Tag: Politics and Government

How the Japanese Spy Drama ‘Vivant’ Became The Target of China’s Anger

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China’s recent pressure campaign against Japan has involved critical minerals, tourism, seafood and even pandas. Now Beijing is taking the dispute to the cultural sphere, targeting a Japanese television drama. The Chinese government has in recent days focused its ire on “Vivant,” one of Japan’s most popular shows, a cross between “24” and “Homeland” that tells the story of Japanese spies working to protect their country from threats overseas. Beijing says the show, which features a fictional Chinese intelligence agency called “Xinxi” as the antagonist, promotes negative views of China.…

China Confirms Expulsion of 33 Officials, as Xi’s Purge Deepens

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China’s ruling Communist Party announced on Thursday that it had formally expelled 33 senior political and military officials, including a prominent former diplomat and a military secretary of Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader. The announcement laid bare the depth of Mr. Xi’s anticorruption purges as he prepares to secure a fourth term in power next year. The party said the expulsions had been made earlier by the Politburo, a council of top officials. They were confirmed by the party’s Central Committee, which concluded a four-day meeting in Beijing on…

President Trump Was Briefed on a Chinese Spy Plot. He Took No Action.

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new video loaded: President Trump Was Briefed on a Chinese Spy Plot. He Took No Action. <img src="https://www.chinastrategy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/president-trump-was-briefed-on-a-chinese-spy-plot-he-took-no-action.png" data-testid="betamax-poster" sizes="(width Our trade and international economics reporter, Ana Swanson, unravels how a tech executive in Singapore aided in steering banned Nvidia advanced A.I. chips to China and provided information to the Chinese government. When President Trump was briefed on this, and the knowledge that this executive was in close contact with the Nvidia chief executive, Jensen Huang, he did nothing about it. By Ana Swanson, Nour Idriss, Whitney Shefte, Pierre Kattar…

China’s Free A.I. Models Are Thrown Into Uncertainty

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When the Chinese start-up Moonshot AI in July released Kimi K3, an artificial intelligence model that rivaled some of the best systems made by American companies, it was free for anyone to download. By making advanced A.I. models easily available, Chinese companies have turned open access into one of China’s most powerful advantages in its rivalry with the United States to shape the future of the technology. Now Beijing is moving to tighten its grip on the global spread of the country’s top-tier A.I., proposing rules that could give the…

The Hidden Policies That Power China’s Export Boom

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China has kept its export engine roaring with a combination of tax rebates and a weak currency, helping sustain economic growth at home while sending a surge of Chinese goods into markets abroad. But that strategy is fueling tension with its trading partners. And this week, officials from Brussels arriving in Beijing are preparing to press Chinese officials about a European trade deficit with China that exceeds $1.1 billion a day. Europe’s leaders say China tilts the scale with government subsidies and low-interest loans to its manufacturers, flooding European markets…

A Way Out of the A.I. Arms Race?

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Over the course of two harrowing weeks in October 1962, the world came within an eyelash of nuclear Armageddon. The United States and the Soviet Union were jockeying desperately for advantage during the Cold War arms race. After the United States stationed intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey, the Soviets, fearing a first strike, sought to station their own nuclear weapons in Cuba. The tense two-week standoff that ensued, the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly escalated into nuclear war. But it didn’t. Not only did the parties step back from…

Nepal’s Gen Z Is Taking on the World’s Polluters Over Climate Disasters

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When Tashi Lhazom was 11, a glacial lake overflowed and inundated her home in a high Himalayan valley. Of her family’s hundreds of shaggy yaks, only two survived. In 2025, another flash flood cascaded into the village, the result, scientists say, of melting permafrost on a warming planet. Such natural disasters spurred Ms. Lhazom’s political awakening. When Nepali young people protested a year ago, she joined other climate activists on the forefront of a Gen Z revolution that eventually ushered in a youth-dominated government in March. Last month, when a…

Why Emerging Powers Keep Joining BRICS, Even When They Disagree

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At a gathering of nations that are challenging the dominance of the United States, Iran’s president took the main stage on Friday, flanked by the leaders of Russia and India, to condemn “military aggression” by the United States. Iran wants to show that Western sanctions have not left it isolated, even as it digs into a war with the United States that has severely restricted the crucial Strait of Hormuz route for oil and other commodities. President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran spoke at the BRICS Business Forum, ahead of the…

Trump White House Readies AI Framework to Review Security Risks

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In a meeting on Tuesday with top artificial intelligence companies, White House officials said the federal government planned to review only certain types of artificial intelligence models for potential security risks and not others, according to four people familiar with the discussions. The A.I. models the government plans to review are known as “closed” models, which do not publish their underlying code and are made by companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, according to three of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the meeting were…

The German Auto Industry, a Pillar of the National Psyche, Is Trembling

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The centerpiece of Mercedes-Benz’s 140th birthday party in January was a patent application filed in 1886 by an engineer named Carl Benz for a “vehicle with gas engine.” The way Mercedes executives spoke of the handwritten document, which at one point was projected on a large wall on the company campus in Stuttgart, Germany, it might have been a sacred parchment. It not only certifies that Germany is the birthplace of the automobile but also helps explain why the woes of the country’s automakers — Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW —…