China’s economy is bifurcating – and the gap is widening fast. On one side: A roaring AI and clean-energy export boom that is reshaping China’s position in the global economy and powering headline growth figures. On the other: A domestic economy that just registered its first contraction in retail sales in over three years. Both things are true simultaneously – and understanding
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When most people think of China’s export controls, they think of dual-use controls – the dramatic, headline-grabbing restrictions on critical mineral products like gallium, graphite, and most famously, rare earths. Beijing has famously deployed these levers as retaliatory weapons in its tech war with Washington. But there’s a parallel, less headline-grabbing export control system that rarely makes the news. And new
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Beijing has a new economic priority – and it’s one that will reshape China’s growth model for decades to come. Policymakers are increasingly convinced that the next phase of China’s development requires a dramatic expansion of producer services – that is, the ecosystem of support that sits behind and around manufacturing. Think less call centres and coffee shops, more industrial
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In the lead-up to US President Donald Trump’s visit to China last week, the policyverse was holding its breath to see what the summit would herald for Taiwan. On the surface, nothing much seemed to happen. Xi Jinping forcefully restated China’s position, calling it “the most important issue in China-US relations” with the potential to bring the two countries into conflict if
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Beijing just reached into its regulatory toolkit and pulled out a weapon it has never publicly used before – an obscure national security review mechanism that is blocking Meta’s acquisition of Manus. Some context: Manus is a Chinese AI agent startup that relocated to Singapore in June 2025. In December 2025, Meta acquired the company. Beijing was never going to let
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Beijing’s anti-sanction toolkit just got two powerful new additions. Earlier this month, within a single week, the State Council released two regulations that sharply expand how Chinese authorities can push back against foreign sanctions, export controls, and extraterritorial enforcement: Regulations on Industrial and Supply Chain Security (RISCS), released on April 7 Regulations on Countering Improper Foreign Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (RCIFEJ), released
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