A majority of Australians expect China will be the most powerful country in the world by 2035 as trust in the US tumbles, new research has found. Just over one in three Australians (36%) trusted the US to act responsibly on the world stage, representing a 20-point fall from 2024 and the smallest proportion since the Lowy Institute began polling in 2005. The thinktank’s 2025 report found only one in four respondents had any confidence in president Donald Trump’s approach to world affairs – less than half of the 46%…
Tag: US news
Tariff dodgers take big risks to cut small corners | Gene Marks
If you put up a barrier, people will find a way around it. So its not shocking to read recent news stories about how some businesses are trying to skirt around tariffs – particularly from China. They’re shipping goods through third countries, rather than directly from China, using special “shoppers” to skirt minimum quantity amounts, colluding with suppliers to falsify country-of-origin labels, undervaluing goods, or “assembling” products out of China where tariffs are lower. They’re creating shell companies in more tariff-friendly countries and even going so far as forging certificates…
Trump trade deal shows how vital China’s rare-earth metals are to US defense firms
The draft trade agreement with China announced by Donald Trump on Wednesday would ease concerns from top US military suppliers about rare-earth metals and magnets that, if cut off permanently, could hobble production of everything from smart bombs to fighter jets to submarines and other weapons in the US arsenal. While the deal has not yet been finalised, it may reassure major defense companies such as Lockheed Martin, the largest US user of samarium – a rare-earth metal used in military-grade magnets – whose supply is entirely controlled by China.…
US-China trade talks: ‘framework’ deal amid dispute over rare earths
Officials from the US and China have agreed on a “framework” to move forward on trade after two days of talks in London stemming from their confrontation over tariffs. The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, expressed optimism on Tuesday that concerns about critical or “rare earth” minerals and magnets “will be resolved” as the deal is implemented. Lutnick told reporters that the framework puts “meat on the bones” of a deal reached last month in Geneva to ease retaliatory tariffs. Its implementation had faltered over China’s curbs on critical mineral…
US arrests another Chinese scientist for allegedly smuggling biological material
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at the Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine…
US attacks on science and research a ‘great gift’ to China on artificial intelligence, former OpenAI board member says
The US administration’s targeting of academic research and international students is a “great gift” to China in the race to compete on artificial intelligence, former OpenAI board member Helen Toner has said. The director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) joined the board of OpenAI in 2021 after a career studying AI and the relationship between the United States and China. Toner, a 33-year-old University of Melbourne graduate, was on the board for two years until a falling out with founder Sam Altman in 2023.…
Trump announces US-China trade talks in London next week
Senior US administration officials will meet with a Chinese delegation on Monday in London for the next round of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, Donald Trump said on Friday. The meeting comes after a phone call between Trump and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on Thursday, which the US president described as a “very positive” conversation as the two countries attempt to break an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals. The treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and US trade representative, Jamieson Greer,…
‘Total discrimination’: Chinese students facing US visa ban say their lives are in limbo
Chinese students in the United States are questioning their future in the country after the state department announced last week that it would “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students and enhance scrutiny of future applications from China and Hong Kong. Chinese students hoping to study at Harvard, the US’s oldest and wealthiest university, are under particular pressure after the Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it was banning the school from enrolling new foreign students. The presidential proclamation cited Harvard’s links with China as a particular cause for concern. For…
Donald Trump to meet Xi Jinping in China after ‘very good’ call on trade
Donald Trump said he had accepted an invitation to meet Xi Jinping in China after a phone conversation on trade was held between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies. In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the “very good” call lasted about 90 minutes and the conversation was “almost entirely focused on trade”. He wrote: “The call lasted approximately one and a half hours, and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries. There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of…
World won’t forget Tiananmen Square, US and Taiwan say on 36th anniversary of massacre
The world will never forget the Tiananmen Square massacre, the US secretary of state and Taiwan president have said on the 36th anniversary of the crackdown, which China’s government still tries to erase from domestic memory. There is no official death toll but activists believe hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed by China’s People’s Liberation Army in the streets around Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s central plaza, on 4 June 1989. “Today we commemorate the bravery of the Chinese people who were killed as they tried to exercise their fundamental freedoms, as well…