China
Beijing flags Malaysia–US trade pact, urges Kuala Lumpur to re-examine priorities
China has registered firm objections to unspecified elements within the Malaysia–US reciprocal trading accord, advising Malaysian policymakers to prioritise enduring economic advantages and assess strategic outcomes before moving forward.
Three Chinese citizens killed in Tajikistan in drone attack launched from Afghanistan
Incident comes week after Tajik security forces for first time used an armed drone to "neutralise" drug smugglers on Tajik-Afghan border.
COMMENT: China’s choreographed fury at Japan is backfiring
Beijing, with every threat pushes Japan further out of China’s orbit and deeper into a security posture Beijing will one day wish it had not provoked.
China's latest anti-India move focuses on transit travellers
China’s refusal to acknowledge the validity of an Indian passport held by a UK-based Arunachal Pradesh born traveller illustrates a widening pattern in which Beijing links territorial claims to the movement of ordinary Indian citizens.
Panama Canal presses forward with port tenders despite US unease over Chinese bidders
Panama’s canal authority has confirmed that preparations for two port concessions and a cross-isthmus gas pipeline are entering defined stages.
ADB follows World Bank in revising policy on support for nuclear power financing
The Asian Development Bank has revised its energy policy to allow direct support for nuclear power, signalling a notable shift in how multilateral lenders approach baseload generation in emerging Asian economies.
COP30 didn’t go far enough to address the Climes Crisis – Carbon Brief
The UN climate summit in Belém concluded with delegates agreeing to a series of measures aimed at accelerating climate action, but the outcomes fell short of what many scientists and vulnerable countries had hoped for.
COMMENT: Xi’s call to Trump smacks of a leader whose bark is worse than his bite
That Japan’s Takaichi – a known fan of Britain’s Iron Lady of the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s, Margaret Thatcher – has refused to bend, break or back down under a barrage of Chinese abuse speaks volumes.
COP30 another failure
The UN climate summit, COP30 in Brazil, ended in the same sort of failure to take the decisive action needed to avoid a planetary eco-crisis, hijacked once again by energy lobbyists and marred by the total absence of the US.
Asian utilities locked into coal as long-term contracts slow transition
Asia’s shift towards cleaner energy is being hampered by decades-long coal power agreements that continue to bind utilities to fossil-fuel generation, even at times when cheaper renewable supplies are readily available.
LONG READ: How oil price discounts became a barometer of the sanction’s effectiveness
When Russian troops crossed into Ukraine in February 2022, the country’s main crude export blend, Urals, was still trading in line with its traditional discount to Brent of $2. A month later Russia discounted it by $30 to find buyers.
Kyrgyz president says Chinese worker comments after mass brawl are pre-election provocation
Japarov warns there are groups trying “to stir things up”.
China blocks Japanese film releases in latest anti-Tokyo moves
China has postponed the release of at least two Japanese films as political tensions between Beijing and Tokyo intensify over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent comments on Taiwan.
COMMENT: Head-to-head – China vs Japan. Who wins?
With the latest China – Japan spat having been blown up exponentially by Beijing in recent days, many in East Asia are asking what would happen if hostilities break out between Beijing and Tokyo.
China’s LNG tanker shadow fleet – reality or fiction?
China appears to be constructing a discreet fleet of LNG tankers capable of moving sanctioned Russian fuel in what is an emerging tactic that would allow Moscow to preserve export revenue while tightening the energy relationship between the two.
Bottleneck on the border, truckers baffled by major snarl-up on Kazakhstan-Russia frontier
Tens of thousands of goods vehicles stranded. Yet nobody is quite clear on what is going on.
Tokyo refuses to kowtow to China’s latest round of anti-Japanese bullying
China has once more escalated a minor diplomatic skirmish with Japan, by urging its citizens to avoid travelling to the country and hauling in Tokyo’s ambassador over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks about Taiwan.
China deploys an army of humanoid robots to car factories
It looks exactly like a scene out of the Hollywood movie iRobot, depicting the Isacc Asimov classic sci-fi novel: a warehouse filled with gleaming white robots standing in a precise military grid, moving in unison when ordered.
COMMENT: Trump was “sent by heaven”, Russia is a “God-given” neighbour, says Kazakhstan’s president. What's cooking?
With White House and Kremlin visits in the space of six days, pressure was on Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to pull off a masterclass in multi-vector foreign policy.
China’s emissions growth flat as emissions peak arrives
China’s carbon dioxide emissions remained flat in the third quarter of 2025 compared to a year earlier, extending a trend of stabilisation that began in March 2024.