• House Democrats want to define what type of chips can be sent to China
• US show of force could move Venezuela closer to China: analysts
• Filipinos rap resistance in South China Sea music challenge: ‘rallying cry for unity’
• Beijing accuses US of holding Chinese students in ‘small, dark rooms’ for over 70 hours
• Tech war: which Chinese firm is supplying next-generation AI chips to DeepSeek?
• The US is heaping pressure on Venezuela. What will China do?
• China warns US over military build-up, AI expert leaves Microsoft: SCMP daily highlights
• As US retreats from clean energy race, Chinese firms push into emerging markets
• China’s Inner Mongolia chairwoman Wang Lixia under investigation for corruption
• Tech war: DeepSeek’s ‘UE8M0 FP8’ innovation seen as boost for China’s AI self-sufficiency
• Why SCO summit is China’s chance to assert its diplomatic clout amid global challenges
• China’s top engineering academy seeks more private-sector blood, with innovation in mind
• China appears to be testing a new stealth flying-wing drone
• Will China unveil new air and sea-based nuclear missiles at Victory Day military parade?
• Chinese girl, 5, causes brother’s death while adjusting car seat; court dismisses lawsuit
• China says July electricity consumption hits record high, rivalling Asean’s annual total
• Why are 7 large mainland Chinese ro-ro cargo ships sailing in the Taiwan Strait?
• Europe’s scorching heatwave sets demand for Chinese air conditioners ablaze
• South China Sea: Beijing asserts ‘control measures’ against Philippine ships at shoal
• Chinese man’s affair exposed after birth control pills e-payment fails; pharmacy notifies wife
• FM Wang Yi urges faster progress towards China-Pakistan Economic Corridor 2.0
• Plane software mastermind leaves US for China, Trump as top mediator: SCMP’s 7 highlights
• Nvidia halts H20 AI chip production amid China concerns: report
• Married Chinese man dies after hotel sex with lover; his family seeks US$77,000 payout
• China’s rise in biotech to potentially lower healthcare costs, life science investor says
• In China’s crippling price wars, an old law’s revision seeks ‘sustainable equilibrium’

House Democrats want to define what type of chips can be sent to China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3322895/house-democrats-want-define-what-type-chips-can-be-sent-china?utm_source=rss_feed

House Democrats unveiled a new bill on Friday to set legal thresholds for chips deemed too advanced to send to China without congressional approval, attempting to set clear limits in the ongoing debate about how tightly to control the flow of the technology amid national security concerns.

The bill, sponsored by Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, Ami Bera of California and Jill Tokuda of Hawaii, would prevent the export of certain advanced chips without both a US Commerce Department-led inter-agency review and a joint resolution from Congress.

Under the bill, a chip would be subject to review if it exceeds certain benchmarks, including a total processing performance 2,400 or performance density of 1.6, memory speeds of 4,100 gigabytes per second, or interconnect speeds of 1,100 GB/s. Chips that combine memory and interconnect speeds above 5,100 GB/s would also qualify.

“For years, the Chinese Communist Party has treated America’s cutting-edge chips like an all-you-can-eat buffet, fueling surveillance, military modernisation, and influence campaigns,” Krishnamoorthi, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said.

To become law, the measure would need to clear both the Republican-led House and Senate, where it faces long odds without backing from the party.

“This bill puts an end to that practice. If an advanced AI chip is headed to the [China], the US government must prove that its export to China serves our national security. Either Congress says ‘yes,’ or it doesn’t go at all,” Krishnamoorthi added.

If enacted, reviews would weigh factors such as the impact on US national security and technological leadership; the risk of aiding China’s military or human rights abuses; the availability of comparable technology from other countries; and the economic effects on American companies and workers.

Friday’s announcement comes weeks after the Trump administration said it would approve California-based Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China – a model below the most advanced tier but one that still sparked alarm from Washington’s China hawks. Proponents of the move say that it would help cement US technological leadership, while opponents warned it could help China narrow the gap.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Nvidia was working on a new AI chip for China that outperforms the H20. And earlier in the month, US President Donald Trump indicated that he was open to Nvidia selling to China a scaled-down version of its next generation of AI-optimised chips.

Paul Triolo, a partner at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington-based consultancy, said that it is “unprecedented” for Congress “to attempt to legislate this type of individual definition and control parameters”.

According to Triolo, the bill’s definition of advanced chips would not only capture chips like the H20 but go beyond controls set by the Commerce Department under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

“It shifts the definition closer to AI system performance bottlenecks rather than just raw FLOPs,” he said, referring to a chip’s calculations per second. That, he added would make it harder for US companies like Nvidia and AMD to design around the controls.

Friday’s move comes amid bipartisan opposition to exporting chips such as the H20, though Republicans have yet to indicate support for the bill.

Last month, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, John Moolenaar of Michigan, wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expressing concern over allowing China’s access to the chips and requesting a briefing on how the department would handle potential export licence applications.

In his letter, he recommended that the Commerce Department adopt a “floating technical benchmark” pegged just above China’s existing chip capability to ensure that only certain advanced chips could be exported.

“If the US is serious about leading in AI, we need to protect our advantage – not hand it over,” Moolenaar warned.

Moolenaar’s office did not immediately comment on whether it would support Friday’s bill.

US show of force could move Venezuela closer to China: analysts

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3322853/us-show-force-could-move-venezuela-closer-china-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed

While the deployment of US warships near the coast of Venezuela is intended to heap pressure on the government and limit its already strained capacity for oil shipments, the action would probably serve to bolster China’s extensive economic ties with the South American country, analysts said.

Three destroyers and an amphibious squadron with about 4,000 US Marines were dispatched to the Caribbean Sea close to Venezuelan waters, the White House said this week, in an act they said was intended to stop drug cartel activity.

But Venezuelan officials decried the action as a threat to their country’s sovereignty, and a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman condemned the “interference of external forces” in a comment on the heightened tensions between Washington and Caracas.

“I believe that Trump’s main purpose in doing this is to politically suppress the left-wing [President Nicolas] Maduro in Venezuela and force him to step down,” said Xu Shicheng, a Latin America expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

At the heart of the issue lies Venezuelan oil, in which China has an abiding interest, others said.

US military presence shows the US “has the capability of cutting off Venezuela’s oil supplies to China”, said Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Centre think tank in Hawaii.

The US and Venezuela have had stormy relations over the past quarter-century under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez, with Maduro’s government once accusing Washington of trying to overthrow it.

In March, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing the imposition of 25 per cent tariffs on third countries that buy Venezuelan oil. The US quit importing oil from the country as part of a strict sanctions regime imposed in 2019, though shipments resumed in 2023, per the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

American energy multinational Chevron has been reauthorised to operate there as Trump hopes to increase fossil fuel usage at home. Venezuela shipped 4.1 million barrels of oil to the US in May, according to the EIA.

Zhao Xijun, a finance professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said the US may have sent the warships to remind oil traders of the sanctions and deter them from exploring workarounds.

“The global oil market is a big one, and crude oil has fluid routes – quite complex – to get it from a producer country to a market,” Zhao said. “As they say in China, ‘there’s a mandate in heaven and a method on earth.’”

The US may be acting now because it wants “control” over Venezuelan oil production to weaken the country’s economic influence, said Liang Yan, a professor of economics at Willamette University in the US.

Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, estimated at around 303 billion barrels as of 2023 by the EIA. This would represent 17 per cent of global reserves.

But its contribution to global energy trade has languished under Washington’s hefty limits on activity for Petroleos de Venezuela, the country’s massive state oil company.

US military pressure on Venezuela will consolidate Beijing’s ties with Caracas, analysts said – at least in the short term.

To protect its assets in Venezuela – a portfolio that has grown after heavy investments in the South American country which began in the 1990s – Beijing will be motivated to join other countries in standing up to Washington, Zhao said.

“There will be more opportunities for trade. Those countries will feel they might be sanctioned, so they’d think of ways to join forces.”

China has poured about US$67 billion into Venezuela since 2007, far more than into any other South American country, making it Caracas’s most important creditor and one of its financial lifelines under US sanctions.

About 400,000 barrels of oil ship daily to China, mainly as a means of paying off loans, Xu said.

Although China sees no immediate threat from Trump’s escalation, Liang said, it would “re-evaluate its assets” in Venezuela if the US keeps up military pressure in the long term.

China must “be careful of US sanctions and pressure that could disrupt oil supplies”, said James Downes, head of the politics and public administration programme at Hong Kong Metropolitan University.

“This situation may push China in the short term to reduce its dependence on Venezuela’s oil.”

Venezuela is not the only country whose oil trade with China is being stymied by punitive actions from Washington.

The US Department of State sanctioned two Chinese port terminal and storage operators on Thursday over what it described as “facilitating” the import of millions of barrels of oil from Iran on “US-designated tankers”. Interests related to both firms, Qingdao Port Haiye Dongjiakou Oil Products and Yangshan Shengang International Petroleum Storage and Transportation, are now blocked in the US.

China’s foreign ministry condemned the sanctions, the fourth such set of restrictions by Washington against terminal operators. A ministry spokesperson urged the US to change course, calling economic cooperation with Iran “legitimate and lawful”.

Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at the French investment bank Natixis, said the US military build-up would serve as a “wake-up call” for China in Latin America.

“China managed to restructure the debt when oil prices were at a bare minimum by controlling oil in Venezuela...because of China’s lifeline to Venezuela, there was never a default,” she said. “The US has had a very unsuccessful policy with Venezuela for a long time, and China is in the middle of this. This is really all about China...Trump is fighting China indirectly.”

Filipinos rap resistance in South China Sea music challenge: ‘rallying cry for unity’

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3322881/filipinos-rap-resistance-south-china-sea-music-challenge-rallying-cry-unity?utm_source=rss_feed

A rap contest tapping into patriotic fervour and youth culture has drawn hundreds of entries from Filipinos at home and abroad, with organisers saying the outpouring reflects growing creative resistance to Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea.

The competition, launched last week by the civilian-led coalition Atin Ito (This is Ours) and hip-hop collective Morobeats, coincided with the Philippines’ national language month and invited participants to deliver one-minute raps defending the country’s maritime rights.

To enter, participants are required to perform a one-minute rap over the beat of “Teritoryo” – a track by Morobeats that invokes the Philippines’ sovereign claims over the West Philippine Sea, Manila’s term for parts of the South China Sea within its exclusive economic zone.

The month-long contest offers a top prize of 100,000 pesos (US$1,754), with additional awards for runners-up and the most viewed entry, and winners will be announced five days after its conclusion.

