#china

#china

Current policies and strategies must be tested to see if they are still fit for purpose

Among them is the country's embrace of human-like AI systems, which are increasingly being embedded in cuddly, commercial, transactable toys - for adults, strikingly, in addition to children - at the same time that state regulators are considering a broader crackdown on that exact type of tech. New reporting by China Daily reveals the rise of AI companion toys among adults in China, a trend emerging as more of the country's citizens live alone than ever before.

But after decades of outsourcing tungsten production, the federal government has now begun restricting imports. United States Tungsten founders Stacy Hastie and Randy Waterfield saw this coming. They're reviving what was once America's largest tungsten mine, the Tungsten Queen. It's a site holding an estimated 1 million tons of tungsten with an in-ground value approaching $450 million, the company says. And it says it is already in talks with the U.S. Government.

Sir Keir Starmer is only one of the middle power leaders trekking to Beijing to renew relations. No one has forgotten China's increasing international forcefulness, its handling of the pandemic and its closer relations with Russia as war engulfed Ukraine. But the wildness of Donald Trump's first year back in power is spurring Canada, France and others to hedge their bets. This, not whisky tariff cuts, is what the British prime minister sought.

"The early-2024 speculation about regime collapse is clearly all in the rearview mirror," said Anthony Davis, an analyst with the Janes defense and security publications. Over the past year, the military has reclaimed key towns and trade routes in the northeast that had fallen to a trio of armed groups. It has also rebuilt battalions depleted by death and desertion and conducted phased elections, which concluded on Sunday. "They are in the best position since the coup, said Kyaw Htet Aung, head of conflict, peace and security research at the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar).

It has been clear for many years that China's status as a second global superpower poses challenges to the world's democracies. Donald Trump's marauding behaviour as president of the first-placed superpower makes those challenges more acute. In the past, the UK's relationship with Beijing has been anchored, and sometimes dictated, by the alliance with Washington. Mr Trump's contempt for former allies, expressed as sabotage of Nato and a scattergun imposition of tariffs, scrambles the old strategic calculus.

An AI-manipulated photo of two pandas showing same-sex behavior has led to two Chinese men being detained by local authorities. The 29-year-old and 33-year-old were arrested for "maliciously" associating queerness with certain Chinese cities, according to The Washington Post. The men allegedly shared the AI-manipulated image of pandas at the "panda capital" of Chengdu, which is in the country's southwest region.

For years, the 46-year-old had lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Hongkou, a residential neighbourhood that sits along the Huangpu River. Neighbours described her as quiet. She rarely chats with people. We only see her when she goes to and from work, and occasionally when she comes out to pick up takeout, said a local resident interviewed by a Chinese reporter.

A Chinese Muslim...and six Afghans were killed. Several others were wounded,

Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., sent a letter Thursday to NSF interim director Brian Stone asking the agency to revoke China-linked entities' access to the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support - or ACCESS - program, according to a copy of the missive first seen by Nextgov/FCW. ACCESS is a free, nationwide collection of supercomputing systems made available to academics and other researchers. It's frequently used across U.S. institutions and national labs to assist with national security and economic research.

Coal power generation fell in China and India for the first time since the 1970s last year, in a historic moment that could bring a decline in global emissions, according to analysis. The simultaneous fall in coal-powered electricity in the world's biggest coal-consuming countries had not happened since 1973, according to analysts at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, and was driven by a record roll-out of clean energy projects.

On Tuesday, Li Yingqiang, the leader of the Early Rain Covenant Church, was taken by police from his home in Deyang, a small city in Sichuan province, according to the statement. Li's wife, Zhang Xinyue, has also been detained, along with two other church members: Dai Zhichao, a pastor; and Ye Fenghua, a lay member. At least a further four members were taken and later released, while some others remain out of contact.

Taoiseach should give more than a perfunctory nod to serious concerns about the Asian giant's record Ireland rightly places human rights and the rule of law at the heart of our foreign policy. It is evident in how we have stood resolutely with Ukraine since Russia's illegal invasion and where we have called out the horrors of the ongoing attacks of the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza and the West Bank.

