The Port of Los Angeles, the largest container port in the United States and the country’s leading gateway for imports from China and other Asian countries, had its busiest three-month period on record from July through to September, despite persistent uncertainty over tariffs and shifting global trade supply chains. “If there was ever a time for a drum roll, this is it,” said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, during a media briefing on Friday. “July through September...

China’s cooperation with the Pacific islands is not part of a geopolitical competition, top diplomat Wang Yi told a delegation of politicians from the region on Friday. The comments come as Beijing and Washington vie for influence in the South Pacific. “China’s engagement with Pacific island countries is a form of South-South cooperation based on mutual assistance and support,” Wang said, according to a statement from the Communist Party’s International Department. “This cooperation does not...

China should avoid taking a “confrontational posture” over a new security pact between the United States, Denmark and Greenland as it might end up being excluded from engagement on the emerging Arctic order. That was the warning from Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s National Institute of Strategic Studies (NISS), a Chinese think tank, in a report released on Wednesday. It also said the US was unlikely to turn the northern polar region into its “exclusive strategic backyard”. The report noted that...

The European Union and China have “reached an understanding” that will cut Chinese hybrid car shipments to the bloc by “more than a half”, in a temporary salve to trade tensions that have threatened to boil over into a full-blown trade war. Speaking after marathon trade talks in Beijing, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the deal would see China slash its hybrid car exports “by several million cars” over a four-year period. “This is the first time that China has accepted to moderate its exports...

China’s central bank rejected claims that the yuan is undervalued, rebutting a key European argument amid crunch negotiations ahead of a possible trade war. “China has no need or intent to gain competitive advantages through currency devaluation, nor has it ever resorted to competitive devaluation,” the People’s Bank of China said in a policy paper on Thursday, printed in both Chinese and English (see the full paper on SCMP Plus). “China’s trade growth is driven by its growing industrial...

China and the Philippines have traded accusations over a medical evacuation near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, with Manila also reporting a near-doubling of Chinese military and coastguard vessels around contested South China Sea features in September. The latest exchange centred on the evacuation on Thursday of an injured Philippine serviceman from the BRP Sierra Madre, a Philippine naval vessel grounded on the shoal decades ago. Known as Renai Jiao in China and Ayungin Shoal in the...

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent may skip a meeting of Apec finance ministers in Hong Kong later this month to focus on preparing for President Donald Trump’s historic visit to Shenzhen in November, sources told the South China Morning Post. Bessent is expected to meet Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng in Shenzhen ahead of Trump’s visit – when Trump will again hold talks with President Xi Jinping – as the two sides look to secure a longer extension of the bilateral trade truce, which is due to...

Chinese President Xi Jinping was busy travelling abroad last month. In September, he paid a historic state visit to the United States, his first to the country in more than a decade. He also made his first visit to India in seven years, meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Brics summit. China will host the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November, where Xi will meet US President Donald Trump for the third time this year. During the summit, Xi is...

The United States has downgraded Hong Kong to the lowest tier in its annual human trafficking report, citing shortcomings in prosecutions and victim identification, an assessment the city’s government rejected as “entirely unfounded”. The US State Department’s 2026 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, released on Thursday, moved Hong Kong from the Tier 2 Watch List, where it had been listed for two consecutive years, to Tier 3. That places the city alongside mainland China and Macau among 20...

The Trump administration is launching an investigation into nine US universities over alleged J-1 visa fraud, with officials raising concerns about Chinese scholars and the Chinese government. The J-1 programme covers exchange visitors including international researchers, scholars and students, who may receive temporary authorisation to work or conduct research in the US. At a Thursday press conference, Anthony D’Esposito, inspector general of the US Department of Labor, announced what he called...

BYD is studying whether to manufacture lithium batteries in Argentina, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said on Thursday after meeting Stella Li, the Chinese electric vehicle maker’s executive vice-president. According to Quirno, the company was looking at “investment opportunities in Argentina linked to the lithium value chain, particularly in the production of batteries and energy storage systems”. He did not say how much BYD might spend or where the factory could go. The minister tied the talks...

Washington’s policy towards Taiwan is increasingly tied to its relationship with Beijing, according to former American officials who also warn that the war on Iran is weakening US military readiness for a potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait. During a fireside chat in an annual symposium hosted by the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington on Wednesday, Brent Christensen, former director of the Taipei Office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), said Washington’s policy towards the...

China has nominated health official Song Li to run for director general of the World Health Organization, the foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday. If elected, Song would be the first person from mainland China to head the United Nations health agency. China previously backed Margaret Chan, a Hong Kong-born doctor and former director of health of Hong Kong, who served as WHO director general from 2007 to 2017. Song’s nomination comes as the WHO faces a major funding shake-up following the US...

An aide to Russia’s president arrived in China on Thursday for a visit that will be closely watched for signs of preparation for a possible trilateral summit with the US during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting next month. Nikolai Patrushev, who is also chairman of Russia’s Maritime Board, was set to hold talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday. Leading a delegation that included representatives from government...

US President Donald Trump pressed Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during last month’s summit to end a deep freeze in relations with Japan’s Sanae Takaichi, the South China Morning Post reported. Trump raised Japan’s grievances over Chinese restrictions imposed following Takaichi’s comment in November that the Japanese military might intervene in the event of conflict in the Taiwan Strait, according to Thursday’s report, which cited people familiar with the discussions. Beijing regards Taiwan as...

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