In a statement, Atin Ito described the flood of submissions from Filipinos in the country and worldwide as a “surge of patriotic creativity and overwhelming public support for the campaign to defend the West Philippine Sea”, with more than 200 entries pouring in just one week after launch.

“The overwhelming support for Atin Ito’s initiative comes at a time of escalating tension in the West Philippine Sea. China’s continued harassment of Filipino fisherfolk and frontliners has intensified in recent weeks, even resulting in two of its vessels colliding with each other. For Atin Ito, these events underscore why Filipinos must stand united to peacefully and creatively defend the West Philippine Sea,” it said.

Manila has long been embroiled in maritime disputes against Beijing, which claims nearly the entire South China Sea.

A 2016 arbitration court ruled in favour of the Philippines’ claims based on international maritime law, and rejected China’s historical nine-dash-line claim. Beijing has continued to disregard the ruling.

“Beyond the music, the challenge aims to amplify the struggles of Filipino fisherfolk and frontliners facing harassment in the West Philippine Sea, turning art into a rallying cry for solidarity, unity and active citizenship,” the organisers’ statement added.

Rafaela David, Atin Ito co-convener, said the outpouring of entries was proof of public investment in the Philippines’ sovereignty.

“Each rap is not just music; it is a voice raised for our seas, our sovereign rights and territorial integrity,” she said.

The group was “both humbled and energised” by the response the contest had received in just one week, David told This Week in Asia.

“The number of entries, and more importantly, the sheer talent and passion poured into them, exceeded our expectations. The overwhelming reception affirms that there is indeed a patriotic current running strong among Filipinos, ready to stand up for the West Philippine Sea,” she said.

Edicio dela Torre, another co-convener of Atin Ito, said the rap competition was in the spirit of a long tradition of protest music in the Philippines.

“Where we once sang protest hymns, today’s generation raps online. The message is the same: Filipinos will always find their beat in the struggle for freedom and dignity,” dela Torre said.

The rap format has become a particular draw for young Filipinos, given the genre’s popularity in the country, organisers say.

“Its energy, rhythm, and directness make it an ideal vehicle to communicate urgent messages in ways that are both accessible and engaging,” David told This Week in Asia.

“For Atin Ito, rap music offers a bridge to communities we may not have reached through traditional forms of advocacy. It is a language of the streets, of the youth, and of resistance, qualities that align with our mission to inspire patriotism and citizen action.”

David said the idea to work with Morobeats emerged following the success of their third civilian-led supply mission to the West Philippine Sea in May. The activists held what they dubbed the “historic, first-ever sea concert” near Thitu Island, known locally as Pag-asa Island.

“Among the stand-out performances was by Morobeats, a Filipino rap collective whose music draws deeply from our cultural roots. Their hit song ‘Teritoryo’, a tribute to our fisherfolk and frontliners in the West Philippine Sea, resonated well with the spirit of the mission,” she said.

Inspired by the rap collective’s song, Jomari Flores Paradero of Davao City sent in an entry of himself dressed as a fisherman at a local port, representing the plight of fisherfolk plying the seas amid the presence of Chinese vessels.

Paradero raps: “The West Philippine Sea is not just our country’s territory. It’s part of our identity … are we going to give up now in the face of threats? When so many have failed to conquer us before?”

In writing his lyrics, Paradero said he tried to represent the voice and perspective of Filipino fisherfolk whose livelihoods had been affected by Chinese presence in disputed waters.

“I want the listener to feel their grievances and how dire their situation is. I didn’t want to do politicking in this entry as I wanted to represent the voice of the common folk and showcase the truth,” he told This Week in Asia.

“For me, it’s important that we don’t forget that the West Philippine Sea is still ours.”

David of Atin Ito highlighted the active participation of young Filipinos in the contest as an expression of love for their country and solidarity with those on the front line tackling China’s growing maritime presence.

“Young people see the defence of the West Philippine Sea as a defining struggle of their generation,” she said.

“Securing our rights in the West Philippine Sea also means, to them, securing their futures – a future that is peaceful, sustainable and free.”

Beijing accuses US of holding Chinese students in ‘small, dark rooms’ for over 70 hours

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3322866/beijing-accuses-us-holding-chinese-students-small-dark-rooms-over-70-hours?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing has lashed out at the United States for questioning Chinese students at the border, accusing it of discrimination and of taking them into “small, dark rooms” for over 70 hours.

Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, said on Friday that these actions “seriously infringed upon the legitimate and legal rights and interests of Chinese citizens, severely obstructed normal personnel exchanges between the two countries, and seriously undermined the atmosphere for people-to-people and cultural exchanges”.

She told a scheduled press conference: “Recently, the US has frequently engaged in discriminatory, politically motivated and selective law enforcement against Chinese students travelling to the US.

“These students are subjected to unfair treatment, including being taken into small, dark rooms for repeated and prolonged interrogations,” she said, speaking colloquially about the interrogation facilities.

“Some have been detained for over 70 hours and questioned about topics completely unrelated to their purpose for travelling to the US. In some cases, their visas are cancelled and they are denied entry, citing so-called national security concerns.”

Mao said China had lodged immediate representations after each incident and urged Washington to “thoroughly investigate and correct its mistakes”.

“We urge the US to face this issue directly, take China’s concerns seriously and implement the statements made by US leaders welcoming Chinese students to study in the US,” she added.

Beijing has repeatedly expressed strong dissatisfaction about the treatment of Chinese students.

In January last year, the foreign ministry accused the US of “politicising and weaponising academic research, and abusing the concept of national security to heavily suppress and persecute Chinese students” despite its claims to champion academic freedom.

More than 5,000 Chinese students and scholars were denied visas or deported by the US between 2021 and March 2024, according to an estimate by state-run China News Service.

In 2021 alone, the US denied visas to at least 2,000 Chinese students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the foreign ministry said two years ago.

Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, Chinese students in the US have faced further uncertainty.

In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to “enhance scrutiny” of applications from mainland China and Hong Kong.

“Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, the US State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” he said.

This week the State Department said that more than 6,000 foreign students had had their visas revoked since Trump took office.

It also announced it was vetting more than 55 million US visa holders for deportable offences, including overstays, criminal activity and engagement in any form of “terrorist activity”.

Trump’s first term also saw Chinese students being hit with visa restrictions. In 2018, Chinese nationals involved in hi-tech fields such as robotics and aviation were told they would only be issued one-year visas rather than the standard five-year version.

Tech war: which Chinese firm is supplying next-generation AI chips to DeepSeek?

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3322864/tech-war-which-chinese-firm-supplying-next-generation-ai-chips-deepseek?utm_source=rss_feed

Speculation is swirling across the semiconductor industry after artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek recently suggested that China’s next-generation AI chips will soon be released.

The Hangzhou-based start-up’s cryptic one-line post on WeChat triggered online discussions about which AI chip supplier, or suppliers, would unveil this breakthrough, even as US tech restrictions remain in place.

They include Huawei Technologies, Cambricon Technologies, Moore Threads, Hygon Information Technology and MetaX Integrated Circuits.

DeepSeek’s post on Thursday said the “UE8M0 FP8 scale” of its V3.1 AI model was particularly designed “for home-grown chips to be released soon”. Apart from not identifying the supplier, the firm did not specify how the new AI chips would be used – for training of models or inferencing, the stage where an AI system puts its learning into action.

“It’s also likely that the new model will support a number of AI chips, not just those from Huawei or another company,” Liu Jie, an engineer at a Shanghai-based developer of graphics processing units (GPUs), said on Friday.

The speculation reflects not only growing confidence in the capabilities of locally designed and produced integrated circuits, but also how China’s semiconductor industry has steadily overcome US tech sanctions.

FP8, known as floating-point 8, is a format that reduces precision to speed up AI training and inference by using less memory and bandwidth. UE8M0, another 8-bit format, is touted to increase training efficiency, which reduces hardware requirements by cutting memory use by up to 75 per cent.

“The architecture is specifically designed to accommodate the hardware logic of Chinese chips, which enables a model to run smoothly on these hardware,” said Su Lian Jye, chief analyst at research firm Omdia.

He added that Chinese-designed chips that are currently capable of supporting FP8 include those from Huawei’s HiSilicon, Cambricon, MetaX and Moore Threads.

In a WeChat post on Friday, Chinese think tank Zhitan AI said Huawei’s 910D and Cambricon’s Siyuan 690 chips could potentially be used for DeepSeek’s new model.

Those assessments have stoked speculation that a number of domestic chip designers could possibly seize domestic market share from US semiconductor giant Nvidia, which was grappling with increased scrutiny from regulators about the security of its H20 GPUs.

Still, Omdia’s Su expected DeepSeek to continue encountering challenges with China’s next-generation AI chips in the short term.

“The DeepSeek team has always used Nvidia chips to develop its models,” Su said. “So the transition to Chinese AI chips has, unsurprisingly, encountered challenges in terms of stability, connection speed and the software ecosystem.”

Shenzhen-based Huawei has ramped up efforts to build a complete AI hardware stack to challenge Nvidia in China. Earlier this year, Huawei launched its CloudMatrix 384 computer system – with 384 Ascend 910C neural processing units and 192 Kunpeng server central processing units, interconnected through a unified bus that provides ultra-high bandwidth and low latency.

Moore Threads, a Beijing-based GPU maker, is the only company so far to publicly state that its chips can be used for the FP8 format. Wang Hua, a vice-president at Moore Threads, said in a speech at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in July that the company was doubling down on the architecture.

Cambricon, also based in Beijing, reportedly achieved mass production of its Siyuan 690 chips for AI training in 2024.

Speculation about China’s next-generation AI chips also lifted investor sentiment.

The Shanghai-listed shares of Cambricon and Hygon both saw a 20 per cent surge on Friday. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, the mainland’s largest chip foundry and maker of Huawei’s Ascend and Kirin chips, saw its shares rise 10.1 per cent to HK$56.90 in Hong Kong.

The US is heaping pressure on Venezuela. What will China do?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3322869/us-heaping-pressure-venezuela-what-will-china-do?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing is likely to increase its economic support for Venezuela, its only all-weather strategic partner in South America, as tensions rise between Washington and Caracas.

However, analysts suggest that China will hold back on direct military aid or actions that could provoke a direct confrontation with the United States.

The assessment comes after Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Thursday that China opposed “any move that violates the purposes and principles of the United Nations’ Charter and a country’s sovereignty and security”.

