• China’s Fujian carrier may join service next month, Japan link in CCTV video suggests
• Why China’s DF-31 missiles remain effective deterrents decades after debut
• Apple’s India push tested as Foxconn recalls 300 Chinese staff
• ‘No geopolitics involved’: Angola rail project not aimed at countering China, CEO says
• Chinese man suffers stroke, wife skims US$153,000 from account, leaving him with only US$6
• US mixed signals leading Japan to broaden defence ties with eye on China: analysts
• Why Japan should cooperate with China on infrastructure, not compete
• ‘Go catch him’: Chinese musician stops show to help woman capture sexual assailant
• How is market reading the tea leaves as China’s Puer bubble comes off the boil?
• Vietnam’s island-building in disputed South China Sea set to eclipse Beijing’s efforts: report
• Puyi lookalike acts in numerous dramas, even fools AI in viral role as last emperor of China
• China’s hypersonic warfare data link could dazzle Nato’s war machine: scientists
• Why is the US uneasy as China’s 5-strong icebreaker fleet arrives in Arctic?
• Apple sues China’s Oppo, ex-engineer over alleged theft of Watch trade secrets
• Award-winning HIV scientist Shan Liang leaves US to join Chinese research institute
• Hong Kong tops the US as the go-to IPO venue for Chinese start-ups as funds return to Asia
• Malaysia flexes rare earth muscle as mineral-hungry US seeks non-Chinese sources
• Macho China police officer saves drowning man; viral wet T-shirt photo raises fandom concerns
• With Malaysia’s energy future adrift in the South China Sea, can it defend its oil wealth?
• China’s military has made a dramatic about-turn. The world is watching

China’s Fujian carrier may join service next month, Japan link in CCTV video suggests

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3322941/chinas-fujian-carrier-may-join-service-next-month-japan-link-cctv-video-suggests?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s third and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, could be officially commissioned as early as wartime anniversaries next month, a video by state broadcaster CCTV suggests.

The video released on Saturday sought to draw a parallel between the Japanese naval incursions 88 years ago and the Fujian’s readiness to enter service, linking it with the memory of the Japanese invasion.

China will be marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japanese aggression with a military parade on September 3.

The CCTV video opened with views of China State Shipbuilding Corp’s Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai – where the Fujian was built and launched – before cutting to footage of the carrier at sea.

“In August 2025, China’s first catapult-equipped aircraft carrier, designed and built entirely at home, is preparing for official commissioning. Eighty-eight years ago, the Imperial Japanese Navy’s flagship Izumo prowled in the same waters,” a narrator said.

The video featured naval historian Chen Yue, who said: “The armoured cruiser Izumo’s guns were pointed directly at Shanghai’s urban districts. The money used to buy that warship came from reparations extracted under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. It became a symbol of Japan’s aggression against China.”

Meanwhile, the narrator recalled the 1937 Battle of Shanghai, when Chinese aircraft and torpedo boats successfully struck the Izumo, inflicting serious damage on the Japanese warship.

The Fujian has already completed eight sea trials since its maiden voyage in May last year, totalling about 117 days at sea. This exceeds the trial periods of China’s two serving carriers, the Liaoning (109 days) and the Shandong (84 days), and even France’s Charles de Gaulle (87 days), suggesting more complex testing and higher technical maturity.

Images from the last three months showed the Fujian undergoing final preparations at the shipyard, with scaffolding removed and its flight deck cleaned of tyre marks left from earlier trials.

Once commissioned, the Fujian will make China the only nation besides the United States to operate carriers with electromagnetic catapults.

The 80,000-tonne vessel is Asia’s largest warship, equipped with three electromagnetic launchers and designed to carry stealth carrier-based fighters, multirole catapult-launched carrier fighters, fixed-wing early-warning aircraft, fixed-wing electronic warfare planes and anti-submarine helicopters – in what the military community describes as a “carrier strike five-piece set”.

Speculation on Chinese social media has focused on possible commissioning dates linked to wartime anniversaries.

These include September 3, marking victory in the “Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression”, and September 18, the date of the 1931 Mukden Incident. That was the day when Japanese forces staged a railway explosion in a false flag operation outside Mukden, today’s Shenyang in northeastern China, as a pretext to invade erstwhile Manchuria.

It is remembered as the beginning of Japan’s 14-year war of aggression in China, which opened the eastern theatre of the second world war and triggered the start of China’s armed resistance.

Hints about an imminent commissioning also appeared in CCTV’s five-part documentary series Forging Ahead, released to mark the 98th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) earlier this month. The episode on the Fujian featured an officer on board, aviation director Tian Wei, who said: “We must ensure the new equipment quickly achieves combat readiness, so that delivery means immediate fighting capability.”

Meanwhile, preparations are in full swing for what is expected to be a massive military parade in Beijing on September 3. CCTV reported on Saturday that a joint military band of more than 1,000 troops will perform, the largest in the history of Chinese parades.

State media on Friday also highlighted the selection of three young honour guard officers, all born in the 1990s, to carry the Communist Party, national, and military flags across Tiananmen Square.

Friday’s reports emphasised the use of smart training systems and mixed formations of troops and equipment, with parade organisers saying the event would showcase the PLA’s modern combined-arms capabilities and advances in intelligent warfare. Hundreds of aircraft and ground vehicles are expected to be part of the spectacle.

CCTV also released an interview with Senior Sergeant Major Ding Hui of the PLA Ground Force’s 82nd Group Army combined brigade, who will be taking part in his sixth military parade.

Ding drove the lead tank in the armoured column in four of his five previous parades, which included China’s first World War II Victory Day parade 10 years ago. The others were for the 50th, 60th and 70th anniversaries of the People’s Republic and the 90th year of the PLA.

“The equipment on display is not built for parades, but for fighting,” Ding told CCTV.

“We can drive it from the training ground to the parade ground, and on command from the parade ground to the battlefield. Our parade posture is adjusted entirely according to combat posture.”

Why China’s DF-31 missiles remain effective deterrents decades after debut

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3322794/why-chinas-df-31-missiles-remain-effective-deterrents-decades-after-debut?utm_source=rss_feed

Following what became a historic countdown, PLA Sergeant Major Zhao Jing tapped the laptop before him, declared “launch sequence initiated”, and exited the cabin of the missile vehicle he had ridden into the dense jungle of Hainan province.

Some 27 minutes later, a dummy warhead plunged into the southern Pacific Ocean in an uninhabited area near French Polynesia, thousands of miles from Hawaii.

The moment on September 25, 2024, marked China’s first full-range, trans-Pacific intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test since 1980 – and only the second in the country’s history.

The rare ICBM test also illustrated a credible second-strike nuclear capability for China, sending a strong geopolitical signal to the United States and its allies.

In the launch tied to “the honour of the Rocket Force and the dignity and confidence of the nation”, what Zhao activated was a DF-31AG missile.

Among the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force’s nuclear missile inventory, the DF-31 series is neither the newest nor the most powerful weapon.

But the missiles can reach targets on the US mainland and their independent multiple warheads pose a threat to any missile defence.

As has recently come to light, the DF-31 represents a mass-deployed “backbone” force and a mature, reliable, full-terrain combat-ready capability whose strategic significance can surpass that of newer and more advanced equipment.

The DF-31 (short for Dong Feng or “east wind”) is China’s first solid-fuelled road-mobile ICBM.

The three-stage missile measures about 15 metres (49 feet) in length and 2 metres in diameter, with a launch weight of about 42 tonnes.

It is guided by a stellar-inertial navigation system, while the later DF-31A and DF-31AG reportedly have added supplementary satellite BeiDou navigation for improved accuracy.

The baseline DF-31 carries a single thermonuclear warhead, with an estimated yield of 1 megaton TNT – about 67 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The upgraded models are believed to adopt multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) technologies, carrying multiple warheads and decoys.

Development of the DF-31 series began in the mid-1980s, driven by China’s need for a road-mobile ICBM to ensure a second-strike capability.

The first successful DF-31 test is believed to have been held in 1999, and later that year the missile made its public debut during the National Day military parade.

The programme continued to evolve with enhanced range, accuracy and survivability. The longer-range DF-31A officially debuted during the 2009 National Day parade, and the DF-31AG was unveiled during the 2017 Army Day parade, featuring a superior all-terrain launch vehicle.

Additionally, China in recent years has reportedly built hundreds of new silos for solid-propellant ICBMs and configured a variant of the DF-31 class missile for silo launch, according to the Pentagon.

According to varying estimates, China has built between 80 and 100 launch vehicles of the DF-31 series, with the total number of missiles thought to exceed that number.

By any measure, the missiles form a cornerstone of the Rocket Force’s nuclear delivery systems.

Thanks to the DF-31 missiles being able to “stop, shoot and run”, China for the first time possesses a credible nuclear counterstrike force with high mobility and survivability for armed crises or war.

For Beijing, committed as it is to a “no first use” nuclear doctrine, a strong second-strike capability is vital, meaning Chinese nuclear forces must be able to survive an enemy’s initial nuclear strike and deliver a devastating retaliatory blow.

For this reason, it is widely thought that the mobility and survivability of a land-based nuclear force directly determine the credibility of China’s nuclear deterrence, and thus go to the core of the strategic development of its nuclear capability.

Before the DF-31, China’s only land-based nuclear missile capable of reaching intercontinental targets was the DF-5 series, which relies on fixed silos and requires lengthy pre-launch fuelling due to its liquid propellant.

When it entered into service in 2006, the DF-31 series immediately became a pillar of China’s nuclear deterrent capability.

Mounted on a transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) vehicle, the DF-31 can conduct covert manoeuvres across China’s extensive web of roads. This makes the missile extremely difficult for adversaries to detect, locate or destroy.

Furthermore, the DF-31 can attack from any corner of the country without relying on external support. Some media outlets have reported that the DF-31 could also be rail-mobile, though such a capability has yet to be confirmed.

Its solid-fuel design allows for a very quick launch whenever a rapid response is needed.

As shown in the 2024 test launch, the DF-31AG brigade of the Rocket Force manoeuvred through a storm caused by a typhoon, traversed southern China’s challenging terrain and launched its missile from an unprepared site in dense vegetation.

Successor missiles such as the DF-41 continue to emphasise mobility and survivability while incorporating significant improvements in range, payload and overall performance.

In this sense, the DF-31 series established a technological foundation in areas like solid-fuel propulsion and TEL systems, bringing diversity to an arsenal meant to deter potential nuclear threats and safeguard China’s strategic security.

The baseline DF-31 has a range of about 8,000km (4,970 miles), and is capable of reaching parts of Europe, Asia and the northwestern US from Chinese territory.

However, its tractor-semi-trailer vehicle is sensitive to road conditions, limiting its mobility to paved or well-maintained roads.

As such, the TEL requires a complex connection, positioning and calibration process before launch, and a single warhead is relatively easy to intercept by a missile defence system.

The DF-31A incorporates a lighter airframe and more advanced solid fuel, vastly extending its range to more than 11,000km and allowing it to target most of the continental US.

This type of missile is said to be capable of carrying three to five MIRVs or “multiple independently-targetable re-entry vehicles”, as well as penetration devices like decoys, greatly enhancing the odds of beating missile defence systems.

Compared to the DF-31A, the DF-31AG has mainly seen upgrades to its launch vehicle, from the previous tractor-semi-trailer to a 16x16 integrated high-mobile TEL, with much stronger off-road capabilities and rapid deployment.

