Car sales in China, the world’s largest automotive market, rose for the first time in almost two years in April as pent-up demand unleashed by the lifting of coronavirus lockdowns gave the struggling sector a boost. The increase of 4.4 per cent from the same month last year, according to […]

Decoupling between the US and Chinese economies shifted into overdrive in the first quarter of this year, as the commercial impact of coronavirus exacerbated what some analysts are calling a “cold war” chill in ties between the countries. The value of newly announced Chinese direct investment projects into the US […]

Wuhan, the Chinese city where the global coronavirus pandemic began, on Monday reported its first cluster of new infections since a strict quarantine was relaxed in early April. The setback occurred just over a week before China’s rubber stamp parliament was supposed to convene in Beijing for its delayed annual […]

When southern Chinese auto parts maker Kanou Technology tried to restart production after closing during the country’s coronavirus lockdown, one of its lines of machinery failed to restart. A pregnant rat had given birth to a litter in the machine and her young family had chewed through its internal wiring. […]

The US-China trade war is over, runs an often-made joke in Singapore. “And the winner is Vietnam.” Actually, the war shows little sign of easing, even as the combatants reel from the coronavirus, but the punchline still captures an important truth. For a decade all eyes were on China but […]

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) was widely proclaimed in 2017 when Google’s AlphaGo program comprehensively defeated Ke Jie, world champion player of Go, the complex Chinese board game. Since then the excitement has ebbed as Washington and Beijing fought a trade war, and China’s start-up funding dipped in part […]

Wang said he would petition to challenge his conviction and said the courts had violated the Criminal Procedure Law by illegally detaining him for more than three years without trial and denying him a legal defence during the hearings. “Procedural justice is what I have been desperately pursuing for years. […]

Relations between the world’s pre-eminent economic superpowers are fraying again amid the spread of Covid-19, adding another element of uncertainty to an already grim growth outlook.  In recent days, US policymakers have ramped up their rhetoric against Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, threatening retaliatory measures that include curbing investment […]

“The PLA is still a conscription army and, given its large turnover of soldiers every year and the late recruitment and training plan this year, the coronavirus pandemic has already affected combat effectiveness,” said Adam Ni, director of the China Policy Centre, an independent, non-profit research organisation based in Canberra, […]

Until recently, Wuhan — the Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged — was hardly well-known around the world. For the British jeweller Annoushka, however, this metropolis of 11m people, a third larger than New York, is important. Before the virus hit, the company’s two Wuhan concessions were the top […]