. Under simulated battlefield conditions, operators flew FPV drones carrying armour-piercing warheads…