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Industry

China voices ‘serious concern’ over new US curbs in trade talks between Bessent and He

Beijing raises objections during high-level call as both sides work towards economic outcomes ahead of an expected Xi-Trump summit China on Thursday voiced “serious concern” over recent US economic restrictions during a video call between Vice-Premier He Lifeng, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. “The Chinese side expressed serious concern over the recent economic and trade restrictions imposed by the United States on China,” according to a readout by Chinese state news agency Xinhua. The readout added that the two sides engaged in “candid, in-depth and constructive” exchanges, centred on implementing the “important consensus” reached at the Beijing meeting between US President Donald Trump and the Chinese leader. Bessent said that he expected Beijing to “fully meet its commitments on rare earths and US agricultural products”. “We also discussed implementation of the Trade and Investment Boards as a mechanism to secure concrete progress toward a more balanced, fair, and constructive US-China economic relationship,” he wrote on social media.

July 30, 2026

Industry

Top US science journals more likely to reject paper by Chinese authors: study

Even among American-based scientists, those with Chinese surnames had lower publication rates than those without, team finds Researchers based in China or having a Chinese surname were far less likely than their US and Canadian counterparts to have papers published in the world’s most prestigious journals, according to a new study. Just 2.5 per cent of submissions from China-based researchers were accepted, compared with 8.3 per cent overall for those from North America, a team found after analysing a rare dataset of more than 110,000 manuscripts submitted to Science and Science Advances between 2015 and 2020. Even among US-based scientists, those with Chinese surnames had lower publication rates than those without Chinese surnames, they reported in Science Advances on July 15. Sam Zhang, the study’s lead author and a computational social scientist at the University of Vermont, said one reason might be that China’s research system offered career and financial incentives for scientists to submit to elite journals such as Science. That could encourage submissions even when some studies were not the best fit for the journals’ broad scientific scope.

July 30, 2026

Industry

China accuses Philippines of ‘flagrantly infringing’ on sovereignty in seabed claim

Beijing accused Manila of “flagrantly infringing” on Chinese sovereignty and undermining regional peace after the Philippines formally presented its bid to the United Nations this week for extended seabed rights in the South China Sea. The rebuttal, issued by China’s mission to the UN on Thursday, followed Manila’s presentation before the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) on Tuesday and Wednesday. Beijing said the filing violated its sovereignty, sovereign rights and...

July 30, 2026

Industry

Ex-PLA colonel on US’ decline and China’s nuclear arsenal

Zhou Bo is a retired senior colonel in the People’s Liberation Army, a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, and the author of the book Should the World Fear China? SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is approaching its 2027 centenary, a major benchmark set by Beijing to achieve military modernisation. What is that goal actually about? China has set two major military...

July 30, 2026

Industry

Triassic fish for lunch? Chinese fossil reveals oldest preserved reptile stomach

Specialised features of preserved 240 million-year-old skeleton suggest water-dwelling archosaurs existed earlier than originally thought A Chinese-led team has analysed a 240 million-year-old fossil with the oldest known preserved stomach, liver and intestinal soft tissue in reptiles. The fossil of the Austronaga minuta from the Early Triassic period also offers a “unique opportunity” to study how Triassic reptiles made the vital evolutionary transition from land to sea. “We report on a well-preserved Triassic reptile representing the earliest stem-archosaur to evolve unequivocal aquatic specialisations,” the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)-led team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on Thursday. “The fossil exhibits the oldest known stomach, liver and intestinal preservations in reptiles.”

July 30, 2026

Industry

China’s October plenum plan reveals focus on party discipline ahead of 2027 congress

Politburo calls on Central Committee to draw on the ‘valuable experience’ from the anti-corruption campaign The Politburo, China’s top decision-making body, announced on Thursday that the fifth plenary session of the Communist Party’s 20th Central Committee would be held in October, state news agency Xinhua reported. The meeting is likely to be the party’s most important gathering ahead of its 21st national congress in autumn 2027, where key leadership reshuffles and the endorsement of a fourth term for Xi Jinping are likely to take centre stage. According to Xinhua, the October plenum will focus on “consistently exercising full and rigorous governance over the party”. For Beijing, the expression usually means three things: fighting corruption, tightening party discipline and shoring up political loyalty. More than 370 full and alternate members of the Central Committee – the party’s top political and executive body – will take part in the fifth plenum.

