News

Ministers call denial of entry for Wera Hobhouse ‘concerning’ after she flew there to visit newborn grandson
The UK government is “greatly concerned” and wants an account of why the Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse was denied entry to Hong Kong on a family visit to meet her three-month-old grandson for the first time.
Hobhouse, 65, the MP for Bath, said she was held at Hong Kong airport on arrival on Thursday, told she was being refused entry and put on a flight back to the UK five hours later.

The party, once the city’s largest opposition force, long championed a moderate approach. It ended up squeezed between a discontented populace and a repressive Beijing.

Exclusive: Government is weighing up security concerns against economic benefits of closer ties with Beijing
The government could target parts of China’s security apparatus under new foreign influence rules, the Guardian has learned.
Ministers are considering including parts of the Chinese state accused of interference activities on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme (Firs).

President’s first stop is Vietnam as China urges US to end trade war and return to ‘right path of mutual respect’
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will visit Vietnam on Monday as he begins a tour of south-east Asia where he will seek to strengthen ties with neighbouring countries amid an escalating trade war.
Xi will visit Vietnam from Monday before travelling to Malaysia and Cambodia, a high-profile tour that Chinese officials have described as being of “major importance”.

Trump ended the ‘de-minimis’ rule while launching a trade war with China – which will make retail giants such as Temu more expensive, experts say
After a chaotic week of flip-flopping policies, cheap clothes from are nearly certain to face a steep price hike soon – prompting concern among fast fashion retailers and potentially pushing consumers to look for other alternatives.
As part of a package of global tariff policies announced on “liberation day” last week, signed an executive order that ended a duty-free exemption for low-priced goods to enter the US from China and Hong Kong. Known as the “de-minimis” rule, packages under $800 do not qualify for any taxes or tariffs on the goods and are inspected minimally at the border.

China’s leader is on a charm offensive in the region, but some of Beijing’s neighbors are wary of being caught in the crossfire of a superpower rivalry.

Economically, the trade war may be bad news for Xi Jinping, but ideologically and politically it is a gift
Last week, Mao Ning, head of China’s foreign ministry information department, posted a blurry of a moment in history. In 1953, the late Chairman Mao, in his heavily accented, high-pitched voice, of resistance to what he called US aggression in Korea.
Kim Il-sung, the North Korean leader and founder of , now in its third generation, had invaded US-backed South Korea. When Kim’s attempt to unite Korea by force appeared to be failing, China threw nearly 3 million “volunteers” into the war and succeeded in fighting to the stalemate that has prevailed ever since.
Isabel Hilton is a London-based writer and broadcaster who has reported extensively from China and Hong Kong

US trade war? CNN examined China’s largest import from the United States – soybeans – to see how that demand could be met elsewhere and what US farmers stand to lose.

Beijing residents were told to stay home, tourist sites were closed and thousands of flights were canceled across the country.

Special powers granted to prevent the collapse of British Steel’s Scunthorpe works
Emergency legislation allowing the government to instruct companies to keep loss-making steel operations in England open, or face criminal penalties for their executives, were passed yesterday during an extraordinary sitting of parliament.
MPs and peers trooped into Westminster for a rare Saturday sitting after prime minister Keir Starmer and a small team of cabinet ministers decided on Friday morning that special powers were needed for the business secretary Jonathan Reynolds to prevent the imminent collapse of British Steel’s Scunthorpe steelworks, , and the loss of thousands of jobs.

Xi Jinping, who rules with absolute authority, has shown he is willing to let the Chinese people endure hardship. President Trump revealed he has limits.

Announcement says tariffs – including those imposed on China – will also not apply to other electronic devices
Donald Trump’s presidential administration has exempted smartphones and computers from the 125% levies imposed on imports from China as well as other “reciprocal” , which experts had cautioned might cause electronic consumer prices to spike dramatically in the US.
The announcement was made late on Friday in a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) notice that said the devices would be excluded from the 10% global tariff that recently imposed on most countries, along with the much heftier import tax on China.