China

HONG KONG—Hong Kong authorities on Oct. 12 barred a former lawmaker from running for re-election next month given her past advocacy of greater autonomy for Hong Kong, in a decision critics called another instance of political and electoral suppression. Lau Siu-lai of the Labour Party was elected a lawmaker in 2016 but later disqualified from […]

BEIJING—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit China from Oct. 25 to 27 in the first official visit by a Japanese leader in seven years, China said on Oct. 12. Visits by Abe in recent years to attend multilateral events in China have not been considered official visits. Abe’s October meeting with Xi, officially confirmed on […]

SYDNEY—A Chinese property developer was sentenced to at least two-and-a-half years in jail by an Australian court on Oct. 12 for nonconsensual intercourse with a woman after a Sydney dinner party hosted by billionaire JD.com-founder Richard Liu. Xu Longwei, who pleaded not guilty, was convicted in July of forcing himself on the woman in an […]

BEIJING—China’s car sales fell the most in nearly seven years in September, stoking concerns the world’s biggest auto market could contract for the first time in decades this year amid cooling economic growth and a biting trade war. Vehicle sales slumped by 11.6 percent to 2.39 million units last month, the third straight decline, the […]

BEIJING—Amid gathering gloom over the state of the Chinese economy, exporters of motorcycles, tractors, photocopiers and Christmas tree lighting will join thousands of other companies peddling their wares at China’s largest trade fair on Oct. 15. Many of those exporters will have something in common–uncertainty over future U.S. orders as a trade war with the […]

A Vox report on a prison letter found in a Walmart product has shed light on the problems with manufacturing supply chains in China.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia—U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Oct. 12 that he told China’s central bank chief that currency issues need to be part of any further U.S.-China trade talks and expressed his concerns about the yuan’s recent weakness. Mnuchin also told Reuters in an interview that China needs to identify concrete “action items” […]

BERLIN—The five nations in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network have been exchanging classified information on China’s foreign activities with other like-minded countries since the start of the year, seven officials in four capitals said. The increased cooperation by the Five Eyes alliance–grouping Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States–with countries such as Germany […]

Europe is one of the regions that China has targeted for investment as part of its “One Belt, One Road” initiative, an ambitious plan to build infrastructure that would establish Beijing-centered trade routes throughout the world. Now, six years after the initiative was first announced by Beijing, the Greek port of Piraeus, which is now […]

WASHINGTON—The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) issues a report every year on human rights and rule of law in the People’s Republic of China, although the feeling at the release of this year’s report felt different. There was sadness that an already desperate human-rights situation continues to deteriorate, but also a sense that things might […]

The United States is tightening controls on China’s imports of civil nuclear technology to prevent use for military or other unauthorized purposes, the U.S. Department of Energy said on Oct. 11. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on nearly $200 billion of Chinese imports and then threatened more levies if China retaliated. China then hit back with tariffs […]

The Bloomberg 'spy chip' report has exposed the security risks involved with manufacturing in China and vulnerabilities in the tech supply chain.

Due to the Sino-US trade war, which has affected China’s soybean imports, the country’s 400 million pigs are looking at going on diet. The China Feed Industry Association (CFIA) plans to reduce protein content in pig feed to reduce China’s reliance on soybeans.

China Bohai Steel has begun to file for bankruptcy in a process that will affect 48 factories and 105 creditors in Tianjin.

Vice President Mike Pence’s unprecedented speech on China-U.S. relations last week is still causing shockwaves due to its unflinching directness in calling out China on its litany of transgressions.

BEIJING—China should prepare “more powerful” policy measures, possibly including a large-scale stimulus package, to prevent its economy from stalling as trade frictions with the United States persist, a state-backed tabloid said in a commentary on Oct. 11. The trade war with the United States seems to have jolted Beijing into recognizing that it must come […]

BEIJING/SHANGHAI—China’s top auto dealers’ association has asked the government to halve taxes on car purchases to revive faltering sales, sources said, as worries grow the country’s auto market could shrink this year for the first time in decades. The China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) submitted documents last month to the country’s finance and commerce ministries […]

SHANGHAI—China’s latest attempts at restricting outward investment by its residents show just how nervous policymakers in the world’s second largest economy are about possible capital flight spurred by a broadening Sino-U.S. trade war. Beijing has been gradually easing monetary and fiscal policy this year, as it seeks to steer the economy through a period of […]

KUALA LUMPUR—Malaysia has freed from detention 11 ethnic Uyghur Muslims who fled to the southeast Asian nation after a Thai jailbreak last year, and sent them to Turkey, their lawyer said on Oct. 11, disregarding China’s request to hand them to Beijing. The move is likely to strain ties with China, already tested by Malaysian […]

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) recently established a content-sharing partnership with Caixin, a Chinese media outlet with financial backing from Beijing. Caixin is one of China’s largest media outlets. Based in the country’s capital, it reports mainly on business and finance news. Caixin’s largest shareholder is China Media Capital, described as “a government-backed, 5 billion-yuan […]