When erected, the launch tubes for the DF-31 and DF-31A touch the ground by fixed jacks, requiring site preparation in advance.

But a self-levelling extendable stabiliser on the rear end of the DF-31AG canister significantly reduces terrain requirements. Only a relatively flat surface is needed.

Meanwhile, the TEL’s upgraded hydraulic erection system can raise the canister in just minutes, while a more automated control system enables faster pre-launch preparations.

The ability to launch missiles in an all-terrain environment without the need for fixed infrastructure or pre-established launch sites considerably improves the nuclear missile’s survivability and deterrent effect.

As for the sea-based means of China’s strategic deterrence, the submarine-launched ballistic missile JL-2 (or Ju Lang, meaning “great wave”), is regarded by some military observers to be a sea-based variant of the DF-31, launched from China’s most powerful nuclear submarine, the Type 094.

The two second-generation ballistic missiles share a wide range of key technologies, from three-stage architecture to solid-fuel rocket engines.

Their prototypes are nearly the same in size and configuration, and their later modifications might also adopt similar warheads and re-entry vehicles. Their relationship has been described as “Dongfeng goes to sea”.

Yet while the JL-2’s first known successful test of an underwater missile launch took place in 2011 and it was deployed later than the DF-31, its technological development also began in the 1980s and is said to have contributed to the land-based missile’s advancement.

That history has led some observers to state that “Ju Lang comes ashore” – acknowledging how the DF-21 was developed based on the JL-1.

Perhaps a more accurate description of their relationship should be “one system, two models”, as the sister missiles were developed from the same foundation for different operational environments with two-way technological exchanges.

In the earliest stages of development, the weapons drew on a common foundation of research, design data, components and testing experience. Upon their completion, they form a complementary strategic nuclear deterrent for China from land and sea.

Apple’s India push tested as Foxconn recalls 300 Chinese staff

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3322937/apples-india-push-tested-foxconn-recalls-300-chinese-staff?utm_source=rss_feed

Apple assembly partner Foxconn has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country.

The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology, a Foxconn component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state is the second such move in a few months. Foxconn has started flying in engineers from Taiwan to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named as the information is private.

Earlier this year, officials in Beijing verbally encouraged regulatory agencies and local governments to curb technology transfers and equipment exports to India and Southeast Asia in what is a potential attempt to prevent companies from shifting manufacturing elsewhere. It wasn’t immediately clear why the Foxconn workers were sent home, but the move yet again underscores the sway that Chinese technicians and the supply chain hold over the manufacturing of high-precision engineered products such as Apple’s iPhone.

The Economic Times earlier reported that Yuzhan’s Chinese staff were leaving. Last month, Bloomberg News reported that Foxconn had asked hundreds of Chinese engineers and technicians to return home from its iPhone factories in India.

The Yuzhan factory makes enclosures, or metal cases, and display modules for older iPhone models and isn’t working on the latest iPhone 17 line as yet. It began production just months ago, and Apple still imports a bulk of its displays, the people said.

Apple and Foxconn representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment.

For now, Apple can step up display imports and lean on other local suppliers for enclosures. But the removal of experienced Chinese staff threatens to dent the US tech giant’s efforts to rapidly localise its supply chain in India.

Apple has taken a conscious decision to work with Indian suppliers and has not brought in any significant Chinese partners to the South Asian country. Its local partnerships include a growing reliance on conglomerate Tata Group’s electronics manufacturing arm – the only Indian iPhone assembler. While Chinese suppliers have built iPhones for nearly two decades, Indian suppliers sometimes still go through teething problems.

A thaw in the frosty relationship between India and China could help Apple, carmakers and other local manufacturers. China has assured India of supplies of rare earth minerals and tunnel-boring machines, but discussions are yet to bear results.

Cupertino, California-based Apple is producing all four iPhone 17 models in India ahead of their debut next month, marking the first time that all new variations – including pro-level versions – will ship from the South Asian country from the get-go.

‘No geopolitics involved’: Angola rail project not aimed at countering China, CEO says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3322922/no-geopolitics-involved-angola-rail-project-not-aimed-countering-china-ceo-says?utm_source=rss_feed

Despite Washington’s framing of a key railway network in Angola as a strategic counter to China, the CEO of the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) says the company is “a purely commercial entity” with “zero geopolitical considerations”.

In an interview with the Post, Nicholas Fournier, the newly appointed executive, said the company was just one part of the broader Lobito Corridor, which aims to increase economic activity along the route.

LAR has strong commercial ties to China and serves as an important logistics provider for Chinese-owned mining companies while relying on Chinese manufacturing for its equipment, according to Fournier.

The project involves rehabilitating the 1,300km (808 miles) railway from the Port of Lobito in Angola to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to create a vital trade route for critical minerals.

There is also a planned greenfield railway link to Zambia and eventually to Tanzania, creating a cross-continental railway connecting the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, as announced by US officials last year.

“We are a part of this corridor, but we are just one component,” Fournier said on Wednesday. “We are the logistics component, as we operate the rail and the port. There is no geopolitics involved whatsoever.”

The railway is a joint venture backed by European companies, including global commodities trader Trafigura, Portuguese construction group Mota-Engil, and Belgian railway operator Vecturis.

Fournier highlighted the company’s strong commercial ties to China, noting that Chinese-owned mining companies in the DR Congo were major clients and that a significant portion of the copper they transported was destined for ports in China.

“We are transporting copper from eight Chinese-owned assets in the Kolwezi region,” he said, adding that sulphur imported via the Port of Lobito and the railway had been sold to Chinese-owned solvent extraction and electrowinning plants in the DR Congo.

Fournier said LAR had purchased 1,570 containers from China for use on the railway and all the containers had now arrived. He added that the company had a contract with Chinese rolling stock manufacturer CRRC to deliver 275 wagons from China, with 100 already delivered to Lobito.

LAR won a 30-year concession in 2022 to modernise, maintain, and operate the 1,300km rail line that connects the Port of Lobito to Luau on Angola’s border with the DR Congo. This includes a dedicated minerals terminal at the port.

While China Railway 20th Bureau Group Corporation (CR20) financed and rehabilitated the Benguela railway and handed it over to Angola in 2014, a Chinese bid for the new concession was unsuccessful.

However, China indirectly holds a stake since its state-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) has a 32.4 per cent share in Mota-Engil, a key partner in the LAR consortium.

LAR has a track access agreement with the DR Congo’s state-owned railway company, Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Congo (SNCC), to operate and upgrade the 450km section between Luau and Kolwezi. Trafigura and Mota-Engil are pre-financing SNCC with up to US$100 million in repairs.

According to Fournier, the journey from Kolwezi to the border at Dilolo now takes less than 30 hours, compared to four days just a few months ago. An alternative is for companies to truck cargo from Kolwezi to Durban in South Africa, Mozambique’s Beira port, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, or to Luanda.

“We are seeing more and more appetite for using our services because we are far more efficient and faster,” Fournier said.

“I have just done the journey myself. It took me five days to get from Kolwezi to Lobito, compared to the trucking time to all the other places, which can be in excess of 30 days.”

He projected that by the end of the year, LAR should be transporting one train per day in each direction, totalling 40,000 tonnes of cargo per month.

The US has framed the corridor as its biggest investment in Africa in decades and part of the Group of Seven (G7)’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) programme, aimed at de-risking Western critical mineral supply chains from China.

When former US president Joe Biden visited Angola last year, he showcased the corridor as a success of American investment, stating that the US had committed nearly US$4 billion across its length and had pledged an additional US$600 million.

He noted that the DR Congo had then shipped copper via the railway for transit to the US, and that this trip, which used to take 45 days, now took less than 45 hours. Despite initial fears that US President Donald Trump would abandon the project, the administration has promised to continue with the Lobito Corridor’s development.

Fournier said that LAR was funded entirely by equity from its shareholders and was in the “final stages” of securing a loan of more than US$500 million from the Johannesburg-based Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) for upgrades in Angola. He added that the company’s primary ties were with the governments of Angola and the DR Congo, as well as its European sponsors.

Nevertheless, the Lobito Corridor is part of a broader rivalry for control of central Africa’s mineral trade. China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has committed US$1.4 billion for the rehabilitation of the Tazara railway, which links Zambia and Tanzania.

According to Joseph Cihunda, who teaches law at the University of Kinshasa, the port of Lobito is “the only fast route for transporting critical minerals extracted in the DR Congo-Zambia Copperbelt region to the Atlantic Ocean”. Cihunda said China had “a long lead” in this area, having financed infrastructure in most East African states.

“This puts [China] in a favourable position with regard to the critical minerals found in eastern [DR Congo],” Cihunda said.

Chinese man suffers stroke, wife skims US$153,000 from account, leaving him with only US$6

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/article/3322612/chinese-man-suffers-stroke-wife-skims-us153000-account-leaving-him-only-us6?utm_source=rss_feed

A 61-year-old man in eastern China suffered a stroke on his wedding day, and his condition subsequently deteriorated, leaving him paralysed.

His wife siphoned 1.1 million yuan (US$153,000) from his account, leaving him with a mere 42 yuan (US$6).

According to the mainland media outlet News Morning Post, Wang, hailing from Shanghai, divorced over 20 years ago and raised his daughter independently.

In 2016, he married Ren Fang, a woman 16 years his junior. The details of their initial meeting remain undisclosed.

Relatives noted that older men living alone in Shanghai are highly sought after as marriage partners.

“My uncle had a solid pension, property, and relocation benefits,” remarked Wang’s nephew.

Wang’s mother had opposed his marriage, expressing concerns that the significant age gap might mean Ren had ulterior motives.

On the day of his wedding, Wang collapsed from a stroke and was promptly taken to the hospital.

Though he was once healthy, his condition continued to decline, resulting in multiple strokes over the years.

By 2019, he was paralysed on his left side, unable to speak, and bedridden, relying solely on his right hand to gesture for communication.

His family placed him in a nursing home, where his wife and daughter shared caregiving responsibilities.

In 2020, after Wang’s previous home was demolished, he and his daughter received a new flat along with more than 2 million yuan (US$280,000) in compensation.

Shortly thereafter, Ren had Wang declared legally incompetent and positioned herself as his sole guardian.

She also filed a lawsuit against her stepdaughter to claim her share of the property compensation, but the court ruled that Wang would receive 1.1 million yuan while the remainder would go to his daughter.

Wang’s daughter alleged that her father’s funds were transferred into an account controlled by Ren.

Ren then withdrew substantial amounts over two years, with withdrawals sometimes reaching 50,000 yuan in a single day. By August last year, only 42 yuan remained.

Recently, Wang’s daughter filed a lawsuit to alter the guardianship arrangement.

Ren countered that the money had been used for nursing home bills and health supplements, claiming she withdrew cash to deposit it in a bank in her hometown for better interest rates.

However, the daughter pointed out that Wang’s 6,000-yuan monthly pension already covered all his expenses.

The court ruled in favour of the daughter, deciding that both she and Ren must serve as co-guardians, with all financial decisions requiring their joint signatures.

A later attempt by Ren to divide the resettlement flat was also denied.

The judge remarked: “The essence of guardianship lies not in titles, but in who can genuinely care for an incapacitated loved one.”

This story has sparked intense discussion on mainland social media.

