Kinaforum

tirsdag 16. desember 2025

High-end car sales sink in China as its economy slows, taking a toll on European automakers

Chinese demand for foreign luxury cars is waning as customers opt for more affordable Chinese brand models, often sold at big discounts, catering to their taste for fancy electronics and comfort.

That is bad news for European carmakers like Porsche, Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz and BMW that have long dominated the upper reaches of the world’s largest auto market.nA prolonged property downturn in China has left many consumers with little appetite for big purchases. Meanwhile, the well-to-do are becoming increasingly shy about publicly displaying their wealth, said Paul Gong, UBS head of China Automotive Industry Research.

Many car buyers have been swayed by a 20,000 yuan ($2,830) trade-in subsidy offered by the Chinese government for purchasing electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. People tended to purchase cheaper, entry-level cars where the discount will count more and those cars are mostly Chinese made, Gong said.

Jimmy Lai is a Hong Kong rags-to-riches media tycoon who became a fierce critic of Beijing

To his supporters, former media mogul Jimmy Lai is a fighter for democracy. To his opponents, he’s a traitor to his motherland. Now, he could face life in prison after being convicted of conspiracies to commit sedition and collusion with foreign forces in a landmark trial that began in 2023.

Lai, 78, is an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party who was arrested in 2020 under a national security law following massive anti-government protests that rocked Hong Kong the year before. His arrest and the closure of his Apple Daily newspaper, a tabloid-style publication that backed the democracy movement, dealt a blow to free speech in a city that was once a bastion of press freedom in Asia.

Jimmy Lai’s daughter says he’d focus on family, not activism, if he’s freed in Hong Kong

Thais bomb three Cambodian border casinos deemed military threats

Thailand’s US-supplied F-16 warplanes and Swedish Gripen jets bombed at least three Cambodian casinos during the past week in a gamble Bangkok hopes will obliterate its enemy’s alleged ability to fire armed drones from the border zone complexes and stockpile rockets, mortars and other weapons.

The big white-walled casinos are easy targets in the green forests and brown scrubland because Cambodia has no effective military air force to defend them. Cambodia has not fired its anti-aircraft weapons during the war that began in July, perhaps predicting a devastating response from militarily-mightier Thailand.

Cambodia’s casinos are some of the biggest and strongest-built buildings along the frontier, constructed with millions of dollars from gamblers’ and investors’ money. The well-equipped casino complexes could offer Cambodia’s military formidable structures, but it was not possible to independently confirm their dual use.

Broken eagle: China ‘Overmatch’ warning tests US credibility

A leaked US Department of Defense (DoD) assessment known as the “Overmatch” brief warns that the US would likely lose a high-end war with China over Taiwan under current conditions.

The classified, multiyear report, obtained by the New York Times (NYT), was prepared by the DoD’s Office of Net Assessment and delivered to senior White House officials over several years. It maps how a conflict would unfold and concludes that China now possesses the means to destroy US aircraft, large naval vessels and satellites early in a fight, while exploiting critical US supply-chain vulnerabilities.

The brief details how China’s growing missile forces, low-cost drones and cyber capabilities could overwhelm US reliance on expensive, vulnerable platforms such as aircraft carriers and advanced fighter jets, leaving US forces unable to sustain a prolonged war.

According to officials cited by the New York Times, DoD war games consistently show US defeat, with one former senior national security official describing the assessment as revealing Chinese “redundancy after redundancy” against US advantages.

China’s big layoff wave now buffeting its tech sector

China’s long‑running wave of corporate layoffs is spreading from manufacturing and property to the technology sector, with some key firms cutting hundreds of engineering jobs as core businesses weaken and artificial intelligence (AI) growth remains uneven.

Recent job cuts at Baidu and Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), alongside years of downsizing at Alibaba Group, show technology is no longer insulated from China’s broader slowdown and job losses.China’s jobless rate for 16-to-24-year-olds, excluding college students, stood at 17.3% in October, slightly down from 17.7% the month prior, the most recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed, according to a Reuters report.

The unemployment rate for 25-to-29-year-olds, excluding students, remained unchanged at 7.2% from a month earlier, while the jobless rate for 30-to-59-year-olds fell to 3.8% from 3.9%, the data showed. It’s not immediately clear how the recent wave tech layoffs will impact those figures.

China’s military firms struggle as corruption purge bites, report says

Revenues at China’s giant military firms fell last year as corruption purges slowed arms contracts and procurement, according to a study released on Monday by a leading conflict think tank. The Chinese declines contrast with strong revenue growth globally for big arms and military-services companies, fueled by wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and global and regional tensions, the research by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found.

