China logged an overall increase in travel during the just-concluded Chinese New Year break compared with last year’s holiday period, but analysts said spending per capita stayed flat. The country saw 596 million domestic trips over the extended public holiday that ended on Monday, a year-on-year increase of 95 million, Xinhua reported. About 17.8 million cross-border trips were logged over the same period, it added. Chinese New Year is a crucial period for the travel sector as hundreds of...

China widened its lead over South Korea in critical technologies in recent years, according to an official review by Seoul’s science ministry, as Beijing doubles down on strategic investment in advanced research. The expanding gap underscores the need for both countries to move beyond zero-sum competition and deepen cooperation in economic and technological development, according to analysts. Quantifying this trend, the latest technology-level assessment from the South Korean Ministry of Science...

A reported threat by US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the North American trade pact could push Canada closer to China, analysts say, even as his new global 15 per cent tariff has little immediate impact due to existing trade agreements. Washington, Ottawa and Mexico City are set to renegotiate terms of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) before a possible extension on July 1. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Trump was quietly considering exiting the trade deal –...

Richard Liu, founder of China’s retail giant JD.com, has launched a nautical brand to build out the country’s yacht industry, riding a wave of policy support to tap a fast-growing domestic market and make the vessels – traditionally associated with affluence and luxury – accessible to “everyday consumers”. Liu’s brand, Sea Expandary, signed a strategic framework agreement on Tuesday with the coastal cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai in Guangdong, China’s southern powerhouse province, for a high-end...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called on China to make the shift to a consumption-led growth model an “overarching priority”, while urging the country to curb what it called “unwarranted industrial policy” amid mounting external imbalances. The IMF staff’s recommendations, issued ahead of Beijing’s annual parliamentary meetings, joined increasingly loud calls for economic rebalancing, particularly after China’s record trade surplus last year. “China needs to move decisively towards...

Against the news of China’s record trade surplus of US$1.19 trillion last year, some have warned it is making trade impossible, arguing that the rest of the world has fewer goods they can sell, or are willing to sell, to China. Critics point to China’s competitive edge in producing better and cheaper goods. For Beijing, this feels less like criticism and more like a subtle compliment. In many ways, it affirms China’s long-term strategy to bolster its global manufacturing. Supporting...

China’s yuan has strengthened to its highest level against the US dollar in nearly three years, with its official fixing rate also firming amid growing uncertainty over the American currency. On Wednesday afternoon, the offshore yuan traded at 6.867 per US dollar, its strongest level since April 2023. The same day, the People’s Bank of China set the yuan’s midpoint rate – also known as the daily fixing – at 6.9321 per US dollar, also the strongest since May 2023. The currency has appreciated...