The comment was a esponse to the US decision to send three destroyers and an amphibious squadron with about 4,000 Marines to the Caribbean. Earlier this month, the White House also raised its bounty for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to US$50 million.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil thanked China for its firm rejection of US threats, saying on social media that it reflected the “unshakeable friendship” between the two nations.

China has been a strong supporter of Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, providing economic aid to the country as it grapples with US sanctions.

It has also consistently backed Maduro since his narrow election win in 2013, and – unlike the US and several Latin American countries – recognised his contested re-election last year.

In the face of intensified pressure from the United States, Chinese experts expect Beijing to amplify its existing economic cooperation and aid to Venezuela.

Guo Cunhai, research fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said China was likely to deepen economic ties to help ease the pressure on Venezuela.

This would include expanding the oil trade and technology transfers, Guo said.

“However, Beijing will steer clear of providing military support and will avoid any action that could lead to a military confrontation with Washington if tensions escalate further,” he said.

Jiang Shixue, vice-president of CASS’ China Society of Emerging Economies, agreed that China would confine itself to diplomatic and economic support.

“The military cooperation between Beijing and Caracas is limited and at a low level, which is strictly confined to a level that does not destabilise the region,” Jiang added.

Since 2007, China has invested about US$67 billion in Venezuela, becoming Caracas’s biggest creditor and a vital economic lifeline in the face of US sanctions. Venezuela secured loans from Chinese policy banks, and Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company signed purchasing agreements with Chinese importers.

Although Chinese companies have scaled back direct purchases of Venezuelan crude, transshipments via some intermediaries in third countries have allowed a continuing flow of Venezuelan oil to the Chinese market, and Beijing remains the biggest buyer of Venezuelan oil, according to Reuters.

The partnership also evolved into a strategic alliance that has endured debt disputes and external pressures. In 2023, the bilateral relationship was elevated to the status of an all-weather strategic partnership.

“The economic partnership between the two countries is comprehensive: beyond focusing on oil, Beijing has also contributed to the development of Venezuela’s manufacturing and agriculture sectors, invested in infrastructure projects, and exported industrial goods to the country,” Jiang said.

Chinese observers said the latest US efforts – the bounty and the troop movements – were likely meant to weaken the grip of Venezuela’s two-decade-old anti-US regime. The efforts were also meant to curb China’s growing influence in South America – a long-standing concern for Washington.

Li Min, a research fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of International Relations, said the White House’s actions were a “typical example of Washington extending its strategic and energy competition against Beijing to a third country”.

“One goal of these efforts is to undermine one of China’s sources of oil imports – thereby weakening its bargaining power in the international energy market,” Li said.

“Washington’s intention is quite apparent: it seeks to continue constraining Venezuela’s political lifeline and also to preserve its geopolitical and economic advantages in the western hemisphere.”

Guo, from CASS, said China preferred political continuity in Venezuela, and its top priority was to safeguard existing economic partnerships and debt arrangements.

“A regime change in Venezuela could prompt a re-evaluation or even a restructuring of the cooperative relationship between Beijing and Caracas, which could head towards a reversed course,” Guo said.

Should the opposition seize power, it would almost certainly align itself with the US, resulting in a “geopolitical disadvantage” for China, he added.

“On the global stage, China would also lose a reliable partner that champions its push for a multipolar world order and supports the advancement of the Global South,” he said.

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China warns US over military build-up, AI expert leaves Microsoft: SCMP daily highlights

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3322826/china-warns-us-over-military-build-ai-expert-leaves-microsoft-scmp-daily-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed

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 .

As US destroyers closed in on Venezuela’s coast, China condemned Washington’s military build-up and warned against foreign interference, backing Nicolas Maduro in a showdown that is drawing in powers far beyond the Caribbean.

A fleet of large civilian cargo ships has sailed through the Taiwan Strait since heading south from the Bohai Sea off northern mainland China, prompting speculation about a possible joint amphibious landing drill with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Cao Ting, a leading artificial intelligence researcher and former research manager at Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), has left the US tech giant to join Tsinghua University, as AI becomes a new front in the US-China tech rivalry.

China says it has taken “control measures” against two Philippine vessels near the Sierra Madre, a warship grounded on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, as tensions re-emerge in the contested waters of the South China Sea.

China has discovered deep shale gas reserves in two major gas fields in the southwest, each holding more than 100 billion cubic metres (bcm) of proven reserves, as the country continues its push for greater energy security.

Beijing’s top envoy in New Delhi expressed strong support for India, citing the steep US tariffs imposed against the country, and called for “teamwork” and “collaboration” between the world’s two most populous nations in standing up to the “bully”.

Corn communicates with its neighbours by releasing a gas that prompts nearby plants to alter their soil, a new study has found.

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As US retreats from clean energy race, Chinese firms push into emerging markets

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3322824/us-retreats-clean-energy-race-chinese-firms-push-emerging-markets?utm_source=rss_feed

As America retreats from clean energy investment around the world, with US President Donald Trump labelling wind and solar power “the scam of the century” on Wednesday, Chinese “cleantech” firms have been striding into emerging markets in Southeast and Central Asia and Latin America.

Mabill Technologies, a Malaysian cleantech start-up developing a predictive AI algorithm that will connect energy efficiency analytics and sustainable cooling solutions, said Chinese investors had been showing “renewed interest” in its business.

Chinese cleantech firms “are deepening their influence in Asean by embedding proprietary technologies into local supply chains”, said Seemantani Sharma, co-founder of the company, noting that China was “explicitly projecting itself as a hub for clean energy”.

Through “tech diplomacy with long-term supply chain capture”, she said China transferred selective know-how while “retaining control of critical intellectual property through joint ventures, training academies and Belt and Road-funded infrastructure”.

In the process, Sharma added that China “promotes” its technical standards, especially in solar power, batteries and electric vehicles, through regional forums and bilateral agreements that will be “gradually aligning” energy systems in the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with Chinese intellectual property ecosystems.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said his administration would “not approve wind or farmer destroying solar” projects because American states that had built and relied on windmills and solar for power were “seeing record breaking increases” in electricity and energy costs.

In addition to cutting global climate finance and renewable energy support previously channelled through agencies like the United States Agency for International Development, which he abolished, Trump also encouraged the passage of legislation last month that brought forward the phasing out of clean energy subsidies.

As the US withdraws from the cleantech race with China, Chinese companies are doubling down on their country’s domination of the field.

Chinese consulting company Gascia-Aksu Alliance reached an agreement with Uzbekistan’s Fergana region on August 15 to establish air purification system factories in the Central Asian country.

CATL, the world’s largest maker of electric-vehicle batteries, and an Indonesian partner began construction of a US$6 billion battery integration project in Indonesia in June. The Chinese company said the project is expected to span the “full battery value chain” – from nickel mining and processing to battery materials, manufacturing and recycling.

In May, Shanghai’s Envision announced a strategic collaboration agreement with the Brazilian government that will lead to the development of Brazil’s first net-zero industrial estate. Both sides committed to building a complete green fuel value chain and advancing the development of green hydrogen and green ammonia.

PT Rec Solar Energy Indonesia became the Southeast Asian country’s largest solar exporter to the US in the first half of this year, shipping around US$219 million worth of panels tariff-free. Its parent company, NE Solar, was founded by the owner of Chinese manufacturer Huzhou Zhongdian Solar, which controls key supply inputs.

Chinese investment in Belt and Road Initiative construction projects related to green energy increased to US$5.7 billion in the first half of 2025 from US$4.4 billion in the same period last year, according to a report released in July by Australia’s Griffith University.

Caroline Wang, the China engagement lead at the Australian think tank Climate Energy Finance, said: “Rising protectionism and supply chain regionalisation have led to a trend by Chinese firms moving from export of products to export of industry, that is localising manufacturing.

“On standard-setting, the Chinese government is pushing for the development of standards in the green and low-carbon sector of industry and information technology, and to improve and enhance the green and low-carbon standards system.”

China’s Inner Mongolia chairwoman Wang Lixia under investigation for corruption

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3322865/chinas-inner-mongolia-chairwoman-wang-lixia-under-investigation-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed

The chairwoman of Inner Mongolia in northern China has been placed under investigation for alleged corruption as part of a wider crackdown in the autonomous region.

Wang Lixia, who is also the region’s deputy Communist Party chief, is suspected of committing “serious violations of discipline and laws”, the party disciplinary body and China’s anti-corruption watchdog announced on Friday.

According to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, Wang is undergoing a disciplinary review and supervisory investigation.

Wang, 61, is of Mongol ethnicity and the fourth senior official from an autonomous region to be investigated so far this year. They are among a small number of top ethnic minority officials who have faced corruption investigations in recent decades.

Born in northeastern Liaoning province, Wang spent most of her career in northwestern Shaanxi before transferring to Inner Mongolia in 2016.

In 2021, she was named chairwoman of the region, becoming the first outsider to hold the post in nearly 30 years. She succeeded Bu Xiaolin – a member of one of the region’s leading political families – who resigned for health reasons.

Wang’s rise up the political ladder coincided with a sweeping anti-corruption campaign targeting Inner Mongolia’s coal sector – the “20-year accountability review” launched in 2020.

By September 2022, nearly 800 cases involving 1,163 individuals had been investigated, resulting in disciplinary action against 942 people, according to the regional disciplinary inspection commission.

Her appointment as chairwoman also came after the regional leadership introduced controversial new education rules to promote the use of Mandarin over Mongolian in several subjects, changes that provoked vocal opposition and public protests.

Wang started her political career in July 2000 as deputy director of the Shaanxi provincial statistical bureau, becoming director five years later. In January 2011, she was appointed acting mayor and deputy party secretary of Shaanxi’s coal-rich city of Tongchuan, becoming mayor that April. She was promoted to vice-governor of Shaanxi in January 2013.

After being transferred to Inner Mongolia, she served as party chief of the regional capital, Hohhot, and director of the region’s United Front Department from 2016 to 2019.

The investigations into four sitting or former chairs from China’s five autonomous regions in just eight months signal a major change in elite politics.

Observers say the crackdown indicates a wider push for political discipline, implying that favouritism based on ethnicity in elite politics no longer applies, and that the “ethnic card” no longer exempts such officials from investigation.

Since the 1980s, China has had 43 regional chairs, of whom six have fallen foul of corruption investigations – all after 2018.

Those snared this year include Qizhala, former chairman of the Tibet autonomous region, who was investigated in January and expelled from the party in July for serious violations.

