
Local universities admission applications surge after U.S. ban on foreign students at Harvard: Ex-financial chief
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South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Trump ‘likely' to speak to Xi this week, White House says, amid renewed trade tensions
US President Donald Trump is 'likely' to speak to China's President Xi Jinping this week, the White House said on Monday, amid renewed trade tensions between the two countries. Advertisement The prospect for such talks, mentioned to reporters by White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, comes after China hit back at the United States over alleged violations of a temporary bilateral trade agreement reached in mid-May in Geneva. China's Commerce Ministry on Monday released a statement saying Trump's accusation last week that Beijing had violated the agreement is 'groundless' and 'grossly distorts the facts'. The ministry also criticised the Trump administration for introducing 'discriminatory measures' against China , including issuing guidance on export controls of artificial intelligence chips and revoking visas for Chinese students studying in the United States. Such comments were made after Trump lashed out at China on Friday for 'totally' violating the agreement reached in high-level talks in the Swiss city, under which the two countries committed to backing away from their respective triple-digit tariffs and trade restrictions. Advertisement 'I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual,' Trump said in a social media post.


South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Sound strategy or not, Trump's tariffs are doomed by poor execution
On the cusp of invading Greece with his army, the Persian Emperor Xerxes was confronted by his chief counsel, Artabanus, who cautioned against unforeseen threats and logistical difficulties in his campaign. However, Xerxes shunned any operational hand-wringing, according to historian John Lewis Gaddis' book On Grand Strategy, arguing that 'big things are won by big dangers'. Advertisement More than 2,000 years after Xerxes' ill-fated campaign, which helped to unify once-disparate Greek city states into a major political force in the Mediterranean region, another leader of a superpower is imposing his will on the rest of the world without much forethought. Almost two months since he declared ' Liberation Day ' and imposed 'reciprocal' tariffs on almost all US trade partners, the track record of US President Donald Trump's trade war is, at best, mixed. Aside from negotiating a 90-day pause in an escalating trade war with China and striking a partial deal with the United Kingdom, the US leader has struggled to show any kind of decisive success. There could be a strategic logic that drives Trump's seemingly inchoate trade policy and incoherent tactics. The United States is a declining superpower largely because of its hollowed-out manufacturing base and shrinking contribution to global trade. Advertisement Liberal globalisation has enriched the US financial sector and Big Tech companies, but it has left much of the country in a much weaker position vis-a-vis other major economic powers, especially China. Though disruptive, Trump's policies are an attempt at reviving the foundations of the US economy before it slides into permanent decline.


South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
US Indo-Pacific commander calls PLA operations in Taiwan Strait ‘rehearsals', not just exercises
The top US commander in the Pacific said on Monday that Beijing was on a 'dangerous course' and its operations around Taiwan were not mere exercises, but 'rehearsals'. Advertisement 'We face a profoundly consequential time in the Indo-Pacific. China is on a dangerous course,' said Admiral Samuel Paparo, head of US Indo-Pacific Command, in a special address to an AI expo hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project think tank. 'Their aggressive manoeuvres around Taiwan are not just exercises. They are rehearsals,' he continued, without explicitly referencing a potential takeover of Taiwan. Beijing regards the self-ruled island as part of China, to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take it by force and is committed to arming it. In recent years, the US has grown increasingly anxious about a mainland takeover, with officials and lawmakers eyeing 2027 as a possible window, and pointing to more frequent People's Liberation Army sorties that cross the Taiwan Strait's median line as signs of growing aggression. Advertisement Tensions between Taiwan and mainland China have also grown in the year since Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing has called a 'destroyer of peace', took office. Without naming specific countries, Paparo said on Monday that China's aggression was compounded by 'a growing transactional symbiosis among an axis of autocracies,' evidenced by 'technology transfers and coordinated military activities'.