Beijing is doubling down on overland trade routes across Central Asia as continued disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider region expose the vulnerability of global shipping chokepoints. A new link to Afghanistan via Uzbekistan offers a practical example of this long-term diversification push. However, observers caution that security concerns and capacity constraints could make a meaningful shift away from sea freight difficult. Officially launched in May with pilot shipments, the...

A group of American tech giants, including Nvidia, Palantir and Meta, signed a public letter on Friday calling for US leadership in open-weight AI models, an area that China currently dominates. The challenge comes amid growing speculation that the Trump administration might introduce restrictions on open AI models. These would aim to address national security risks of the fast-moving technology and combat the growing popularity of Chinese models, a move that critics say would instead hurt US...

Washington and Beijing’s top police officials met on Friday in the Chinese capital, the latest meeting by senior level representatives in advance of a much-anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, expected in the US capital in late September. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel met Wang Xiaohong, China’s state councillor and minister of public security, in Beijing on Friday, according to state news agency Xinhua. Wang said the two...

Washington’s recent wave of trade, tech and visa restrictions on China appears to be a deliberate push to build leverage ahead of the presidential summit in September, according to Chinese analysts. However, they warn that such aggressive pressure tactics risk souring the political atmosphere ahead of the high-stakes meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The assessment comes as the two powers seek to establish a new framework of “constructive strategic stability”, in line with the...

Two Peking University alumni made history by winning the Fields Medal this week, a victory spotlighting a broader wave of young high-achieving Chinese scientists rising to global prominence. The International Congress of Mathematicians announced on Thursday that Wang Hong and Deng Yu, both of whom entered the top Chinese university in 2007, were awarded the highest honour for mathematicians under 40. It is the first time Chinese nationals have received the prestigious award often called the...

China may be developing a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarine with improved range and stealth, according to analysis based on recent satellite imagery. The images, captured at Shanghai’s Jiangnan Shipyard, show what analysts believe is a previously unidentified submarine featuring a dramatically reduced sail compared with existing Type 093 attack submarines – a design they say could improve performance. The submarine first came to public attention in early June when naval analyst H.I....

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China have called for a lasting settlement to the war in the Middle East, while pledging further cooperation on energy security. A joint statement was released on Friday after a meeting in Manila between the foreign ministers of China and the Asean, against the backdrop of an ongoing energy crisis. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused prices to rise and led to shortages across Southeast Asia, prompting the Philippines to declare a national...