Lan Tianli, chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was placed under investigation in May, while Liu Hui, a former chairwoman of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, was similarly investigated for suspected violations in July.

In 2018, two former regional chairmen – Yang Jing of Inner Mongolia and Nur Bekri of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region – underwent disciplinary investigations. Yang was later demoted and Bekri was sentenced to life in prison for corruption.

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Tech war: DeepSeek’s ‘UE8M0 FP8’ innovation seen as boost for China’s AI self-sufficiency

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3322850/tech-war-deepseeks-ue8m0-fp8-innovation-seen-boost-chinas-ai-self-sufficiency?utm_source=rss_feed

A technical change in the latest model from Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek could be a big step towards achieving China’s goal of AI self-sufficiency, as it shows a new level of coordination between local model developers and hardware makers, according to analysts and industry insiders.

This week, the Hangzhou-based AI lab said its new V3.1 model was trained using a UE8M0 FP8 scale data format, which was suitable for the “home-grown chips soon to be released”.

While DeepSeek did not specify the vendor of the implied chips or whether their use would be in training or inferencing, the wording elicited enthusiasm about an upcoming tech breakthrough that could enhance China’s prospects of cutting reliance on imported AI chips such as the graphic processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia.

DeepSeek did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Separately, Shanghai-listed shares of Cambricon Technologies, a local GPU designer that is a potential challenger to Nvidia, gained 20 per cent on Friday. The stock has more than doubled from a July low, as mainland investors bet on its growing role in supplying domestic AI chips.

In Hong Kong on Friday, shares of Hua Hong Semiconductor gained 18 per cent, while Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp was also up 10 per cent amid hopes that the two chip foundries could do the heavy lifting in producing China’s own GPUs.

The investor optimism appears to be warranted. Zhang Ruiwang, a Beijing-based information technology system architect working in the internet sector, said the UE8M0 FP8 technique, when paired with complementary methods, could open the door for training AI models at even lower costs.

The cost of training new AI models has soared over the past few years, according to research by Epoch AI, a non-profit AI research institute. The combined cost of hardware, including AI accelerator chips, other server components and interconnect hardware, accounted for nearly 70 per cent of the total costs.

The use of the UE8M0 FP8 technique comes with some major improvements for AI stacking, Zhang added. It further reduced the amount of graphics storage and computing power needed to run AI systems, speeding up both training and inferencing of the systems, and it was more “engineering-friendly” for deployment, he said.

FP8 refers to floating-point 8, a lower precision data format that speeds up AI training and inference, with less need for memory and bandwidth but with a certain degree of loss in terms of accuracy.

It contrasts with formats such as FP16 or FP32, which offer higher precision but require increasing computational resources. There has been a trend of transitioning from higher to lower precision formats when it comes to AI training and inference.

In a technical blog published on the Nvidia developer forum, the FP8 format was shown to be highly efficient by halving video memory usage without sacrificing results. But Nvidia offers many technical functions that make it easier to use its GPUs for AI training, which means developers have come to rely on its chips.

The UE8M0 tweak by DeepSeek, however, offers a variation of the FP8 format that can further reduce demand for computing power, storage, and bandwidth. DeepSeek’s approach showed that China’s AI industry was entering a new period of close software-hardware collaboration, said Dong Daoli, a chip industry analyst.

Dong said DeepSeek was using the UE8M0 FP8 format to enable large model training on less powerful chips, meaning that China’s powerful AI models can be trained and tested even though Chinese-made GPUs cannot match Nvidia’s versions.

“It is a mutual accomplishment for both model developers and hardware developers”, Dong wrote in a blog on Friday. “China’s chip companies, meanwhile, can gradually build up their own FP8 ecosystem”.

IT system specialist Zhang echoed that judgement, saying that UE8M0 FP8 was designed to “maximise the utilisation of hardware computing power”, adding that it was an example of “engineering pragmatism”.

Why SCO summit is China’s chance to assert its diplomatic clout amid global challenges

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3322871/why-sco-summit-chinas-chance-assert-its-diplomatic-clout-amid-global-challenges?utm_source=rss_feed

China is gearing up for an intense week of diplomacy as it finalises preparations for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin this month, followed by a grand military parade in Beijing to commemorate the end of World War II.

All eyes will be on how China asserts its diplomatic clout and positions itself as a world power to be reckoned with at a time when global geopolitical tensions are on the rise.

On Friday, China’s foreign ministry officially announced a list of more than 20 world leaders and 10 heads of international organisations who would soon travel to the northern city of Tianjin for the summit, scheduled to run from August 31 to September 1.

Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin said the summit would be the “largest in SCO history”, describing it as “one of the most important activities for China’s head-of-state diplomacy and home-ground diplomacy this year”.

China is expecting a top-tier crowd of political heavyweights. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are among the attendees confirmed by Liu. Key leaders from Southeast Asian nations, including Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, will also attend, confirming an earlier exclusive report by the Post.

It will be Putin’s first visit to China since he held talks on the Ukraine war with US President Donald Trump in Alaska earlier this month. And it will be Modi’s first trip to China in seven years.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn are also among the confirmed attendees.

Already, there are signs of how Beijing would position itself amid deepening geopolitical divides. Liu on Friday said “the more complex and turbulent the international situation becomes, the more countries need to strengthen solidarity and cooperation”.

“In today’s world, outdated mindsets of hegemonism and power politics still have influence, with certain countries attempting to prioritise their own interests above others, seriously threatening world peace and stability,” he added in a veiled reference to the US.

Liu said Chinese President Xi Jinping would announce new measures at the summit to advance cooperation and suggest ways for the grouping to “constructively safeguard the post-war international order and improve the global governance system”, according to CCTV.

The state broadcaster also said Xi would deliver keynote speeches at the summit and, alongside other leaders of SCO member states, adopt a series of documents to strengthen security, economic and cultural cooperation.

The SCO started as a Eurasian security bloc in 2001 but has expanded its scope to include areas such as economics and trade. According to Liu, the “SCO family”, which also includes dialogue partners, is now made up of 26 countries across Asia, Europe and Africa.

Dylan Loh, assistant professor of foreign policy at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said the added significance of the summit this year stemmed from the current geopolitical environment, including Trump’s tariff war on countries and the normalising of ties between India and China.

India has warmed up to China – after relations sharply deteriorated because of a deadly clash at their shared border in 2020 – as it grapples with trade frictions with the US.

Lin Minwang, vice-dean at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, said India had become more engaged with China, in part because of Trump’s sweeping tariffs, adding a “symbolic layer” to its involvement in the summit.

“In a way, Trump’s policies have strengthened the internal unity of the SCO and highlighted the shared interests of these countries in responding to challenges to the international order,” he said.

According to Lin, the SCO summit and China’s military parade were scheduled in close succession to have the grouping’s member states present at both events, which would be a show of countries’ support and endorsement of Beijing.

For the Tianjin summit, Lin said the top-level representation was a reflection of China’s growing influence in the region and indicated that many of Beijing’s positions and ideas had gained traction in other countries, especially its neighbours.

“The statements and the sideline meetings will be closely watched to see if the SCO continues the trajectory in positioning itself as counterpoint to Western-led and Western-inflected organisations,” Loh added.

The attendance of world leaders also meant that the SCO would be closely watched, which according to Loh could be part of China’s aims “to profile its rising prominence, importance, and its pulling power”.

“[The summit] is demonstrative of its diplomatic influence and its heft and the proof in the number of folks it has gotten to attend the SCO is testament to that. The types of countries attending also lend further credence to the idea that China is leading – if not the unofficial leader of – the ‘Global South’ countries,” he added.

China’s top engineering academy seeks more private-sector blood, with innovation in mind

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3322856/chinas-top-engineering-academy-seeks-more-private-sector-blood-innovation-mind?utm_source=rss_feed

A record high number of private-sector executives and chief scientists have been shortlisted this year to compete for academicianship in China’s top institute for engineering science and technology.

Nineteen are included on the newly released candidate list for the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), including Hu Guoping, 48, principal researcher and co-founder of AI specialist iFlyTek; Wu Kai, 57, chief scientist and co-president of battery manufacturer CATL; Lian Yubo, 61, chief scientist of carmaker BYD; Jia Zhenhua of Yiling Pharmaceutical; and Xu Xun, chief researcher at genomics company BGI Group.

The other 14 are scattered across cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, new energy, and biopharmaceuticals, the newly unveiled list shows.

“The move demonstrates the country’s high recognition of the scientific and technological innovative capabilities of private enterprises,” the CAE said in its 2025 guidelines for selecting new academicians.

The CAE, which plays a role similar to that of the National Academy of Engineering in the United States, selects new members every two years, with the vast majority coming from universities, state-backed institutes and state-owned enterprises.

This year, about 600 were nominated to compete for no more than 100 new seats.

The institute said earlier this year that eight seats would be reserved for leading private technology companies.

The selection process will complement national strategic priorities, focusing on hard technologies and the real economy while aiming to inject fresh momentum into China’s innovation ecosystem, according to the CAE’s guidelines.

Frank Cui, a digital transformation specialist and founder of Hangzhou Shenxing AI, said that the growing number of private enterprise executives being considered for the CAE reflects a broader shift in China’s scientific research and development model.

“Training large AI models one at a time costs several million dollars, making it no longer feasible for universities and research institutes alone,” said Cui, who also serves as a science and technology adviser to some local government departments in Zhejiang province.

Meanwhile, he said, private enterprises are gradually taking on a more central role in innovation.

While recent years have seen candidates emerge from firms such as CATL, Huawei Technologies, BYD and Baidu, fewer than 10 private-sector academicians have been elected to date, according to the Shanghai-based Jiefang Daily.

Wang Jian, the head of Alibaba Cloud, in 2019 became the first private-sector executive to be elected as a CAE academician. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Shenxing AI’s Cui said that the new trend will have far-reaching implications.

“In the future, there will undoubtedly be more private enterprise executives becoming academicians, which will influence the global flow of capital and talent,” he said. “This not only helps enterprises gain greater potential support but also has a strong appeal in attracting top overseas talent back to China.”

Currently, the CAE has more than 900 domestic academicians and more than 120 foreign members.

The 2025 selection process will require an external peer review and a final vote by CAE members later this year.

China appears to be testing a new stealth flying-wing drone

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3322777/china-appears-be-testing-new-stealth-flying-wing-drone?utm_source=rss_feed

A new Chinese flying-wing aircraft – possibly the CH-7 stealth drone or another new model seen recently on satellite imagery – could be undergoing test flights, an image circulating on social media suggests.

