November 7, 2025 4:58 PM

China announces one-year suspension of expanded rare earth export controls

China suspended an array of export control measures it imposed on October 9, including expanded curbs on some rare earths materials and equipment, as well as lithium battery materials and super-hard materials, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement on Friday. The suspensions were effective immediately and would apply through November 10, 2026, the ministry said. The announcement confirmed and formalised an agreement reached after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping ...

November 3, 2025 3:02 PM

Taiwan rebuffs China’s protest about Japan PM meeting at APEC

Taiwan's representative to last weekend's APEC summit rebuffed Chinese protests on Monday about his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi while there, saying that it was "very normal" for him to meet leaders attending. China said it had lodged a strong protest with Japan about the meeting on the sidelines of the summit in South Korea, after Takaichi had posted about it on her X account and referred to Taiwan's representative Lin Hsin-i as a senior adviser to the presidential offic...

November 3, 2025 9:14 AM

Trump says China, other countries can’t have Nvidia’s top AI chips

Artificial intelligence giant Nvidia's most advanced chips will be reserved for U.S. companies and kept out of China and other countries, U.S. President Donald Trump said. During a taped interview that aired on Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes" program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only U.S. customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world's most valuable company by market capitalization. "The most advanced, we will not let anyb...

November 2, 2025 3:06 PM

What did Trump, Xi agree to on tariffs, export controls and fentanyl

The White House on Saturday released details about the agreement that U.S. President Donald Trump reached this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping to de-escalate their countries’ trade war, including U.S. tariff reductions and a pause in Beijing's new restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets. The deal, which also includes resumption of Chinese purchases of American soybeans, averts Trump's threatened 100% tariff on Chinese goods and extends a delicate trade truce between the world's...

November 2, 2025 12:10 PM

Hegseth says US ready to share tools to help allies counter ‘aggressive’ China

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Saturday took aim at Beijing over an increase in "destabilising actions" in the South China Sea and committed to support Southeast Asian countries with technology to help them respond jointly to Chinese threats. On a second day in Kuala Lumpur packed with meetings that included multilateral talks with allies Australia, Japan and the Philippines, Hegseth proposed to ASEAN defence ministers the building of shared maritime domain awareness and said China had shown a ...

October 31, 2025 3:23 PM

Taiwan does not want China’s ‘one country, two systems’, president says

Taiwan does not want China's "one country, two systems" and must uphold its freedom and democracy, and resolve to defend itself, President Lai Ching-te said on Friday, rejecting Beijing's latest push to get the island to come under Chinese control. China said this week it "absolutely will not" rule out using force over Taiwan, striking a much tougher tone than a series of articles in state media that pledged benign rule if the island comes over to Beijing under a system of autonomy it uses for ...

October 30, 2025 12:38 PM

What are rare earths and why are they so important?

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have wrapped up a summit in South Korea with a deal to keep Chinese rare earth exports flowing. Here are some basic facts about these obscure elements making headlines around the world: WHAT ARE THEY? Rare earths are a group of 17 elements including 15 silvery-white metals called lanthanides, or lanthanoids, plus scandium and yttrium. WHAT ARE THEY USED FOR? Rare earths or the magnets which they are sometimes made into can b...

October 30, 2025 12:18 PM

Trump cuts China tariffs to 47% after ‘amazing’ Xi meeting

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had agreed to reduce tariffs on China to 47% in exchange for Beijing resuming U.S. soybean purchases, keeping rare earths exports flowing and cracking down on the illicit trade of fentanyl. His remarks after face-to-face talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the South Korean city of Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of Trump's whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan and Southeast ...

October 29, 2025 11:13 PM

Looming Trump-Xi meeting revives hope of US-China trade truce

As U.S. President Donald Trump and China's leader Xi Jinping prepare to kick off talks on Thursday, U.S. negotiators have signaled they seek a return to a fragile trade war truce, but tensions remain high and longer-term economic irritants will likely persist between the geopolitical rivals. Trump has repeatedly expressed optimism about reaching a deal when he meets Xi in Busan, South Korea, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. It will be their first face-to-...

October 28, 2025 11:01 PM

Trump, Xi to discuss tariff cuts tied to China’s fentanyl crackdown, WSJ reports

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will discuss a trade framework to reduce U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Beijing’s commitment to curb exports of fentanyl precursor chemicals, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday. Details of the agreement would be hammered out in subsequent negotiations, and the expected deals could change depending on the meeting between Trump and Xi, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the talks. The U.S. could halve the ...