One online commenter stated: “Wang should never have remarried. In the end, he lost his money and ended up in a nursing home.”

Another noted: “In reality, children often become too occupied with work to care for the elderly, which leaves widowed seniors feeling even lonelier. When they seek companionship, they must exercise caution.”

US mixed signals leading Japan to broaden defence ties with eye on China: analysts

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3322908/us-mixed-signals-leading-japan-broaden-defence-ties-eye-china-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed

Japan’s latest naval drills signalled its desire to broaden military ties as uncertainties grow over US defence support, while also sending a message to China, analysts said.

Earlier this month, F-35B Lightning II fighters from the British Royal Navy’s 809 Naval Air Squadron conducted landings and launches on the Japanese destroyer-carrier JS Kaga as part of a multinational exercise in the Philippine Sea.

The British Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, as well as the US Marine Corps, were present on the deck of the Kaga to assist with the flight operations, and two F-35Bs from US Marine Attack Squadron 242 also took part in the training, according to a statement from the British navy.

It was the first time that both British and US fighter jets conducted a landing and launching exercise from the Japanese warship.

The British navy said the nine-day big deck exercise was “a major show of allied strength in the Indo-Pacific”, involving a total of 11 ships and 23 aircraft from the US, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Spain and Norway.

John Bradford, executive director of the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies and a retired US Navy officer, said the combined F-35 training laid the foundation for tactical integration and helped the UK become “more familiar with military geography around Japan”.

“In any future multinational operation, the ability to coordinate tactics, communications, and logistics between allied forces is critical,” Bradford said.

“Japan sees itself under tremendous threat given the rise in Chinese naval power and China’s demonstrated willingness to use that power in disagreements with its neighbours.”

“Therefore, Japan is looking to strengthen security relationships with many of its friends. The UK and Australia are at the very front of that pack,” he added.

Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, noted an uptick in Japan’s training engagements with non-US partners.

Koh said Tokyo was broadening its defence engagement with other allies in part due to concerns about whether the US might reduce its security commitment to Japan, but also because this wider engagement aligned with its ambitions.

“The broader ambition is no longer just viewing its defence force as simply just a partner to the US military, but in general, it speaks of Japan’s attempt to try to play a more equal role in the alliance, so that equal role includes more autonomous effort to try to build other military ties with other partners,” Koh said.

He added that Japan’s equipment being Nato-compatible was a plus.

Japan has been pushing to ramp up cooperation and interoperability with its allies in the Indo-Pacific region as China continues to advance its naval capabilities and expand its outreach towards the western Pacific.

Earlier this month, Australia announced that it had selected Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Mogami-class frigate for its new fleet of general-purpose frigates. They will replace the Australian navy’s Anzac-class frigates and be equipped for undersea warfare and air defence.

The Royal Australian Navy will acquire 11 frigates under the A$10 billion (US$6.4 billion) programme. The first three ships will be built in Japan while the remainder will be built in Western Australia, with the first delivery expected by 2029 and operations beginning in 2030.

Bradford said the upgrade would “strengthen interoperability between Australia and Japan, two nations that share a commitment to a rules-based Indo-Pacific and concerns about how China is flexing its power”.

Stephen Nagy, professor of politics and international studies at Tokyo’s International Christian University, said the frigate sales signalled to the US that Japan and Australia were not only investing in their bilateral security partnerships with the US but also with other partners in the Indo-Pacific.

Tokyo has also been increasing its naval capabilities in a clear push against China. According to Japanese media citing government sources, the Japanese Self-Defence Force conducted an attack drill against aircraft carriers in June near the waters around the Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan.

Japan’s attack drill involved the Japanese air force’s F-2 fighter jets, which were equipped with air-to-ship missiles used for attacking aircraft carriers. Notably, China’s Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers sailed in the maritime zone around the Diaoyus in late May as part of their first simultaneous deployment in the western Pacific.

According to an unidentified Japanese government official cited by the reports, the drill’s location and content were intended to “clearly convey a message to China” that Tokyo was taking countermeasures in preparation for and in response to a potential attack on Taiwan by Beijing.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China, to be reunited by force if necessary. The US, like Japan, Australia and most other nations, does not recognise self-governed Taiwan as an independent state but is opposed to any forcible change to the status quo and is committed to providing defensive arms to the island.

According to a Monday report from Kyodo News, Japan has been using a large coastguard drone, the US-made MQ-9B SeaGuardian, to monitor the Diaoyus in the East China Sea, where patrolling Chinese coastguard ships have been a nearly constant presence.

The report said the Japanese coastguard now operated three of the drones, with two more to be added by March next year. It has flown drones over the disputed islands several times since April, surveilling Chinese coastguard ships.

“Predictably, Beijing will paint the narrative – especially as this is the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II – that Japan has not learned the lesson from its defeat in World War II, that it is militarising and practising outdated Cold War mentality with small cliques of nations,” Nagy said.

Bradford said China recognised Japan’s expanded security cooperation as an effort to “prevent it from gaining greater influence over its neighbours”.

“But it faces a dilemma in that it must understand that it was Chinese behaviour, not just the existence of its power, that triggered Japan’s decisions,” Bradford said.

Koh said that while Japan’s naval posture had long been largely a defensive one and was associated with the US alliance, there was “growing recognition” that these allies needed to “acquire more autonomous capabilities” to deal with the challenges they faced instead of relying only on the US.

He said Japan’s improved strike capabilities from naval platforms, illustrated in its drills against the aircraft carriers, were part of efforts to boost its “autonomous” defence. These also include land-based, sea-launched and air-launched anti-ship capabilities across the domains, according to Koh.

“There are a number of these missile programmes in place, and these clearly appear to be conceived with China in mind, given the growing Chinese naval activities around Japan,” he said.

With China also “clearly” working with Russia, “of course, brings in the nexus of the China-Russia naval cooperation in recent years”, Koh said.

“I don’t think Japan likes it when you have the Chinese and the Russian navy conducting joint patrols around Japan.”

Koh added that while Beijing maintained that Japan’s recent military build-up posed a threat to its neighbours, this narrative had also continued to “fuel and help to legitimise” the build-up of the People’s Liberation Army.

Why Japan should cooperate with China on infrastructure, not compete

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3322677/why-japan-should-cooperate-china-infrastructure-not-compete?utm_source=rss_feed

Global headlines continue to be dominated by wars, both of the physical kind characterised by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s siege of Gaza, as well as trade wars such as those provoked by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that the resurgence of infrastructure wars has attracted relatively little international attention.

And yet Japan’s relaunch of a major land and maritime infrastructure initiative spanning East Asia, Africa, India and the Middle East, announced a few days ago, threatens to put Tokyo in competition – and perhaps conflict – with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The difference this time, compared with when Tokyo proposed a similar initiative about a decade ago, is that Trump’s America appears no longer party to the struggle for economic and geopolitical influence via infrastructure building. Meanwhile, Europe is distracted by its own continental issues.

Even so, continuing competition among Japan, China and India to garner economic – and, to some extent, strategic – influence across and beyond Asia via infrastructure links threatens potential overlaps of effort and waste of resources. That is not to mention problems with the incompatibility of technical and quality standards in everything from railway gauges to public procurement policies.

Multilateral development banks, of which there are more than 20 in the world, are specifically designed as vehicles to provide the finance and expertise needed to undertake international infrastructure projects. And yet, within Asia at least, the use of these institutions is increasingly being spurned in favour of nationally sponsored initiatives.

At the opening of the ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, in Yokohama on August 20, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced an initiative that would help develop a logistics network covering Africa and the Indian Ocean as a single economic zone.

This move comes, as Japan’s Asahi newspaper suggested, “amid Japan’s efforts to promote its Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision, a slogan advocating stability and prosperity across the region, with an implicit counter to China’s growing presence. With Beijing expanding its influence across Africa, Japan sees [its conference] as a key opportunity to strengthen ties with the continent and the broader Global South.”

Other reports noted that Japan would support efforts to link India, the Middle East and Africa. The aim is to capture demand in emerging markets in Africa and pursue economic security aims, such as ensuring a stable supply of natural resources. Tokyo plans to use official development assistance to help build ports and roads in Africa.

The project announced by Ishiba will use the port of Nacala in Mozambique and the Kenyan port of Mombasa, both of which are being improved with support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. There are also plans for corridors that will connect inland areas to ports.

After China made the initial announcement of its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, Japan responded by exploring the possibility of developing a similar transcontinental network with India and other partners, which would be known as the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor.

The battle for economic and geostrategic spheres of influence then began to become apparent among the United States, Japan and Australia, aimed at marshalling public and private investment from the three countries into Asian infrastructure and other major projects. It also signalled an attempt to reassert the primacy of private enterprise over China’s approach of state capitalism.

What might be termed the Allied response to China’s infrastructure initiative culminated when the US, Japan, and Australia launched the “Blue Dot Network”. This was designed to “provide assessment and certification of infrastructure development projects worldwide on measures of financial transparency, environmental sustainability and impact on economic development”.

However, these functions are best carried out by multilateral development banks rather than individual countries or groups of countries seeking to assert the superiority of their systems over those of others. The various competing infrastructure initiatives in Asia are still at an early stage of development, although China’s belt and road appears to be the most advanced.

Competing infrastructure initiatives also put a strain on public and private finances. They add to government budget deficits which have to be financed by increased taxation or borrowing in bond markets, with investors finding it difficult to judge the credibility or creditworthiness of different schemes. In addition, they make the job of multilateral banks more difficult when it comes to endorsing and supporting such schemes.

Physical infrastructure using road, rail or sea routes is critical at a time when manufacturing supply chains are of paramount concern. Infrastructure wars in Asia and elsewhere are adding to the nightmares of logistics planners in this regard. The vanity of national leaders in expressing their national and international ambitions via grandiose infrastructure schemes is not making life any easier in this regard.

Clearly what is needed is more “top down” cooperation and coordination on infrastructure initiatives. As it happens, one positive development from Trump’s desire to withdraw the US from multilateral efforts and direct involvement in institutions is that it appears to be drawing the leaders of some Asian countries – even those who might not normally be on good terms – closer together.

If this can translate into greater cooperation, rather than competition when it comes to the provision of connecting infrastructure, then so much the better for everyone.

‘Go catch him’: Chinese musician stops show to help woman capture sexual assailant

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3322600/go-catch-him-chinese-musician-stops-show-help-woman-capture-sexual-assailant?utm_source=rss_feed

A young Chinese rapper, Apmozart, paused his performance to assist a woman in capturing a molester, earning the title of “Captain Justice” online.

During a live show at a venue in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in eastern China, Apmozart was interrupted by a female audience member who urgently called for help. Due to the loud music, the rapper initially did not hear her and handed his microphone to her.

Speaking into the mic, the woman revealed that she had been molested by a male stranger, stating: “The pervert ‘discharged’ onto my leg.”

She described the assailant, noting he wore grey clothes, was somewhat overweight, had greasy hair, and was of similar height to her.

Reacting promptly, the 21-year-old rapper declared: “Let’s go catch him,” and instructed the staff to secure the venue’s doors and review the surveillance footage. The crowd erupted in cheers as he rallied for action.

Despite advising the victim to continue enjoying the performance, he assured her that either he or the police would ensure the perpetrator was apprehended.

