China’s automakers are heading into 2026 under mounting financial pressures as prices for key components such as memory chips, battery-grade lithium carbonate, copper and aluminum continue to climb, reportsCaixin. The added burden could inflate production costs by thousands of yuan per vehicle, Caixin says, citing UBS Group. Despite these rising costs, manufacturers are unlikely to […]
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China’s foreign trade hit a record RMB 45.5 trillion ($6.5 trillion) in 2025, reports Caixin. This was due to robust growth in mechanical and electrical exports, which for the first time made up more than 60% of total outbound shipments. Customs data show imports and exports combined rose 3.8% last year, extending a growth streak to […]
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Diplomatic perspectives
There is a view of world history that it moves in century-long cycles, with the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the 19th century marking the beginning of one cycle, World War I the beginning of another and the current geopolitical uncertainties the beginning of yet another cycle which will see significant changes to the […]
China on Wednesday reported a record trade surplus of nearly $1.2 trillion in 2025, reports Reuters. This was due to booming exports to non-US markets as producers looked to diversify away from the pressures of the Trump administration. A push by policymakers for Chinese firms to diversify beyond the world’s top consumer market by shifting focus […]
China has opened an antitrust investigation into Trip.com, the country’s largest online travel services provider, reports the South China Morning Post. The moves comes just weeks before hundreds of millions of people on the mainland go away on holiday during the Lunar New Year break. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on Wednesday said the group–operator of namesake platform Trip.com, Skyscanner, Ctrip, […]