SCMP China·Thursday, December 18, 2025

SCMP China - Thursday, December 18, 2025

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

As Trump upends US foreign policy, analysts see fresh openings for China

It has been a turbulent year for the fraught US-China relationship. In the fourth part of a series looking back at the events of 2025, we examine the impacts of Trump’s foreign policy on global geopolitics. As the administration of US President Donald Trump ends its first year, expect the unabashed disrupter to continue applying a wrecking ball to long-standing US national security architecture, threatening global stability and jolting long-time allies, with China a major beneficiary, say...

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Beijing condemns Washington’s landmark US$11 billion arms sale to Taiwan

Beijing has condemned Washington for its decision to sell about US$11 billion in weapons to Taiwan, calling it a grave violation of its sovereignty and a dangerous signal to separatist forces. Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua said on Thursday that the sale amounted to “flagrant interference in China’s internal affairs”. Chen said it also “gravely violates” the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques, particularly the August 17 communique –.

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China confirms issuing of first general licences for rare earth exports

Beijing confirmed on Thursday that it has begun granting general licences with lengthier terms for exports of rare earth elements to foreign companies, though business groups said more guidance was needed on the policy’s implementation. “With the accumulation of relevant export compliance experience, some exporters have initially met the basic requirements to apply for general licences,” said He Yadong, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom), at a press conference. “To my knowledge,..

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China slams EU subsidy probes as ‘egregious’ and discriminatory

China’s Ministry of Commerce has expressed strong opposition to recent European Union investigations into Chinese companies and vowed to use necessary means to defend their rights. “The European Union has recently launched a series of Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) investigations targeting Chinese enterprises … such actions are egregious, with clear targeting and discriminatory intent,” ministry spokesman He Yadong said during a press conference on Thursday. Last week, Brussels launched an..

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China’s youth-unemployment rate eases, new rival in durian fray: 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. As trade deficit mounts, is EU offering China what it wants to buy? Facing an ever-increasing trade deficit with China, Europe has limited options to balance the situation in the short term even though it still holds an edge in key sectors including pharmaceuticals, machinery and components, analysts said. 2. China FM Wang Yi reaffirms Beijing’s backing for

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US lawmakers killed a proposal targeting science efforts with China, and did this instead

The US Congress passed its annual defence bill on Wednesday, easing concerns among researchers by dropping a controversial proposal targeting US-China scientific collaboration, even as it imposed new restrictions on Chinese biotechnology companies. The SAFE (Securing American Funding and Expertise from Adversarial Research Exploitation) Research Act would have denied federal funding to any US researcher working with scientists from China and several other countries, but it did not make it into..

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Alibaba deepens ecosystem push with Qwen-Amap tie-up for routes, restaurants and hotels

Alibaba Group Holding is folding its mapping and navigation platform Amap into its Qwen artificial intelligence app, in a tie-up the company says will sharpen Qwen’s real-world “life services” just weeks after the app’s debut. The integration, announced on Thursday, lets Qwen users handle travel and lifestyle requests – from restaurant and hotel recommendations to route planning and turn-by-turn navigation – in a single conversational interface. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Alibaba

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China jails smugglers of weapon metal antimony, taking tough stance on critical minerals

A Chinese court has convicted 27 individuals of smuggling more than 166 tonnes of antimony, a critical mineral used in weapons, semiconductors and flame retardants, in a significant enforcement action under Beijing’s tighter export controls for dual-use items. The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court in Guangdong province ruled that the group had illegally shipped the critical mineral without obtaining export licences, according to a statement released on Tuesday. Lead defendant Wang Wubin was..

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China’s mind-control robot tech breakthrough brings Elon Musk’s ‘telepathy’ dream to life

In a landmark achievement for brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, scientists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences have enabled a paralysed man to control smart wheelchairs, robotic dogs and even perform paid work – all through the power of thought. Announced by the Centre for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT) this week, the development is the first time an individual with a high-level spinal cord injury has achieved stable, real-world control of multiple...

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China’s military accuses Japan of raising ‘space arms race’ risk

China’s military mouthpiece aimed its rhetoric at Japan’s space ambitions and its new intelligence unit on Thursday, accusing Tokyo of embarking on a space arms race and undermining regional security. The criticism in two articles in the PLA Daily is the latest salvo in a diplomatic dust-up over the past month that has involved near-daily rebukes from Beijing. In one of the articles, two researchers from the People’s Liberation Army’s Space Engineering University in Beijing accused Japan of...

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