“A host of corruption allegations in Chinese arms procurement led to major arms contracts being postponed or canceled in 2024,” said Nan Tian, director of SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.

Many more sites identified to flood Tibet with millions more Chinese tourists each year

In a move to bring many more millions of Chinese tourists to Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) each year, even as the territory remains tightly restricted for non-Chinese foreign visitors, the authorities have identified more than 58,000 tourist resources following a survey that began in 2023, reported travelandtourworld.com Dec 14. citing the regional tourism authorities. Border tourism has been cited as an emerging market in the new discoveries.

The identification and recognition of more than 58,000 tourist resources within the region have highlighted its untapped potential, with over 31,000 of these resources being newly discovered or recognized, the report said.

The information was reported to have been revealed during a recent meeting in Lhasa, where regional tourism authorities reviewed the results of an extensive survey conducted across the area.

India: Toxic smog chokes Delhi, disrupts travel

Air quality in New Delhi continued to be in the "severe" category for the third consecutive day on Monday as a thick toxic smog engulfed the Indian capital. Air pollution in Delhi and its suburbs, which together make up the National Capital Region, has been at its worst levels in weeks.

According to government data, the averageAir Quality Index (AQI) in the region on Monday was 471, which among the worst in the world, with any measurement above 300 considered "hazardous" to health.

For comparison, any measurement under 50 is considered "good."

On Sunday, authorities imposed the most stringent pollution-control measures, which include a complete ban on the movement of older diesel vehicles and a halt in construction activities. Schools have also been directed to conduct classes in hybrid mode. Smog is a recurring phenomenon in Delhi, especially during the winter months. The issue of air pollution in the national capital is also a heated political issue. There have been demands for a long-term solution to curb the smog.

How Late Architect Frank Gehry Silently Shaped Chinese Cities

On Dec. 5, American architect Frank Gehry, famous for designing landmarks such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 96.

Unlike other internationally renowned architects — Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, and Tadao Ando, who designed the CCTV Headquarters, Beijing Daxing International Airport, and several Chinese museums, respectively — Gehry left no works in the Chinese mainland. He was invited to compete for, but didn’t win, the commission for the National Art Museum of China. While he was selected to design the Quanzhou Museum of Contemporary Art, his plans were so radical that it remains unknown whether they will be implemented.

But despite the mainland lacking a Gehry building, he has had a profound influence on how Chinese cities have changed in the past two decades. This influence is not due to any particular architectural style, but lies in the urban development logic that a visually striking landmark will enhance an area’s profile, drive up land values, and spark commercial activity.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai found guilty in landmark national security trial, faces possible life sentence

Former Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been found guilty on two national security charges and a lesser sedition charge, in a landmark two-year trial widely viewed as a measure of the city’s shrinking freedoms under Beijing’s rule.

Self-made billionaire Lai, 78, is one of the highest-profile critics of Beijing charged under a sweeping security law imposed on the semi-autonomous city in 2020 following months of huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests. He founded Apple Daily, a fiercely pro-democracy tabloid newspaper known for its blistering broadsides against the Chinese Communist Party until its forced closure in 2021.

Lai had pleaded not guilty to all charges, and now faces possible life in prison. Monday’s verdict marks the end of a tumultuous legal saga that had drawn condemnation from supporters and foreign leaders around the world, including US President Donald Trump – who had once vowed to “get him out.”

US Responds to Chinese Water Cannon Attack in South China Sea

The State Department has said the United States stands with the Philippines after the treaty ally's fishing boats were hit with water cannons by Chinese forces in the South China Sea last week, as maritime disputes between Manila and Beijing remain unresolved.

The Philippine coast guard said three fishermen were injured and two fishing boats sustained significant damage from what it called "high-pressure water cannon blasts" while operating lawfully at Escoda Shoal—also known as Sabina Shoal—on Friday.

The Chinese coast guard accused Philippine vessels of conducting "provocative acts" in waters near the atoll, which China claims as Xianbin Jiao, despite repeated warnings. It said "necessary control measures" were taken to drive multiple groups of vessels away.

Full List of Countries in New US Alliance To Win Chip War With China

The United States has brought together a group of allied nations to launch Pax Silica, a strategic initiative aimed at securing global supply chains for artificial intelligence, critical minerals and advanced technologies amid growing competition with China. The program is designed to strengthen technological resilience, coordinate research and development and cultivate a workforce capable of sustaining critical innovations.

Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg described the initiative as the start of “a new golden era” of cooperation on AI and supply-chain security, emphasizing the importance of collective action among trusted partners to counter rising technological threats.