The photo, which could not be verified, shows the large aircraft in flight from the rear, its landing gear down and split rudders near the wing tips.

Its low-observable, flying-wing design combines the wings and fuselage, giving the aircraft a wide, flat appearance.

It is not known when or where the photo was taken and its low resolution makes it difficult to discern many details.

The aircraft bears some resemblance to the Rainbow CH-7 stealth reconnaissance drone, which is being developed by the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The CH-7 was expected to take its maiden flight some time this year.

However, military website The War Zone speculated that the aircraft in the photo could be the same one it earlier identified on satellite imagery from May at the Malan test base in China’s far western Xinjiang region.

That drone was much larger than the CH-7, with an estimated wingspan of about 50 metres (164 feet) – similar in size to the US B-2 Spirit bomber.

By comparison, the CH-7 has a wingspan of 27.3 metres (89.5 feet).

These new aircraft reflect China’s significant investment of resources to develop a range of flying-wing design drones in recent years, amid an ambitious push to modernise the People’s Liberation Army.

The CH-7 was unveiled in 2018 and has since gone through several design modifications. A ground taxiing test of its landing gear and control systems was conducted at the end of 2024.

It is what is known as a high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft and has a maximum take-off weight of 8 tonnes, a cruising speed of 0.5 Mach, a service ceiling of 16,000 metres and a maximum endurance of 16 hours, according to the most recent specifications.

The drone’s speed would not be fast enough for it to be a “loyal wingman” to the Chinese air force’s next-generation fighter jets.

Instead, it is designed for covert reconnaissance missions in high-risk areas such as long-range detection, surveillance and situational awareness, as well as target guidance for strike operations.

To do that, its design has been changed to improve stealth, upgrade its sensors and avionics, and expand its wingspan while reducing the aircraft’s weight. Its weapon bay was also eliminated.

The CH-7 has also been designed so that it can be used by the PLA’s aircraft carriers and landing helicopter dock ships, according to its developer.

Will China unveil new air and sea-based nuclear missiles at Victory Day military parade?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3322843/will-china-unveil-new-air-and-sea-based-nuclear-missiles-victory-day-military-parade?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s Victory Day parade next month is expected to feature new strategic heavy weapons, with observers closely watching for the possible debut of new air-launched and sea-based nuclear-capable missiles.

On Wednesday, Wu Zeke, deputy director of the parade leadership office, briefed reporters on preparations for the event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

“All the weapons and equipment in this parade have been selected from domestically made systems currently in active service, with a large proportion appearing for the first time,” he said.

Wu added that they would include “land, sea and air-based strategic heavy weapons” – the three components of the nuclear triad.

The idea behind having three distinct delivery systems is that even if one or two legs of the triad are destroyed in a first strike, the remaining force can still launch a retaliatory, or “second-strike”, response.

The parade, to be held in central Beijing on September 3, is expected to be the largest of its kind.

Wu’s comments generated speculation about what new models would be unveiled.

Song Zhongping, a former PLA instructor, said he would be looking out for the latest strategic missiles and new precision hypersonic strike systems.

“These are trump-card weapons that can effectively counter strong adversaries, including the United States,” he said.

China has not confirmed that it has any air-launched ballistic missiles in service, so one of the most likely candidates to feature in the parade is the KF-21.

The missile, the only one of its kind known to be under development, is carried by the specialised H-6N strategic bomber and has an estimated 3,000km (1,870-mile) range and can carry nuclear or conventional weapons.

The KF-21 was first observed in 2018 and satellite images suggest it has remained under development since then.

It is reportedly the world’s largest air-launched missile and its size required structural modifications to the H-6N, which can only carry one under the fuselage.

Reports suggest the missile is closely related to the ground-based DF-21D, which measures around 10.7 metres in length and 1.4 metres in diameter (35 by 4.6ft). If accurate, this would make it substantially larger than the Russian Kh-47M2 Kinzhal (8m by 1m) the biggest air-launched ballistic missile currently in service.

While fixed silos are vulnerable to attack, bombers carrying air-launched ballistic missiles can disperse across multiple airbases, remain airborne on patrol, or even operate from civilian airports, making them far harder to eliminate pre-emptively.

The second full rehearsal for the parade took place near Tiananmen Square last weekend, involving around 40,000 personnel and much of the equipment expected to appear.

The Post has previously reported that a new mobile rocket launcher had been spotted carrying a massive missile canister under tarpaulin.

Its single-side cab design suggested it had been designed to carry a previously unseen or upgraded intercontinental ballistic missile.

“Since the Rocket Force’s ballistic missiles are particularly strong, the navy and air force also need to diversify their deployment of such weapons across multiple platforms,” Song said.

Another thing observers will be looking out for is whether the JL-3, China’s most advanced submarine-launched long-range ballistic missile, will make its first public appearance.

Song described the Ju Lang (JL) series as “formidable”, adding: “In fact, the JL and DF [Dongfeng] series share a strong lineage, with many common components.”

Song said the JL-2 submarine-launched missile was developed in parallel with the DF-31 in the 1980s.

The JL-3 is expected to be able to deliver multiple warheads with a range of more than 10,000km, giving China a credible second-strike capability.

Timothy Heath, a security analyst at US think tank Rand Corporation, said in 2021 that the JL-3, alongside the DF-41, provided Beijing with “an effective means of targeting the continental US from extremely long distances, which increases the survivability of Chinese missiles”.

He said: “Together, the PLA’s conventional and nuclear capability raises the risk and cost of any US fight with China.”

There has also been speculation about whether new land-based systems such as the DF-5C, an upgraded version of existing weapons, or the new DF-27 will feature.

Song said these represented “the future direction of the Rocket Force and the next generation of missile systems … each new variant can be considered a new weapon,” Song said.

He added that more than 80 per cent of the weapons on display at the last Victory Day parade 10 years ago were new.

China’s leadership has underscored the importance of a strong nuclear arsenal. The most recent five-year plan called for “a high-level strategic deterrent and joint operations system”.

The following year, at the Communist Party Congress, President Xi Jinping pledged to “establish a strong system of strategic deterrence” – the first time the concept was explicitly mentioned at the congress.

Strategic deterrence, in Chinese military terms, extends beyond nuclear forces. It includes space, cyber, electronic warfare and autonomous systems, collectively described as “new-domain forces” .

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated China’s nuclear stockpile stood at 600 warheads in January. This would represent an annual increase of around 100 warheads since 2023, making it the world’s fastest-expanding nuclear force.

The Pentagon has calculated the arsenal will reach 1,000 operational warheads by 2030 and potentially 1,500 by 2035.

Both the US and Russia have more than 5,000 warheads – but in each case around 1,500 are launch-ready.

Chinese girl, 5, causes brother’s death while adjusting car seat; court dismisses lawsuit

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3322370/chinese-girl-5-causes-brothers-death-while-adjusting-car-seat-court-dismisses-lawsuit?utm_source=rss_feed

A couple in China have filed a lawsuit against a car manufacturer after their five-year-old daughter adjusted the car seat, which inadvertently led to the death of their two-year-old son due to suffocation from being trapped by the seat.

However, the Shanghai Pudong District People’s Court dismissed their lawsuit, stating that the tragedy was caused by the “multiple instances of negligence in the parents’ guardianship.”

The case was publicised on social media on August 14 by the Shanghai High Court as a noteworthy court decision.

The accident occurred on May 1, 2023, when the father, identified only by the surname Zong, was driving his family – his wife, known by her surname Wu, and their two children.

At that moment, Wu and their daughter were seated in the second row of their multipurpose vehicle, while their toddler son sat alone in the third row.

Wu admitted in court that the boy was not secured in a child safety seat.

She recalled that while waiting at a traffic light, she noticed her daughter had lowered the back of her seat to a very low position.

When she turned around to check on her son, who was two years and seven months old, she saw that his head was tightly pressed against the back of his sister’s seat.

By that time, the boy had lost consciousness, and his body had begun to turn purple, Wu remembered.

The couple rushed him to the hospital, where doctors determined that he had died from brain injuries resulting from a lack of oxygen and blood flow.

The parents took the car manufacturer to court, holding it responsible for a design defect they believed led to their son’s death.

They accused the unnamed company of failing to provide a clear warning and noted that the car’s seat lacked an auto-retraction function.

The family sought an apology from the manufacturer and demanded two million yuan (US$280,000) to cover medical expenses, compensation for death, funeral costs, and fees for emotional support.

In its defence, the car company stated that its products met industry standards, having passed China’s mandatory quality examination, and asserted that the user’s manual clearly warned that children should use safety devices in the vehicle.

The Pudong court concluded that the tragedy resulted from the parents’ neglect.

The court noted that the parents did not secure their son in a safety seat, failed to monitor him during the journey, and allowed their five-year-old daughter to adjust her seat independently.

Ultimately, the court rejected the parents’ lawsuit.

“A company shares responsibility only when customers use its products under normal circumstances,” stated Xi Shaojun, the judge presiding over the case, in the verdict. “Parents’ diligent guardianship serves as the essential ‘line of defence’ for their children’s safety.”

The case ignited widespread discussions across mainland China.

One netizen remarked: “The parents should be ashamed for suing the car company. Instead, they ought to face charges for neglecting their children.”

Another commenter added: “This accident has devastated not one but two lives. When the sister grows up and realises she caused her brother’s death, it will be a terrible burden to bear.”

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China says July electricity consumption hits record high, rivalling Asean’s annual total

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3322827/china-says-july-electricity-consumption-hits-record-high-rivalling-aseans-annual-total?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s electricity consumption surpassed the 1 trillion kilowatt-hour mark in July, energy authorities said, as scorching heatwaves pushed demand to levels equivalent to the annual usage of all Asean nations combined.

Power usage in the country rose 8.6 per cent year on year to reach a historic high of 1.02 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh), according to data released by China’s National Energy Administration on Thursday.

The level was more than double that of a decade ago and comparable to the annual electricity use of Asean, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

By sector, electricity use in the primary industry - including agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries - grew the fastest, up 20.2 per cent year on year to 17 billion kWh.

The tertiary sector, covering services, consumed 208.1 billion kWh, marking a 10.7 per cent increase, while the secondary industry - such as manufacturing, construction and mining - used 593.6 billion kWh, a 4.7 per cent rise.

The surge in electricity usage came as industrial output grew 5.7 per cent year on year in July – slower than June’s 6.8 per cent and below Wind’s 5.82 per cent forecast, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics released earlier this month.

