China’s next-generation “drone-carrier” amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan, completed its first sea trials on Sunday afternoon, state broadcaster CCTV said. The three-day trial marks a major step forward for the People’s Liberation Army to take delivery of its first Type 076 amphibious assault carrier, seen as a key asset for China’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)…
When Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump met in Busan, South Korea, on October 30, they spent nearly two hours discussing rare earths, fentanyl and trade. Taiwan, the one issue most likely to bring the world’s two largest powers into direct conflict, never came up. That silence was the message. It revealed…
“The assertions and innuendos in the article are completely false,” an Alibaba representative said. “We question the motivation behind the anonymous leak, which the FT admits that they cannot verify.” The Alibaba representative called the article a “malicious PR operation” that appears to “undermine President Trump’s recent trade deal with China”. Hangzhou-based Alibaba owns the…
Even for the anti-graft era of President Xi Jinping, the wave of investigations into alleged corruption in the Chinese military over the past three years has been exceptional. They are accused of having “violated party discipline and allegedly committed serious crimes related to their duties” – both euphemisms for corruption. “The amounts involved are particularly…
China now has the largest naval fleet in the world, and its growing numbers of nuclear-powered submarines are an integral part of its efforts to project power beyond its coastal waters. But the view from Beijing is growing more complex as a handful of US allies in the Pacific also ramp up deployment of nuclear-powered…
Beijing and Washington may be set to revive dormant military communication channels but it is just a first step and the two sides are still some way from genuine trust, an observer has cautioned. The assessment followed US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement on social media on Sunday that the two countries had “agreed that…
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth met Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun in person for the first time on Friday, with both sides saying they are pushing for peace a day after a summit between their presidents brought tensions down. The discussion on the sidelines of the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus in Malaysia was the…
Chairman Xi Jinping’s tightening grip on power was on full display at the Chinese Communist Party’s Fourth Plenary Session, where strikingly low attendance and a record number of disciplinary actions underscored intensifying purges and unease within China’s elite political and military circles. The Fourth Plenum of the 20th Central Committee, held in Beijing on 20…
In a rare public display, China has showcased the advanced capabilities of the cutting-edge Z-20T assault helicopter at a military exhibition in Tianjin this week, demonstrating precision manoeuvres by the all-weather aircraft. The helicopters performed a hover salute, a backward ascent and a vertical climb and also fired jamming flares at the 7th China Helicopter…
China’s second-ranked military general has become the latest in a series of top brass to come under investigation for corruption, China’s Ministry of National Defence announced on Friday. He Weidong, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and a member of the 24-man Politburo, was expelled from the Communist Party and the army, the ministry…