Most dramatically, first Israel and the United States bombed Iran's nuclear facilities. Some commentators feared that President Trump's decision to bomb Iran would drag the United States into the "forever wars" in the Middle East that presidential candidate Trump had pledged to avoid. The tragic war in Gaza had become a humanitarian disaster. After years of promising to reduce engagement with the region from Democratic and Republican presidents alike, it appeared that the US was being dragged back into Middle East once again.

China aims to impose a unique strategy to address a falling birth rate that threatens its long-term stability. As of January 1, 2026, the government will levy a 13 percent value-added tax (VAT) on various contraceptives, including condoms. The decision amends the Value Added Tax Law, which in 1993 exempted birth control products from taxation. At the time, the measure was part of China's effort to contain its accelerating population growth.

China's rising economic influence in the Middle East Money Works China's economic influence is growing, reaching into regions that were long dominated by the West.

Eight years ago, Trump's said that "China and Russia challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity." The new NSS doesn't name Russia as a threat to the U.S. - stating instead that "strategic stability with Russia" is a goal of American policy. Europe is presented as a bigger challenge; the U.S. should "help Europe correct its current trajectory," which the NSS says has been damaged by immigration and a risk of " civilizational erasure."

Offshore wind farms may do more than boost renewable energy: they might support marine ecosystems, too. That's the takeaway of a new study conducted in China. The researchers found that wind turbines provided support for colonies of oysters and barnacles and that fish species and biomass were more abundant near the turbines than they were in an area without the machines.

On Wednesday, shares of MetaX Integrated Circuits Shanghai - a GPU startup founded by former AMD executives - skyrocketed as much as 755% on their first day of trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's tech-focused STAR Market, before closing up about 700%. The surge catapulted its chairman and cofounder, Chen Weiliang, into one of China's fastest-rising tech moguls. Chen's stake in MetaX is worth about $6.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Sources told the publication that a team in Shenzhen completed the prototype of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine earlier this year and it is allegedly now undergoing testing. The EUV machine was reportedly made by former engineers from Dutch semiconductor supplier ASML. Reuters states that China is targeting production of its own EUV chips beginning in 2028, although other experts have projected 2030 as a more likely date.

The government must stop dragging its heels over whether to add China to the enhanced tier of its threat regime, the parliamentary intelligence watchdog has warned. The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) made up of senior MPs and peers flagged several areas of the National Security Act where there are unresolved issues in its annual report. The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) came into force in July

Last year, Meta had to reckon with an ugly conclusion about its Chinese advertising customers: They were defrauding Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users worldwide. Though China's authoritarian government bans use of Meta social media by its citizens, Beijing lets Chinese companies advertise to foreign consumers on the globe-spanning platforms. As a result, Meta's advertising business was thriving in China, ultimately reaching over $18 billion in annual sales in 2024, more than a tenth of the company's global revenue. But Meta calculated that about 19% of that money - more than $3 billion - was coming from ads for scams, illegal gambling, pornography and other banned content, according to internal Meta documents reviewed by Reuters.

EV sales in North America fell 1% this year compared to 2024, according to data from supply chain data firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. The dip comes as the US has faced a combination of policy changes, tariffs, and supply chain upheavals this year. There were 1.7 million EVs sold in North America between January and November - far behind the 11.6 million sold in China and below the 3.8 million sold in Europe.

The once-rigid link between economic growth and carbon emissions is breaking across the vast majority of the world, according to a study released ahead of Friday's 10th anniversary of the Paris climate agreement. The analysis, which underscores the effectiveness of strong government climate policies, shows this decoupling trend has accelerated since 2015 and is becoming particularly pronounced among major emitters in the global south. Countries representing 92% of the global economy have now decoupled consumption-based carbon emissions and GDP expansion, according to the report by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).