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September 13, 2025
 

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Laurie Chen
Chinese leader Xi Jinping attends a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 6, 2025
With diplomatic tour de force, China's Xi shows he's 'totally in charge'
The recent display of geopolitical ambition has helped quell concerns about the 72-year-old president's vitality and so-far-unknown succession plans.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a family photo ceremony prior to the BRICS Summit plenary session in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 26, 2025
China's Xi to welcome Putin and Modi in grand display of Global South solidarity
This year's summit will be the largest since 2001, China has said, calling the bloc an "important force in building a new type of international relations."
Chinese military personnel take part in a rehearsal ahead of the parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, which will be held on Sept. 3, in Beijing on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Aug 24, 2025
History, triumph and trauma to take center stage at China's WWII military parade
The event will be a projection of China's growing military might amid deep-seated mistrust in the West and territorial rows with neighboring countries.
A damaged car in the Liuli River in the Huairou district of Beijing on Aug. 13. Flooding exposed weaknesses in the rural emergency response infrastructure for Beijing, whose urban core is surrounded by several rural districts like Huairou.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 21, 2025
Is historically arid Beijing ready for a wetter future?
Recent floods revealed how historically dry Beijing, home to 22 million people, remains insufficiently prepared for what experts say will be an increasingly wet future.
China has strict obscenity laws and regularly scrubs content deemed pornographic from its heavily-controlled domestic internet, so the scale of the image sharing on Telegram has shocked many in China.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 29, 2025
Outrage in China after reports exploitative images of Chinese women shared in Telegram groups
Sexually exploitative images of women were shared with hundreds of thousands of users on Telegram, with the scale of the sharing shocking many in China.
A Beijing store selling merchandise based on the "boys’ love" genre of graphic novels on June 16
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 10, 2025
China detains female writers of 'boys' love' content in porn crackdown
The detentions since March have triggered debate on social media about the limits of free speech and the apparent sexist nature of the crackdown.
A man works at the site of a rare earth metals mine at Nancheng county, in China's Jiangxi province, in October 2010.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 15, 2025
U.S.-China trade truce leaves military-use rare earth issue unresolved
The renewed U.S.-China trade truce left a key area of export restrictions tied to national security untouched, an unresolved conflict that threatens a more comprehensive deal.
A Mercedes-Benz production line in Rastatt, Germany, earlier this month. European auto suppliers alone have filed hundreds of requests to China for rare earths since early April, with only about a quarter granted.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 6, 2025
The world's auto supply chain is in the hands of a few Chinese bureaucrats
China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets — a crucial component in EV motors — and it added them to an export control list in April.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during the announcement of a trade agreement with Britain in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
May 10, 2025
China and the U.S. to talk trade war ceasefire — not peace
Ahead of the meeting, the two sides seem much further apart and at greater risk of a major fallout than during their first trade war in Trump's previous term.
Cranes and containers are pictured at the Yantian port in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 21, 2025
China warns countries against striking trade deals with U.S.
Beijing will firmly oppose any party striking a deal at China's expense and "will take countermeasures in a resolute and reciprocal manner," its Commerce Ministry said.
Officials in northeast China have accused the U.S. of launching cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2025
China accuses U.S. of launching 'advanced' cyberattacks and names alleged NSA agents
The report contained a considerable amount of detail on the cyberattacks and the alleged individuals involved.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Osaka in 2019. With his global tariffs announcement, Trump may have undercut his own China strategy.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 4, 2025
Trump's global trade war may defeat U.S. strategic goals on China
Tariffs could cause an economic moat to form around the U.S. that ultimately undermines Washington's strategic goals on Beijing, analysts warn.
A kitchenware recycling team collects equipment at a closed hotpot restaurant in Beijing last month.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 22, 2025
China's restaurants race to the bottom in deflation-hit economy
A restaurant in China has an average lifespan of just about 500 days, analysts say, falling to as low as a year in Beijing.
Demonstrators rally to support the Uyghur community in Istanbul in 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 14, 2025
China rights monitors suspend work and lay off staff amid U.S. aid freeze
The groups are key to documenting a yearslong crackdown by President Xi Jinping on minorities, rights defenders and lawyers.
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Syrian President Bashar Assad in eastern Hangzhou city in September 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 10, 2024
Assad's fall in Syria exposes limits of China's Middle East diplomacy
Chinese experts and diplomats say Beijing will now bide its time before recognizing a new government in Damascus.
Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court. Former Guangming Daily editor and journalist Dong Yuyu, 62, was detained by police in Beijing in February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 29, 2024
China court sentences journalist Dong Yuyu to seven years on spy charges, family says
Former editor and journalist Dong Yuyu was detained by police in Beijing in February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat.
U.S. President Joe Biden waves as he walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Woodside, California, in November 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 29, 2024
China pressing U.S. to alter language on Taiwan after request from Xi to Biden
Xi's aides have repeatedly followed up and made the requests in the months since, U.S. officials have said.
Parents walk their children to school in Guanghzou, China, on Sept. 4, 2019
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2024
China's private tutoring firms emerge from the shadows after crackdown
There is now tacit consent from policymakers in China to allow the tutoring industry to grow.
A vendor attends to a customer at the secondhand books section of Panjiayuan antiques market in Beijing
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 13, 2024
China wants academic exchanges, but censorship could stand in the way
The Chinese Communist Party has exerted control over all publications since establishing the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Job seekers crowd a job fair at Liberation Square in Shijiazhuang, China, in 2018.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Sep 2, 2024
New unproductive forces: the Chinese youth owning their unemployment
Urban youth unemployment for the roughly 100 million Chinese aged 16-24 spiked to 17.1% in July, a figure analysts say masks millions of rural unemployed.
Japan's cutting-edge railgun successfully strikes target vessel
The Defense Ministry’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) conducted a ship-board railgun shooting test from June to early July this year with the support of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Thousands without power in Tokyo as heavy rain batters Kanto region
Heavy rain hit Tokyo and surrounding areas Thursday afternoon, causing thousands to lose power, prompting flood warnings, grounding flights and causing transportation issues.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
JAL reprimand over drunken pilots adds to airline’s woes
Japan Airlines President Mitsuko Tottori (right) bows in apology Wednesday in Tokyo over the company's pilots causing flight delays due to drinking alcohol.
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.
Shizuoka farmers fight to preserve sustainable tea method that’s steeped in tradition
As of August 2024, the number of confirmed chagusaba farmers had fallen to 302, just over half the 582 reported in 2015, according to the Shizuoka Chagusaba Farming Method Promotion Council.
Search is on for loopholes in Japan’s $550 billion investment pledge
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick argues that U.S. President Donald Trump has sole authority to invest Japan's promised $550 billion.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons
Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

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