Technology
China’s autonomous driving race shifts from hype to high stakes
China is ending the Wild West ambiguity of its smart electric vehicles sector. Tough new rules for assisted and autonomous driving will expose weak systems, raise costs and force automakers into a high-stakes race for safer, smarter self-driving.
Caixin Global
Economy
Can the West force China into a new Plaza Accord?
Calls are growing in the West for a stronger renminbi as China’s vast trade surplus fuels tensions with the US and Europe. But today’s economic realities make a repeat of the landmark 1985 Plaza Accord far more difficult, says Lianhe Zaobao associate China news editor Sim Tze Wei.
Sim Tze Wei
Society
When humans become demons: China’s viral AI hit
A 26-minute AI-generated animation about people branded as demons has become a viral hit in China. Behind its striking visuals is a creator using new technology to tell an old story about suffering, power and the people history leaves behind. Lianhe Zaobao journalist Miao Zong-Han tells us more.
Miao Zong-Han
Economy
China shuts 32-year tax loophole used by wealthy Chinese
China has scrapped a 32-year tax exemption on dividends for foreign individuals. The move targets “fake foreign investors” and reflects Beijing’s broader push to tighten cross-border oversight and enforce tax fairness. Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Liu Liu gets to the heart of the matter.
Liu Liu
Popular This Month
Politics
[Video] Bilahari Kausikan: How to navigate the new world order
Bilahari Kausikan, in an interview with ThinkChina editor Chow Yian Ping, examines how US-China rivalry is reshaping the global order, why China’s “China dream” narrative of national rejuvenation remains powerful but limiting, and how a more fluid, multipolar Asia will test the nimbleness of smaller states such as Singapore.
Chow Yian Ping
Politics
Bilahari Kausikan: How to think about foreign policy and geopolitics
Former Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan rues the general lack of understanding about foreign policy and geopolitics. On Ukraine, US-China relations and the wars in the Middle East, he offers some rubrics to fall back on in a speech delivered at the Humanity Matters Charity Conference at the Institute of Lifelong Learning in July. This is an edited version of the transcript.
Bilahari Kausikan
Politics
Why Trump is ready to lose the midterms
As the US midterms loom and polls plunge, Donald Trump appears strangely indifferent to his party’s fate. US commentator Ian Bremmer argues that despite Trump’s claims of rigged systems, US institutional guardrails will hold as the post-Trump era nears.
Ian Bremmer
Society
Passports surrendered: Inside China’s expanding web of exit controls
China’s new regulations have reignited concerns over who may be prevented from leaving the country. While Beijing says the measures are aimed at safeguarding national security, broad discretionary powers and vague definitions could create greater uncertainty for travellers, says Lianhe Zaobao China news editor Yang Danxu.
Yang Danxu
Society
How an American influencer exposed China’s ‘crotch nationalism’
The scandal surrounding an American influencer in China has exposed how quickly pro-China digital personas can turn sour, leaving female victims caught in a crossfire of nationalist judgment. Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Liu Liu dives into the matter.
Liu Liu
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Society
[Video] Could Niu Lai be China’s highest-return film ever?
Made by a mother and son with no outside investment, the low-budget Chinese animated film Niu Lai earned only US$1,000 in its first nine days before viral clips pushed its box office takings past US$4 million in just a few days. ThinkChina’s Lu Lingming explains what drove its unexpected box office success.
Lu Lingming
Politics
[Video] Bilahari Kausikan: How to navigate the new world order
Bilahari Kausikan, in an interview with ThinkChina editor Chow Yian Ping, examines how US-China rivalry is reshaping the global order, why China’s “China dream” narrative of national rejuvenation remains powerful but limiting, and how a more fluid, multipolar Asia will test the nimbleness of smaller states such as Singapore.
Chow Yian Ping
Politics
[Video] Is China stopping its own citizens from leaving?
China has introduced new rules on exit and entry administration, setting out when authorities can intervene in border crossings and when citizens may be barred from leaving the country. The regulation brings national security, export controls and technology concerns more directly into the rules governing cross-border movement. ThinkChina’s Lingming Lu looks into the issue.
Lu Lingming
Society
[Video] Rare Hubei tornadoes expose China’s rising weather risk
Three rare tornadoes in Hubei exposed a stark new reality: China must prepare for increasingly complex extreme weather with better forecasting, more resilient cities and stronger disaster response. ThinkChina’s Yi Jina and Lu Lingming find out more.
Yi Jina, Lu Lingming
Society
[Video] Effortlessly beautiful: China’s new obsession with ‘invisible’ cosmetic procedures
Why are millions of Chinese paying for cosmetic procedures that nobody is supposed to notice? The pursuit of “natural beauty” is reshaping the country’s booming medical aesthetics industry. ThinkChina’s Yi Jina finds out more.
Yi Jina
Society
[Video] China made it to the World Cup, just not on the pitch
China’s men’s football team is once again absent from the World Cup, but China is visible almost everywhere else around the tournament. ThinkChina’s Lu Lingming looks at how China made it into the World Cup economy, even as its team remains off the pitch.
Lu Lingming
Society
[Video] ‘Bullying our ancestors’: Why Chinese netizens are boycotting LV
A seemingly ordinary trademark dispute between Louis Vuitton and Chinese milk tea chain Molly Tea has escalated into a wider debate over intellectual property and cultural ownership. As backlash builds, with many even calling for LV’s trademark to be revoked, the case has become a broader reckoning on how cultural motifs should be protected in a modern commercial world.