Where in the world are wealth and income most unequal?

The richest 10 percent of the world’s population now owns three-quarters of all personal wealth, according to the newly released World Inequality Report 2026.

Income is not much different, where the top 50 percent of earners take home more than 90 percent, while the poorest half of the world receives less than 10 percent of total income. The report, which has been published annually since 2018, notes that the 2026 edition arrives at a critical time. Worldwide, living standards are stagnating for many, while wealth and power are increasingly concentrated at the top.

Wealth and income levels do not always go hand in hand. The wealthiest are not necessarily the highest earners, highlighting the persistent divide between what people earn and what they own. Wealth includes the total value of a person’s assets-such as savings, investments or property, after subtracting their debts.

In 2025, the wealthiest 10 percent of the world’s population owned 75 percent of global wealth, the middle 40 percent held 23 percent, and the bottom half controlled only 2 percent.

Jimmy Lai, former pro-democracy newspaper founder, to hear verdict in national security case

A Hong Kong court will deliver its verdict on Monday in the trial of former pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, who’s charged with conspiracies to commit sedition and collusion with foreign forces in a case that marks how much the semi-autonomous Chinese city has changed since Beijing began a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent five years ago.

Lai, 78, was arrested in 2020 under a national security law imposed by Chinese authorities to quell the massive anti-government protests that rocked the city in 2019.

Lai’s 156-day trial is being closely watched by foreign governments and political observers as a test of the judicial independence and media freedom in the former British colony, which was promised it could maintain its Western-style civil liberties for 50 years after returning to Chinese rule in 1997.

‘We Can’t Even Afford to Have Sex’: China’s New Condom Tax Draws Ire

The Chinese government is testing out a new solution to falling birth rates: making sex more expensive.

Consumers will pay a 13% value-added tax on contraceptive drugs and products, including condoms, beginning Jan. 1, as part of China’s newly revised Value-Added Tax Law. Those products have been exempted from tax since 1993 as part of China’s one-child policy, which heavily penalized families for having more than one child from 1980 to 2015. As the country’s birth rate has fallen in recent years, the government has turned to seeking to boost birth rates with a range of incentives and subsidies.

Officially, the latest move has been framed as a “technical adjustment within a broader tax-system reform,” says Yuan Mei, assistant professor in the School of Economics at Singapore Management University. The focus has been about “administrative consistency rather than demographic goals.”

As China has shifted from fearing that rapid population growth in the 1970s would strain resources and hamper economic development to wanting to reverse falling birth rates, some experts say it is reasonable that the government’s policies reflect that change.

Gordon G. Chang: Trump’s National Security Strategy Sugarcoats China Threat | Opinion

At a time when the Chinese regime is assaulting the U.S. at home and abroad, President Donald Trump’s national security strategy does not label China as a threat. The document, released December 4, states that America seeks “a genuinely mutually advantageous economic relationship with Beijing.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration outlined China as “the U.S.’s primary foreign-policy challenge” in its national security strategy.That’s no longer the case. As the paper pointed out, “The White House’s new national-security strategy signals a softer approach to competition with Beijing, playing down ideological differences between the two superpowers and marking a break from years in which China was singled out as posing the U.S.’s greatest challenge.”

Thailand declares curfew along coast as Cambodia border fighting spreads

Thailand announced a curfew in its southeastern Trat province on Sunday as fighting with Cambodia spread to coastal areas of a disputed border region, two days after US President and would-be peacemaker Donald Trump said the sides had agreed to stop.

The Southeast Asian neighbours have resorted to arms several times this year since a Cambodian soldier was killed in a May skirmish, reigniting a conflict that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the border.

“Overall, there have been clashes continuously” since Cambodia again reiterated its openness to a ceasefire on Saturday, Thai Defence Ministry spokesman Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri told a press conference in Bangkok after announcing the curfew.

Philippines says China Coast Guard damages fishing vessels

Authorities say three Filipino fishermen were injured when the Chinese Coast Guard fired water cannon at their boats. The incident comes amid rising confrontations in the South China Sea. Three Filipino fishermen were injured and two fishing boats suffered "significant damage" after Chinese Coast Guard vessels fired water cannon at them and cut anchor lines, Philippine authorities said Saturday.

The incident, which involved some 20 Philippine fishing boats, occurred on Friday near the Sabina Shoal, a fish-rich area in the South China Sea. Beijing claims the South China Sea almost in its entirety in the face of an international ruling that the assertion is legally unfounded. The fishermen "were targeted with water cannon and dangerous blocking maneuvers," a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman said in a statement Saturday.

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