The next day, Hangzhou police reported the arrest of a 25-year-old man, identified by the surname Luo, at his home the same evening as the incident. He is now facing criminal detention, which could last up to 15 days due to the Public Security Administration Punishments Law.

During a live-stream later, Apmozart noted that although they had secured the venue and contacted law enforcement, the assailant had evaded capture at the time.

However, the police ultimately tracked him down thanks to surveillance footage and numerous video clips submitted by audience members.

Apmozart praised the victim, saying: “She was very brave. The show’s organiser and the police also did a great job.”

He encouraged women through his social media platform, which has 35,000 followers, to bravely defend their rights and not remain silent, urging them to preserve evidence.

His quick, calm, and supportive reaction also won him plaudits online.

“You are Captain Justice,” many commented to him.

Another praised the woman: “She is very brave to speak up at the site. If she did not do this, she might not be able to prove what happened and bring the pervert to justice.”

A third applauded the Hangzhou police: “Well done, Hangzhou police, for reacting fast.”

Hangzhou has a reputation for dealing with sexual assaults with harsh measures. In 2023, the city published the names of metro molesters and the punishments they received on its government website, receiving widespread support and calls for similar actions nationally.

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How is market reading the tea leaves as China’s Puer bubble comes off the boil?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3322809/how-market-reading-tea-leaves-chinas-puer-bubble-comes-boil?utm_source=rss_feed

Aromatic infusions of fermented and aged Puer tea have been popular in China for centuries, but later generations of enthusiasts came to value its investment potential even more, dubbing it a “drinkable antique”.

Chinese entrepreneurs and members of the country’s growing middle class long regarded the tea, produced in Yunnan province, as a wealth preservation investment rivalling stocks and real estate, but the market has come off the boil recently as the economy slows and investor appetite wanes.

The Puer tea market has been much more volatile this year, with prices for most premium products – once treated as hard currency by speculators and collectors – plummeting to their lowest levels since 2019.

Despite wide variations across brands and vintages, the prices of nearly all Puer teas have fallen.

A standard unit (around 15kg) of the Xuan Yuan series produced by leading Puer brand Dayi – known as Tae Tea in English – sold for around 70,000 yuan in 2017, surged to nearly 1.88 million yuan in 2021, fell back to 1.08 million yuan in early 2023, and crashed to 380,000 yuan (US$52,922) in June this year as the speculative bubble burst.

Analysts say that the slump in Puer tea mirrors China’s broader economic strains: a weak economy, thinning corporate profit margins and a sharp pullback in business gift-giving. Amid fiscal belt-tightening and a stricter anti-corruption campaign, officials have also grown wary of conspicuous consumption.

The risk of asset erosion for the middle class – once concentrated in property – has now spilled over into other assets, like rare teas and luxury watches, which were once expected to appreciate over time.

“Housing prices are still searching for a bottom, let alone tea, wine and art collection, which are far from necessities,” said Simon Zhao, an associate dean at Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College.

He said the Puer tea market was entering a “winter”, with waning confidence accelerating capital outflows.

Tan Tong, a tea merchant in Guangzhou, China’s largest tea distribution and trading hub, said officials, the wealthy and celebrities had been eager consumers of expensive rare Puer teas.

“A lot of rich factory owners and businessmen in Guangdong stockpiled the tea by the tonne,” she said, while adding that the craze was now cooling with unprecedented rapidity.

The speculators who stored tonnes of Puer tea in warehouses expected outsize profits over time, assuming its value would continue to rise and new buyers would always be willing to pay higher prices for older stock.

But Tan and other industry insiders have seen market sentiment reverse sharply over the past year.

“We are even seeing a phenomenon of ‘abandoned warehouses’,” she said. “Collectors and speculators are not paying storage fees and disappear because of skyrocketing loans, so warehouse owners have had to auction off these ‘ownerless teas’, some at barely even a third of the market price.”

Over 70 per cent of market participants were speculators chasing returns, said Kevin Xing, founder of the Yixinghe Puer tea brand in Jiangsu Province.

“The number of real consumers is insufficient to sustain the surge in Puer tea prices,” Xing said, adding that many buyers have seen the value of their holdings halve.

While some major brands were attempting to maintain market confidence with inflated price tags, actual transactions were scarce, he said.

“A customer who once spent 10,000 yuan on tea from me now only budgets 5,000 yuan or less,” Xing said.

Puer investor Tang Yue, who is based in Guangzhou, expects the downturn to persist, but he is still renting warehouses to store tea even though prices threaten to fall to levels last seen in 2018.

“If real estate hasn’t found a bottom, forget about Puer tea,” he said. “I must grit my teeth and persevere. The tea cakes dumped at low prices 20 years ago are now unaffordable for ordinary people.”

Zhao, from United International College, cautioned that the current downturn differed from those seen in past cycles.

“Over the past decade, luxuries, Puer tea and art have seen repeated booms and busts, but those occurred during China’s economic ascent, when confidence in property and financial markets was strong,” he said. “This time, the confidence cycle has been broken as never before. Many Chinese people now expect a prolonged economic downturn that could last for decades.”

Vietnam’s island-building in disputed South China Sea set to eclipse Beijing’s efforts: report

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3322916/vietnams-island-building-disputed-south-china-sea-set-eclipse-beijings-efforts-report?utm_source=rss_feed

Vietnam has significantly expanded island-building work in areas it claims in the Spratly Islands chain of the disputed South China Sea and will match and likely surpass the scale of such activity there by China, a US think tank reported on Friday.

Recent satellite imagery showed that since the start of this year, Vietnam has expanded island-building to eight features previously untouched by a round of reclamation that began in 2021, the report from Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said.

The report from CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said the imagery showed Vietnam has undertaken dredging and landfill work at Alison Reef, Collins Reef, East Reef, Landsdowne Reef and Petley Reefs.

The work meant that all 21 Vietnamese-occupied rocks and low-tide elevations in the Spratly Islands chain have now been expanded to include artificial land, when four years ago a majority hosted only isolated pillbox structures.

The report said new expansion had also begun at three features that already hosted medium-sized artificial islands created in earlier rounds of dredging: Amboyna Cay, Grierson Reef, and West Reef.

“As of March 2025, Vietnam had created about 70 per cent as much artificial land in the Spratlys as China had,” it said. “Reclamation at these eight new features all but ensures that Vietnam will match – and likely surpass – the scale of Beijing’s island-building.”

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, despite overlapping claims by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Beijing has conducted extensive island-building work there, opposed by the United States and its allies and partners.

The CSIS report said the images showed infrastructure, including munitions storage containers, was beginning to appear on Vietnamese-claimed reefs where dredging work was approaching completion, such as Barque Canada Reef, Discovery Great Reef, Ladd Reef, Namyit Island, Pearson Reef, Sand Cay, and Tennent Reef.

It said the location of new structures and munitions depots seemed to preclude the possibility of full-length runways on some of the longer features, and said a runway at Barque Canada was likely the only one being constructed to join Vietnam’s sole existing airstrip at Spratly Island.

China and Vietnam’s Washington embassies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the CSIS report.

In February, China said it opposes Vietnam’s construction activities on Barque Canada Reef, saying it is Chinese territory.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that Beijing’s South China Sea claims were not supported by international law, a decision China rejects.

Puyi lookalike acts in numerous dramas, even fools AI in viral role as last emperor of China

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3322440/puyi-lookalike-acts-numerous-dramas-even-fools-ai-viral-role-last-emperor-china?utm_source=rss_feed

A man in China with a striking resemblance to the country’s last feudal emperor, Puyi, has garnered considerable attention on social media.

Fu Qiang, 29, rose to fame last year after releasing a short video in which he donned Puyi’s signature jacket – a Chinese tunic suit, commonly known as a Mao suit – paired with round glasses, while walking through the Forbidden City. The video has amassed over 10 million views, according to the news portal The Cover.

Puyi (1906-1967), the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, is one of the most recognisable emperors among mainland Chinese audiences due to his connection to numerous significant historical events.

The Qing dynasty came to an end in 1912 following the Xinhai Revolution, which established the Republic of China.

Numerous TV dramas and films depicting Puyi’s life have gained popularity in mainland China over the past few decades.

After making a successful entrance into social media, Fu, who hails from Anhui province in eastern China and has previously worked as a real estate salesperson, a cook, and a flier distributor, moved to Beijing to pursue a full-time career as a blogger, leveraging his striking resemblance to Puyi.

Fu has amassed 660,000 followers on a prominent social media platform under the alias “Little Puyi.”

To date, he has shared 286 videos – most of which feature him dressing as the last emperor, visiting historically significant locations, and engaging with passers-by.

“Emperor is coming. Let’s all kneel,” joked one pedestrian upon spotting the doppelgänger.

“Do you know the Qing dynasty is already dead?” another person queried.

In one clip, a little girl asked him: “Since the Forbidden City is your home, do you still need to buy a ticket to enter it?” To which Fu replied: “Yes, I do.”

He once posted a photo taken in front of the Temple of Heaven, an imperial religious site in Beijing, to an AI app, asking the system to identify the person in the image.

“The figure in the picture is Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, who is also the last emperor of China,” the software responded.

Thanks to his natural appearance, Fu has received invitations from several companies in eastern Zhejiang province and northern Tianjin municipality to take part in mini-dramas and promotional videos.

Fu mentioned that even as a secondary school student, his history teacher recognised his resemblance to Puyi.

He states that he has never undergone any cosmetic procedures.

According to Fu, his younger brother also resembles Puyi’s brother, Pujie.

To deepen his understanding of Puyi, Fu frequently reads books and watches films about the last emperor.

While some internet users have criticised him as the “leftover evil of the Qing dynasty”, Fu chooses to “ignore it”.

“I just focus on what I should do. I want to create videos that bring joy to people and share historical anecdotes through the image of Puyi,” Fu remarked.

China’s hypersonic warfare data link could dazzle Nato’s war machine: scientists

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3322598/chinas-hypersonic-warfare-data-link-could-dazzle-natos-war-machine-scientists?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese defence researchers have unveiled a groundbreaking data link system that could decisively outpace Nato’s current military communications, tipping the balance of military power with high-speed warfare.

Engineered for the extreme demands of large-scale hypersonic combat – where aircraft scream through the skies at Mach 5 and missiles hurtle forward at Mach 11 – the new network achieves time synchronisation accuracy within five nanoseconds, dwarfing the performance of Nato’s flagship Link 16 system by two orders of magnitude.

This leap, developed by the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), enables real-time, secure coordination between hypersonic platforms, ground command centres, radar networks, naval fleets and satellite intelligence – despite the immense technical challenges posed by blistering speeds and rapidly shifting geometries.

Experts said this innovation could mark a strategic shift: from isolated hypersonic breakthroughs to a fully networked, cooperative strike ecosystem. Without equivalent capabilities, Western militaries could be left “time blind”, unable to react to coordinated hypersonic swarms operating with surgical precision.

As China prepares to unveil its most advanced systems in a coming military parade, the implications for global defence dynamics are both profound and urgent, the experts said.

The new data link addresses a critical challenge in hypersonic warfare: at relative speeds that could exceed 4km (2.4 miles) per second, even extremely small timing errors could translate to kilometre-level targeting miscalculations.

Existing military data links, designed for much slower platforms, suffer significant synchronisation drifts of hundreds of nanoseconds under high-speed conditions – rendering them obsolete for next-generation conflicts.

