Category: Latest

Having built the world’s largest navy, China is keen to show it off. But officials from Australia and New Zealand have been startled in recent days by the way it has been flaunting itself in Oceania. On February 21st a commercial pilot flying over the Tasman Sea received a surprise warning from a Chinese navy task-force in international waters that it was engaging in live-fire drills. Airlines scrambled to divert planes. Since then, the two Chinese warships and one supply vessel have staged an unprecedented circumnavigation of Australia, fuelling political…

It is not often that the world’s two superpowers hold state-of-the-nation addresses back-to-back. But thanks to a quirk of scheduling and the magic of time zones, it happened this week. Li Qiang, China’s prime minister, gave his annual report to the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, in Beijing on March 5th. A few minutes later, President Donald Trump began a fiery speech to a joint session of Congress in Washington. The contrast was instructive. The Economist

WHEN PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP stands before a joint session of America’s Congress on March 4th, no one knows what he will say. Policymaking in the world’s biggest economy has become unpredictable, a swirl of executive orders, social-media posts and congressional wrangling. In recent days, for example, Mr Trump has taken to social media to announce a new 10% tariff on China, on top of a similar levy imposed in February, causing Chinese stocks in Hong Kong to fall by over 3% on February 28th. He has also urged Congress to…

There are many things that make Alice Weidel an unconventional leader for a German political party on the hard right. Though her marriage to a Sri Lankan-born woman draws most attention, many in government and business circles are equally intrigued by the time she spent in China before entering politics. Ms Weidel lived there for about six years from around 2006, and learned to speak Mandarin before moving home and joining the Alternative for Germany (afd) party in 2013. The Economist

China’s tech bros, including Jack Ma of Alibaba and Liang Wenfeng of DeepSeek, stole all the attention at the high-profile symposium of entrepreneurs held by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on February 17th. Amid all the hoopla, one guest passed almost unnoticed, but his presence may say a lot more about the actual state of China’s economy than the superstars of online commerce and ai. The Economist

Since russia’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago, China has been a stalwart supporter of its giant neighbour, and has mostly ignored Ukraine. While professing neutrality, it has aided Russia by buying oil and gas and selling technology for weapons. Now, as America and Russia explore talks about ending the war, China sees possible rewards. Despite close ties with the aggressor, it hopes that offers to help resolve the conflict will nurture the image it seeks as a benign great power. The Economist

An ancient Chinese saying states that meng mu san qian: the mother of Mencius, a sage, “moved three times” to find him the right study environment. Tiger mums the world over know the feeling, but few push harder than the Chinese; the game of cat and mouse the Communist Party plays with parents to stop them trying to game the system is legendary. The party has now released new rules to try to stop it. The Economist

“Of course I want to get married,” says Fu, a lorry driver in Yiyang, a far-flung county in Jiangxi province. Once a migrant worker, the 36-year-old returned to the village to live with his ageing parents. They are anxious for him to tie the knot. “But there are few women,” he sighs. The eligible girls around him are all spoken for; others have left to work in cities. The Economist

A huge statue of Mao Zedong still stands near the entrance to Zhejiang University, surveying the transformation of the eastern city of Hangzhou, 175km (110 miles) south-west of Shanghai. Such statues look anachronistic wherever they linger across China, but especially so here, and especially after the events of the past few months. The Economist

Panama responded quickly to Donald Trump’s rhetoric about Chinese influence in the Panama Canal. On February 2nd it said it would not renew participation in the Belt and Road Initiative (bri), China’s global-development scheme, and it has launched an audit of the Hong Kong firm that runs the ports at each end of the canal. Leaders are reported to be considering cancellation of the contract. The Economist