Category: Pl

Central Asia’s water insecurity may seem a distant concern. But its rivers underpin Eurasian trade corridors, sustain global food markets and power regional energy systems. As water stress worsens, this is no longer just an environmental issue but a strategic threat across Eurasia – demanding urgent attention in Beijing, Brussels and beyond. Central Asia is warming twice as fast as the global average, accelerating glacier retreat in mountain ranges that act as natural reservoirs. As a result, flows in the major transnational rivers are becoming more volatile while droughts grow…

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced backlash over his trip to China amid claims that the UK government has been “tricked” by Beijing. Conservative former security minister Tom Tugendhat raised the issue of Chinese sanctions on British parliamentarians after Starmer announced that “all restrictions” had been lifted on current members. Tugendhat, former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, Senior Deputy Speaker Nusrat Ghani and Conservative former minister Neil O’Brien were among those banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau in 2021. Advertisement Their property in China was also frozen…

China’s state-owned aluminium giant Chalco and Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto have agreed to buy a controlling stake in Brazil’s Companhia Brasileira de Aluminio (CBA) in a deal valued at US$886 million, marking one of the most significant foreign acquisitions in Brazil’s metals sector in recent years and reinforcing China’s growing footprint in the country’s strategic mineral assets. The transaction covers Brazilian conglomerate Grupo Votorantim’s 68.6 per cent stake in CBA and will be executed through a joint venture incorporated in Brazil, in which Chalco will hold 67 per cent and…

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin America relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. US won’t rule out pressuring Venezuela to curb China, Russia ties Photo: pool via EPA In the wake of the abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3, the White House stopped short of denying reports that America had urged Venezuela to cut ties with US adversaries such as China, Russia and Iran. Read…

Seeking to blunt China’s dominance over critical minerals that underpin hi-tech manufacturing, the administration of US President Donald Trump is rolling out a slate of measures this week aimed at reducing US reliance on Beijing. A White House official has confirmed to the South China Morning Post that Trump will be launching a US$12 billion public-private initiative to build a large commercial stockpile of critical minerals titled “Project Vault”. The project is being billed as a strategic reserve designed to shield US manufacturers from supply disruptions and price volatility in…

Defying a tight domestic job market, a record wave of overseas graduates is flooding back to China, eager to snatch up opportunities in its fast-growing tech and advanced manufacturing sectors. The influx, up 12 per cent in 2025 to an eight-year high, signals “determined confidence” among globally trained talent, according to findings by job-recruitment platform Zhaopin. And the robustness of this homecoming trend, at 2.25 times the 2018 level, points to a “sustained trend” in domestic opportunities, the platform said in a report last week. Despite hiring demand remaining concentrated…

US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is unlikely to pose a credible challenge to the United Nations, analysts say. They also warn that legal ambiguity, as well as doubts over credibility and funding, make the initiative’s long-term viability uncertain. Beijing was likely to respond cautiously but might also see some advantages if Washington’s attention was diverted elsewhere, leading to China potentially taking on a more proactive role in some regional security matters, they said. Advertisement The peace board concept was first laid out in Trump’s 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan…

Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings aims to replicate the success of WeChat Pay by splashing cash for its artificial intelligence app Yuanbao, but analysts are sceptical about whether subsidies can move the needle in the increasingly crowded market. Yuanbao’s 1 billion yuan (US$144 million) promotional campaign, which gives out cash through digital red packets to drive adoption, kicked off with a high-profile launch on Sunday, as many users woke up to find their WeChat groups flooded with referral links to the AI app. Tencent is aiming to stir up the…

Artificial intelligence (AI) may look automated, but it runs on human labour. Behind every chatbot and image generator are thousands of people labelling images, tagging text, moderating content and training systems to understand language and culture. This invisible workforce has quietly become a critical layer of the global AI economy. India has emerged as a major hub for this work. Its large English-speaking workforce and long history in information technology outsourcing have made it a go-to location for data annotation, content moderation and AI training support. However, much of this…