“In hypersonic vehicle cooperative strike systems, signal-level coordination typically requires inter-platform time synchronisation accuracy better than 10 nanoseconds,” the project team led by researcher Chang Jun from CETC’s Southwest China Institute of Electronic Technology wrote in a peer-reviewed paper. It was published in the Chinese journal Telecommunication Engineering on August 5.

“Current tactical data links predominantly employ round-trip time (RTT) for time synchronisation. Conventional RTT algorithms generally achieve synchronisation for low-speed aerial platforms, with Nato’s operational fighter platforms utilising tactical data links such as Link-16 for information coordination at around 100 nanosecond synchronisation error.

“However, in hypersonic cooperative strike systems operating above Mach 5, relative motion between geographically dispersed platforms creates asymmetric transmission paths for interrogation and response messages, causing significant degradation in the precision of traditional RTT algorithms,” Chang and his colleagues said.

China’s solution bypasses traditional limitations of atomic clocks – which are too bulky, power-hungry and vibration-sensitive for small hypersonic vehicles – and satellite-dependent systems like BeiDou, which fail in jamming environments.

Instead, the new architecture employs an innovative “inertial navigation data distribution” method. Each platform shares real-time position and velocity data via secure data links, allowing synchronised calculation of signal transmission delays caused by extreme relative motion.

When Platform B queries Platform A, their inertial navigation systems measure displacement vectors and velocity differentials, enabling precise compensation for motion-induced time skew through a method known as “adaptive unscented Kalman filtering”, according to Chang’s team.

Rigorous semi-physical simulations conducted on the ground – which considered realistic errors including 10-metre (33 feet) position inaccuracies, 1-metre-per-second velocity drifts, and electromagnetic interference – showed consistent synchronisation precision of 4.2 nanoseconds on average, with peak errors under nine nanoseconds.

Crucially, the system maintained this fidelity during consecutive tests even as relative velocities surged from zero to over 4,000 metres per second. And it could be implemented on massively available, low-cost hardware.

Yet formidable hurdles remain. Current prototypes need to more fully address battlefield electromagnetic chaos where packet loss and round-trip time anomalies could compromise synchronisation, according to Chang’s team.

Where US hypersonic programmes have faced delays, China now fields a wide variety of operational systems – some expected to be shown to the world for the first time in a massive parade on September 3 – that could leverage this network, according to a Beijing-based defence tech expert who was not involved in the study.

Without equivalent technology, adversaries could face catastrophic disadvantages: hypersonic swarms coordinating with deadly precision while enemy forces suffer “time blindness”, said the expert who requested not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

For China, the data link represents not only technological might but the linchpin of a new war-fighting philosophy, according to the expert.

“This is to create a self-reinforcing cycle where networked platforms amplify each other’s lethality – a capability that is particularly attractive to a country with the world’s largest and most complete industrial chain,” he added.

Why is the US uneasy as China’s 5-strong icebreaker fleet arrives in Arctic?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3322730/why-us-uneasy-chinas-5-strong-icebreaker-fleet-arrives-arctic?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s intensifying interest in the Arctic has aroused concerns in the US, which has been monitoring the progress of five Chinese icebreakers and research vessels since before they passed through the Bering Strait earlier this month.

The fleet is led by the domestically built Xue Long 2, one of the world’s newest generation polar research icebreakers and the first to adopt an intelligent hull and engine room design.

Over the past five years, the Xue Long 2 has conducted nearly 10 scientific expeditions to both the Arctic and Antarctic.

On this expedition, it is accompanied by the Shenhai Yihao, which is equipped with a deep-sea submersible, Jidi – which made its first trip to the Arctic last year. Also sailing along are China’s newest icebreaker, the Tansuo Sanhao, and its oldest – the Zhongshan Daxue Jidi.

According to the live tracker Maritime Optima, the Chinese vessels crossed the Bering Strait in quick succession from August 5 to 7 and are currently operating in the Arctic Ocean.

The fleet’s actions prompted a quick response from the US coastguard, which claimed the vessels came as close as 290 nautical miles (537km) from the Alaskan coast, right on the edge of the disputed area of the “extended continental shelf” claimed by the United States.

According to its official website, the US coastguard detected the research vessels Jidi and Zhongshan Daxue Jidi in the northeastern Bering Sea on August 5 and sent a C-130J Hercules fixed-wing aircraft in response.

The following day, the cutter Waesche was sent on a similar mission when the Zhongshan Daxue Jidi was spotted travelling north in the Chukchi Sea above the Arctic Circle after passing through the Bering Strait.

The coastguard said it conducted long-range escort and surveillance, adding that it took no substantive interception measures and was monitoring five Chinese vessels operating in or near the US Arctic.

According to the US coastguard, the Xue Long 2 was detected on July 26, around 290 nautical miles north of Utqiagvik, Alaska. A C-130J Hercules fixed-wing aircraft was sent to monitor the research vessel, it said.

In recent years, with the Arctic becoming a focal zone of global strategic competition, China and Russia have been deepening their cooperation in the region, prompting growing concern in Washington.

In 2019, Beijing and Moscow established a joint laboratory on polar technology and equipment at Harbin Engineering University in northeast China. Last year, the Chinese and Russian coastguards conducted their first joint Arctic patrol.

China views itself as a near-Arctic country and an important stakeholder in the region’s affairs. Russia boasts the world’s largest fleet of polar vessels – with 55 in total – and is the only country capable of manufacturing nuclear-powered icebreakers.

Apart from scientific research, the two countries are also exploring the commercial potential of developing Arctic shipping routes – the shortest links between the Asia-Pacific and Western Eurasia.

In July last year, the US Defence Department updated its strategy for the region, saying that China’s collaboration with Russia in the Arctic had “implications for the security of the United States and our allies and partners”.

US President Donald Trump regards the Arctic as vital to advancing his country’s commercial and strategic interests. His One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, allocates nearly US$9 billion for icebreakers.

Responding to the US coastguard’s actions, Beijing-based think tank the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) said in an analytical article that the Chinese fleet’s transit through international waters was legitimate.

According to the researchers, the Chinese fleet’s route was fully in line with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos). Washington is not a signatory.

“[Unclos] stipulates that the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) should not exceed 200 nautical miles from the baseline used to measure the breadth of the territorial sea,” the think tank said.

“When the Chinese vessel was spotted, it was approximately 290 nautical miles from Utqiagvik, Alaska, and therefore located in international waters, not within the US EEZ,” it added.

The SCSPI also pointed out that the US coastguard’s tracking and surveillance might constitute an illegal interference in the Xue Long 2’s right to exercise its freedom of the seas.

“When the US coastguard aircraft ‘responded’ to the Xue Long 2, it was in international waters, exercising freedom of navigation and marine scientific research. The vessel itself was not equipped with any weapons and did not pose a ‘potential threat’ to the security of any coastal state,” it said.

“The US appears to be trying to prevent Xue Long 2 from violating [its] outer continental shelf rights, but in fact it is trying to interfere with its normal exercise of the freedom of the seas granted by the convention.”

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Apple sues China’s Oppo, ex-engineer over alleged theft of Watch trade secrets

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3322902/apple-sues-chinas-oppo-ex-engineer-over-alleged-theft-watch-trade-secrets?utm_source=rss_feed

Apple accused smartphone maker Oppo in a lawsuit of poaching a highly paid member of the Apple Watch team and encouraging him to steal trade secrets for his new job with the Chinese firm.

Sensor system architect Chen Shi secretly accessed confidential documents on Apple’s health-sensing technologies for Oppo’s benefit to develop a competing wearable device before departing Apple in June, according to a complaint filed on Thursday at a federal court in San Jose, California.

“Concealing his impending employment with a direct competitor, Dr Shi set up and attended dozens of one-on-one meetings with Apple Watch technical team members to learn about their ongoing research,” according to the complaint.

In addition, “late at night just three days before leaving Apple, Dr Shi downloaded 63 documents from a protected Box folder”, according to the complaint. “He then transferred them to a USB drive one day before his departure.”

Apple has filed numerous suits in recent years accusing ex-employees and rival companies of breaching contracts and stealing valuable intellectual property.

At least three of the iPhone maker’s former engineers who worked on its now abandoned electric vehicle autonomous driving project have been criminally prosecuted for allegedly taking secrets to China. The tech giant has also been locked in a court battle with Irvine, California-based Masimo since 2020 over smartwatch technology.

Shi concealed his defection to Oppo, known as Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications, by falsely telling his colleagues at Cupertino, California-based Apple that he was returning to China to take care of his ageing parents, according to the complaint.

Apple said Shi violated a confidentiality and intellectual property agreement, and that Oppo knew of and encouraged his activities.

Shi could not immediately be reached for comment via LinkedIn, where a profile appearing to belong to him said he had worked at Apple since 2020.

Oppo and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Apple alleged in the complaint that Shi wrote in a message in Chinese to Oppo’s vice-president of health before leaving Apple that he had been “reviewing various internal materials and doing a lot of 1:1 meetings in an effort to collect as much information as possible – will share with you all later.”

The Oppo executive wrote “alright” in response and sent an “OK” emoji, according to the complaint.

Allowing the actions of Shi and Oppo “to go unpunished would undermine Apple’s commitment to innovation and its substantial investments in pioneering technologies like Apple Watch”, Apple said in the complaint. “It would also risk destroying the value of Apple’s trade secrets and provide a competitor with an unfair advantage.”

After departing Apple, Shi joined Oppo’s research centre in Silicon Valley, which operates under the Oppo and InnoPeak brands, according to the complaint.

Award-winning HIV scientist Shan Liang leaves US to join Chinese research institute

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3322358/award-winning-hiv-scientist-shan-liang-leaves-us-join-chinese-research-institute?utm_source=rss_feed

Award-winning HIV scientist Shan Liang, a tenured associate professor at the Washington University School of Medicine (WashU Medicine), has taken up a full-time role in Shenzhen, southern China’s tech and innovation hub.

He has joined the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART) as a senior researcher and will head its Institute of Human Immunology, according to an announcement on SMART’S official social media account on August 15.

Shan has dedicated himself to studying the mechanisms of immunobiology of HIV infection and developing strategies to combat the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or Aids.

With the exception of a few bone-marrow transplant cases, nobody has been cured of HIV. “I am particularly interested in identifying unknown immune mechanisms to clear HIV,” Shan said in an interview in the US last year.

SMART hailed his studies as “having laid an important foundation for elucidating the immune mechanisms of HIV infection and developing functional cure strategies”.

“He has discovered new mechanisms by which HIV kills target cells, which is very important for the development of a new generation of drugs,” said Zhang Linqi, director of the Comprehensive Aids Research Centre at Tsinghua University.

Among Shan’s breakthroughs, his team has probed the function of the CARD8 inflammasome – a natural alarm system found inside human immune cells that recognises active HIV protease and triggers a programme to eliminate the infected cell. These findings could potentially identify a way to eradicate latent HIV infection.

He has garnered several awards, including the 2024 Unanue Prize for innovative research in immunology and the Young Scientist Award at a leading international HIV/Aids conference.

Shan obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology from the school of life sciences at Nankai University, followed by a master’s degree in microbiology from Fudan University.

In 2007, he began his PhD studies in pharmacology and molecular science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, focusing on HIV latency and viral persistence.

In 2013, he began postdoctoral training in the department of immunology at Yale University, where he stayed until 2017 before beginning his teaching career at WashU Medicine in St Louis, Missouri.

