#china

#china

The country's Commerce Ministry said on Thursday that it has added five rare earth elements to its export control list, taking the total to 12, in order to "safeguard national security." The ministry introduced an export license that foreign producers will have to apply for if they plan to export products that use even slight amounts of Chinese-origin rare earth minerals, or technology from the country to mine them.

US export controls have had mixed results in stemming the flow of chipmaking equipment into China, according to a congressional investigation, which found US and allied companies sold $38 billion worth of semiconductor tools in 2024 alone. Those sales, it should be noted, were mostly older equipment that's either exempt from US export rules or was sold to unregulated parties in China. In other words, these equipment vendors did nothing wrong and were acting in compliance with US export control rules.

In its most recent threat report [PDF] published today, the GenAI giant said that these users usually asked ChatGPT to help design tools for large-scale monitoring and analysis - but stopped short of asking the model to perform the surveillance activities. "What we saw and banned in those cases was typically threat actors asking ChatGPT to help put together plans or documentation for AI-powered tools, but not then to implement them," Ben Nimmo, principal investigator on OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team, told reporters.

"The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for 'negotiating' reasons only, not buying,"

According to data collected by Helgi Library in 2021, China accounted for over 25% of the world's potato consumption. In total, the population ate around 66,437 kilotons of potatoes that year. To put that in perspective, there are 1000 tons in a kiloton - we're talking about a heck of a lot of potatoes. The World Population Review has even higher figures for the following year: 69,109 kilotons, or 47.4 kilograms per person.

China is making leaps and bounds with carrier technology. It recently showed off its newest aircraft carrier launching jets with electromagnetic catapults, a capability once unique to the US Navy's cutting-edge Ford-class flattops. And it did it with stealth jets, something the US has yet to do. But while Beijing's carriers may be nearing America's in technological capabilities, experts say they're still a long way from fighting like them. The real challenge isn't building ships.

Speaking by video at the UN Climate Summit in New York last week, China's president Xi Jinping laid out his country's climate ambitions. While the stated goals may not have been aggressive as some environmentalists would like, Xi at least reaffirmed China's green commitment. "Despite some countries going against the trend, the international community should stay on the right track, maintain unwavering confidence, unwavering action, and undiminished efforts," he said. Any reference to Donald Trump and the United States was surely intended (though not explicit).

In a video address to the United Nations Climate Summit on 24 September, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced that China will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 7% to 10% from peak levels by 2035. The pace at which China cuts emissions will have profound global impact. The country has accounted for 90% of the growth in the world's CO emissions since 2015 and it is now the largest GHG emitter in the world

There has long been a contest between East and West, whether its competing militaries, economies, and ideologies. The ascendance of China in the last few decades has been at record pace and gives credence to its economic and military power. While Western countries, mostly NATO nations, have been at the forefront of economic and military might as a result of their alliances (EU and NATO), it is still interesting to draw a comparison between these two massive powers on the world stage.

The University of Arizona is quietly shutting down its four microcampuses in China at the end of this semester, in response to a government report released earlier this month that criticizes branch campuses of U.S. institutions in China.

A former Meta executive who wrote an explosive expose making allegations about the social media company's dealings with China and its treatment of teenagers is said to be on the verge of bankruptcy after publishing the book. An MP has claimed in parliament that Mark Zuckerberg's company was trying to silence and punish Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former director of global public policy at Meta's precursor, Facebook, after her decision to speak out about her time at the company.

As a low-cost, easy anytime snack or a super-fast meal in a pinch, it's hard to beat instant ramen. Whether you love the spicy instant noodles or you like to add fresh ingredients to upgrade your ramen, you can't deny its popularity. Instant ramen is a worldwide phenomenon, though some countries eat more of this pantry staple than others. Perhaps unsurprisingly, China consumes the most instant ramen of any country. If you thought it was Japan, they actually rank fifth in the world.

Zhang Zhan, who was released from prison in May 2024 after serving four years behind bars, is expected to go on trial on Friday at the Shanghai Pudong New Area people's courtfor picking quarrels and provoking trouble, a catch-all term used to target government critics. Antoine Bernard, a director of advocacy and assistance for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a press freedom NGO, said Zhang's trial this week was not only prosecution, it's persecution.

Nvidia started producing chips tailored for the Chinese market after former US President Joe Biden banned the company from exporting its most powerful products to China, in an effort to rein in Beijing's progress on AI. Beijing's regulators have recently summoned domestic chipmakers such as Huawei and Cambricon, as well as Alibaba and search engine giant Baidu, which also make their own semiconductors, to report how their products compare against Nvidia's China chips, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter.

China's annual international security gathering in Beijing is the first since the start of US President Donald Trump's second term. The event is part of Beijing's bid to bolster its recent power projection efforts in "upholding international order." The Xiangshan Forum, which runs from Wednesday to Friday, is widely regarded as China's answer to the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier annual security gathering in Singapore, typically attended by minister-level officials from Western countries, including the United States and its allies.

According to data from World Population Review, people in China consume an average of 14.3 kilograms of garlic each year, which is 31 and a half pounds. That is more than double second-place South Korea at 6.2 kilograms, and more than five times third-place Bangladesh. While garlic bulbs vary in size, there are usually around 8 per pound, which means the average Chinese person eats around 250 bulbs of garlic a year.

OPINION - You can never count Russia out. More than three years after Vladimir Putin's failed blitzkrieg on Kyiv, Moscow is proving it still has plenty of punch on the world stage as Putin continues to pursue his brutal war on the conventional battlefields of Ukraine and expand his war of sabotage, propaganda, and political action against the United States and its allies around the world.

"The United States cannot expect this behavior to change," he said, adding the nation "must send a message this behavior is unacceptable" and should come with a cost to foreign rivals. "I'm committed to marshalling a unified, whole of nation approach on this, working in lockstep with our allies who share our commitment to democratic values, privacy and liberty," Cairncross said.

The body camera hung from the top of the IV drip, recording the slightest twitch made by Yang Guoliang as he lay bloody and paralyzed in a hospital bed after a police beating with bricks.By then, surveillance was nothing new for the Yang family in rural China, snared in an intricate network based on U.S. technology that spies on them and predicts what they'll do.

Our biggest adversary is waiting for the West to collapse. The game goes to he who outlasts the adversary, and what the Chinese want to do is to just keep things really, really stable and just wait for the Western countries to collapse. Just how powerful has China really become? What does China's leadership really want? If America is in a new Cold War, who's going to win?

The parade through Tiananmen Square commemorating the 80th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II featured China's DF-61, which is believed to be its newest land-based intercontinental ballistic missile, and the DF-31BJ, an upgraded version of older ICBM models. For now, little is known about either system, including their operational status. Even if these systems are developmental, China has a sizable arsenal of land-based ICBMs.

Thousands of soldiers marching in tight formations, state-of-the-art weapon systems including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), rocket launchers, and battle tanks and above all, Chinese President Xi Jinping projecting power standing in a grandstand above the iconic portrait of the founder of the People's Republic, Mao Zedong, on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. These images are circulating around the world on Wednesday.

When President Trump returned to the White House his intention was clear: Make America Great Again. But the United States's economic partners, and some of its rivals, are also benefitting from having the unorthodox showman back in the Oval Office. Investors are watching the U.S. stock market with both enthusiasm and trepidation: The S&P 500 is up 15% over the past year, Treasuries have remained relatively steady, and the Fed's monetary policy is expected to begin a downwards trajectory.