Seoul, South Korea – Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae Myung, held their second summit in two months on Monday in a bid to steer the complex ties between their nations amid rising tensions in their neighbourhood. Lee had hosted Xi for talks on the sidelines of the 2025 Asia-Pacific…
The United States’ biggest strategic adversaries quickly condemned President Trump’s decision to order U.S. strikes on Venezuela and the raid to capture now-former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. China, Russia and Iran all called it a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law. Cuba, just south of the U.S. and a close ally of Caracas, also…
Hong Kong ranked fourth in a university study on air transit connectivity at 16 aviation hubs across the Asia-Pacific in 2023. Researchers from the National Taiwan Ocean University’s transport science department also said Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou experienced declines in connectivity following the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper was published in the Asian Journal of Shipping…
Xi Jinping could absorb Taiwan. Lai Ching-te could declare Taiwan independence. Donald Trump would defend Taiwan if China attacks. Two of these assumptions hold. One is the lie — and which one you choose likely depends on your politics. This week, Beijing sharpened the question once again. On January 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping used…
Twice as many mainland Chinese visitors arrived in Hong Kong on New Year’s Day compared with the same day in 2025, with one lawmaker attributing the surge to a three-day holiday across the border this year. Alan Chan Chung-yee, a legislator and chief operating officer of Miramar Group, also said on Friday that deteriorating relations…
We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China builds a record-breaking hypergravity machine to compress space and…
Will 2026 become the year when Chinese President Xi Jinping decides that the long-promised “reunification” of Taiwan can no longer wait?Driving the newsChina’s latest round of live-fire military drills in the air and seas around Taiwan landed with unusually sharp timing: just as the calendar flipped another year closer to 2027, a date that looms…
Chinese war games around Taiwan “unnecessarily” spiked tensions in the region, the U.S. State Department said, calling on Beijing to “cease its military pressure.” “China’s military activities and rhetoric toward Taiwan and others in the region increase tensions unnecessarily,” Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department, said in a statement Thursday. “We urge…
As China carried out live-fire drills and rehearsed a military blockade in the waters surrounding Taiwan this week, 70-year-old Liao said she wasn’t worried about war. She was enjoying life as a retiree, playing mahjong with her friends and keeping an eye on the stock market. “Everyday life hasn’t been impacted,” Liao told Al Jazeera…
BEIJING (AP) — China’s People’s Liberation Army said Wednesday that it “successfully completed” two days of military exercises in the waters off Taiwan, concluding a set of high-powered maneuvers aimed at asserting its sovereignty over the island — actions that ratcheted up tension in East Asia during 2025’s waning days. In a New Year’s Eve…