In St Louis, Shan co-founded the Midwest Developmental Centre for Aids Research, a regional platform where researchers and public health workers in America collaborate and coordinate their efforts to fight the HIV epidemic.

SMART announced that Shan’s team would continue to study the mechanism and function of the CARD8 inflammasome.

Another focus of his future research will entail building a genetically engineered mouse platform that simulates the human immune micro-environment to address fundamental questions such as HIV immune escape.

Shan is at least the third senior researcher to have moved to SMART this year from a top US institution, suggesting that China’s research institutions have become more appealing for global talent.

In Shenzhen’s Guangming district, where SMART is located, the city has promoted scientific development in information science, life science and new materials science.

On May 26, SMART announced that pioneering neuroscientist Dan Yang – a member of both the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences who previously worked at the University of California, Berkeley – would lead its sleep and consciousness research group.

Less than one month later, Lu Wei – a senior investigator specialising in the neurobiological mechanisms of synaptic development and functional regulation – left the US National Institutes of Health to join SMART, amid drastic funding cuts and hiring freezes directed by the White House.

Hong Kong tops the US as the go-to IPO venue for Chinese start-ups as funds return to Asia

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3322769/hong-kong-tops-us-go-ipo-venue-chinese-start-ups-funds-return-asia?utm_source=rss_feed

In the first of a two-part series about Hong Kong’s market for initial public offerings, Zhang Shidong and Ao Yulu report that more Chinese companies opted to list in Hong Kong in the first eight months of 2025 than in New York.

Hong Kong has overtaken the US as the new listing venue for Chinese companies, marking a major milestone for the world’s fourth-largest capital market after a decade of betting on its growth in its much larger and stronger hinterland.

As many as 46 China-domiciled companies raised a combined HK$118.2 billion (US$16.5 billion) via initial public offerings (IPOs) on the Hong Kong stock exchange so far this year, compared with 16 listings by Chinese companies in the US over the same period, which raked in a mere US$740.9 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

There is a good reason for flocking to Hong Kong. New shares have jumped by 19.4 per cent on average in their trading debuts in the city this year, with some particularly hot stocks like the metabolic medicine producer Innogen Pharmaceutical Group jumping almost fourfold last week.

By comparison, new listings in the US have risen by an average of 3.6 per cent over the same period, according to calculations by the Post. After the typical excitement of the first days of trading, those shares have since returned an average of 5.5 per cent.

“Hong Kong’s capital market has been more active this year and shows signs of continued recovery”, said Kenny Ng, a strategist at China Everbright Securities International. “The growing rivalry between China and the US has added uncertainty to capital markets, which is why more companies are choosing to list in Hong Kong. There is still the lingering risk of delisting for Chinese stocks in the US, [so] mainland firms tend to prefer the Hong Kong market in the face of such unclear regulatory prospects.”

The diverging trends underscore the persistent simmering tensions between China and the US, with the strife widening beyond trade to other areas including technology, military and finance. The Trump administration’s heightened regulatory scrutiny has spoiled the IPO appetite of many Chinese companies, among them some of the world’s largest offers like Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and Shein.

Many US investors, from institutional funds to retail investors, are also steering clear of Chinese stocks listed in New York due to pressure from conservative lawmakers who harangue against providing funds for China. An executive order signed by US President Donald Trump during his first term to “address the threat from securities investments that finance Communist Chinese military companies” was absorbed by his successor into a broader order that included surveillance companies. Those orders remain in effect.

The spat over auditing oversight several years ago, which almost triggered a wholesale delisting of about 300 Chinese companies valued at US$1 trillion, also gave many IPO applicants cause for pause.

How things have changed in 10 short years. Before Trump’s first term starting in 2016, New York was the citadel of fundraising, the preferred listing destination for every Chinese company that could.

Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of this newspaper, raised US$25 billion on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, making it the second-largest worldwide IPO in financial history after Saudi Aramco’s US$29.4 billion sale in 2019.

After Trump took office, US-China relations deteriorated with a slew of tariffs against Chinese exports, many of which are still in place.

As the trade war spilled over into the Biden administration, relations slumped to the worst level in decades. Amid the tension, a spat broke out over the auditing oversight of US-listed Chinese companies, prompting Gary Gensler, then chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, to threaten in 2022 to expel all the Chinese companies from New York.

The crisis was averted in late 2022 after the US and China agreed to use Hong Kong as the “neutral ground” for the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to examine the audit working papers of these US-listed Chinese companies.

Still, the damage to confidence was already done. While the spat was going on, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) was tweaking its listing rules, laying the groundwork to lure US-listed Chinese companies to raise additional funds in Hong Kong.

In November 2019, Alibaba raised US$12.9 billion in a secondary listing in Hong Kong, in the city’s largest IPO to date. That blazed the path for a slew of Chinese tech companies to call Hong Kong their new corporate home: NetEase raised US$2.7 billion in June 2020, Baidu raised US$3.05 billion in March 2021, while Weibo raised US$193 million in December 2021.

“US listings face a lot of hurdles such as restrictions on investments or financing,” said Dai Ming, a fund manager at Huichen Asset Management in Shanghai. “Chinese companies may have to list at discounts, instead of premiums. [That is why] they are more willing to sell shares in Hong Kong. Both the primary and the secondary market are doing very well and valuations can come with premiums.”

Improved investor sentiment and the Hong Kong exchange’s move to fast track approvals of stock sales by well-established mainland companies have fuelled a boom in Chinese IPOs. Under a new framework, mainland-listed companies with a minimum market capitalization of HK$10 billion are eligible for a faster IPO application process, which would slash the review period to 30 days, according to the HKEX and Hong Kong’s securities regulator.

CATL, the Chinese maker of lithium batteries for electric vehicles, has led IPO sales with a US$5.26 billion flotation this year in Hong Kong. The lithium-battery manufacturer and other mega deals from Chinese companies such as Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals and Foshan Haitian Flavouring and Food catapulted Hong Kong to the world’s busiest IPO market in the first half. IPOs surged 695 per cent from a year ago to US$14.1 billion in the first half, according to a report released by HKEX in late July.

There are more to come, said HKEX’s CEO Bonnie Chan Yiting. There were between 150 and 200 companies “in the pipeline”, including many US$1-billion-plus jumbo deals, she said in May. This week, the exchange operator reported its best quarter yet, as its interim net profit soared 39 per cent to HK$8.52 billion.

Three “formidable” clusters of companies are tapping Hong Kong’s IPO market, Chan said. The first was a group of Chinese A-share companies that are listed in Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen seeking to raise additional funds offshore, in the so-called A-H listings.

The second group was the US-listed Chinese companies that needed a listing sanctuary closer to home and Asia’s trading hours to minimise geopolitical risks. The HKEX updated its listing rules in 2017 to allow these companies to seek secondary offerings in Hong Kong.

The third group was specialist technology companies, often start-ups engaged in artificial intelligence, biomedicine and pharmaceutical producers, robotics and a range of “innovative” industries covered by Chapter 18C of the HKEX’s listing rules from March 2023.

In this regard, the HKEX has plenty of room for upgrades and growth. Hong Kong has catapulted to become the world’s second-largest IPO destination after New York for biotech companies since the introduction of Chapter 18A for the pharmaceutical industry in 2018. Chapter 18B for special purpose acquisition companies, or so-called blank cheque acquirers, was rolled out in January 2022. The chapters can grow with more alphabets as new industries and funding needs arise, Chan said during an interview in June.

Still, Hong Kong’s market, currently the world’s fourth largest at US$7 trillion, “lacks sufficient liquidity” and the capacity to accommodate a large number of IPOs, particularly large companies from the mainland, said Shen Meng, a director at the Beijing-based investment firm Chanson. “Regulators are intentionally slowing the [approvals of the] listing process [of companies coming to] Hong Kong.”

“Beijing wants to support Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre, but it cannot allow an excessive number of mainland companies to rush [into] the city’s fundraising pool as too many listings would be risky with the city’s limited liquidity”, Shen said.

Investor familiarity, market structure, and a series of reforms – including a revamp of the pricing and public offering rules earlier this month – have helped revive the IPO pipeline of the HKEX, according to analysts. The involvement of cornerstone investors, broader retail participation, and unique market mechanisms have pushed up demand as well.

Still, there are structural differences between the Hong Kong and US markets, said Louis Wong, director at Phillip Capital Management in Hong Kong. Local IPOs often receive massive oversubscription from public investors, which boosts demand in the secondary market, he said.

Everbright’s Ng echoed the view, saying the recent changes to lower the allocation ratio have contributed to the strong aftermarket performance.

“It means retail investors tend to receive fewer shares, prompting them to chase the stock after it starts trading,” Ng said.

One in two of the 44 new listings of Chinese companies in Hong Kong in the first half attracted over 100 times oversubscription, according to the HKEX’s data. Five of these IPOs were overbought by as much as 1,000 times, according to a report released by Futu Holdings last month. More than 71 per cent of the new listings closed higher on their debut day, according to the report.

The first trading days of Mixue Group and Chagee Holdings showed the divergence in sentiments for Chinese companies in New York and Hong Kong.

The shares of Mixue, which operates a chain of food and drink stores, soared 47 per cent during their July debut in Hong Kong. Chagee Holdings, which runs a chain of bubble tea stores around Asia, rose 16 per cent when its shares began trading on Nasdaq in April.

For Dai, the choice is clear.

“Companies will go for listings where they can raise more money,” he said. “Chinese companies’ preference for Hong Kong over the US may become a major pattern going forward.”

Malaysia flexes rare earth muscle as mineral-hungry US seeks non-Chinese sources

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3322810/malaysia-flexes-rare-earth-muscle-mineral-hungry-us-seeks-non-chinese-sources?utm_source=rss_feed

Malaysia’s ban on exports of unprocessed rare earth metals this week signals that the Southeast Asian country has a realistic shot – on its own terms – at feeding the mineral-hungry United States amid its strained trade ties with the world’s dominant supplier, China, according to analysts.

Kuala Lumpur will bar exports of unprocessed rare earth minerals, which are globally prized raw materials used in a range of electronic hardware, to keep supplies onshore for investment in downstream industries, a Malaysian official said this week.

The country’s minister of investment, trade and industry, Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, told the Malay Mail news outlet that foreign investors could jump into the downstream Malaysian rare earths sector if their projects involve local mineral processing, job creation and technology transfers. The processed rare earth metals could be exported.

While many countries sit on rare earth reserves, analysts say Malaysia’s industry is likely to take off because it already has processing capacity, and because US buyers of rare earth metals are scrambling for non-Chinese sources.

“Malaysia’s existing capabilities give it a head start in integrating into global supply chains,” said Qarrem Kassim, an analyst at the Institute of Strategic & International Studies Kuala Lumpur.

“Applying this export ban equally to all sides is a signal that Malaysia is willing to exercise its geoeconomic agency to prioritise its own development needs,” he said. “This may result in potential foreign investment down the road.”

The Southeast Asian country’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability had said in a “business model” last year that it would “delve into” mining for heavy rare earth metals that are essential components in everyday devices such as smartphones and computers, as well as in technologies such as electric vehicles and solar panels.

Officials have advanced that ambition this year by laying plans for two more processing plants, the Malaysian national Applied Research and Development Centre’s technology advisory head, Nordin Ramli, said this month on his LinkedIn page.

