Tag: China

America Is in Decline, and Trump Is Leading the Fall

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Many of President Trump’s policies have brought changes to the international order that will last long after his second term ends. On this episode of “The Opinions,” the columnist Lydia Polgreen speaks with the political scientist Rahmane Idrissa and the “Sinica Podcast” host Kaiser Kuo about how the United States and China view global leadership and what their evolving positions mean for smaller nations. Below is a transcript of an episode of “The Opinions.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do…

UK’s ‘incoherent’ approach to China plagued by lack of expertise, report says

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The UK’s approach to China is “beset by incoherence” and plagued by a lack of senior expertise, according to a report warning of the risks inherent in misjudging the bilateral relationship. An audit by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), an international grouping of China-sceptic legislators, says past engagement with Beijing has often exposed the UK to the risks of interference without delivering the opportunities promised. “Successful UK engagement with China must always be framed by an understanding that the PRC (People’s Republic of China) is an inherently hostile authoritarian…

Rogue A.I. Agents from China Chatted with Researchers

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Artificial intelligence researchers uncovered Chinese-made A.I. agents that had gone rogue this month, trying to bypass anti-robot protections on websites and using a security credential for an online mapping service that had been exposed on the internet. While going off the rails has become increasingly common for American-made A.I. agents, causing considerable hand-wringing in Silicon Valley and Washington, it was believed to be the first time that sort of activity was connected to Chinese technology. The agents were traced to tests being run by the Chinese tech giant Tencent, according…

Excluding UK from ‘Made in Europe’ law will hurt entire EU car industry, Mercedes boss warns

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Locking the UK out of the EU’s flagship industrial “Made in Europe” legislation would amount to a “deliberate choice” by EU leaders to “hurt” the car industry across the bloc, the head of Mercedes-Benz has said. Speaking in his capacity as president of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), Ola Källenius said such a move would “weaken the industry on both sides”. He was speaking just weeks before political leaders hope to reach agreement on the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), potentially keeping the UK car industry out of key contracts…

UK will not put tariffs on Chinese vehicles, says Jonathan Reynolds

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The business secretary has hit back at European demands for British tariffs on Chinese imports, saying the government will not change its trade rules because of pressure from Brussels. Jonathan Reynolds warned that the government would not bow to calls from other countries for the UK to hit Chinese vehicles with import taxes, despite political pressure to align with the EU in exchange for deeper future economic ties. The EU imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024 and last Friday agreed a 350,000 a year quota on Chinese hybrid…

Graduate student accused of poisoning colleague and trying to flee to China arrested at LAX

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A Wyoming microbiology graduate student from China has been arrested on accusations she poisoned the tea of a colleague who had pending patents and with whom she did not get along, then tried to flee the country after police questioned her. Aili Wang, 32, was arrested 6 October at Los Angeles international airport, where prosecutors allege she sought to return to China. With her were laptops, electronic storage devices and documents now in the possession of police, who allege Wang was seen on surveillance video rummaging through the desk of…

Chip Stocks Tumble on A.I. Spending Fears and Rising Chinese Competition

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Semiconductor stocks dropped on Tuesday as fears of runaway artificial intelligence spending converged with a growing threat from Chinese rivals to the biggest players in the memory chip industry. South Korea’s benchmark stock market, home to some highly leveraged bets on the semiconductor industry, tumbled, led by steep losses in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the world’s two leading memory chip makers. The sell-off followed Chinese media reports that China’s CXMT had unveiled a breakthrough in chip design. Other technology stocks around the world suffered declines, with losses concentrated in…

It’s My Time review – Michelle Yeoh excels in Rocky-style quest to be Rubik’s Cube champ

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It’s not quite up there with Leonardo DiCaprio eating raw bison liver to get into character, but Michelle Yeoh reportedly spent two years learning the Rubik’s Cube to prepare for this Chinese drama in which she plays a real-life former maths teacher who became a champion in retirement. The true story is stretched and squeezed here, fictionalised to fit sports-movie formula; it ends up being so-so entertaining and funny in places, but disappointingly predictable. The biggest surprise is that cubing is so popular it has its own world championship. Still,…

‘Super app’ aimed at UK students uses servers owned by Chinese firm on US blacklist

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A new messaging and payment “super app” marketed at British students uses servers owned by a Chinese company that has been put on a US military blacklist for its alleged affiliation to the People’s Liberation Army. ZyMix, which is being pushed on university campuses as the UK’s first super app designed “for gen Z”, combining chat, payments and community features, has a contract with a German-based subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, a Chinese conglomerate in Shenzhen. Tencent Holdings was added in January 2026 to the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) list…

Stellantis and Renault back UK to get EU car industry protection

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Stellantis and Renault have backed the UK car industry for inclusion in proposed rules to protect EU industry, but urged the British government to consider limiting imports of Chinese cars. Emanuele Cappellano, who leads Stellantis’s European brands including Fiat, Citroën, Opel and Vauxhall, and François Provost, the chief executive of France’s Renault, said the UK should effectively be counted as one of the EU’s 27 member states for the purposes of the proposed “Made in Europe” legislation. The new rules aim to ensure EU subsidies and government procurement benefits Europe’s…