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China signals opening for trade talks with US

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Chinese state media has said there would be “no harm” in holding trade talks with the Trump administration, indicating a softening of Beijing’s position as both sides look for a way out of their crushing tariff war. The gesture comes as the fallout from the trade war has begun to show in China’s economic data, with factory activity in April dropping the most since 2023 as export orders dried up.…

BlackRock-backed Suez taps HSBC to review China assets

French utility group Suez is reviewing its Chinese water-infrastructure assets, people familiar with the matter said, as the company looks at potential ways to streamline its global operations. Advertisement The BlackRock-backed company is working with HSBC Holdings to study options for the business, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. It has approached a select group of potential buyers to gauge their interest, according to the people. A transaction could value the China water business at more than US$1 billion, some of the people…

Philippines arrests Chinese man for operating surveillance device near voting agency

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The Philippines has arrested a Chinese man for operating a surveillance device near the offices of its election commission, less than two weeks before the country’s midterm polls, adding further strain to relations between the two countries. Tensions have been rising between Manila and Beijing, fueled by rival flag-raising displays on the disputed Sandy Cay in South China Sea. “When we made the arrest, that was the third time he had come to Comelec,” said Philippine National Bureau of Investigation spokesman Ferdinand Lavin on Wednesday, referring to…

Trump believes in ‘good chance’ of China trade deal as US envoy says no talks under way

US President Donald Trump says there is “a very good chance” of reaching a trade deal with China, even as his own trade envoy acknowledged just hours earlier that no tariff discussions are taking place between Washington and Beijing. Advertisement “Will we make a deal? There’s a very good chance we’re going to make a deal … and it [is] got to be fair,” Trump told US cable channel NewsNation on Wednesday. “We were ripped off by China, we were ripped off by everybody, but really by China. They were…

Poll finds quarter of non-Asian Americans consider Chinese-Americans a possible threat

One in four non-Asian Americans regard Chinese-Americans as a potential threat, especially related to national security, while four in 10 fear that Asian-Americans have greater allegiance to their countries of origin than to the United States, according to a poll released on Thursday. Advertisement The results from an Asian American Foundation survey come as US-China relations plummet and add to concerns in the diverse community about the ability to assimilate at a time of growing social tension. “The poll underscores a troubling and ongoing disconnect between how Asian-Americans are perceived…

Foreign companies flock to ‘panda bond’ market in hunt for China hedge

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese business & finance myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Multinational companies are flocking to China’s bond market at a record rate as they try to secure cheaper financing and hedge against deteriorating relations between Beijing and the US. So-called panda bond issuance — renminbi borrowing by overseas companies in mainland Chinese markets — hit Rmb194.8bn ($26.5bn) in 2024, the highest level on record for a full year. In the first quarter of this year it reached Rmb41.6bn,…

A stronger China waits to see which Trump adviser will come out on top on tariffs: sources

China will hold off on entering serious trade talks with the US while it waits to see which of Donald Trump’s advisers will have his ear and how other countries will respond to the 90-day pause on tariffs, according to sources. Advertisement The Trump administration was “too divided” and China was in no rush to negotiate an end to the tariff deadlock that Washington initiated, according to a source familiar with the situation. “There is no clear sign which clique will win,” the source said, referring to the various camps…

The SMC: what to see at the Shanghai AI incubator visited by Xi Jinping

Advertisement “China boasts abundant data resources, a comprehensive industrial system, and vast market potential, providing a promising outlook for the development of AI,” Xi was quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua during his visit on Tuesday. Launched in September 2023 after just 38 days of construction, the SMC – located in Shanghai’s Xuhui district, near the Huangpu River – is focused on enterprises involved in the development of foundational AI models. More than 100 companies have joined since the centre commenced operations, according to the SMC, showing the…

Japan’s share buybacks nearly triple as governance push gains pace

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Japanese business & finance myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Share buybacks announced by Japanese companies in April nearly tripled on the previous year as boards opted for placating investors over holding dry powder for tariff uncertainties. Listed groups in the Topix benchmark collectively unveiled ¥3.8tn ($27bn) of buybacks in April, up from ¥1.3tn in the same month last year, according to figures compiled by Goldman Sachs. That puts the total so far this year at ¥6.9tn, more…

Alibaba’s Qwen3 AI model family helps narrow tech gap between China and US: analysts

Advertisement Hangzhou-based Alibaba’s cloud computing unit on Tuesday unveiled its much-anticipated Qwen3 family, consisting of eight enhanced models that range from 600 million to 235 billion parameters. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. In machine learning, parameters are the variables present in an AI system during training, which helps establish how data prompts yield the desired output. Alibaba’s latest AI models showed that Chinese companies have significantly closed the gap with US firms, while the pace of innovation is expected to continue in spite of US export restrictions on…