Yi Jina
Culture
[Vox pop] Blood, lion dance or dialect: What makes a Chinese Singaporean?
As the movie Dear You brings the history of early Chinese migrants back into the spotlight, online conversations about Chinese identity and cultural heritage have grown louder. ThinkChina’s Lu Lingming and Yi Jina speak with Chinese Singaporeans about what Chinese identity, or “Chineseness”, means to them today.
Lu Lingming, Yi Jina
Culture
[Video] Living in the moment: Two Singaporean artists finding home in Jingdezhen
In Jingdezhen, China’s porcelain capital, Singaporean ceramists Ken Lu and Nelson Lim have each found their own mecca — a place for Ken to put down roots, and for Nelson to continually return to. Living in the Moment, produced by Lu Lingming and Yi Jina, is ThinkChina’s first documentary film. It explores how the city reshapes Ken and Nelson’s identities as Chinese Singaporeans, while tracing their lifelong pursuit of art and craft.
Lu Lingming, Yi Jina
Latest Articles
Politics
Taiwan’s Lai Ching-te sends his first minister to APEC China: A thaw?
Taiwan’s labour minister will attend an APEC meeting in Nanjing this month, but the trip reflects a pragmatic approach to cross-strait engagement, not a breakthrough in ties. Lianhe Zaobao Taipei correspondent Lai Oi Lai speaks with academics to find out.
Lai Oi Lai
Politics
A sudden exit: Why Shenzhen replaced its mayor 100 days before APEC
With the high-stakes APEC summit just months away, Shenzhen’s sudden leadership change underscores intense political vetting. The last-minute reshuffle hints at a career setback for a rising star and sets an urgent task for his successor. Lianhe Zaobao’s China news editor Yang Danxu gives her take on the issue.
Yang Danxu
Economy
China has led nearly 300 green initiatives. Is it a climate leader?
A new study reveals China has led 291 environmental initiatives since 2000. However, with questions remaining over their real-world impact, can Beijing truly lead as the US retreats from global climate governance? Lianhe Zaobao’s China news correspondent Lim Zhan Ting finds out more.
Lim Zhan Ting
Technology
China’s new AI export: Tokens, not chips
Soaring costs, tightening semiconductor restrictions and the near-parity performance of Chinese AI models are driving some Southeast Asian countries to bypass the “build data centres” route in favour of outsourcing and purchasing inference results, says commentator Imran Khalid.
Imran Khalid
History
[Photos] Guangdong: Where China first looked outward
From an isolated southern frontier to China’s main gateway to the maritime world, Guangdong’s early encounters with foreign traders, armed sea powers and overseas migration laid the foundations for its later role as a cradle of reform. Historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao traces the early history of Guangdong in ThinkChina’s Eye on Guangdong series.
Hsu Chung-mao
Society
Seven minutes to disaster: How climate change exposed a Himalayan blind spot
A glacier collapse near the China-Nepal border triggered a catastrophic mudslide in just seven minutes, exposing gaps in monitoring and early warning as climate change raises the risk of extreme Himalayan disasters. Lianhe Zaobao associate China news editor Sim Tze Wei finds out more.
Sim Tze Wei
Economy
Ice Silk Road: Russia breaks ice, China builds the market
China and Russia could be the linchpin of the Ice Silk Road, leveraging the Northern Sea Route. With them as the anchor and middle powers providing functional support, the Arctic route just gained more geoeconomic appeal, says academic Hao Nan.
Hao Nan
Culture
Rojak roots: What it means to be Singaporean
Cantonese and Hokkien, Malay and English; kampung food, Hong Kong television, Manchester United and the Catholic faith. Tracing the people, languages and cultures that shaped her, ThinkChina’s Candice Chan reflects on a thoroughly mixed — and thoroughly Singaporean — inheritance in ThinkChina’s Eye on Guangdong series.
Candice Chan
Culture
Building for family glory: Guangdong’s architecture of success
The Chen Academy in Guangzhou and Ruishi Lou in Kaiping county were built with sophisticated techniques from wealth earned or migrant funds sent home. Architecture professor Ho Puay Peng takes us on a tour of these fine examples of Lingnan architecture in ThinkChina’s Eye on Guangdong series.
Ho Puay Peng
Politics
Bilahari Kausikan: How to think about foreign policy and geopolitics
Former Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan rues the general lack of understanding about foreign policy and geopolitics. On Ukraine, US-China relations and the wars in the Middle East, he offers some rubrics to fall back on in a speech delivered at the Humanity Matters Charity Conference at the Institute of Lifelong Learning in July. This is an edited version of the transcript.
Bilahari Kausikan
Politics
Hui Ka Yan jailed: Can China escape Evergrande’s shadow?
Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan has been sentenced to life imprisonment after the spectacular collapse of his property empire, leaving a trail of unfinished homes and shattered confidence. Lianhe Zaobao associate China news editor Chen Jing explains.
Chen Jing
Culture
Truffles and gold leaf can’t save dim sum: What the masters know
However much dim sum — bite-sized morsels originating in Guangdong province — is reinvented, the patience and fortitude that goes into the craft and the sincerity of the hands that make it remain paramount, observes writer Tan Pin Yen in ThinkChina’s Eye on Guangdong series.
Tan Pin Yen
Culture
[Video] Was Cantonese really the language of Tang poets?
With copious research into the vivid histories of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, academic Lian-Hee Wee and researcher Winnie HY Cheung trace a quirky timeline of the evolution of the Cantonese language in ThinkChina’s Eye on Guangdong series.
Lian-Hee Wee, Winnie HY Cheung