Like most people living in Guam, Jacqueline Guzman is used to hearing about the threat from China. The US territory of about 170,000 people lies in the Pacific Ocean and despite growing geopolitical tensions in the region, the cost of living rather than military aggression is front of mind for many residents. Guzman says she is worried “about paying bills” and has trust in the US government to protect her. But that certainty shifted slightly this month when the threat catapulted into the headlines, as Beijing used a military parade…
Tag: Asia Pacific
Australia-PNG defence treaty: countries to agree to defend each other from military attack as China’s Pacific influence grows
Australia and Papua New Guinea will agree to defend each other in the event of a military attack, part of a landmark defence agreement due to be signed on the sidelines of celebrations to commemorate the country’s independence this week. Anthony Albanese and PNG’s defence minister, Billy Joseph, both downplayed a delay to the deal being formalised, insisting the plan known as a Pukpuk treaty won’t affect sovereignty in the former Australian colony. Designed to push back against China’s expansionist attitude to Pacific countries, the deal is the latest negotiated…
‘I have to do it’: Why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China
Song-chun Zhu at Peking University, July 2025. Photograph: Sean Gallagher/The Guardian By the time Song-Chun Zhu was six years old, he had encountered death more times than he could count. Or so it felt. This was the early 1970s, the waning years of the Cultural Revolution, and his father ran a village supply store in rural China. There was little to do beyond till the fields and study Mao Zedong at home, and so the shop became a refuge where people could rest, recharge and share tales. Zhu grew up…
Chinese economy slows amid Trump trade war and weaker consumer spending
China’s economy showed further signs of weakness last month as it comes under strain from Donald Trump’s trade wars and domestic problems, with factory output and consumer spending rising at their slowest pace for about a year. The disappointing data adds pressure on Beijing to roll out more stimulus to fend off a sharp slowdown, with a debt crisis denting the country’s once-booming property sector and exports facing stronger headwinds. Economists were split over whether policymakers should introduce more near-term fiscal support to hit their annual 5% growth target, with…
China, climate crisis and Cop31: five takeaways from the Pacific Islands Forum
1. China’s role in the region remains contentious Solomon Islands is China’s biggest security ally in the region and prime minister Jeremiah Manele’s decision to block all external partners from attending this year’s summit fuelled speculation that the move was aimed at keeping Taiwan out of the meeting. For more than 30 years, Taiwan has been deemed a “development partner” to the Pacific forum, so its exclusion – along with China and the US – became one of the key talking points of the forum. Palau’s president, Surangel Whipps Jr,…
Chinese carmakers told to improve locking devices for UK market
British authorities may have well-founded concerns about the cyber-spying threat from vehicles made in China, but it turns out the country’s manufacturers have security worries of their own. Insurers have told Chinese carmakers they need certain critical modifications for vehicles on British streets: namely, tougher locking devices to make them harder to steal. With an average of 11 reported vehicle thefts an hour in the UK, and car crime comparatively rare under Beijing’s strict authoritarian regime, industry sources said it had been a “swift learning curve”. Additions to cars exported…
Billion-dollar coffins? New technology could make oceans transparent and Aukus submarines vulnerable
Military history is littered with the corpses of apex predators. The Gatling gun, the battleship, the tank. All once possessed unassailable power – then were undermined, in some cases wiped out, by the march of new technology. “Speed and stealth and firepower,” the head of the Australian Submarine Agency, Jonathan Mead, told the Guardian two years ago of Australia’s forthcoming fleet of nuclear submarines. “The apex predator of the oceans.” But for how much longer? In the first quarter of the 21st century, nuclear submarines have proven a formidable force:…
Ten Years: has the hit film’s dystopian vision of Hong Kong in 2025 become a reality?
A taxi driver struggles to keep working as his native language of Cantonese is sidelined for Mandarin. Petty gangsters do the work of the authorities amid a violent debate about a national security law. Supporters of Hong Kong independence are jailed. In 2015, a scrappy group of Hong Kong film-makers imagined what their semi-autonomous city could look like under the increasing influence of the Chinese Communist party (CCP). “Any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental,” reads the first scene in the opening credits. But decade on, many…
The axis of upheaval: inside the 12 September Guardian Weekly
Xi Jinping had been waiting for the right moment to serve notice of China’s growing might and influence to the rest of the world, and the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war provided the Mao-suited Chinese leader with the perfect opportunity. Last week’s bombastic (or should that be bomb-tastic?) military parade in Beijing – in the presence of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and a host of other global strongmen – was intended as a show of force and stability to contrast sharply with the chaotic unpredictability…
Trump reportedly asks EU to impose 100% tariffs on India and China to put pressure on Russia
Donald Trump has asked the EU to impose tariffs of up to 100% on India and China as part of an effort to force the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to end the war in Ukraine, according to reports. The US president made the demand during a meeting between US and EU officials discussing options to increase economic pressure on Russia on Tuesday, according to the Financial Times, BBC and Bloomberg, who cited multiple sources familiar with the discussions. One US official reportedly said that the Trump administration was “ready to…