The ministry’s business model specifically calls for the development of “ion-adsorption clay rare earth elements”, which are relatively easy to extract.

Malaysia already hosts a major processing firm, the Lynas Malaysia subsidiary of Australia-based Lynas Rare Earths. Lynas Malaysia runs the world’s biggest rare earths processing compound outside China, using mostly Australian feedstock.

Lynas Malaysia contributes 11 per cent of global rare earth metals, “with the potential to increase its contribution”, according to the business model.

The business model, formulated over two years, said global demand for a type of “super-magnets” made from rare earths is projected to grow by 114 per cent in 2030 over 2020 levels.

With Malaysia’s total reserve of rare earth elements valued at US$175 billion, according to an East Asia Forum report last week, the country’s efforts to double down on rare earths follow concerns in the West about whether China will curb exports again.

In response to increases in US tariffs announced in April, China imposed export controls on seven rare earth elements and permanent magnets, requiring companies to obtain government permits before shipping them overseas.

The export controls sent shock waves through global supply chains. Following trade talks with US officials in London in early June, China’s Ministry of Commerce said late that month that it would “speed up the approval of export permits”. In July, China’s exports of permanent magnets rose to a six-month high, marking a second month of growth after the government pledged to accelerate export-permit approvals for the rare earth derivative.

“Given that Malaysia has a trade-oriented foreign policy, a strategic rare earth element sector would strengthen its geoeconomic leverage with the US, the EU, Japan and others as they seek to diversify their supply chains,” Kassim said.

In May, Malaysia began issuing non-preferential certificates of origin for US-bound exports. Rare earths had been “used as a negotiation tool” in Malaysia’s talks with the US, said Tham Siew Yean, a visiting senior fellow with the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

“The rare earth element processing landscape is going through a period of intense disruption in the medium term, as Western governments and multinationals try to establish more secure supply chains,” said Rajiv Biswas, CEO of the research firm Asia-Pacific Economics.

“As the US and EU are trying to reduce their supply-chain vulnerability to Chinese imports of rare earth products, the Lynas processing facility in Malaysia has become much more strategically significant in 2025,” he added.

Chinese firms are likely to be among the investors keen on joining Malaysia’s downstream rare earths sector, analysts said.

China, the only country currently capable of producing all 17 rare earth elements on the periodic table, was said in April to have agreed to share processing technology with Malaysia as a boost to economic ties. China accounts for more than 60 per cent of global rare earth mining and 90 per cent of processing output.

Malaysia needs more technology for purification, centrifuging – the separation of solids from liquids – and shipping, to level up its rare earths sector, said Charles Chang, a finance professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. Malaysia has the capacity to expand its sector within two to four years, Chang said.

But Kassim noted that since China currently bans the export of refining technologies, this “fundamentally limits” its scope of cooperation with Malaysia.

Chinese developers of wind power and new-energy vehicles still need a supply of rare earths, however, as both are “being deployed at a rapid pace” that could be fuelled by Malaysian supplies, said Jon Hykawy, president of Toronto-based industry advisory Stormcrow Capital.

“These ionic clay deposits generally contain a higher proportion of valuable and truly rare heavy rare earths, like dysprosium and terbium, that are important when manufacturing magnets to be used in the wind power or automotive sectors,” he said.

The government’s business model calls for “fast-tracking” the domestic rare earth supply chain. “Timing is crucial, as heightened US-Sino trade tensions have created an investment window,” Kassim said.

Macho China police officer saves drowning man; viral wet T-shirt photo raises fandom concerns

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3322394/macho-china-police-officer-saves-drowning-man-viral-wet-t-shirt-photo-raises-fandom-concerns?utm_source=rss_feed

A heroic and handsome Chinese police officer has become an overnight internet sensation, igniting a frenzy among netizens after he jumped into the sea to rescue a man.

A photo of him emerging from the water in a wet T-shirt, showcasing his muscular physique, quickly went viral online.

The dramatic rescue occurred late on July 24 in Wanning, Hainan province, southern China. Officer Li Shuda from the Wanning Public Security Bureau was resting by the seaside when he noticed a man, surnamed Ye, struggling in the water.

Ye later revealed that while playing at the beach with friends, he was suddenly swept away by a powerful current, causing him to lose his balance and sink rapidly.

“I was sunbathing near the reef when I noticed a group of people playing. One of them was suddenly pulled under by the current. At first, I thought they were just playing around, but after three to four minutes without seeing him come up, I realised something was wrong. When I saw him start to sink, I rushed in and pushed him towards the reef,” Li recounted.

With exceptional swimming skills and a keen knowledge of the local waters, Li quickly reached the semi-conscious Ye, securing him from behind to prevent further sinking. Using one arm, he coordinated with another rescuer to swim towards a nearby reef.

Once they reached the reef, Ye was too weak to climb up from the front, prompting both rescuers to turn to the other side. After nearly 30 minutes of effort, they finally pushed Ye onto the reef.

Li then swam back to retrieve life-saving equipment and successfully brought Ye to shore.

On July 28, Ye presented Li with a silk banner as a gesture of gratitude.

“I owe him my life. I’m truly grateful,” Ye expressed.

Notably, this was not Li’s first rescue; he had also performed a water rescue during another emergency in May.

“As a police officer, I carry a deep sense of mission and honour,” Li remarked. “Being ready to act in critical moments is part of who I am. I’ll continue safeguarding the safety of Wanning’s coastal waters.”

However, in an unexpected twist, after Li’s heroic act was widely reported, a photo of him emerging from the water in a wet T-shirt, revealing his striking physique, went viral online.

Public attention quickly shifted from his bravery to his chiselled chest and handsome face, sparking a wave of humorous and lighthearted comments.

One person exclaimed: “Officer Li is too handsome. I’m already dizzy!”

Another inquired: “So handsome and responsible – are you still single?”

A third joked: “Please give me Officer Li’s contact information. I want to jump into the sea too.”

Amid the playful banter, one commenter cautioned that his new-found popularity might have unintended consequences, stating: “That sea area might get crowded as people may jump in just to be rescued by him.”

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With Malaysia’s energy future adrift in the South China Sea, can it defend its oil wealth?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3322859/malaysias-energy-future-adrift-south-china-sea-can-it-defend-its-oil-wealth?utm_source=rss_feed

For half a century, Malaysia’s economy has been buoyed by oil and gas, the vast reserves off its shores enabling it to ride out global downturns and sustain growth. Today, these resources are throwing the nation a lifeline once more as global economic waters become ever choppier.

But smooth sailing ahead is far from guaranteed. An estimated 3.6 billion barrels of oil and more than 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lies under the contested waters of the South China Sea – a maritime expanse claimed in overlapping strokes by half a dozen regional governments, yet dominated by China’s growing military and economic might.

Beijing not only has superior naval power, its strategy is patient and incremental, with the steady assertion of control over reefs, fishing grounds and shipping lanes already sparking clashes with Vietnam and the Philippines.

For Malaysia, China represents both its largest trading partner – crucial for its export-reliant economy as US tariffs begin to bite – and its most potent rival claimant.

That tension was laid bare last month when Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warned of the need to strengthen Malaysia’s maritime defences. At the launch of the government’s 13th Malaysia Plan on July 31, he spoke of “threats to our sovereignty and security in the South China Sea” – highlighting that this was also an economic imperative.

“Safeguarding sovereignty is not just a defence or security matter,” defence analyst Ramli Dollah of Universiti Malaysia Sabah told This Week in Asia. “A secure environment is essential to the country’s economic growth.”

Malaysia is ill-prepared to defend itself, however. Its navy is built around dozens of vessels dating back to the 1970s, while its air force relies on ageing fighters and helicopters long overdue for replacement. Decades of underinvestment, procurement scandals and competing budgetary demands have left the armed forces stretched thin.

Oil and gas contributed nearly one-fifth of Malaysian government revenue last year, with state-owned energy giant Petronas alone paying a dividend of 32 billion ringgit (US$7.2 billion). That money underwrites everything from civil service salaries to social subsidies.

Yet Petronas’ ability to maintain such payouts hinges on continued access to oil and gas fields – most of which are located under the waters of the South China Sea. A disruption in production would quickly reverberate through government accounts. “If Petronas’ dividends fall the government will have to find other sources of income,” said one analyst, requesting anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.

Petronas in February reported total revenue of 320 billion ringgit for the most recent financial year, from an average output of just under 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, predominantly from domestic fields.

Anwar has spoken of his ambition to grow demand for Malaysia’s exports and attract more than 600 billion ringgit in new investments to help pay down the national debt and raise per-capita income to a level that qualifies for high-income nation status by 2030.

But a recently imposed 19 per cent US tariff, which was only lowered from 24 per cent after extensive negotiations that resulted in pledged investments and purchases amounting to some US$240 billion, will not help to achieve this goal.

Malaysia has long walked a careful line in its dealings with Beijing. Last year the two countries marked 50 years of diplomatic ties, with Chinese President Xi Jinping hailing the partnership as a foundation for “a more glorious future”. Trade between the two hit a record US$212 billion in 2024.

But China’s coastguard regularly shadows Malaysian energy exploration vessels and its sweeping territorial claims cover almost the entirety of the South China Sea. That puts Malaysia’s energy security at odds with the very partner it relies on to keep its economy afloat.

Diplomacy has offered little remedy. The 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea was meant as a means to resolve disputes without conflict, but follow-up negotiations on a binding code of conduct for the waterway – through which at least US$3 trillion in global trade every year – have dragged on for decades.

Earlier this month, Malaysia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it was “deeply committed to ensuring the effective implementation” of the 2002 declaration, after Kuala Lumpur had hosted a meeting between representatives of China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Yet Beijing’s refusal to accept a 2016 international tribunal ruling in favour of the Philippines – and an intra-Asean split between claimant states and other members seen as heavily dependent on China – have both stymied progress.

Meanwhile, Malaysia’s efforts to modernise its armed forces have been mired in delays and ballooning costs. A deal to supply six littoral combat ships, signed in 2010, has since been downgraded, with only five vessels now expected – and not before 2026 at the earliest.

In the meantime, the air force is preparing to receive Turkish drones, Korean fighter jets and French-Italian patrol aircraft. Anwar has also announced 51 billion ringgit over the next five years to fund procurements of “the most advanced technology”, driven by artificial intelligence.

Experts caution against prestige projects, however. They argue that the priority should be surveillance, patrol craft and coastguard capability – assets that reinforce Malaysia’s claims without provoking escalation.

“Without credible deterrence, Malaysia will be bullied by the stronger military presence of other states,” said Tunku Mohar Tunku Mohd Mokhtar, a geopolitical analyst with the International Islamic University of Malaysia.

“Malaysia has legal rights to explore new oil and gas fields in its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. [But] such areas are susceptible to overlapping claims.”

Malaysia’s energy reserves include oilfields off the coast of Terengganu state on the east of the Malaysian peninsula and significant gas deposits off Sarawak state on Malaysian Borneo, all located in the South China Sea.

Yet Petronas’ exploration of new fields faces regular interference from “powerful contenders”, according to Oh Ei Sun, principal adviser at the Pacific Research Centre of Malaysia.

Upgrading its defence capabilities would show that Malaysia was “serious about safeguarding its sovereignty, security and territorial rights”, he told This Week in Asia.

