The evolving diplomatic landscape between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – unfolding within the broader context of global realignments involving China, Russia and ongoing regional conflicts – holds significant potential to induce strategic...

A media mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party has suggested using China’s anti-sanctions mechanism to deal with Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s proposed selling of his global ports, including two at the Panama Canal, to BlackRock. In its latest...

Life is getting more and more challenging for officials at the People’s Bank of China. Governor Pan Gongsheng already faced a daunting list of dilemmas before the Donald Trump 2.0 era arrived. Battling deflation amid a confidence-killing property crisis...

Delays and cost overruns in the US Columbia-class SSBN program threaten the credibility of its undersea nuclear deterrent and ability to match China’s naval expansion.” The US Navy’s plan to replace its aging undersea nuclear deterrent faces costly delays,...

In sixth-century China, a woman known to history as Empress Dowager Ling ruled over an empire called the Northern Wei. Historians do not know her birth name or in what year she was born, but they do know that...

A shadow of unease has crept into American life, a quiet dread that the nation’s global supremacy—secured after World War II and unchallenged since the end of the Cold War—is fading away. This is not a distant threat but...

China’s marriage rate is in steep decline. There were 6.1 million marriage registrations nationwide in 2024, down from 7.7 million the previous year. This decline has prompted Chen Songxi, a Chinese national political adviser, to propose lowering the legal...

The era in which Wall Street dominated global markets with unwavering confidence is faltering and China is poised to capitalize on the shift as US exceptionalism appears to be coming to an end. A confluence of factors—tariff disruptions, massive...

The race for space dominance is intensifying as the US Space Force embraces directed-energy weapons, jammers and kinetic systems to counter China and Russia’s escalating orbital warfare capabilities. The space war plan, designed to achieve “space superiority”, was outlined...

Beijing has investigated Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s proposed deal to sell his global ports, including two at the Panama Canal, to BlackRock after failing to change Li’s mind with closed-door and public pressure. Senior Chinese leaders have ordered...

Australia is ramping up plans to bolster its missile arsenal after China’s recent naval operations near major Australian cities, an unprecedented circumnavigation exercise that included live-fire war games off its eastern coast in the Tasman Sea. China’s maneuvers, which...

South Korea has become the frontline of a fierce ideological battle. What began with President Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law declaration last December has morphed into a high-stakes political showdown. Those, including Yoon himself, who are committed to South Korea’s...

Taiwan has no time to wait. If it does, China will decide its future. Taiwan must act economically, diplomatically and militarily to ensure its survival. The world will not defend a passive Taiwan, but it will rally behind one...

China’s first quantum-encrypted link with South Africa marks a breakthrough in ultra-secure communications with far-reaching military and geopolitical implications. This month, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that China has established its first hacker-resistant quantum communication link with...

Naura Technology, China’s top semiconductor production equipment maker, has risen to 6th place in the global ranking, according to Shanghai-based technology consulting firm CINNO Research. Only industry giants ASML, Applied Materials, Lam Research, Tokyo Electron and KLA now lead...

It’s just days away from a proposal for the long-awaited ceasefire in Ukraine; two months ago, a truce was reached in Gaza, and since then, some Israeli hostages captured during the October 7 massacre have been exchanged for Hamas...

Under President Donald Trump, the United States is hard at work destroying its place in the world economy. But in the rest of the world, globalization is still proceeding apace. In the 2000s and early 2010s, when you said...

China’s National People’s Congress extravaganza was a good news-bad news affair for global investors. Good, in that Xi Jinping’s Communist Party reassured the economics world that China plans to get very micro to fix its macro challenges. Bad, in...

In a race similar to the Anglo-German naval buildup before World War I, the US, Japan and China are gearing up to build large, heavily armed missile warships for a potential climactic showdown at sea. Cruisers typically are the...

China’s tariffs on American farm products came into force this week. As a response to Washington’s latest 10% hike on Chinese imports, Beijing’s official message has been clear: it is ready to fight any type of war against the...

Leveraging foreign contracts, dual-use infrastructure and industrial policy, China’s state-backed shipbuilding juggernaut is fast outpacing the US Navy as it struggles with declining shipyards and strategic uncertainty. This month, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a...

The success of the Chinese AI firm DeepSeek shocked financial markets and major US tech firms in January 2025. But it shouldn’t have come as such a surprise. For decades now, plenty of companies in China have been developing...

Manus, a newly launched artificial intelligence (AI) agent in China, has surprised the global technology sector by demonstrating its ability to complete tasks traditionally performed by white-collar workers. According to its website, Manus, developed by Beijing-based Chinese startup Butterfly...

“What happens in Ukraine today could happen in East Asia tomorrow.” This line from then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s speech in June 2022 at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue of defense ministers in Singapore has just become disturbingly apt, but...

The US may seek peace in Ukraine to save resources, convince Russia to break with Beijing, focus on China and avoid escalation. But for Russia, this war is a new Afghanistan. (In the 1980s, the USSR collapsed due to...