US sanctions China’s ‘teapot’ refinery for buying Iranian oil

The United States has sanctioned a Chinese oil refinery for buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian oil. Ahead of potential new talks on ending the US-Israeli war on Iran, the US Treasury Department on Friday said that it was targeting Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery, China’s second-largest “teapot” or independent refinery. Hengli is […]

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China and Turkmenistan Launch Major Gas Project as Energy Cooperation Surges

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s special representative, Ding Xuexiang, stated on Friday that the successful launch of the fourth phase of the Galkynysh gas field will take China-Turkmenistan energy cooperation to a new level. Ding, also Chinese vice premier and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China […]

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China scours for bargaining chips to put on Trump-Xi summit table: sources

BY Dewey Simin Beijing and Laura Zhou Beijing has called for all hands on deck to work out what ever-unpredictable US President Donald Trump might demand when he sits down with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a few weeks. Several sources, all speaking on condition of anonymity, said various Chinese government departments had been […]

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Germany’s Merz hails China ties as he seeks reset with Beijing

BEIJING: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz won a pledge by China to import more high-quality goods from Germany on Wednesday, as he visited Beijing aiming to reset relations that have been clouded by a yawning trade deficit with the world’s second-largest economy. On his first visit to China as Chancellor, Merz, who was accompanied by a […]

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Is China flexing its intelligence muscle by tracking US military moves near Iran?

By Yuanyue Dang in Beijing and Amber Wang in Beijing A Chinese private company has drawn the attention of security watchers after detailing US military deployments near Iran, a move experts say underlines Beijing’s intelligence abilities. MizarVision, a Chinese commercial intelligence analysis firm, has consistently published monitoring posts regarding American military movements on social media […]

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Xi Jinping expresses hope China can open ‘new chapter’ in relations with North Korea

By Yuanyue Dang in Beijing Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after he cemented his leadership at the latest congress of the country’s ruling party. Xi said Kim’s reselection as general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Monday reflected the “high trust and wholehearted support” of the country’s […]

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How Trump’s Beijing bargaining could derail Taiwan’s multibillion-dollar defence budget

By Lawrence Chung in Taipei Taiwan’s parliament is set to prioritise review of a disputed NT$1.25 trillion (US$40 billion) special defence budget bill when its new session begins on Tuesday, as pressure mounts from Washington. But US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks about consulting Chinese President Xi Jinping on arms sales could complicate the debate, […]

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US Intelligence Flags China’s Nuclear Upgrade Plans After Test

U.S. intelligence agencies are raising alarms about an explosive test conducted by China, linking it to a broader effort to accelerate and modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal. In a detailed report for CNN, national security correspondents Zachary Cohen and Kylie Atwood explain how American analysts see the test as part of Beijing’s push toward next‑generation […]

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K-pop’s big freeze: are cracks in China’s cultural blockade a thaw?

By Alyssa Chen While K-pop has conquered almost every corner of the globe, South Korea’s entertainment industry remains largely locked out of the Chinese market due to a geopolitical chill that has lingered for a decade. China unofficially banned South Korean entertainment products in 2016 after Seoul deployed the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence […]

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Is China’s ‘reverse Great Firewall’ quietly blocking global access to official data?

By Meredith Chen For overseas researchers, policymakers, businesses and casual users alike, access to China’s public information is quietly shrinking as a growing number of official websites go dark outside the country, a new study has found. The contraction is far from marginal. A number of Chinese government websites were inaccessible from outside the country, […]

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