Household electricity consumption surged to 203.9 billion kWh in July, up 18 per cent from the previous year, mainly due to hot and humid summer weather.

According to the CCTV report, demand has reached record highs in many regions this year, with residential use in provinces like Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Anhui and Hubei rising more than 30 per cent year on year.

The share of new energy sources also rose sharply in July, the report stated, with wind, solar and biomass accounting for nearly a quarter of total electricity output – highlighting “the accelerating pace of China’s green energy transition”.

From January to July, China’s total power usage reached about 5.86 trillion kWh, a 4.5 per cent increase year on year, the National Energy Administration said.

China’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure surged by 53 per cent year on year to 16.7 million units by the end of July, according to the administration. Private charging units drove the growth, rising 58.8 per cent to 12.5 million, while public charging stations increased by 38 per cent year on year to 4.2 million.

Why are 7 large mainland Chinese ro-ro cargo ships sailing in the Taiwan Strait?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3322697/why-are-7-large-mainland-chinese-ro-ro-cargo-ships-sailing-taiwan-strait?utm_source=rss_feed

A fleet of large civilian cargo ships has sailed through the Taiwan Strait since heading south from the Bohai Sea off northern mainland China, prompting speculation about a possible joint amphibious landing drill with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The seven ro-ro, or “roll-on/roll-off” ships, with the Yantai-based Bohai Ferry Company in Shandong province, have deviated from their normal shipping routes in the Bohai Sea, according to Maritime Optima, a live ship tracker.

As of Thursday, two of them – the Bohai Zuanzhu and Zhong Hua Fu Xing – had docked at the port of Quanzhou in the strait-facing Fujian province, while the remaining five were still in the waters near Quanzhou.

The Bohai Zuanzhu is Asia’s largest ro-ro passenger ship by tonnage and capacity, and can carry special vehicles that are extra-long, extra-wide and extra-high.

Compared to the PLA’s Type 075 amphibious assault ship, which can carry helicopters, tanks, and infantry fighting vehicles and has a displacement of 40,000 tonnes, Bohai Zuanzhu’s displacement is 35,000 tonnes.

Ro-ro ships are designed to carry wheeled cargo like vehicles and train carriages that can be loaded and unloaded on their own wheels or by transport vehicles.

This feature eliminates the cumbersome process of hoisting cars into the ship’s hold like other cargo, improving loading and unloading efficiency as well as reducing the risk of vehicle damage.

In recent years, ro-ro ships have increasingly participated in joint transport and landing drills with the PLA as tensions across the Taiwan Strait escalate.

Last May, two large ro-ro ships, the Bohai Mingzhu and Bohai Baozhu, were spotted heading southwards into the Taiwan Strait after completing their regular transport missions and taking part in PLA drills.

In response, Taiwan’s military last year incorporated new drills into its annual Han Kuang exercise that were designed to counter the potential threat posed by mainland ro-ro ships.”

Beijing views Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, the self-governed island’s biggest international backer, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state. However, Washington is opposed to any attempt to take Taiwan by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons for defence.

Beijing has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan since the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party came to power nearly a decade ago.

In 2015, China unveiled technical standards on new civilian ships, including ro-ro ships, to meet demand for possible defence use amid Beijing’s push to mobilise civilian resources and facilities for war preparedness.

The move clarified specifications including ship performance, target use and design requirements in building civilian vessels.

Bohai Ferry is among mainland companies producing vessels with military transport capabilities such as troop projection, according to a December 2019 commentary published in the official PLA Daily.

In August 2022, seven large ro-ro ships of the Bohai series from Bohai Ferry were spotted leaving their original operating area in the Yellow Sea and heading south.

And in July 2023, a large number of PLA personnel and equipment conducted joint training with 10,000-tonne civilian ships, according to state-owned China National Radio.

Europe’s scorching heatwave sets demand for Chinese air conditioners ablaze

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3322762/europes-scorching-heatwave-sets-demand-chinese-air-conditioners-ablaze?utm_source=rss_feed

From Paris to Athens, and Lisbon to Berlin, Europeans are enduring a prolonged and punishing summer heatwave amid global warming.

And rising right alongside the blazing temperatures are China’s exports of air conditioners (ACs) to the continent, with a nearly 60 per cent jump by volume in July, compared with the same time last year, according to Chinese customs data.

The Spanish capital of Madrid kicked off the week under a yellow alert – the third-highest heat warning on a four-tier scale – with temperatures reaching almost 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Spain’s State Meteorological Agency.

A severe heatwave also continued to grip France last weekend, when 85 of the 96 metropolitan departments – roughly equivalent to Chinese prefecture-level cities or US counties – were under heatwave alerts, including Paris. The French capital experienced its first heatwave of the summer in June, with temperatures hitting 36 degrees – exceeding the typical average high for the month of 24 degrees.

For a continent that is mostly situated at a latitude similar to China’s northeast – with Paris being a little bit north of Heilongjiang province’s Harbin, and Madrid being slightly south of Liaoning province’s Shenyang – the heatwaves have laid bare Europe’s unpreparedness for extreme temperatures while sending demand for ACs surging.

And that means business is similarly heating up for Chinese brands that dominate the global AC market – producing about 80 per cent of the world’s cooling units, according to the AC branch of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products.

Online searches for leading Chinese AC maker Midea hit a five-year peak last month in France, Spain and Italy, according to Google Trends. In France, the trending index of Midea saw nearly a fivefold jump compared with last summer’s peak. In Spain and Italy, where ACs are more ubiquitous due to the countries being farther south, the search upticks reached 138 per cent and 58 per cent, respectively.

Meanwhile, a YouTube search returned hundreds of product-review videos for AC units – some sponsored by Chinese brands – and installation tutorials in German, Italian, French and Spanish for their AC units.

In the comment section of an Italian review video for Midea’s PortaSplit AC – which features an indoor and outdoor unit connected to a refrigerant line – posted in July, users praised its cooling capacity compared with traditional European brands while noting how easy it was to install.

“Finally, someone is selling them here, too … years ago I bought a Pinguino [a mobile AC unit from Italian brand DeLonghi] for less than €400 [US$467], but when it’s 35-40 degrees outside, even if installed perfectly, it can’t cool a 12 square metre [129 sq ft] room below 27 degrees,” one user wrote.

While some said the PortaSplit’s €1,000 price was a bit high, others contended that not requiring professional installation helped reduce the cost.

Installing a classic two-part AC unit in France can cost €1,200 to €2,000, according to an estimate from French electric utility company Engie published in June.

The online enthusiasm has translated into concrete results: Midea’s European sales saw a 35 per cent increase during the first half of 2025, the company’s Europe head, Zhu Zhou, was quoted as saying by China’s Xinhua.

The PortaSplit, designed with the European market in mind to circumvent expensive AC installation fees, has similarly received positive reactions in countries such as France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, according to Zhu.

China’s AC exports to Europe in July increased 59.06 per cent by volume and 14.85 per cent by value, year on year, to US$9.28 million, according to Chinese customs data released on Wednesday.

And the increase came despite a 10 per cent drop in China’s total AC exports, by volume, to the world.

In Fujian province, the value of AC exports during the first seven months of 2025 rose by 50 per cent, year on year, to 140 million yuan, according to local customs data.

Looking to a future in which the global warming trend is widely expected to continue for years to come, while residents of southern European countries are no strangers to domestic air coolers, those in countries farther north could be increasingly forced to rely on ACs.

Spain, Italy and Greece respectively spent 1.1 per cent, 2 per cent and 5.1 per cent of their annual energy consumption on ACs in 2023, while that number for France and Germany was 0.5 per cent or less, according to the latest European Union data.

The number of “tropical nights” – when temperatures remain above 20 degrees – is projected to increase from six to 15 days each summer by 2030, and to 24 days by 2050 in Paris, according to the French meteorological administration.

Accordingly, the French government projects that the number of air-conditioned homes will increase from 9 million in 2020 to 35 million by 2050, covering 95 per cent of all homes in the country.

In a 2024 report, the European Commission said it expected that 70 million ACs would be installed by 2030, covering 35 per cent of European households.

But despite the growing success of Chinese AC brands in Europe, challenges to market penetration remain, as many Europeans do not consider ACs to be environmentally friendly, and as cities such as Paris have strict rules about AC installations, especially outdoor units, to protect the historical landscape.

The high cost of electricity is another hurdle. A recent study published in March by the Hellenic Passive House Institute – a non-profit that promotes energy efficiency in buildings – found that the average summer household temperature in Athens was 31.4 degrees, despite a relatively high AC installation rate in the Greek capital.

“The problem arises from the fact that electricity bills are excessively high, and many residents are unable to use air conditioning to achieve the optimal temperature range of 20-25 degrees Celsius,” the report said.

Additional reporting by Mia Nulimaimaiti

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South China Sea: Beijing asserts ‘control measures’ against Philippine ships at shoal

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3322763/south-china-sea-beijing-asserts-control-measures-against-philippine-ships-shoal?utm_source=rss_feed

China says it has taken “control measures” against two Philippine vessels near the Sierra Madre, a warship grounded on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, as tensions re-emerge in the contested waters of the South China Sea.

In a short statement on Friday morning, Gan Yu, a spokesman for the China Coast Guard, accused the two Philippine ships of “deliberately engaging in provocative collisions” when approaching the China Coast Guard after being deployed from the Sierra Madre.

He did not specify when the confrontation took place, but said the Chinese side had “implemented control measures” in response.

In a 33-second video released by China Coast Guard, Philippine crew was spotted filming the Chinese ship. One of the Philippine ships was also seen crossing in front of the Chinese vessel.

“China Coast Guard will continue to carry out rights protection and law enforcement activities in the waters near Renai Jiao in accordance with the law, resolutely safeguarding national sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” Gan said, using the Chinese name of the Second Thomas Shoal, which is also known as Ayungin Shoal in the Philippines.

On Thursday, the Philippine military said it had observed “an increase” in Chinese vessels, including coastguard vessels and militia ships, near the Second Thomas Shoal on Wednesday.

Some of the coastguard vessels were equipped with heavy crew-served weapons and supported by 11 fast boats, one rotary aircraft and one drone, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said on X, adding that it would continue to monitor and report the deployment of Chinese vessels.

In one of the most damaging clashes in recent years, one People’s Liberation Army Navy warship and a Chinese coastguard vessel appeared to collide in an encounter with a Philippine vessel near the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea earlier this month. The Philippines, which released the video of the collision, said the Chinese coastguard ship was heavily damaged.

