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A succession of political leaders have been trooping to Beijing in recent months. Is it an indication of a new world order? Tania Branigan explains
Xi Jinping had a busy January. First came the Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin. Then it was Mark Carney of Canada’s turn. He was followed by the Finnish prime minister, the Uruguayan president and then, last week, Keir Starmer.
But what does this rush to China mean? The Guardian leader writer Tania Branigan says much of it is to do with Trump. “There are real opportunities that people see in China – and at a point where the US looks so erratic, so hostile to people who have traditionally been among its staunchest allies. There is a sense that it just makes sense,” she tells Helen Pidd.

Other countries are expected to join Project Vault, which US president said would ensure that US businesses are ‘never harmed by any shortage’
Donald Trump has announced the creation of a critical mineral reserve worth nearly $12bn, a stockpile that could counter China’s ability to use its dominance of the hard-to-process metals as leverage in trade talks.
“Today we’re launching what will be known as Project Vault to ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.

Buddhist spiritual leader wins best audiobook and says he sees win ‘as a recognition of our shared universal responsibility’

The has taken home his first Grammy award, prompting criticism from China.
The 90-year-old Buddhist spiritual leader, who lives in exile in India, was announced as the winner for the narration and storytelling category for his spoken word album, Meditations: The Reflections of His Holiness the Dalai Lama – adding the award to a collection that includes a Nobel peace prize, a presidential medal of freedom and the Gandhi peace prize.

Gordon Brown calls for inquiry over Peter Mandelson’s apparent disclosure of highly sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein
Peter Mandelson “leaked a sensitive UK government document to Jeffrey Epstein while he was business secretary that proposed £20bn of asset sales and revealed Labour’s tax policy plans”, the
In his story, Jim Pickard says:
The memo, dubbed “Business Issues”, was written on June 13 2009 by Nick Butler, who at the time was special adviser to the then prime minister Gordon Brown.
The confidential document, which was released by the US Department of Justice as part of a tranche of millions of files relating to Epstein, had been sent to British government officials including cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood.
It is right that Peter Mandelson is no longer a member of the Labour party. Disciplinary action was underway prior to his resignation.
Jeffrey Epstein’s heinous crimes destroyed the lives of so many women and girls, and our thoughts remain with his victims.

The Buddhist spiritual leader is recognised in the audiobook category for his meditations.

China has executed four members of the Bai family mafia, which ran scam centres in Myanmar, state media report.

As America prepares for its 250th birthday in 2026, the “America250” commemoration invites us to re-examine our national story.

Five years after the junta’s coup, the civil war devastating Myanmar has reached a turning point. The military is carrying out large-scale counter-offensives across the country to reclaim territory seized by pro-democracy rebels of various ethnic and religious backgrounds
In Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, the local resistance has managed to contain the military. After five years of guerrilla warfare, the revolutionary youth there remain determined to restore democracy through armed struggle.
A long, narrow stretch of land at the southern tip of Myanmar, between the Andaman Sea to the west and Thailand to the east, Tanintharyi region is one of the areas where the resistance challenges the military’s authority. For decades, the region has been home to an armed rebellion led by the Karen ethnic minority, which operated mainly in the peripheral mountains.
Soldiers from the Karen National Union (KNU) inspect the ruins of a Buddhist monastery destroyed by a junta airstrike in Myeik district, Tanintharyi region

The Doomsday Clock is ticking ever more loudly as arms-control mechanisms fail and leaders become more reckless. The time to be alarmed is now
Keir Starmer’s tentative pivot to the Dragon Throne has played well in Beijing, though not in Trumpland. That’s partly because, like other needy western leaders, Britain’s prime minister did not dwell on awkward subjects such as human rights abuses, the , spying and Taiwan. But in , one vital issue was avoided altogether and should not have been: China’s dangerous, unexplained, secretive and rapid buildup of nuclear weapons.
More than the climate crisis, global hunger, Kaiser Trump’s Prussian militarism and the ever prevalent threat of pandemic disease, the uncontrolled proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is the most immediate, existential threat to humanity. Last week, the Doomsday Clock advanced to 85 seconds to midnight – closer to Armageddon than ever before. “Nuclear and other global risks are escalating fast and in unprecedented ways,” warned the clock-watchers, via the .

The event, advertised through official channels, was criticised in China for being held at a military memorial.

Trump’s wounding of the US economy offers Beijing an unparalleled opportunity – if it dials back its overbearing trade tactics
When the Canadian prime minister, , at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week to lament how “great economic powers” were dismantling the international order, it seemed clear that he was talking about the United States. He might have been talking about as well.
Not a week earlier, Beijing had revealed that China’s trade surplus ballooned by 20% in 2025, to $1.2tn. Despite ’s wall of tariffs that crashed Chinese sales to the US, its overall exports expanded more than 5%. Sales to the 11 countries in Asia’s Asean bloc increased more than 13%. Exports to the European Union rose over 8%. Chinese imports, by contrast, were flat.

Campaigners criticise use of ‘vulnerable’ devices at Salisbury Cathedral and Parthenon despite their removal from sensitive UK government sites
Security cameras guarding Magna Carta are provided by a Chinese CCTV company whose technology has allegedly aided the persecution of Uyghurs and been exploited by Russia during the invasion of Ukraine, it has emerged.
In letters seen by the Guardian, campaigners called on Salisbury Cathedral, which houses one of four surviving copies of the “powerful symbol of social justice”, to rip out cameras made by Dahua Technology, based in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.