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Some people in China are sharing AI-generated videos of middle-aged single women crying in hospitals, regretting their choice not to marry or have children. Photo: SCMP composite / Shutterstock / Douyin
China society

Opinion | In China, the pressure on women to marry is deadly serious

Wedding-day death of Henan teacher highlights desperation of young women caught between modern hopes and traditional expectations.

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Denmark

Opinion | Cultural exchange with rivals isn’t capitulation. It’s pragmatism

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US-China relations

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

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Diplomacy

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

It’s a calculated choice to keep growth, infrastructure momentum and policy space alive in a world that punishes the economically exposed.

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African Union Commission chairman Mahmoud Ali Youssouf welcomes Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 8. Photo: Handout from African Union via EPA
African Union Commission chairman Mahmoud Ali Youssouf welcomes Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 8. Photo: Handout from African Union via EPA
China economy

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

China’s generational wealth transfer will involve more than assets changing hands; it will reconfigure capital markets and global financial power.

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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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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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Illustration: Craig Stephens
Illustration: Craig Stephens
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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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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Around the world, more people are growing up as only children; marrying late, if at all; having children late, if at all; and living alone in old age. Photo: Shutterstock
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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The Shenzhen Talent Park in the city’s Nanshan district. Nanshan is poised to join Shanghai’s Pudong and Beijing’s Haidian as the only districts in the country with a GDP of more than 1 trillion yuan (US$143 billion). Photo: Getty Images
The Shenzhen Talent Park in the city’s Nanshan district. Nanshan is poised to join Shanghai’s Pudong and Beijing’s Haidian as the only districts in the country with a GDP of more than 1 trillion yuan (US$143 billion). Photo: Getty Images
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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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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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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Illustration: Craig Stephens
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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A worker sweeps snow in the town of Zhengding in north China’s Hebei province on January 5, 2020. Photo: Xinhua
A worker sweeps snow in the town of Zhengding in north China’s Hebei province on January 5, 2020. Photo: Xinhua
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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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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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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Visitors enjoy the lush, futuristic interior of a shopping centre in Chongqing, on November 13, 2024. Photo: Getty Images
Visitors enjoy the lush, futuristic interior of a shopping centre in Chongqing, on November 13, 2024. Photo: Getty Images
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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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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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they attend a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing, China, in this picture released by the Korean Central News Agency on September 4. Photo: KCNA via Reuters
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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China has become the first nation to post a US$1 trillion annual trade surplus, while the US is adding that much to its national debt every 71 days. Photo: Reuters
China has become the first nation to post a US$1 trillion annual trade surplus, while the US is adding that much to its national debt every 71 days. Photo: Reuters
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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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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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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A woman walks in the nearly deserted shopping area of Sanlitun in Beijing in 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE
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