Trump has introduced few restrictions on Beijing since resuming office last January. Noah Berman reports on the growing divide on China policy between the president, lawmakers, and the U.S. public:

While I am firm in my belief Starmer should go, and soon, isn’t it weird we’ve got sucked into a side argument over the process for a security clearance for Mandelson, the turning down of which had nothing to do with Epstein? It’s the British political class at its worst, I think.

This is what I wrote about the failure to prosecute anyone at Royal Bank of Scotland / NatWest in Shredded.

The whole story is a nothing burger. Robbins highly unconvincing. Says he was brought up in a culture of documentation but doesn't seem to have read the relevant forms or documented much himself

"It was a life changing experience: the incident, the detention, the repatriation. I was on the cover of every newspaper in the United States and the free world." — Nick Mellos, the flight engineer. We revisit the 2001 Hainan spy plane crisis through the eyes of eyewitnesses: buff.ly/upEYVjl

Africa, with vast unmet demand and few trade barriers, has become a more compelling market for a Chinese industry being squeezed out of the U.S. and Europe. Noah Berman analyzes China's booming solar exports to the African continent for this week’s issue of The Wire China:

Great idea!

Supermarkets across Toronto sell products from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a paramilitary group that is sanctioned by the U.S., UK, European Union and Canada. @eliotchen.bsky.social examines Canadian commitments to banning forced labor imports:

the first one is where she was being edited, the later ones (and even more so her detective stories) conspicuously not

A lot has happened since 'Liberation Day' last year. On the surface, the Trump tariffs on China have achieved one of their apparent goals, but failed to achieve other long-lasting changes. Get the big picture:

He declared liberation day, set tariffs based on nothing in particular, became quickly astonished that an economy he underestimated could match escalation, and then sued for peace and tried to convince you unilateral retreat was prelude to a deal. (Then delayed the moribund dealing for ⬇️)

This week’s cover story: can a start-up in North Carolina break China’s grip on rare earth magnets? Noah Berman reports on Vulcan Elements' race to onshore a crucial supply chain:

What an unbelievable six nations. So many great games.

One week ago. 🤡

In small-town North Carolina, a new factory wants to make magnets without sourcing any materials from China. In our latest podcast episode, Noah Berman and Tom Mitchell discuss how the company, Vulcan Elements, is trying to get the U.S. back in the rare earths race. pod.link/1873741567

HEY SCHOOLS! I have a special #buyastrangerabook day offer just for you! @nadiashireen.bsky.social is offering to buy you a set of her brilliant Grimwood series. All five of them! If you'd like them, just get in touch. UK only

The sheer strategic stupidity of bailing Russia out of its economic hole by launching a war that entirely foreseeably spikes the oil price - and then having no minesweepers in place to deal with the foreseeable fallout. Rank incompetence.

Suggestion: turn off a certain press conference and listen to Michael Collins play the clarinet www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Your weekend listen: What's behind the curtain of ByteDance's viral AI video generator, Seedance 2.0? @rachelcheung.bsky.social, @eliotchen.bsky.social, and Savannah Billman examine new developments in China's AI space in episode six of our podcast: pod.link/1873741567

Smugglers in Texas, New Jersey, and New York. A mysterious Hong Kong client. And a plot to illegally sell Nvidia AI chips to China. Episode five maps out a chip smuggling network with @eliotchen.bsky.social and @andypeaps.bsky.social : pod.link/1873741567/

Even though China is highly online, with over 90 percent of the population internet users, the country’s top AI models have fewer regular users compared to U.S. models. Get the big picture on China's AI adoption lag:

What a take this was www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...

A truly extraordinary story - Well done @wsj.com www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Excited to post the first episode of our new @thewirechina.bsky.social podcast, in which I talk rabout obotaxis with my colleague @rachelcheung.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Our new column What China's Thinking is underpinned by the work of my former colleagues at @chinadigitaltimes.net The superlative Chinese team & my friends/role models @samuelwa.de @cindycarter.bsky.social have contextualized so much of recent Chinese history chinabooksreview.com/2026/01/27/w...

One reason I am gloomy about Britain’s ability to rise to this geopolitical moment is the sheer parochialism and unseriousness of much of its media. The Times, which used to be a serious paper, does not have a single comment piece today on the gravest international crisis in 80 years

Beijing's hope is that AI will power emerging industries such as autonomous vehicles and robotics, eventually producing more new jobs than the ones it replaces. @rachelcheung.bsky.social examines the hopes and anxieties behind China's AI transition:

The FT’s Word Circle puzzle is a con

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... great to hear @georgedobell.bsky.social on this. Rightfully angry, clear sighted

Ah it’s Chuckles Bailey on the radio. So uncharismatic.

Op-Ed: China is good at producing mid- to low-range robots, but Japan and Europe remain ahead in advanced robotics. Alberto Moel writes in The Wire China:

"I think our feelings of love were really born from these extreme and abnormal circumstances. Those emotions may not have been so strong, so fierce, had we been living in a normal society." My interview with Jung Chang on her new book 'Fly, Wild Swans'. www.thewirechina.com/2025/11/23/j...

Can’t take the Lemon and Collins smugness right now

The U.S. and its allies need to adapt better to China’s growing influence over the institutions that govern the global economic order, argues Kevin P. Gallagher in this week’s op-ed.

Calling all China people: nominations are open for the Baifang Schell Prize for non fiction. Please rush us your thoughts and suggestions! chinabooksreview.com/2025/11/06/p...

Trump Org’s income in the first half of 2024 was $51 million. In the first half of 2025 it rose to $864 million. A massive percentage came from foreigners. It should be the biggest scandal in the history of American politics. But few even care. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Stunning

Congratulations! Fabulous publication

Question: How can broadband providers claim that a £4 increase on an annual bill of £26.99 is 'in line with inlfation'?

I'm not an avid golf watcher but so pleased Europe won the Ryder Cup, especially given the throughly unpleasant crowd they had to deal with www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/s...

Nothing more moronic or obnoxious in the world of sport than the U-S-A chant

What terrible questions from the UK and US press at that Starmer/Trump presser.

Interesting www.ft.com/content/9ef2...

In a Q&A with Brent Crane, writer and academic Dan Wang discusses why the core differences between the world's two largest economies, the brutality of China's former one-child policy and whether it's right call it a Marxist country.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article... / wait what? The price of labubu won’t go up forever??

On the subject of Melvyn Bragg, I think of this Private Eye cartoon more frequently than I care to admit, when I’m struggling to raise the energy for a lecture or graduate supervision

Since floating shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Laopu Gold has become the territory’s hottest stock. @rachelcheung.bsky.social looks at the unlikely rise of Laopu and its founder Xu Gaoming, who was previously a fisheries bureau clerk in Hunan. buff.ly/xNhKMNl

Involution, or “irrational production”, has spread to China’s once-promising green industries. @aligarciaherrero.bsky.social warns that the government’s reflex reaction, forced consolidation, is not the answer to the problem. buff.ly/Vus25Yi