SCMP China·Tuesday, December 16, 2025

SCMP China - Tuesday, December 16, 2025

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

Chile’s sharp shift to the right puts it at the centre of China-US rivalry

Chile’s election of an ultraconservative leader has created another vocal ally for US President Donald Trump in a lithium-rich region where China has emerged as the dominant economic partner, positioning the South American country at the centre of an intensifying superpower rivalry. In what was probably Chile’s sharpest rightward shift since the end of its military dictatorship in 1990, Jose Antonio Kast, a right-wing former lawmaker who campaigned on Trump-style hardline positions on crime and.

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US reported to have seized Chinese cargo, Mexico stands by tariffs: SCMP daily highlights

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. ‘Testing the waters’? US reported to have seized Chinese cargo bound for Iran The reported US seizure of a ship allegedly carrying Chinese-made dual-use components to Iran might signal Washington was “testing the waters” on reviving an old tactic to pressure Beijing’s ties with its adversaries, but such moves risked breaching international law, analysts...

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Tower of peace or sin? Why China demands that a Japanese wartime monument be demolished

Mainland Chinese state media has called for the demolition of a wartime monument in Japan, rekindling a long-standing source of bilateral tension as Beijing and Tokyo remain locked in a diplomatic row over Taiwan. Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account run by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, said on Saturday that Japan seized more than 370 stones from the countries it invaded during the second world war – mostly from China – and used them to build Hakko Ichiu Tower, which the account described as

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Japan spelled out its stance on Taiwan. It’s what Tokyo didn’t say that angers Beijing

Beijing has accused Tokyo of attempting to “mislead the public and hope that somehow the issue would resolve itself”, after Japan’s foreign minister selectively quoted its position on Taiwan from a joint communique that was the foundation of establishing diplomatic ties with mainland China in 1972. During a parliamentary session on Monday, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi repeated Tokyo’s position on Taiwan as stated in the document that established and normalised ties with Beijing. However,..

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Biren Technology’s Hong Kong IPO gets green light as China’s AI chip firms rush to list

Beijing has greenlit Biren Technology’s initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, as more Chinese artificial intelligence chip designers rush to go public amid heightened investor interest in these stocks. Biren, which designs high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), received regulatory approval to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange, according to a China Securities Regulatory Commission filing on Monday. This was expected to put the company on track to become the first GPU...

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‘Resilient balance’: China-US ties tipped to remain steady under Trump

A prominent Chinese expert on US affairs says the competitive relationship between Washington and Beijing is likely to remain stable for the rest of Donald Trump’s presidential term – a prospect crucial for China’s strategic planning. The China-US rivalry had achieved a “resilient balance”, Ni Feng, researcher and former director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said at a symposium in Shenzhen on Sunday. Unlike the competition between 2018 and 2024.

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MetaX set for Shanghai debut amid market frenzy over AI chip stocks, Nvidia uncertainty

Chinese artificial intelligence chip designer MetaX Integrated Circuits will make its trading debut in Shanghai on Wednesday, according to a filing late on Monday, more than a week after industry peer Moore Threads Technology’s stellar listing on the city’s Star Market. Founded in Shanghai in September 2020 by former engineers at Advanced Micro Devices, MetaX priced its initial public offering at 104.66 yuan per share, which was expected to raise 4.2 billion yuan (US$596 million) from the sale..

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China’s build-up of Yellow Sea facilities expected to fuel South Korean suspicions

Beijing’s build-up of maritime facilities in a contested part of the Yellow Sea is expected to trigger “more scrutiny” from South Korea, a report by a US think tank has warned. According to a report published on Monday by the website Beyond Parallel – a project operated by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies – there has been “growing” Chinese activity in and around the Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ) in the Yellow Sea. It said Beijing was building buoys in the...

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China’s ultra-hot heat pump breakthrough paves way for melting ore with sunlight

For over a century, the dream of efficiently concentrating low-grade heat into high-temperature industrial energy has been constrained by a stubborn ceiling: 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit). Now, a team from China has shattered that temperature limit. Using a revolutionary heat pump with no moving parts, they achieved an output of 270 degrees with a 145-degree heat source to drive the cycle. Developed by a team led by Luo Ercang at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of

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Chinese biotech Scizeng’s global licensing deal to yield up to US$1.44 billion

A Chinese biopharmaceutical firm has sealed a global licensing deal valued at up to US$1.44 billion, the second in a week, as a wave of cross-border tie-ups shows no sign of abating despite headwinds from the US Biosecure Act. Shanghai Scizeng Medical Technology, a unit of Changchun High-Tech Industry, has agreed to grant US-based Yarrow Bioscience exclusive global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise GenSci098, an injectable therapy for thyroid eye disease and Graves’ disease, both.

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