But even if Malaysia can secure its offshore fields, economists warn that reliance on oil and gas is unsustainable. The sector is expected to account for 18.3 per cent of government revenue this year, down from nearly a quarter in 2023.

“While this appears to mark progress in reducing reliance on oil and gas, the other revenue sources have not grown fast enough to fill the gap,” said Kuala Lumpur-based economist Doris Liew.

Liew said that the government needed to grow its non-oil tax base while pushing Petronas to start seriously investing in less carbon-intensive energy sources, going beyond incremental green investments to fully embrace the energy transition.

“To safeguard Malaysia’s fiscal health, Petronas must commit more meaningfully to the energy transition and reposition itself as a true energy provider, rather than merely an oil company with ‘green add-ons’,” she said.

For now, Anwar is signalling continuity rather than confrontation. At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore earlier this year, he pledged that disputes in the South China Sea would be handled through “steady, principled diplomacy: quiet, where necessary, but always firm”.

That balancing act, between dependence and defiance, hydrocarbons and transition, diplomacy and deterrence, may yet come to define Malaysia’s economic future.

China’s military has made a dramatic about-turn. The world is watching

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3322788/chinas-military-has-made-dramatic-about-turn-world-watching?utm_source=rss_feed

China is on a mission to turn its military into a modern fighting force. In this four-part series, we look at the rapid transformation of the People’s Liberation Army, starting with changing perceptions of its capabilities.

A decade ago, China held a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II. Back then, the People’s Liberation Army was seen as no match for the United States military in the Indo-Pacific.

But with an ambitious modernisation effort under way, that view is changing.

China has set three broad goals for the PLA: to make “significant progress” on information warfare, military mechanisation and strategic projection by 2027; for the modernisation to be “basically complete” by 2035; and for the military to be “world class” by 2049 – 100 years after the Communist Party took power.

While these goals are deliberately vague, the common understanding is that the ultimate 2049 target – set out by President Xi Jinping in 2017 – is for China to be on a par with the US.

The world could get some indication of just how far the PLA has come in September, when Beijing brings out the big guns for another military parade, this time for the 80th anniversary of Victory Day.

According to analysts, after a decade of rapid advances, China is now seen as a comparable military power by the US and its Indo-Pacific allies thanks to its advanced weapons and industrial support.

But they say China is being held back from becoming a leading arms provider by factors including geopolitics.

As the military modernisation has ramped up, so too has defence spending, going from US$145 billion in 2015 to US$249 billion in 2025. While that is not a huge increase given the gap with the US military – whose defence budget was more than three times China’s in both of those years – it is significant. That is because China has reduced its reliance on arms imports and is instead producing its own advanced weaponry at lower cost.

The Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on China’s military and security developments in 2015 described the PLA as having “limited” capabilities in the Indo-Pacific despite “rapidly closing gaps” with the West.

In its 2024 report, the Pentagon said China’s military build-up was a “pacing challenge” and its growing capabilities and modernisation strengthened its ability to “fight and win wars” against the US, counter an intervention by a third party in a conflict on its periphery, and project power globally.

That change is also seen in public opinion. A 2016 Gallup poll found 41 per cent of Americans saw China’s military as a “critical threat” to the US. That had increased to 63 per cent in 2024.

Gallup polling also found that the proportion of Americans who saw the conflict between Beijing and Taipei as a critical threat to the US went from 30 per cent in 2021 to 50 per cent last year.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China, to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.

Bence Nemeth, a senior lecturer in defence studies and executive director of the King’s Centre for Defence Economics and Management at King’s College London, said perceptions of China’s military capabilities had changed “markedly” in the past decade.

He said the PLA had been seen as large but relatively outdated compared to Western militaries in 2015. Now it had “either reached or is nearing military parity” with the US in the Indo-Pacific in areas like naval ship numbers, missile coverage and regional force projection.

“While the PLA remains far from matching US global reach and still lags behind in areas such as nuclear submarines, carrier aviation and combat experience, regional parity in key domains is either within reach or already achieved,” Nemeth said. “This represents a dramatic shift from 10 years ago.”

Yuan Jingdong, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s China and Asia security programme, noted that the rapid military modernisation under Xi’s leadership included organisational restructuring, procurement of new weapons systems, training and establishing overseas bases.

“Countries with specific territorial disputes – from India, Japan, to a number of Southeast Asian countries, not to mention Taiwan – are becoming worried given the potential for conflict,” Yuan said. “As a result, their perceptions of China have shifted to view it as posing security threats and, in comparison, see their own military capabilities falling behind.”

That shifting view is based on new-generation aircraft, growing naval power with major surface battleships and more advanced submarines, as well as space capabilities, according to Yuan.

“All of these have witnessed marked progress, significantly uplifting PLA warfighting capabilities, and changing the regional balance of power to China’s advantage,” he said.

Timothy Heath, a senior international defence researcher at the US-based Rand Corporation, said a number of Chinese military developments would be raising concern in the Pentagon.

They included the PLA’s anti-ship and anti-air missile capabilities and inventories, modernisation of the air force and navy, hypersonic missiles and systemic reforms that improved its ability to “use all of its weaponry in an integrated, joint fashion”.

“The weapons are capable and dangerous and even though Xi Jinping may be reluctant to start a war one cannot rule out the possibility that his successor could prove more aggressive and reckless,” Heath added.

The vast industrial output behind China’s military build-up and sophisticated weaponry is also part of its strength.

Nemeth said the “most concerning” areas for the US and its allies were China’s navy, air force and rocket force capabilities – all of which had made “remarkable improvements”.

“If you listen to senior officers in the US Navy, Air Force and Space Force, their concern is evident, not only about the pace at which China is advancing, but also the industrial capacity behind it,” Nemeth said.

“The speed with which China is able to design, build and field ships, missiles, aircraft and satellites has outpaced many Western expectations and Western capacities. The scale of production, combined with increasingly advanced systems, has caused significant concern among Western defence officials.”

According to the 2024 Pentagon report, China has the largest navy in the world by fleet size, with a battle force of over 370 ships and submarines, including more than 140 major surface combatants. It aims to have six aircraft carriers in service by 2035, with the third one – the Fujian – currently in sea trials.

The US Navy had fewer than 300 vessels as of 2024, and the gap with China is expected to widen in the coming years.

The Pentagon report said the PLA Navy was expanding its ability to operate beyond the “first island chain” that runs from Japan to the South China Sea and was conducting exercises in the Philippine Sea on the strategically important eastern side of Taiwan.

It said the air force and naval air force together constituted the “largest aviation forces” in the Indo-Pacific and the third-largest in the world, with more than 3,150 aircraft – some 2,400 of them combat aircraft.

The Pentagon report also said China had an estimated 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles as of 2023 and had “probably completed” construction of three solid-propellant silo fields as of 2022.

It estimated China’s nuclear stockpile had surpassed 600 operational warheads last year and would reach more than 1,000 by 2030 – most of them “deployed at higher readiness levels”, meaning they could be launched at any time.

Liselotte Odgaard, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, said China’s nuclear capabilities were “still small, but they are quickly expanding”.

“In the field of autonomous systems, they are capable at a great power level and constitute a significant threat,” she said.

“It is fair to say that China still lags behind the US, but it is getting the capabilities to match the US in the future, possibly as soon as within 10 to 20 years, which means that something has to be done now if the US and its allies wish to stay ahead.”

According to Yuan from SIPRI, China’s nuclear build-up is being closely watched – especially its medium-range ballistic missiles like the DF-26, DF-17 and shorter range DF-21 that carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.

But he noted that the Chinese military had not been put to the test in real combat for decades. “The PLA is not battle-tested since its 1979 brief encounter [with Vietnam] – not a good one to say the least – in comparison to the US military, which has been in military conflicts one way or another for the past two decades,” Yuan said.

There are also limits to gauging how far the PLA has progressed on weapons development since it rarely makes public any details and analysts often have to rely on satellite imagery and photos and videos circulating on social media.

“But the long-term trend appears to be clear, with military-civil fusion, investments, and China’s growing technological and industrial [and] manufacturing capabilities, there will be more advanced, better weapons systems being produced,” Yuan said.

He added that with further adjustment and adaptation the PLA’s combat potential would “steadily improve”.

While the main motivation behind the PLA modernisation programme is to boost its capabilities, it has also led China to take a bigger role in the global arms market.

Arms sales help to provide the huge funding needed for the modernisation drive, but they also serve as a tool for military diplomacy, and they help to establish global defence standards that align with its strategic interests.

China has expanded its market share in recent years, especially in the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia. It was the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter – after the US, France and Russia – from 2020 to 2024, according to data compiled by SIPRI.

Pakistan is one of its biggest buyers, accounting for 63 per cent of China’s total arms exports in that five-year period.

During a conflict with India in May, Pakistan reportedly shot down Indian Air Force fighter jets with Chinese-made J-10C aircraft and missiles – their first successful mission in live combat.

That could drive more sales of the Chinese fighter jet and weapons systems.

At present, Pakistan is the only known operator of J-10Cs outside China. It ordered 36 of the export variant in 2020, with at least 20 of the jets reportedly in service in Pakistan after the first delivery in 2022.

There has also been speculation that Egypt could be considering buying the J-10C after an Egyptian pilot was seen on board one of the fighter jets during a joint drill in May.

Odgaard said China was selling more arms to developing countries seeking alternatives to weapons produced in the West.

“Weapons sales are also political, so as China has increased its influence in regions such as Africa and the Middle East, it has also increased its weapons sales,” she said.

“China also offers fairly low-cost weapons, for example for armies, that suit the needs of many developing nations.”

Odgaard said China was expanding its influence in West Africa and aimed to gain access to the Atlantic Ocean.

“For many developing countries, US-China strategic competition is seen as good news that allows many of them to cooperate with both without choosing sides, at least so far, and for China, this has meant that their weapons export has gone up to these countries,” Odgaard said.

“Countries that remain US allies, such as most European countries and Indo-Pacific allies such as ROK [Republic of Korea], Japan and Australia, would not want to invest in Chinese weapons, but China also most likely would not want to export advanced weapons to most of these countries.”

Despite its advances in arms technology, China has struggled to make headway in markets like Europe which is grappling with the threat from Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

Geopolitics is one factor in the way of China increasing arms sales – in particular the view that it poses a challenge to the US in the Indo-Pacific.

Nemeth from King’s College London said while there was a shifting perception about Chinese military capabilities it was likely to help arms exports more “in the medium term than immediately”.

“The idea that Chinese weapon systems are closing the gap with Western platforms has gained traction only relatively recently, and it will take time before that perception translates into actual deals,” he said.

“Broader market penetration will depend not only on the continued improvement of Chinese systems but also on how they are perceived in terms of reliability, political risk and combat performance. As the perception of quality and credibility improves, we may well see Chinese systems become more competitive in price-sensitive and politically non-aligned markets.”

He said there were “clear structural and geopolitical constraints on China’s arms export potential” as it was now seen as a strategic competitor by much of the West, “significantly” limiting its ability to sell to countries increasing their defence budgets, especially in Europe.

“Political considerations, along with concerns about interoperability with Nato standards, effectively rule out Chinese weapons in those markets,” he said.

“In Asia, the situation is similarly complex. Many countries are expanding their defence spending precisely because of concerns about China’s growing military power, making them unlikely to turn to Beijing as an arms supplier.”