Trade ties between the rival powers remain fraught, even as Bessent held “frank” talks over video with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng on Saturday, with the pair set to hold fresh in-person negotiations this week. Yet, amid the tensions, Trump appears to have shown some restraint by not antagonising his counterpart, Xi Jinping, or challenging Beijing’s…
US President Donald Trump is expected to approach his coming summit with Xi Jinping by relying on personal chemistry and his “gut”, but his ability to charm the Chinese leader will be limited at best, analysts and former government officials in Washington said on Tuesday. The first meeting in six years between the heads of…
A lobbying group whose board includes US firms such as Oracle, Amazon and Exxon Mobil is urging the Trump administration to immediately suspend a rule it says halted billions of dollars’ worth of US exports and will prompt China and other countries to drop US firms from their supply chains. In a letter addressed to…
After nearly a year waiting to meet US President Donald Trump, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sought to argue his country’s strategic value Monday – only for the “America first” leader to dominate the encounter by opining that Beijing had no plans to invade Taiwan and posed no real threat in the Indo-Pacific. “China doesn’t…
A man in eastern China who lavished chunks of a 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) lottery win on a woman live-streamer but gave his wife nothing has captivated mainland social media. The man’s wife, surnamed Yuan, exposed his scandal to Henan TV in mid-October after filing for divorce. The couple, who live in Dezhou, Shandong…
The Dutch government believed chipmaker Nexperia’s Chinese owners planned to move its manufacturing operations to China, prompting the unprecedented seizure of the company that has sent shock waves through the global tech world. Earlier this month, authorities seized control of Nexperia’s management and ousted its Chinese CEO, Zhang Xuezheng, citing national security concerns. In response,…
Workers at a large Nexperia packaging plant in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan said they are worried about becoming collateral damage in a simmering political dispute between the Netherlands and China that has upended the management of the Dutch semiconductor maker. During a visit by the Post on Thursday, operations at the factory appeared…
The husband of a 28-year-old woman in China who was paralysed by a rare disease coaxed her to sell their home, then pocketed the proceeds before vanishing. “I would rather go to jail than return,” the man later told police. The case has captivated mainland social media after the Yangtze Evening News reported it. Before…
Everywhere they look these days, Europe’s politicians see chaos. The United States is helping to trash the global order it built in its image. China is pulling the rug from under efforts to upgrade European industry by weaponising its monopoly on critical minerals. Russia is waging a hot war at the European Union’s borders, with…
Beijing stole a page from Washington’s playbook last month by effectively instituting its own chip ban, with Chinese companies now discouraged from purchasing Nvidia’s AI chips. The bold, calculated move has surely rattled Trump administration officials, with their assumptions about China needing American technology. Indeed, the move suggests US President Donald Trump has little leverage….