All eyes are on the Strait of Hormuz as the world waits for a new round of US-Iran peace deal talks to ease the global energy crisis, while the extended ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump remains up in the air. These are the main takeaways from what happened overnight. Peace talks? It remains unclear when the two sides will return to the negotiating table. Trump on Wednesday said there was “no time frame” for when the war on Iran might come to an end. During an interview with Fox...

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The US visa system rolls out the “red carpet” for spies and aids China’s alleged efforts to steal American innovation, senators charged at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, as Washington and Beijing intensify competition for dominance in artificial intelligence and advanced technologies. Through its permissive legal channels, the US is “inviting, welcoming, come on in with the red carpet rolled out” people who steal military and commercial secrets, Republican Senator Ashley Moody of Florida...

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Few people have heard of Huangyan, a booming industrial district of Taizhou, a city in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. Yet without it, many cars would likely be heavier, more expensive and less energy efficient, while everyday household goods would probably cost more. The town specialises in plastic components and moulding equipment – unassuming products that rarely make the news, but sit at the heart of modern manufacturing. For years, Huangyan’s producers have dominated this supply chain,...

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US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sought to quell fears in Senate testimony on Wednesday that American technology was aiding China’s military, but drew scepticism given the US president’s willingness to sell advanced semiconductors. Lutnick asserted before the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee that US President Donald Trump was striking a “delicate balance” on the technology transfer issue given his cordial personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, claiming that China has...

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The United States is concerned that several African countries revoked overflight clearances for Taiwan’s leader at China’s behest, the US State Department said on Wednesday, calling the incident an abuse of the international civil aviation system. Taiwan this week said the Seychelles, Mauritius ‌and Madagascar unilaterally revoked flight permits for leader William Lai Ching-te’s aircraft to cross airspace they manage on a planned trip to eSwatini, one of Taiwan’s allies. It is the first instance...

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The on-again, off-again US-Iran peace talks are casting doubt on whether Donald Trump will make his planned visit to Beijing in a few weeks, though the war could raise the diplomatic stakes of the trip if it does go ahead, Chinese observers say. Hours before a two-week ceasefire was set to end, the US president announced on Tuesday that he was prolonging the fragile truce with Iran. That came after Vice-President J.D. Vance’s trip to Pakistan for a second round of peace negotiations was first...

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Chinese battery cell manufacturers are poised to benefit from the US-Israeli war in Iran, according to Fitch Ratings, even as fierce competition, overcapacity and thin margins weigh on some downstream firms. Global demand for energy storage was set to rise, driven by high oil prices and rapidly expanding artificial intelligence (AI) data centres, said Wang Ying, a managing director at the credit rating agency. “We believe that China’s leading energy storage cell manufacturers will be the bigger...

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Washington’s reported plan to have embassies team up with the American military’s “psyops” department to boost the US’ image could backfire and actually damage the country’s credibility, according to analysts. The strategy amounts to using “propaganda to fight the truth”, according to Tad Stoermer, a historian and former lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. Amid slipping global approval, the US is looking to employ shadowy tactics that it previously condemned. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio...

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PLA warships transited sensitive international waterways off southwestern Japan twice this week, a rare move seen as a clear warning to Tokyo over its recent actions relating to Taiwan. The transits marked the start and end of exercises in the western Pacific, outbound through the Yokoate Channel on Sunday and back via the Yonaguni-Iriomote Waterway on Wednesday. In a statement on Wednesday, the Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army said: “[We] have organised the 133rd Fleet to...

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China has named the two Pakistani astronauts selected to train for a mission to its space station this year, Xinhua said on Wednesday. After undergoing assessments, one of the men will serve as a payload specialist on a space mission alongside the Chinese crew to become the first foreign astronaut to enter the Tiangong space station. Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud will soon arrive in China for their training, according to the China Manned Space Agency. They were selected after China and...

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China is embarking on a sweeping overhaul of its industrial architecture, aiming to fuse software and steel as part of a 100-trillion-yuan (US$14.7 trillion) undertaking to modernise its service sector while pushing manufacturing into the future. The State Council’s blueprint, unveiled on Tuesday, said the valuation target for the service sector was achievable by 2030 as advanced manufacturing increasingly becomes fused with specialised technical support. Analysts say Beijing’s plan will help...

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The Iran crisis loomed large in discussions when Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu ‌Dhabi, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met President Xi Jinping on separate visits to Beijing last week. Both meetings focused on the need for a comprehensive and sustainable security architecture for the Middle East. This week, on a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Xi reiterated China’s support for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire and...

