Foreigners living in China who stuck it out through three years of strict Covid controls have spoken about why they finally decided to leave the country last year despite efforts to reopen to the outside world. Some spoke of an increasing wariness, even hostility, towards foreigners while others said they were worried about a repeat of their lockdown experiences. Their exits come against a backdrop of heightened tensions between China and the West, which some suspect may be influencing everyday
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo became the latest European leader to travel to Beijing and meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, with the pair pledging to boost cooperation and oppose decoupling. Xi encouraged De Croo, whose government now holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union, to "play a positive role" in "fostering progress in China-EU relations in the new year". On the sidelines of his meetings with officials, though, De Croo warned Chinese leaders to s
Tesla has cut the prices of its Shanghai-made vehicles by up to 6 per cent as it works to maintain its leading position in the premium segment of the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) market. The Texas-based company announced on Friday that the price of the entry-level edition of its Model 3 will be reduced from 261,400 yuan (US$36,814) to 245,900 yuan, while the starting price of the Model Y is now 258,900 yuan, down from 266,400 yuan. The price cuts come after Tesla reported 15.7 per cent
The European Union is not in the "Champions League of economic security", and even "struggles to perform at Europa League level". That was the withering assessment of a senior representative of ASML, Europe's most valuable technology company, who used a football analogy to attack Brussels' efforts to de-risk its relations with China. "If you think about the Champions League of economic security and geoeconomic statecraft, we have to think of the United States, we have to think of China, and we a
US and Chinese envoys commemorated the 45th anniversary of official diplomatic ties on Tuesday by mixing warm sentiments about last year's summit between their leaders with warnings about Taiwan and trade restrictions that suggested the two sides are far from understanding each other's intentions. Washington's ambassador to Beijing, Nicholas Burns, addressed an audience at the Carter Centre in Atlanta via video, praised the Chinese government for "concrete action" to block the flow of fentanyl p