Beijing said at that time it had forced several Philippine vessels away from waters near Scarborough Shoal after they “ignored repeated warnings from the Chinese side and insistently intruded into the waterway”. It remains unclear whether there were casualties from the incident.

Second Thomas Shoal is a submerged feature in the Spratly Islands that is within the 200-nautical mile (370km) exclusive economic zone of the Philippines but is also claimed by China.

It has been one of the points of contention between the two countries since Manila deliberately grounded the BRP Sierra Madre, a crumbling World War II-era landing ship, on the outcrop in 1999 to assert the country’s territorial claims and housed a crew of Philippine marines in the warship.

Beijing has repeatedly urged the Philippines to remove the ship, and has since intercepted Philippine’s resupply missions to the shoal, leading to a series of clashes in which a Philippine sailor lost a thumb in June last year.

To defuse tensions, diplomats from China and the Philippines met in July last year, when the two sides reached a “temporary arrangement” for resupply missions, though no details were released.

Meanwhile, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has rejected claims by Beijing that his country had promised to remove BRP Sierra Madre from the disputed shoal.

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Chinese man’s affair exposed after birth control pills e-payment fails; pharmacy notifies wife

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3322359/chinese-mans-affair-exposed-after-birth-control-pills-e-payment-fails-pharmacy-notifies-wife?utm_source=rss_feed

A Chinese man in southern China who attempted to secretly purchase birth control pills inadvertently exposed his extramarital affair when his e-payment failed, prompting staff to contact his wife for payment.

The man, whose name has not been disclosed, posted a video stating that he visited the Pinggang branch of Dashenlin Pharmacy in Yangjiang, Guangdong province, and tried to pay for contraceptive pills using his mobile payment code.

However, due to a “system problem,” the payment of 15.8 yuan (US$2.2) did not go through.

The staff then called the phone number associated with the man’s membership card to recover the cost, but the call mistakenly reached his wife.

When his wife inquired about the purchase, the staff member explicitly confirmed that it was for contraceptive pills, leading to the immediate revelation of the man’s extramarital affair.

The length of their marriage and the duration of the affair remain undisclosed.

The man claimed that the incident resulted in the collapse of two families and demanded accountability from the pharmacy.

“Now my wife knows everything, and two families are on the brink of disintegration. I want to know – does your pharmacy bear any responsibility?” he expressed angrily in his post.

He included a receipt for the medication he purchased and a screenshot of the chat history between the store clerk and his wife as evidence.

Additionally, he provided a police report issued on August 12 by the Pinggang Police Station under the Gaoxin Branch of the Yangjiang Public Security Bureau.

Fu Jian, director of Henan Zejin Law Firm, told Elephant News that while the man can seek to defend his rights, doing so could prove very challenging.

“On one hand, the man’s infidelity is the primary cause of the family breakdown, and he must accept responsibility for his actions. On the other hand, if the pharmacy did violate his privacy, it should also be held legally accountable,” Fu stated.

“However, if he wants to pursue legal action, he must provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate a causal link between the pharmacy’s disclosure of information and the collapse of his marriage. Based on the current circumstances, the phone call made by the pharmacy staff appears legitimate and not intended to leak information, making it extremely difficult for the unfaithful man to claim a violation of his rights,” he clarified.

The story has sparked intense discussion across Chinese social media, with many mocking the cheating husband.

One person commented: “This is hilarious – he cheats and still believes he’s in the right? What a drama king. Two families fell apart because of his infidelity. What does the store clerk have to do with it?”

Another remarked: “I’m dying of laughter. Bro, you totally deserve this.”

A third added: “He cheats on his wife, is too stingy to buy his own condoms, uses his wife’s pharmacy membership card, and then blames the store when he gets caught. What a joke!”

FM Wang Yi urges faster progress towards China-Pakistan Economic Corridor 2.0

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3322761/fm-wang-yi-urges-faster-progress-towards-china-pakistan-economic-corridor-20?utm_source=rss_feed

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has pledged China’s continued support for Pakistan and urged an acceleration of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure project.

In whirlwind meetings with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior officials in Islamabad on Thursday, Wang also vowed to enhance security collaboration to counter the country’s long-standing terrorism threats, often targeting Chinese nationals.

“China has always been Pakistan’s most reliable partner and strongest backer,” he told Sharif, according to the Chinese foreign ministry readout.

“Both sides should accelerate the construction of the 2.0 upgrade version of [CPEC], focusing on the three major areas of agriculture, industry, and mining,” Wang said, adding that China would help Islamabad to “comprehensively improve self-development ability” and “enhance resilience for external challenges”.

Sharif said Islamabad also wanted cooperation in “aerospace, information technology, and infrastructure” and pledged that Pakistan would make a “full effort” to secure the safety of Chinese nationals and projects from terrorist attacks.

CPEC has seen more than US$65 billion in Chinese investment, including the China-managed Gwadar Port linking Xinjiang and the Arabian Sea. The second phase of the project, according to Pakistan, involves setting up special economic zones.

In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post earlier this year, Muhammad Aurangzeb Pakistan’s finance minister, said CPEC 2.0 would enable the country to become an export hub and generate enough foreign currency to pay its debt.

However, the Chinese presence in Pakistan has been constantly targeted by the Balochistan Liberation Army and other militants. Since 2021, there have been at least 14 terrorist attacks that have killed 20 Chinese nationals.

During separate meetings on Thursday with Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, army chief Asim Munir and Ishaq Dar, the foreign minister, the top Chinese diplomat also highlighted the importance of counterterrorism efforts.

China’s pledge was made against a backdrop of rapidly warming relations between Washington and Islamabad. The US has promised further cooperation with Pakistan on counterterrorism and deeper investment, focusing on oil and other natural resources.

Wang, who was in India this week immediately before his visit to Islamabad, also reiterated Beijing’s support for Pakistan’s “territorial integrity and national security” – a possible reference to the recent deadly conflict over Kashmir.

China is the largest arms supplier to Pakistan, which said it deployed multiple Chinese fighter jets – including the advanced J-10 – against Indian air forces during the conflict in May.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told Wang in their meeting on Monday that a joint effort was needed to “fight against terrorism”, a remark that was seen as putting pressure on Beijing over Pakistani issues.

Later this month, President Xi Jinping is expected to meet Sherif and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation leaders’ summit.

Between his India and Pakistan visits, Wang also made a short stop in Afghanistan, where he discussed counterterrorism and expansion of the belt and road programme with Pakistan’s Dar and Taliban officials.

Plane software mastermind leaves US for China, Trump as top mediator: SCMP’s 7 highlights

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3322738/plane-software-mastermind-leaves-us-china-trump-top-mediator-scmps-7-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

Chinese space engineers made small but deliberate changes to last year’s historic sample retrieval mission to the far side of the moon to avoid political friction in the South China Sea, according to a new paper.

US President Donald Trump’s mediation tactics revealed a power politics approach and constituted ill-advised interference in the long term, Zhang Luwei, a research associate at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said in an article published on the institute’s social media account last week.

Malaysia’s Terengganu state has warned it will start fully enforcing a sharia law enabling the imprisonment of Muslim men for up to two years if they skip Friday prayers without a valid reason – a move widely seen as emblematic of the multicultural country’s tilt towards religious conservatism.

Zhou Ming, renowned as the mastermind behind key industrial software used in planes such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380, has left his leadership role at US-based global engineering giant Altair to return to China.

Apple has joined the popular Chinese social platform RedNote, known as China’s answer to Instagram, in the US tech giant’s latest bid to strengthen its brand presence in the competitive mainland market ahead of the launch of the iPhone 17.

Hong Kong’s much-awaited hosting of the Saudi Super Cup, featuring football legend Cristiano Ronaldo, has brought thousands of fans to the city and may give a boost to restaurant operators, who are optimistic about an increase in business of up to 30 per cent.

While the US suffered its largest recorded collapse in its commercial honeybee colonies, China’s bee population has reached a historic high, maintaining the country’s long-standing position as the world’s largest producer of apiary goods.

Nvidia halts H20 AI chip production amid China concerns: report

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3322729/nvidia-halts-h20-ai-chip-production-amid-china-concerns-report?utm_source=rss_feed

Nvidia has told some component suppliers to suspend production of its H20 AI chip, designed specifically for the Chinese market, the Information reported on Thursday, citing two people with direct knowledge of the communications.

According to the report, Nvidia instructed Arizona-based Amkor Technology to stop production of the H20 chips this week and also notified South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.

Amkor handles advanced packaging for the chip, while Samsung supplies high-bandwidth memory chips for the model.

Neither company immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment.

Meanwhile, a Nvidia representative said in a statement, “We constantly manage our supply chain to address market conditions.”

“As both governments recognise, the H20 is not a military product or for government infrastructure. China won’t rely on American chips for government operations, just like the US government would not rely on chips from China,” it said.

This comes as Chinese authorities last week summoned domestic companies, including major internet firms Tencent Holdings and ByteDance, over their H20 chip purchases, expressing concerns over information risks.

Married Chinese man dies after hotel sex with lover; his family seeks US$77,000 payout

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3321885/married-chinese-man-dies-after-hotel-sex-lover-his-family-seeks-us77000-payout?utm_source=rss_feed

A court in China has ordered a woman to pay 62,000 yuan (US$8,600) in compensation to the family of her married lover who died after having sex with her in a hotel room.

The reason for the death of the 66-year-old man, surnamed Zhou, was acute myocardial infarction, according to a medical certificate issued by a local hospital, according to Red Star News.

Hours before his death, Zhou had sex with his lover, identified as Zhuang, at a hotel in Pingnan county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, southern China on July 14, 2024.

Zhou’s wife and son sued the hotel and Zhuang for not fulfilling their obligation to save Zhou.

They were seeking 550,000 yuan (US$77,000) to which the court added 70,000 yuan (US$9,800) for funeral costs, making a total of 620,000 yuan (US$86,000), before making its final ruling.

Zhou and Zhuang worked together at a factory in the 1980s. They met again at a party in 2023.

On July 24, 2024, Zhou checked in at a hotel and called Zhuang to join him.

According to Zhuang, they had sex before falling asleep. When she woke up, she found Zhou was not breathing.

Thinking Zhou had died, Zhuang was frightened and at a loss as to what to do.

Since she has hypertension, she went home first to take some pills to reduce her blood pressure.

When she returned to the hotel and could not open the room where she had been with Zhou, she asked a hotel worker to help her open the door.