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Beijing has praised the decision by three African countries to deny overflight clearance for Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te, whose trip to eSwatini was cancelled a day before his scheduled departure. Lai had been due to leave on Wednesday for a five-day trip to eSwatini, the only African country that maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan, to attend celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of King Mswati’s accession and his 58th birthday. But Lai’s office announced late on Tuesday that...

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China has launched what it calls the world’s first “panoramic” carbon accounting system, a model that revises down the country’s emissions compared to other estimates and raises them for the United States. Unlike other models that assign responsibility for emissions based on total carbon output from facilities such as power plants and factories, the new model gives greater weight to the consumers of products. Developed by the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of...

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US President Donald Trump announced a last-minute indefinite extension of a ceasefire with Iran and downplayed reports about an intercepted ship carrying a “gift from China” to Tehran. The US would avoid military action against Iran “until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal”, Trump said on social media on Tuesday. He cited a request from Pakistan as a reason for reversing earlier threats to resume bombing if no deal was reached. Prospects for new...

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Flights between China and Japan faced even more cancellations in March – with further cuts expected during the coming Labour Day holiday – as political tensions between the Asian neighbours continue to simmer. A total of 2,691 China-Japan flights were scrapped last month, according to figures from the data platform DAST cited by Chinese media outlet Yicai. That brought the cancellation rate to nearly 50 per cent, 1.1 percentage points higher than February. Only 2,711 flights between the two...

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China is backing Namibia’s bid to move beyond raw material exports by supporting the domestic processing of critical minerals and uranium. In a joint communique issued on Friday following talks in Beijing between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his counterpart, Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, China pledged to help transform Namibia’s natural resources into higher-value products through domestic processing and downstream cooperation. Namibia has exported unprocessed minerals for decades. It is now seeking...

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The State Council, China’s cabinet, has published guidelines on innovative drug pricing that a bank analyst has described as the “most significant” in a decade, as they aim to reward drug innovation and ease pricing tension for domestic and multinational pharmaceutical companies. The framework document published this month said patented innovative drugs would be supported through value-based pricing, while the prices of generic drugs would be driven down through market competition and...

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The Iran conflict is pushing Saudi Arabia to reconsider its US-led security strategy, with China emerging to play a limited, but functional role, analysts say. However, deep US ties in defence would restrict Saudi Arabia’s broader cooperation with China, they added, as one expert predicted Riyadh was likely to deepen ties with regional powers such as Pakistan and Turkey. In a rare alignment, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, a key US ally in the Middle East, initiated a phone...

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Half of Taiwanese not only doubt the US would send troops to defend Taiwan in the event of a cross-strait conflict but also question whether American weapons would prove effective, a poll this week has revealed. The results highlighted mounting scepticism on the island over Washington’s security guarantees, according to the survey released on Monday by the Taipei-based Democracy Foundation. The poll found that 57 per cent of respondents did not believe the US would send troops to defend the...

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China’s shipyards are emerging as beneficiaries from the US-Israeli war on Iran, securing new orders as crude transport bottlenecks worsen and global demand for large oil tankers rises. With the United States and Iran effectively blockading the Strait of Hormuz – a chokepoint that handles about a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil – shipping companies are racing to expand capacity, particularly in very large crude carriers (VLCCs) capable of transporting about 2 million barrels of oil per...

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A Chinese university student has been charged with unauthorised photography of US military aircraft in Nebraska during a road trip through several states, which included a stop at an air force base in South Dakota. Tianrui Liang, who is studying in Glasgow, was arrested at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport on April 7 as he attempted to return to Scotland, court documents filed in the Eastern District of New York revealed. The 21-year-old has been charged with photographing defence...

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A year ago, after more than a decade in the United Kingdom and several years in the United States – including time working for the United Nations in New York City – I returned to Asia and arrived in Hong Kong expecting it to also be a leading hub for international relations. Hong Kong is often described as a “superconnector” between China and the world. Yet in one crucial domain – the study and practice of international relations – the city remains a paradox: globally connected, intellectually...

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The world breathed a sigh of relief as US President Donald Trump announced he would extend the ceasefire with Iran, but uncertainty remains in the Middle East over how the US-Israeli war will end. These are the main takeaways from what happened overnight. Last-minute extension Trump indefinitely extended the ceasefire with Iran hours before it was due to expire, at the request of Pakistan. But he said the US naval blockade would continue. “Based on the fact that the government of Iran is...

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The Philippines is trying to gradually establish “stable foundations” for its relations with China before tackling tougher problems such as the long-running South China Sea dispute, according to the country’s ambassador to Beijing. “We need a new equilibrium in our relations with China. Both sides [have agreed] to take incremental or baby steps towards that,” Jaime FlorCruz told the South China Morning Post. “That means a relationship that is stable, that is predictable, that is not subject to...

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