42 h. ago Tencent Music to buy Ximalaya, an audio app used by 300 million users

Tencent Music Entertainment Group, China’s largest online music platform by user count, announced on Tuesday its acquisition of audio content platform Ximalaya for about US$2.4 billion in cash and stock. The Tencent Holdings subsidiary will offer US$1.26 billion in cash and up to 5.2 per cent of its total outstanding class A ordinary shares. It will also issue up to 0.37 per cent of its shares to Ximalaya’s founding investors. As part of the deal, Ximalaya will restructure certain existing...

Economics

43 h. ago China’s film distributors pledge more imports to diversify market

China’s film distributors have called for diversifying the country’s cinematic offerings with more and better titles from overseas, at a time when domestic productions have seized the lion’s share of the market from their imported competitors. At a work conference held by the state-owned China Film Group Corporation, as well as Huaxia Film Distribution, companies vowed to bring in “good titles from multiple countries” to improve the number, quality and market share of foreign films, state media...

Politics

45 h. ago A quantum leap: Chinese institute begins photonic chip production

An institute affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University has commenced production of photonic chips, marking a milestone in China’s semiconductor sector and providing a boost to the country’s quantum computing capabilities in spite of increased US export controls. The Chip Hub for Integrated Photonics Xplore (CHIPX), located in Wuxi in eastern Jiangsu province, now produces 6-inch thin-film lithium niobate photonic chip wafers, according to local authorities. The development underscores...

Politics

3 d. ago Alongside China’s, Which Social Credit Systems Are Developing?

Alongside China’s, Which Social Credit Systems Are Developing?  CounterPunch.org

Politics

4 d. ago Pay dads to parent? How China could fix birth rate crisis, according to new research

Subsidising men’s participation in household chores and childcare could help reverse declining global birth rates, according to a new study, offering a fresh approach to deepening demographic challenges in countries like China. The study, co-authored by researchers from Fudan University and the University of Hong Kong (HKU), argued that subsidies for fathers produce significantly higher long-term fertility gains than solely subsidising mothers. The findings came as the world’s second-largest...

Events

4 d. ago ‘Don’t kill your successful DNA’: Hong Kong’s John Lee on tariffs, trade war

Hong Kong will not destroy its “successful DNA” and jeopardise its free-port status by retaliating with counter-tariffs on the US even if geopolitical tensions with China escalate further, the city’s leader has promised. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said his administration had made “contingency plans for the worst” and would increase support for local businesses in finding “blue oceans” in new markets. In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with the Post to mark the third anniversary of his...

Events

4 d. ago China says willing to improve communication with countries on rare earth controls

China says willing to improve communication with countries on rare earth controls  The Economic Times

Politics

5 d. ago Trump, Hegseth, Rubio: a triple threat to global stability – and Asia

The Indo-Pacific cannot afford to become collateral damage in America’s descent from diplomacy into dysfunction – a decline embodied by Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth’s sabre-rattling and Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio’s overreach. At the recent Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Hegseth stunned Asia’s defence and diplomatic elite by demanding that Indo-Pacific countries raise defence spending to 5 per cent of gross domestic product to “counter China”. The proposal...

Politics

5 d. ago Trump’s top economic officials to meet with China counterparts in London next week

US President Donald Trump’s top economic officials will meet with their Chinese counterparts on Monday. “I am pleased to announce that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, will be meeting in London on Monday, June 9, 2025, with Representatives of China, with reference to the Trade Deal,” Trump said on social media. “The meeting should go very well. Thank you for your attention to this...

Politics

5 d. ago Breaking Trump’s top economic officials to meet with China counterparts in London next week

Breaking Trump’s top economic officials to meet with China counterparts in London next week  South China Morning Post

Politics

5 d. ago Trump says his top economic officials will meet with China counterparts in London next week

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that his top economic officials will meet with their Chinese counterparts next week to discuss trade, just days after he conducted a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “I am pleased to announce that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, will be meeting in London on Monday, June 9, 2025, with Representatives of China, with reference...

