SCMP China·Friday, December 26, 2025

SCMP China - Friday, December 26, 2025

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

Record Taiwan arms deal casts shadow over Trump’s 2026 Beijing visit

As 2025 draws to a close amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over new arms sales to Taiwan, analysts warn that the worsening atmosphere could weigh on the substance – if not the scheduling – of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China next year to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Washington’s announcement last week of a US$11.1 billion arms package for Taiwan, the largest to date, has sharpened frictions at a sensitive moment, making it less likely that Beijing will.

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Trump’s military restraint on Venezuela: power play with eye on China or weakness?

President Donald Trump’s reluctance to authorise direct military intervention in Venezuela underscored the US dilemma of how to reassert dominance in its traditional sphere while managing escalation risks in multipolar rivalry with China and Russia, observers said. But they cautioned against seeing US hesitation as weakness, noting intensified sanctions, naval blockades and diplomatic pressure from Washington, alongside a recalibrated strategy to sustain influence without overcommitment against.

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China launches venture capital fund to lead the charge on tech investment

China has launched a national fund designed to channel state-backed money into early-stage bets on tech, a move officials said could ultimately steer trillions of yuan into preferred avenues of investment. Beijing’s National Venture Capital Guidance Fund was unveiled on Friday, at a ceremony which also introduced three investment vehicles covering major cross-regional agglomerations: the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. At

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Is China quietly preparing cargo ships to transform into military vessels in case of war?

Images of a cargo ship in Shanghai carrying containerised vertical launchers, sensors and self-defence systems have spread online and prompted discussion for apparently showing China’s capacity to convert civilian cargo vessels to military purposes. The circulated images show vertical launch systems, rotary phased-array radars, over-the-horizon radars, close-in weapon systems and decoy launchers mounted atop containers on a cargo vessel. This configuration appears to be a temporary installation,

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Deceiving US experts; proving Einstein wrong: 10 China science breakthroughs in 2025

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China science stories of the year. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China unveils a powerful deep-sea cable cutter that could reset the world order A compact, deep-sea, cable-cutting device, capable of severing the world’s most fortified underwater communication or power lines, has been unveiled by China – and it could shake up global maritime power dynamics. 2. China tests non-nuclear hydrogen bomb, science paper.

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Taiwan’s lawmakers vote to start impeachment process against William Lai

Taiwan’s legislature passed a motion on Friday to start impeachment proceedings against the island’s leader, William Lai Ching-te. The Legislative Yuan voted 60 to 51 in favour of the motion that argued that the leader undermined the self-ruled island’s constitutional order and democracy. Lawmakers are expected to vote on impeachment on May 19, according to the legislature’s procedures. The impeachment motion came after Lai’s administration failed to enact an amendment passed by the...

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To harness crypto ingenuity, financial threat must first be neutralised

The fascination with cryptocurrencies shows no sign of fading. With the passage of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (Genius) Act in July, US lawmakers added to the sense that crypto is here to stay. But an uncomfortable issue remains unresolved: are cryptocurrencies a genuine innovation capable of serving the common good, or a speculative threat to financial and social stability? Not all cryptocurrencies are alike. Unbacked ones, such as bitcoin or Ethereum,...

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China’s mega expressway tunnel opens in Xinjiang, halves north-south travel time

The world’s longest expressway tunnel has opened to traffic in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, capping five years of construction on a project designed to increase China’s links with Central Asia. The 22.13km (13.75-mile) Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, the centrepiece of the Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, officially opened on Friday, creating a 20-minute drive through the Tianshan Mountains that divide northern and southern Xinjiang. The tunnel halves the travel time between the regional capital Urumqi

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Tech giants go prime time in the fight for China’s biggest audience

China’s biggest tech companies and a clutch of fast-rising consumer electronics brands are battling for coveted sponsorship slots at the Spring Festival Gala, as intensifying competition in artificial intelligence turns the country’s most watched television broadcast into a rare nationwide marketing battleground. Major players including ByteDance, Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding had all held discussions with state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) over high-stakes...

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China opens shopping centre on Woody Island in disputed Paracels in South China Sea

China has opened a new shopping centre on Woody Island in the disputed Paracel Islands, bolstering its civilian presence on the strategically vital South China Sea outpost. The Sansha City Commercial Centre opened to business on Thursday, according to the local government. The over 6,000 square metre (64,600 sq ft) complex is the latest addition to China’s civilian infrastructure on what it calls Yongxing Island, following its first hardware store last year and a hotpot restaurant in 2023. Woody

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