US Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick has accused DeepSeek, a Hangzhou-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm, of stealing US technology and getting around US export controls to obtain high-end Nvidia chips.  In the nomination hearing with the US Senate on...

United States President Donald Trump recently threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on goods coming from China in response to the illegal import into the US of the opioid fentanyl. Fentanyl has become the latest battleground in an...

Recent commentary has labeled Donald Trump’s national security appointees “hawks” who favor a tough role for the United States against China. This is wrong and distracts from the need to place America’s national interests at the heart of US...

When Peter Dutton was asked this week  whether a Coalition government would continue  to foster trade relations with China, he declared unequivocally that “the relationship with China will be much stronger  than it is under the Albanese government.” Two...

MANILA – Amid a flurry of executive orders, trade war bluster and imperialist ambitions, US President Donald Trump has been notably restrained in his statements on top rival China. Posturing as a “peacemaker,”, Trump has said war avoidance and...

State-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude have captured the public imagination by producing fluent text in multiple languages in response to user prompts. Those companies have also captured headlines with the huge sums...

US President Donald Trump’s threat to levy tariffs against imported semiconductors creates additional stress for Taiwan, which is already menaced by increasing military pressure from the People’s Republic of China.  Trump’s threat also indicates the ascendancy within the White...

BRICS has emerged as a significant international force since 2009 when it was established at a summit in Russia. What began as a five-member group encompassing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is now expanding with the integration...

Americans consume more illicit drugs per capita than anyone else in the world; about 6% of the US population uses them regularly. One such drug, fentanyl – a synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine...

Colombian President Gustavo Petro thought that he’d rebalance lopsided relations with his returning US counterpart by abruptly rejecting two previously agreed military flights for repatriating his country’s illegal immigrants but he was ultimately taught an unforgettable lesson. Trump reacted with fury by threatening...

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through the tech community, with the release of extremely efficient AI models that can compete with cutting-edge products from US companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Founded in 2023, DeepSeek...

The most interesting thing about the DeepSeek-driven stock reckoning is what this moment says about the globe’s two biggest economies. To dispense with the obvious, neither Donald Trump’s 2017-2021 trade war nor Joe Biden’s more targeted curbs these last...

Since the late 2010s, China has shown increasing sensitivity to the environmental and socio-economic impacts of its distant-water fishing (DWF) growth, as well as the reputational harm partly inflicted by international environmental advocacy. DWF describes countries that fish outside...

DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, has shaken global markets and disrupted long-held assumptions about the effectiveness of tariffs as a tool for economic dominance.  Its breakthrough—a cost-effective AI model that operates on less-advanced chips—highlights a critical challenge for...

It has become fashionable among Western commentators to predict the decline of China’s economic “miracle.” Slowing growth, a troubled real estate sector and demographic shifts are regularly cited as evidence of the malaise. Tensions with the United States –...

More than 50% of all cars sold in China last year were electric vehicles, making China by far the largest EV market in the world. The exponential growth of EVs and new energy vehicles (NEVs) is having a positive...

United States President Donald Trump’s recent pledges to reclaim the Panama Canal have signaled rising US-China tensions in Latin America, America’s resource-rich backyard and traditional sphere of influence. After Trump said in his January 20 inauguration speech that it...

United States bipartisan lawmakers have introduced a bill that would revoke China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR), previously known as Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trade status, and impose a 100% tariff on a wide range of Chinese goods.  Republican...

On his way to the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro in November, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Peruvian President Dina Boluarte to officially open a new US$3.6 billion deepwater mega-port in Peru called Chancay. China’s state-owned Cosco...

Your move, President Xi. This may be the key message from Donald Trump’s surprising reversal on massive “day one” tariffs on China. The reprieve Trump appears to have granted Asia’s biggest economy is one Xi Jinping’s Communist Party surely didn’t see...

China’s hypersonic air-to-air missiles, designed specifically to shoot down US stealth bombers, signal a potential seismic shift in the future of air combat, one that could dramatically reshape the Indo-Pacific’s balance of power. Chinese scientists have confirmed the existence...

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has exposed Europe’s strategic paralysis in spectacular fashion. For all their vaunted foresight, replete with contingency plans, position papers and closed-door sessions gaming out a second Trump presidency, EU leaders find themselves...

Many were bracing for an immediate and harsh escalation of US-China trade tensions upon Donald Trump’s return to the White House on January 20.  For months, his campaign rhetoric had hinted at aggressive measures targeting Chinese exports, with some...

In late October 2024, India and China began implementing what was touted as a landmark pact to de-escalate tensions along their disputed Himalayan border, a region known as the Line of Actual Control, or LAC. The agreement, forged ahead...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been clear that he intends to get Taiwan – one way or another. He has good reasons. It would establish Xi as one of the immortals by accomplishing something Mao Tse Tung couldn’t. By...