Politics

5 d. ago Trump says US economic officials to meet China counterparts in London next week

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that his top economic officials will meet with their Chinese counterparts next week to discuss trade, just days after he conducted a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and also reiterated that Beijing agreed to restart exports of critical minerals. “I am pleased to announce that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, will be meeting...

Politics

5 d. ago Philippines aims to counter China’s drone swarm capacity, learn from Ukraine war

The Philippine military is ramping up efforts to enhance its drone offensive capabilities and countermeasures amid growing concerns over China potentially using waves of such unmanned aircraft to assert its claims in contested waters. As part of this push, Philippine and US forces recently tested high-powered microwave weapons during the Balikatan 2025 exercises, designed to neutralise so-called drone swarms. The Philippine military has also begun using Israeli-made intelligence, surveillance...

Events

6 d. ago Chinese man who killed mum, lover, caught after decades on the run with brother’s wife

A case in China involving a fugitive who killed his mother and girlfriend before absconding with his sister-in-law for 32 years has recently come to light, captivating mainland social media. The man, surnamed Li, was 29 when he used a kitchen knife to stab his mother and his 17-year-old girlfriend to death at their home in a village in Weiyuan county in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, on July 22, 1992. Li was arrested only in September last year. At the end of May, state broadcaster CCTV...

Events

6 d. ago Will Sri Lanka and China push for FTA or just engage in economic diplomacy?

A long-delayed free-trade agreement (FTA) between Sri Lanka and China appears to be back on the agenda, even as analysts warn that the crisis-hit South Asian nation is not expected to benefit much from it for years after its implementation. Sri Lanka’s officials are cautiously optimistic the FTA could help narrow the country’s huge trade deficit with China. First proposed in 2014, talks between both sides for an FTA have been on hold for the past six years because Sri Lanka did not agree to some...

Economics

6 d. ago US Senate panel passes Taiwan, mainland China overseas military growth measures

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a slate of China-focused measures on Thursday, including bipartisan bills to counter Beijing’s overseas military expansion and bolster Taiwan’s role in global finance while advancing the nomination of a former ambassador to lead US diplomacy in East Asia. The Counter Act of 2025, co-authored by Senators Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, and Pete Ricketts, Republican of Nebraska, calls on the US government to develop a strategy to respond to the...

Events

6 d. ago China hails new helicopter engine as a milestone for its aviation ambitions

China has granted approval for the country’s first home-grown 1,000-kilowatt helicopter engine to begin mass production, as Beijing doubles down on its aviation ambitions in defiance of US efforts to restrict its access to key technologies. The engine, named the AES100, was granted a production licence by Chinese authorities on Thursday, “laying a solid foundation for its market launch”, state-run news agency Xinhua reported. The move comes just days after Washington announced a new round of...

Politics

7 d. ago Russia moves again to join with China and India despite their trust issues

Russia’s fresh bid to revive a strategic triangle with China and India as a counterbalance to the Western-led international order faces headwinds given the deep-seated distrust between the two Asian powers, according to observers. However, United States President Donald Trump and his aggressive and unpredictable policies could be the catalyst to bring the three together, one analyst says. The assessment was made as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov objected to what he described as Nato’s...

Politics

8 d. ago Why new US curbs on China’s tech tests could raise prices for American consumers

Washington’s recent ban on Chinese labs deemed security risks over their testing of consumer electronics bound for the US has observers wondering about law enforcement while saying the ban may leave American consumers with fewer, more expensive choices. Analysts also say the impact on Chinese makers of phones, PCs and the like could be limited, even though Washington appears to be trying to curtail China, a country the US Federal Communications Commission calls an adversary. “It is hard to...

Politics

8 d. ago US steps up contest with China in Africa by counting ambassadors’ business deals

The US State Department has introduced performance metrics for American ambassadors in Africa to evaluate them based on the number of business deals they make as part of the US government’s new “trade, not aid” approach. Within its first 100 days, President Donald Trump’s second administration secured 33 deals worth US$6 billion across the continent, announced Troy Fitrell, senior US official for the Bureau of African Affairs, at the launch of the bureau in mid-May. The US’ new commercial...

Politics