The first test for a much-celebrated US–China trade truce is looming. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hopes to finalise a rare earth deal by next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, but experts say a breakthrough is unlikely as the two sides maintain sharply different narratives of what was discussed and agreed on key issues. From rare earths…
Computer science graduate Alain Saas is hoping a fourth time is the charm to make his China dream come true. As a young man growing up in the small town of Selestat in eastern France, the distant Asian country seemed magical. But the dream has been elusive and trying to land a job in China…
China was already wary about Japan’s new prime minister, renowned Beijing hawk Sanae Takaichi, before she weighed in on one of its most sensitive issues: Taiwan. The saga began in late October when Ms Takaichi was questioned in parliament over how Japan would respond if China conducted a military blockade of Taiwan. “I believe any…
Chinese President Xi Jinping has paid tribute to late reformist leader Hu Yaobang by urging today’s Communist Party cadres to follow in his footsteps to tackle the country’s tough issues. At the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday, Xi said that opening up and reform were the “magical instruments” of China’s modernisation…
Taipei — Images of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te holding a plate of sushi were posted on social media on Thursday in a show of support for Tokyo after reports that China will halt Japanese seafood imports. The row between Japan and China was triggered by new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting this month that…
China’s suspension of sweeping rare earth export controls has lent “new stability” to its ties with the European Union, the bloc’s ambassador to China has said, suggesting that the two sides now have a window to improve frosty relations. Speaking at a forum in Beijing on Thursday, Jorge Toledo initially offered a bleak assessment of…
A former French diplomat has urged Europe and China to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, describing the issue as “the major challenge” facing the two sides. “The Ukraine war is fracturing the dialogue between two parts of the world,” Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, France’s ambassador to China between 2014 and 2017, said in an interview. “It shouldn’t…
A leading advisory panel on China policy urged Congress on Tuesday to establish a “consolidated economic statecraft entity” to handle technological and other national security challenges posed by China’s “systematic and persistent evasion” of American export controls and sanctions. “This recommendation addresses the critical gap between export controls and sanctions as written and their actual…
Tokyo — Japan said Monday that it had scrambled aircraft after detecting a suspected Chinese drone near its southern island of Yonaguni, which is close to Taiwan, on Saturday, as tension between the Asian adversaries spiked. On Sunday, Chinese coast guard vessels spent several hours in Japan’s territorial waters around the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as…
The most important outcome of the Communist Party of China’s fourth plenum, held last month in Beijing, was the review and adoption of the “Recommendations of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development”. Leading the drafting team in person, Communist Party General Secretary and Chinese President…