July 30, 2026

Industry

China lodges protest after NZ foreign minister’s ‘go back’ slur in parliament

Targeting of Chinese-born opposition MP Lawrence Xu-Nan escalates from fiery exchange to broader diplomatic issue The official protest on Thursday, accompanied by a rare social media statement from Beijing’s ambassador in Wellington, escalated a fiery domestic exchange over race and governance into a broader diplomatic issue. In a statement, the Chinese embassy in Wellington urged New Zealand to “treasure the equal and mutually beneficial relationship between China and New Zealand, and do more things conducive to bilateral ties, not the opposite”. The embassy also highlighted the contributions of the local Chinese community, calling on Wellington to “respect and protect their legitimate rights and interests, and create an open, inclusive and non‑discriminatory environment”. In Beijing on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry urged “relevant people in New Zealand” “not to play up China as an issue in its domestic politics”.

July 30, 2026

Industry

‘Quite disappointed’? Trump’s mixed signals ahead of Xi’s September trip

US President Donald Trump said he would be “quite disappointed” if his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping broke a personal promise not to arm Iran. His comment on Wednesday came alongside renewed accusations that long-time US health official Anthony Fauci, who led the US response to Covid-19, helped shield Beijing from scrutiny over the origins of the pandemic. Separately, Reuters reported that Iran was expected to receive 300 to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defence missile systems within...

July 30, 2026

Industry

Why did an Okinawan delegation visit a Beijing cemetery amid China-Japan tensions?

The trip highlights historical ties between China and the Ryukyu Islands that Beijing is leveraging as a counterweight in its row with Tokyo During the visit in June – first made public by the Global Times on Sunday – about a dozen delegates travelled to the site southeast of Beijing, which honours six centuries of ties between China and the former island nation later annexed by Japan. During the memorial ceremony, the delegation members paid tribute with traditional rituals, incense and liquor. Some members also wore traditional attire, according to the Global Times. Among the visitors was Tetsumi Takara, a former Japanese lawmaker who told the newspaper that historical ties between China and Ryukyu “should not be forgotten, distorted, or hijacked by politics”. The Beijing site holds the graves of more than 10 Ryukyu Kingdom officials and envoys from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), including an envoy who objected to Japan’s 1879 annexation of the kingdom, and a student who took his own life to protest against the islands’ loss of independence, according to state news agency Xinhua.

July 30, 2026

Industry

Brazil becomes world’s top buyer of Chinese cars as imports jump 147%

Purchases hit US$5.2 billion in five months, pushing the sector’s trade gap to its widest since records began in 1997 The figure, drawn from Chinese customs data, is up 146.9 per cent from the US$2.1 billion recorded a year earlier, when Brazil ranked sixth among buyers. Russia bought US$5 billion over the same months this year and Belgium purchased US$3.8 billion. Electrified models drove the surge, accounting for US$4.5 billion of the total. April and May alone contributed US$2.7 billion, a concentration consistent with stockpiling ahead of the duty change rather than sustained demand. Brazil also topped the global ranking for electric and hybrid vehicles specifically, ahead of Belgium and Britain. Electric and hybrid models made up 87 per cent of Brazil’s vehicle imports from China last year, against 33 per cent in 2021, a shift that has remade the composition of the trade in five years. Figures from Brazil’s foreign trade secretariat compiled by the Brazil-China Business Council put first-half purchases at US$5.35 billion, more than double the value of all vehicles imported from France.

July 29, 2026

Industry

Can China’s EV boom give it decisive edge in geopolitical tech war?

China may increasingly seek to use its dominance in the global electric vehicle industry as geopolitical leverage, giving Beijing greater influence over countries dependent on its technology and supply chains, according to analysts. “With China, the strategy is different. It’s to overwhelm the industry, capture it, and use it ultimately as leverage,” said Michael Dunne, CEO of Dunne Insights, an auto advisory firm. “When it comes to crunch time, they say, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re the source of all...

July 29, 2026

Industry

US sanctions mainland China, Hong Kong shipping firms over Iranian oil deliveries

Six targeted tankers allegedly carried crude to China as Washington links economic campaign to US Navy enforcement The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a group of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong shipping companies accused of operating vessels that transported Iranian oil to China, extending Washington’s economic campaign against Tehran alongside its naval blockade. The US State Department said eight companies were designated for operating vessels that moved Iranian crude oil and petrochemical products to China and the United Arab Emirates as part of Iran’s sanctions-evading “shadow fleet”. Six of the eight vessels identified by the US Treasury Department were specifically accused of carrying Iranian crude to China, in some cases transporting millions of barrels during 2026. The designations freeze any assets belonging to the targeted companies within US jurisdiction and generally prohibit US individuals and businesses from dealing with them. Foreign financial institutions and other companies could also face sanctions exposure if they continue to conduct certain transactions involving the designated firms.

July 29, 2026