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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On the surface, China’s economy looks fine. GDP grew 5.0% y/y in Q1, faster than Q4’s 4.5% growth, and at the upper range of Beijing’s annual growth target of 4.5-5%. So China’s economy has shrugged off the Iran war and entered 2026 in good shape, right? Not so fast. Despite the punchy headline growth rate, economic momentum was clearly fading
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Despite the geopolitical turbulence of Donald Trump’s second term in office, China has weathered the storm remarkably well. From adroitly facing down US tariffs with its own proportional response to mending fences with spurned American partners, Beijing has navigated Trump’s erratic tenure with aplomb. But as the Iran war enters its seventh week, Chinese leaders face a genuine geopolitical conundrum – and unfamiliar
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As semiconductor engineers know, helium ain’t just about party balloons and squeaky voices. It’s irreplaceable in chipmaking – and global supply just took a massive hit. This week, we want to walk you through a supply chain story that has nothing to do with tariffs or export controls – but could prove just as disruptive to China’s chip push. It
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For years, China has been battling deflation. But as of last month, it faces the opposite problem – a shift that couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Iran war has delivered an energy price shock that has rippled through China’s economy at rapid speed. The US-Israel strikes on Iran began on February 28 – by March, PMI survey data was
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