On entering the room, they found Zhou did not respond to their shouting. The hotel worker called an ambulance and the police.

Doctors and police officers confirmed that Zhou was dead.

Police found out that Zhou also had hypertension and had previously suffered a stroke.

The court ruled that Zhou’s death was caused by his own pre-existing conditions, and he should bear the main responsibility.

Zhuang should only bear secondary liability because she was not aware of Zhou’s previous illnesses.

The court also said that she left the room and returned an hour later, missing the best time to save him.

In addition, the ruling said that by having an affair with Zhou, knowing that he was married, she had violated public order and good customs.

In the end, the court decided that Zhuang should pay Zhou’s family 10 per cent of the earlier 620,000 yuan figure it had set.

The hotel was not at fault and was therefore not required to pay anything because Zhou died inside a room, not in a public area, added the court.

China’s rise in biotech to potentially lower healthcare costs, life science investor says

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3322664/chinas-rise-biotech-potentially-lower-healthcare-costs-life-science-investor-says?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s rise in biotech innovation offers the world a potentially cheaper alternative to costly healthcare products from Western suppliers, but geopolitical tensions remain a major challenge for the country’s globalisation efforts, according to a local investor in the sector.

“We can lower the cost of healthcare and benefit more people through technological innovation and efficiency improvement,” Da Liu, managing director of CR-CP Life Science Fund, said in an interview with the Post earlier this week. “China’s recent achievements in biotech show that it’s possible.”

The CR-CP Life Science Fund was launched in 2019 by the state-run China Resources Group and Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group, with US$170 million under management. Companies the fund has backed include Legend Biotech, which went public in New York in 2020, and Singapore-based Mirxes, which listed its shares in Hong Kong in May this year.

Innovative drugs coming out of China’s biotech firms have become increasingly popular licensing targets among multinational corporations (MNCs) in recent years, leading to what some are calling a “DeepSeek moment” for the local industry.

Multinationals have turned their attention to Chinese biotech companies and assets because of their “cost efficiencies, accelerated timelines and promising quality”, US investment bank Jefferies said in a report last month.

Of the top 10 global drug deals by transaction volume in the first half of the year, seven involved licensing from Chinese firms, according to a July report by data provider PharmCube.

However, China was still in the early stages of innovative life sciences, and domestic companies faced “a torturous pathway ahead” in becoming global leaders, Liu wrote in his book, Life Sciences Unicorns: From a China Investment Perspective, published in 2023.

“China won’t be able to produce [biopharmaceutical] MNCs for [another] 10 to 20 years,” Liu said on Tuesday.

Western biopharmaceutical MNCs came about mostly through mergers and acquisitions, benefiting from increased globalisation in recent decades, according to Liu. The current geopolitical environment has hampered cross-border merger efforts for Chinese companies, he said.

For Chinese biotech firms to become large multinational players in the industry, they would need to have a dominant position in at least one or two fields, which has become increasingly difficult amid intensifying competition, according to Liu.

As his next project after the eight-year CR-CP Life Science Fund matures, Liu wants to set up an investment fund in Hong Kong that would also focus on life sciences.

“Hong Kong serves as a connecting point between China and Southeast Asia, and many from the US and Europe still choose Hong Kong as their first stop for business,” Liu said. “It still holds an advantage. I hope to leverage Hong Kong to build this two-way bridge.”

In China’s crippling price wars, an old law’s revision seeks ‘sustainable equilibrium’

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3322605/chinas-crippling-price-wars-old-laws-revision-seeks-sustainable-equilibrium?utm_source=rss_feed

It has been a tumultuous couple of months for Alex Xu’s company – a solar panel manufacturer based in eastern China’s Zhejiang province – as product prices have surged by about 20 per cent.

Long plagued by severe oversupply, China’s photovoltaic industry is grappling with cutthroat price wars and even loss-making sales. From Xu’s perspective, nearly half of the industry’s capacity is excessive.

But a rebound in prices has followed recent calls from Chinese authorities to combat “involution”, or neijuan – a buzzword referring to destructive competition that is often characterised by the aggressive slashing of prices – across various economic sectors.

One significant government measure was the revision of the decades-old pricing law, which updated the definition of unfair pricing practices and strengthened measures to curb them.

The amendment to the pricing law, drafted by the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation, is open for public feedback until Saturday. This marks the law’s first revision since its enactment in 1998 and has drawn widespread attention for targeting involution-style competition.

“Due to the nature of photovoltaic products, which lack significant differentiation in appearance and are highly homogenised, many customers focus solely on price rather than product details,” Xu said. “This has led to pure price competition, resulting in substantial industry losses.”

As his firm’s deputy general manager, Xu supports tightening regulations on pricing.

“Sustaining losses like this long-term is unsustainable for businesses. Without profits, there’s no room for future development,” he said.

Though not fully liberalised, the Chinese-style market economy has seen most goods and services priced by market forces.

“With the emergence of new economic models and industries, issues of disorderly low-price competition have become prominent,” the drafting authorities said in their note on the amendment.

The revision focuses on three areas: clarifying standards for identifying unfair pricing practices, strengthening legal accountability for price violations, and refining government pricing mechanisms.

A key provision addresses “low-price dumping”, expanding its scope from “goods” to include “services” and targeting not only operators but also those who “force others to engage in low-price dumping according to their pricing rules”. The threshold for defining low prices remains “below cost”.

The national association of China’s photovoltaic industry, a sector believed to have one of the worst price distortions, has called on member companies to provide feedback on the amended law based on their own circumstances.

With their grip on about 90 per cent of the world’s photovoltaic production and manufacturing, Chinese companies have seen the average price of solar modules plunge by up to 70 per cent from 2012 levels, when investors began betting big on the industry, Xu recalled.

Although there has been growth in international demand in recent years, the industry faces severe oversupply – there is more than 1,000 gigawatts of capacity in total, but the actual need is just 600 gigawatts, meaning nearly half of the capacity is lying idle, he noted.

Chen Bo, an economist and a senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore (NUS), said the latest amendment was necessary to protect fair market competition amid China’s fiercely price-competitive environment.

“Good competition drives survival of the fittest, but we’re stuck in a low-end rivalry – a race to the bottom,” he said.

And that race to offer rock-bottom prices has intensified across various Chinese industries in recent years, from milk tea to ride-hailing.

In the electric vehicle industry, less than 10 per cent of the brands in China are expected to turn a profit by 2030 as a result of the fierce price war, consultancy firm AlixPartners said in a report on the global car industry last month.

Yuan Jia, an associate professor specialising in economic law at Sichuan University, said the revised law offered stronger, more practical guidance for regulating pricing behaviour across industries.

“It is enforceable from central to local levels, with legal penalties that are moderate – less severe than those under the anti-monopoly law – while covering a broad range of cases,” he said.

But the most critical issue in the revision is defining when product pricing falls below cost. “Cost is tied to a company’s procurement capabilities, technology and other factors, making it nearly impossible for regulators to obtain 100 per cent accurate cost data,” he noted.

“In practice, average marginal costs are typically used as benchmarks, ensuring that each additional unit produced and sold doesn’t result in a loss,” he said, adding that the law would need to be followed by more detailed directives and case studies from enforcement agencies.

The amendment came as part of Beijing’s efforts to combat involution, having identified this as a key task for policymakers and a critical barrier to high-quality economic development for the first time, as suggested by Premier Li Qiang’s work report delivered during the annual “two sessions” parliamentary gatherings in March.

In a meeting early last month, the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, a top Communist Party organ overseeing economic issues, emphasised the need to curb involution and regulate low-price competition, vowing to help enterprises enhance product quality while phasing out outdated capacity.

Chen, the NUS researcher, said the crackdown, in reality, is a fight against overcapacity – an issue the government has been dealing with since the era of former premier Li Keqiang (2013-2023).

“But because of the deflation that China is facing at the moment, and the abuse of the word in Western narratives over the past couple of years, Chinese authorities tend to avoid using it,” he said.

After Beijing acknowledged in December 2023 that overcapacity in some industries posed a major risk to economic growth, officials began refuting Western claims of overcapacity.

“The economy has its own cycles, and excessive capacity emerges periodically,” Chen explained. “What China needs to do now is to curb the oversupply situation as soon as possible to minimise its socioeconomic impact.”

While he supported the tightening of legislation, Xu, the Zhejiang business executive, said it could not rectify all distorted prices, because businesses “always find workarounds”.

“The job should ultimately be done by the market,” he said, adding that a great deal of excessive capacity has yet to be eliminated because of local government support.

“Many photovoltaic companies have neither the technology nor the market, but they have land and equipment due to government policies,” he said. Tied to local government performance, this capacity, which he said may account for about 70 per cent of the industry, remains uncleared.

Jacob Gunter, a senior analyst specialising in “economy and industry” at the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies think tank, agreed that China’s neijuan issues were worsened by overinvestment, driven by its policy choices and the ensuing oversupply.

In principle, neijuan should be part of the standard business cycle where an excess of market entrants results in weak profits and fierce price competition, leading to the least efficient players exiting the market until consolidation achieves a sustainable equilibrium, he explained.

“However, neijuan becomes problematic if consolidation is too slow or isn’t proceeding at all – which is the core issue in China as vested interests, especially at the provincial and local levels, continue to feed loss-making firms to keep them alive and prevent market consolidation,” he added.

Neijuan-style competition is not unique to China, he noted, pointing to the tech industry in Silicon Valley, where companies often race to build scale while sustaining losses thanks to the backing of venture capitalists who tolerate such losses because the rewards – if companies succeed – can be very high.

But the scale of such phenomena in China is “unlike anything seen elsewhere”, happening across a wide range of sectors – primarily in asset-heavy manufacturing, where the scale of the costs and losses is much higher, he noted.

Beyond revising the pricing law, countermeasures that China has taken so far include government regulators holding talks with businesses, while industry associations roll out initiatives. These efforts have worked, to an extent, with some sectors seeing prices rebound.

Starting August 4, the base price for express delivery in Guangdong province increased by 0.4 yuan per shipment, and the new minimum price for a single shipment is now 1.4 yuan, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported. Authorities reportedly mandated that no company could charge less than this per-parcel rate, or they would face heavy penalties.

In the meantime, several leading paper manufacturers have issued price-increase notices amid tough government intervention and the rising cost of raw materials, announcing hikes for various products starting August 1.

For Xu’s company, price increases are not the end goal. The main strategy to avoid being eliminated by cutthroat competition is to invest in research and development to create new offerings and differentiated products, he said.