Beijing has removed “restrictions” on Reinhard Buetikofer, the former EU lawmaker it sanctioned in 2021, as it looks to normalise ties with the European Parliament. The move is expected to galvanise a new round of engagement, with an official meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the China delegation of the European Parliament pencilled…
Chinese construction crews have completed encircling the Tarim Basin – one of the most forbidding places on Earth – with an extra-high voltage “energy ring”. The project, which has taken 15 years to build, transforms the vast inland basin – home to China’s largest desert – into a massive new-energy transmission hub. The 4,197km (2,608-mile)…
Hong Kong is striving to enhance its connectivity with countries under the Belt and Road Initiative by increasing flight frequencies to strategic destinations such as Xinjiang, Riyadh and Dallas, as well as launching new direct routes to second-tier Asean and Middle Eastern locations, the city’s chief for the national plan has said. In an exclusive…
The new space race is heating up, with the United States warning that its major rival China is narrowing the gap as it makes rapid technology gains. While China says its ambitious plans remain peaceful and that it rejects the weaponisation of space, some of the technologies it has developed in recent years also have…
A senior Chinese official with a background in water resources and ethnic affairs has been named as the new Communist Party boss of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. In a one-paragraph announcement on Tuesday, state news agency Xinhua said the party’s Central Committee “recently decided” that Chen Xiaojiang would serve as party secretary of Xinjiang. The…
Officials across China are avoiding dining out to “play safe”, as the country’s latest austerity drive spirals into an overbearing campaign of excessive control like many similar ones before it. Several officials interviewed said that the lifestyle change, even if temporary, was largely prompted by the ever-shifting local austerity measures, which could be even more…
Strategic bombers remain “irreplaceable” for China’s military – even as it makes progress with sixth-generation fighters and long-range missiles – given their role in global strikes and nuclear deterrence, analysts say. They pointed to the American B-2 stealth bombers that hit Iran’s three nuclear sites on Saturday, dropping bunker-buster bombs directly over the facilities before…
Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Xi Jinping arrives in Vietnam to boost political, trade ties amid US tariffs Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Monday in his first…
British MP Wera Hobhouse was denied entry to Hong Kong during a personal trip to visit her newborn grandson and son. Hobhouse, a member of the opposition Liberal Democrat party, revealed that authorities provided no explanation for the decision. “Authorities gave me no explanation for this cruel and upsetting blow,” she shared on social media….
BANGKOK/BEIJING, – A delegation of Thai officials and media arrived in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region on Wednesday, seeking to calm worries about mistreatment of a group of 40 Uyghurs who were deported from Thailand last month. Thai delegation visits Uyghurs, seeking to quell fears of mistreatment in China The government sent the delegation on a…