China

China's birth rate hits record low: Why Chinese youth aren't having kids

Births in China fell to a record low in 2025 despite subsidies and policy shifts, as young Chinese delay marriage and parenthood amid high costs, job uncertainty and long working hours

China's population falls 17% in 2025 despite policies to boost births

How do you convince a population to have more babies after generations of a policy that limited families to just one? A decade after ending China's longtime, one-child policy, authorities are pushing a whole range of ideas and policies to try and encourage more births, ranging from cash subsidies to taxing condoms. The efforts haven't paid off yet. At least, that is what population figures released Monday show for what is now the world's second-most populous nation. China's population of 1.4 billion continued to shrink, marking the fourth straight year of decrease, new government statistics show. The total population in 2025 stood at 1.404 billion, which was 3 million less than the previous year. The statistics illustrate the stark demographic pressures the country faces. The number of new babies born was just 7.92 million in 2025, a decline of 1.62 million, or 17%. The latest birth numbers show the slight tick upwards in 2024 was not a lasting trend. Births declined for seven year

China's $7 trillion cash pile begins shifting into higher-yield assets

Investors are weighing a move into stocks, wealth management products or insurance, which would align with Beijing's efforts to cultivate sustainable market gains to support the broader economy

Steel factory explosion in China's Inner Mongolia kills 2, hospitalises 84

Chinese police detained those in charge of a steel factory in the Inner Mongolia region after an explosion on Sunday killed two people and left 84 others hospitalised. Eight other people remain unaccounted for. A pressurized storage tank designed to hold steam and high-temperature water exploded in the factory, Baotou city officials said Monday. The blast occurred at a Baogang United Steel plant in the city of Baotou around 3 pm local time Sunday and caused tremors in the surrounding areas. A rescue team was searching for the eight people who are missing, said a representative of the Baotou city's Information Office at a news conference on Monday morning. Baogang United Steel is a major state-owned company, according to state media.

Chinese envoy Yao Wen meets Bangladesh NSA Khalilur Rahman in Dhaka

Discussions included the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project and the proposed Bangladesh-China Friendship Hospital

Fly, Wild Swans is Jung Chang's return to memory and writing against power

Jung Chang revisits her life, her mother, and modern China in Fly, Wild Swans, a reflective coda to her landmark memoir and a meditation on memory, freedom and power

China's rare-earth product exports fall as tensions with Japan draw focus

Rare earths have emerged as a flash point in trade relations in recent years, with the US and other nations seeking to challenge China's dominance of their mining and processing

China cuts US debt holdings to 17-year low, shifts reserves to gold

China has reduced its US Treasury holdings to a 17-year low as part of the continued diversification of its forex reserves towards gold and overseas equity investments amid unsettling ties with Washington. China's holdings of US treasuries fell to USD 682.6 billion in November last year, down from USD 688.7 billion in October, the lowest since 2008, according to data released by the US Department of the Treasury on Thursday. Beijing's move to trim its US holdings came as the foreign ownership of the US debt hit a record high, with Japan and the UK scaling up their holdings, according to the data. Japan's holdings rose by USD 2.6 billion to USD 1.2 trillion, while the UK's pool rose by USD 10.6 billion to USD 888.5 billion. China holds the world's largest forex reserves totalling USD 3.3579 trillion at the end of December 2025, according to the official media reports here. Observers say the reduction of US holdings by China is part of its continued efforts to adjust its strategic .

Canada announces $7 billion trade deal with China to boost exports

Canada has agreed to cut its 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, CBS News reported

Forget Trump's tariffs. The real danger lies in China's trade surplus

China's economic model has certainly delivered growth but in an unbalanced way. Investment in buildings, machinery and equipment became its main driver in recent years

China, India among region's best stock markets for investors, says Mobius

He remains a bull on Indian stocks, citing the government's move to increase spending and investments, particularly in the technology sector

Canada inks trade truce with China in break from Donald Trump's agenda

PM Mark Carney said he expects China to cut tariffs on Canadian rapeseed after meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday, in the first visit by a Canadian leader to Beijing in eight years

US firms worry more about China's economy than trade tensions: Survey

US businesses are more concerned about China's slowing economy than trade friction, according to a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China released Friday. Of 368 companies responding to the survey, 64% viewed slowing growth in the world's second largest economy as their top worry, while 58% cited US-China trade tensions as a key challenge. One reason for that may be that many US companies have businesses focused on China's huge market of about 1.4 billion people that do not rely on exports back to the US Economists expect China's economy to slow further this year after expanding at about a 5% annual pace in 2025. Growth in exports outpaced imports last year, leading to a record trade surplus of nearly $1.2 trillion. The report said business sentiment has improved from last year. More than half of those responding estimated that they made a profit in 2025, up from less than half last year. It has been a rocky ride for American businesses in recent years, especially aft

China's Xi Jinping, Canada's Mark Carney seek new chapter in relations

Faced with new global challenges, the leaders of China and Canada pledged Friday to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony. Xi Jinping told visiting Prime Minister Mark Carney that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea. It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning ChinaCanada relations toward improvement, China's top leader said. Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as under great strain. He called for a new relationship adapted to new global realities and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance. Those new realities reflect in large part the so-called America-first approach of US President Donald

As more Chinese youth live alone, new app bluntly asks: 'Are you dead?'

Today, China has over 100 million households with only one person, according to an annual report from the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2024

China's record trade surplus ensures global turmoil will continue

China's record trade surplus is less a sign of strength than of a stalled growth model-one that deepens global imbalances and fuels the next wave of trade conflict

Japan, Philippines sign new defence pact as they face China aggression

Japan and the Philippines signed a defense pact on Thursday that would allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China's growing aggression in the region and to bolster their preparation for natural disasters. Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remark that potential Chinese action against Taiwan could spark Japanese intervention. Japan and the Philippines have also had separate territorial conflicts with Beijing in the East China Sea and South China Sea that have continued to flare and threaten to draw in the United States, a treaty ally of the two Asian nations. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi signed the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement with Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro in Manila. During the ceremony, Japan also announced new security and economic ...

World leaders turn to China as Trump's tariffs reshape global diplomacy

With Xi, 72, traveling abroad less - he skipped the recent G-20 leaders' summit in South Africa, for example - the impetus is on foreign leaders to subscribe to his home-court diplomacy

China seeks assurances over loans to Venezuela after Maduro's capture

While state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. holds stakes in three joint ventures producing heavy crude in the Orinoco Belt and one in Zulia state, production is limited and uneven

Foreign Secretary Misri meets senior CPC leader to discuss India-China ties

India on Wednesday underlined the need to take "positive steps" to create the right environment for improving ties with China as Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri hosted Sun Haiyan, a senior leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC), focusing on initiatives to rebuild the relations. Sun, the vice minister of the CPC's international department, is currently on a visit to India to explore ways to improve relations between the two countries. In the last few months, both sides have initiated a series of measures to reset their ties that came under severe strain following the deadly clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in June 2020. The military stand-off effectively ended in October 2024. In the meeting, Misri emphasised the importance of increasing understanding between the people of the two countries in order to rebuild ties and in this context, highlighted the need to "take positive steps to create the right environment for improved bilateral relations," the ..