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Illustration: Craig Stephens
US-China relations

Opinion | Why China’s response to Trump’s chaos will be to wait and watch

Although the US president’s destabilising actions might seem like an opportunity for Beijing, it is likely to opt for strategic patience.

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Diplomacy

Opinion | Why so many states reject bloc rivalry to choose partnership with China

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China economy

Opinion | How generational wealth transfer will reshape China’s economy

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China economy

Opinion | China’s focus is on stability as the US rocks the global boat

While Beijing has achieved its major economic goals for 2025, this year policymakers might be forced to focus on external crises and US foreign policy.

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This handout picture, provided by the Iranian Defence Ministry on March 12, 2024, shows Iranian forces piloting a speedboat near a Chinese naval ship during the “Maritime Security Belt 2024” joint exercise carried out by Tehran, Moscow and Beijing in the Gulf of Oman. Photo: AFP
This handout picture, provided by the Iranian Defence Ministry on March 12, 2024, shows Iranian forces piloting a speedboat near a Chinese naval ship during the “Maritime Security Belt 2024” joint exercise carried out by Tehran, Moscow and Beijing in the Gulf of Oman. Photo: AFP
China-Canada relations

Opinion | As China and Canada reset ties, they must strike while the iron is hot

After the Canadian prime minister’s visit to Beijing, both sides have a window to deepen trade and cooperate on global governance.

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Energy

Opinion | Clean energy works at scale. Now it must be coordinated

The next decade will be defined not only by new clean energy capacity, but by how well grids, storage and demand systems are connected and optimised.

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US-Venezuela conflict

Opinion | Why the US really wants Venezuela’s oil

To win the geopolitical contest, a country needs ample resources, a self-sustaining production system – and the backing of a wider economic bloc.

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An activist, wearing a cutout mask depicting US President Donald Trump and tied with a rope, kneels next to a container with the words, “My Oil”, in an rally to condemn the US military action in Venezuela, in Seoul, South Korea, on January 5. Photo: Reuters
An activist, wearing a cutout mask depicting US President Donald Trump and tied with a rope, kneels next to a container with the words, “My Oil”, in an rally to condemn the US military action in Venezuela, in Seoul, South Korea, on January 5. Photo: Reuters
China society

Outside In | We are speeding towards a demography of loneliness

The swarming sociability of family life is fading as one-person households and lonely deaths rise. Coping with loneliness is now a life skill.

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China economy

Opinion | China’s economy is struggling – even as its hi-tech sector booms

China’s pivot to a tech-driven economy is thrilling, but its success will be judged by how it improves people’s everyday lives.

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China trade

Opinion | From tea to TikTok: the middleman’s return is reshaping China trade

The old Canton system is re-emerging in a new guise as the likes of TikTok and Starbucks look to middlemen to navigate a divided global economy.

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Customers flock to the opening of the first McDonald’s restaurant in Xining, the capital of northwest China’s Qinghai province, on December 21, 2025. Photo: Xinhua
China economy

Opinion | Too few Chinese finish secondary school to sustain growth

To shift to a new growth model, China must redirect its focus from skyscrapers and infrastructure to raising educational attainment.

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Students study at a high school in Renxian county, Hebei province, on May 7, 2015. Photo: Xinhua
Students study at a high school in Renxian county, Hebei province, on May 7, 2015. Photo: Xinhua
European Union

Opinion | An internally split Europe can never fully engage China and Asia

The Brussels effect is real but so is Europe’s strategic subordination to the US. For China, and Asia, this means proceeding with pragmatism.

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China society

Opinion | Without pension reform, China is leaving its rural elderly out in the cold

What looks like a side-effect of ‘coal-to-gas’ heating programmes is really a structural issue: rural pensions are not enough to live on.

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Diplomacy

Opinion | High Seas Treaty will both boost China’s power and hold it accountable

Beijing realises that maritime leadership will be measured not just by fleets and bases but also by who protects the planet’s last great commons.

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Illustration: Craig Stephens
China economy

Opinion | China’s new property pivot is coming. Expect full stabilisation ahead

As property curbs to boost spending hit practical limits, a push to stabilise assets is now being seen as a prerequisite for consumer confidence.

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Home buyers shop at a pre-sale property in Yangxin county, Binzhou city, in eastern China’s Shandong province, on February 23. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Home buyers shop at a pre-sale property in Yangxin county, Binzhou city, in eastern China’s Shandong province, on February 23. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
US-China relations

As I see it | The Chinese century may already be here

International competition will be won by nations with steady and realistic policies guided by a vision, not the ones indulging in cowboy militarism.

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China-EU relations

Opinion | EU-China ties are stuck between interdependence and rivalry

To break the pattern of trade escalations with Beijing, Brussels must move beyond tariffs and invest in its own competitiveness.

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Taiwan

Opinion | The US wants to block China’s peaceful reunification. It won’t work

US weapons sales to Taiwan violate the one-China principle but won’t sway Asean or the wider international community.

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The Patriot missile system is deployed at a park in Taipei on July 11, 2025. Photo: AFP
The Patriot missile system is deployed at a park in Taipei on July 11, 2025. Photo: AFP
Diplomacy

Opinion | Why China now needs North Korea’s denuclearisation

As optimism grows over an end to the Ukraine war, a weakening of Moscow’s support for Pyongyang may give Beijing new leverage to stabilise the Korean peninsula.

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US-Venezuela conflict

Opinion | Forget Venezuela and Greenland – here is the real trillion-dollar question

As the world fixates on US military adventurism, trillion-dollar shifts in trade, R&D and debt are rebalancing the global economy and geopolitics.

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US-China relations

Opinion | How Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine’ is escalating US-China rivalry

Maduro’s capture not only challenges China’s influence in Latin America but also signals a bolder US security posture that could reshuffle great-power competition.

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Illustration: Craig Stephens
Artificial intelligence

Opinion | The global AI race: 3 scenarios the world must prepare for

From US-China dominance to regulatory reset or systemic disruption, the AI race is heading towards three very different outcomes.

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A man plays chess with an AI-powered chess robot at the exhibition area of Chinese company SenseRobot at a pre-show event of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, US, on January 5. Photo: Xinhua
A man plays chess with an AI-powered chess robot at the exhibition area of Chinese company SenseRobot at a pre-show event of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, US, on January 5. Photo: Xinhua
China society

Being Chinese | Where do lonely hearts in China go now? Late-night live streams

I was swiping past the noise on Douyin when a calm, warm voice stopped me. So began my evenings in the world of companionship live streams.

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United States

As I see it | Welcome, world, to the American jungle

Far from deterring China and Russia, the operation signals that brute force, not international law, now defines American action.

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Legacy of war in Asia

Opinion | Amid historical tensions with Japan, Hong Kong must engage for the future

Remembering the pain of the Nanking massacre does not preclude engagement, but ensures lessons of the past strengthen our shared commitment to peace.

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Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and government officials at the ceremony of the Nanking massacre memorial held at the government’s headquarters on December 13. Photo: Jonathan Wong
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