This live blog has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. After China’s ruling Communist Party concluded the fourth plenum of its powerful Central Committee on Thursday, a press conference was held on Friday morning to review the events of the conclave and the committee’s conclusions. Among those who attended the briefing were the head of the country’s top economic planner, the minister of commerce, the minister...

Recently, some major Western media outlets have focused on China’s embrace of clean energy technologies. Between the lines of the rhetoric on China becoming an “electrostate”, there is palpable anxiety about US President Donald Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” approach and the partisan political landscape. The New York Times highlighted one of China’s longest ultra-high-voltage power lines, stretching from the far northwest remote desert to the populous southeast, noting that these power lines are...

With the US threatening to leverage its software strengths ahead of fresh trade talks with China in response to its recent export controls on rare earths, analysts say Beijing is unlikely to make major concessions, though progress could be made on issues such as soybeans or fentanyl. Washington is reportedly considering imposing curbs on a range of software-powered exports to China – from laptops to jet engines – according to Reuters, following a threat by US President Donald Trump earlier this...

US President Donald Trump’s “badly misguided” tariff policy is impairing the efficiency of America’s economy despite its short-term resilience, and the damage will need to be repaired down the road, according to a former US Treasury secretary. “It’s a very unwise policy, and yet it seems to be the policy they’re committed to,” said Robert Rubin, who administered the Treasury from 1995 to 1999, during the Democratic presidential administration of Bill Clinton. Rubin, 87, was speaking via video...

As China stays on track to achieve its annual growth target, top-tier cities Shanghai and Beijing – along with several inland regions – outperformed the national average in the first three quarters of 2025, with domestic demand driving expansion amid renewed trade tensions with the United States. Shanghai, the nation’s financial hub, reported 5.5 per cent year-on-year growth in gross domestic product for the first nine months of the year, outpacing the 5.2 per cent national average, according to...

After a meeting of China’s political leadership setting the tone for policymaking over the next five years, warnings of “raging storms” and growing uncertainties joined declarations of confidence in the nation’s economic resilience, as Beijing vowed to make “notable progress” in the pursuit of development and to maintain its status as a manufacturing powerhouse. In a communique issued following the conclusion of the fourth plenum on Thursday, the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee called...

China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng will hold trade talks with US officials during a visit to Malaysia from Friday to Monday, Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday. The two sides will “consult on important issues in China-US economic and trade relations” in keeping with the “consensus reached during multiple phone calls by the two nations’ leaders this year”, the ministry confirmed in a statement on its official website. The coming negotiation will mark the fifth round of trade talks...