May 1, 2026

China Watch

Blurb:

Chinese businesses have pledged hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of investment in the U.K. and struck new partnerships with British peers as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to China spurred a flurry of bilateral business activity and investment flows.

During his four-day visit in China last week, Starmer met Chinese President Xi Jinping and secured deals that would see hundreds of millions worth of new investments from Chinese businesses, in addition to £2.2 billion ($3 billion) worth of exports and £2.3 billion in market access, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.

Following the high-profile visit, the two leaders hailed the benefits of cooperation, with Xi describing the bilateral ties as “mutually beneficial.” Starmer, who brought a large delegation of executives from banking, pharmaceutical, and automobile companies to China, also described the country as vital to Britain’s interests.

There appears to be a power struggle going on China, with many conflicting reports, some confirmed, some not, all of which suggest Chairman X has narrowly escaped a coup, but that the threat of attack is still pressing. This news comes as Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has just arrived in Beijing. We can affirm the purge of most of the top Generals, including his two top Generals, and military lockdowns in Beijing.

One unsubstantiated story claims there was a shootout between his chief rival Zhang Youxia’s men and his men that narrowly missed assassinating Xi. Nine of Xi’s men were killed with scores of Youxia’s men were said to have been killed. So far, we still can’t confirm the story, though the mere fact it is circulating suggests the coup is still going on.

Blurb:

  1. China’s top general under investigation for alleged violations amid corruption crackdown  The Guardian
  2. Xi Jinping’s ‘Sacred Games’: Why China’s leader keeps purging PLA generals  Times of India
  3. Analysis: Xi has absolute control over China’s military. Now he wants more  CNN
  4. Xi’s Purge of Top General Spurs Questions on Taiwan, Succession  Bloomberg
  5. Xi’s Purge of China’s Military Brings Its Top General Down  The New York Times
  6. The Purge of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli: Why and What’s Next for China’s Military  The Diplomat – Asia-Pacific Current Affairs Magazine
  7. China’s military says top general undermined Xi Jinping’s authority  Financial Times
  8. China fires top general in shocking purge of senior military command  The Washington Post
  9. Why China’s swift ousting of Zhang Youxia is a warning from Xi on party purity  South China Morning Post

from news.google.com

The TikTok deal has officially closed, with a “mostly American” investor group mutually led by Oracle and Silber Lake. ByteDance will still have a 20% stake, meaning TikTok will help fund the CCP. The venture will be led by a board that will have a majority of U.S. directors on it.

Blurb:

Deal for TikTok to Operate in U.S. Officially Closes, Desperate Dems of Course Call for an Investigation – RedState

For years, the fate of social media titan TikTok has hung in the balance, with potential deals falling through which would have overcome concerns about just how safe it was for people in the U.S. to use.

One of the concerns over the platform was that with the parent company ByteDance being based in China, it has entaglements with the authoritarian government and Chinese Communist Party. So, in the waning hours of the Biden administration, Congress passed a law that would ban access to the site unless it sold to a new owner outside China.

The new Trump 47 administration also took it up with the Supreme Court in an amicus brief, but SCOTUS chose not to stand in the way of the ban, something that President Trump delayed several times in hopes of making a deal.

Blurb:

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has arrived in Beijing, the first British leader to make an official trip to China since 2018, after he said he believes he can unlock business opportunities there despite security concerns.

A chartered British Airways jet carried the Prime Minister to Beijing overnight — allegedly to keep Chinese spies away from the Prime Minister’s own government plane — for the first of a three-day trip to China, which the Labour leader hopes will thaw relations after what he called an “ice age”.

The hurried trip was only officially announced by China on Tuesday and seems to be something of a reward for Starmer after the British government forced through permission for Beijing to build a new “mega-embassy” in London just last week. The new complex, which will be the largest embassy in Western Europe once completed, has been the subject of intense criticism over spying and national security fears, but was signed off on nevertheless by one of Starmer’s government ministers.

Blurb:

China’s top general is in deep water.

In an exclusive report, the Wall Street Journal has reported that China’s top military general has been ousted from his position after allegedly giving nuclear secrets to the United States.

The General was known in Beijing and to U.S. intelligence as President Xi Jinping’s top military ally.

The New York Post reported more on the general leaking nuclear secrets to the United States:

China’s top general has been accused of leaking nuclear secrets to the US and accepting bribes as President Xi Jinping purges the country’s senior military leadership.

General Zhang Youxia, 75, once considered one of Xi’s most-trusted military allies, allegedly leaked core technical data on China’s nuclear weapons to the US, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Zhang, the first-ranked vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, was officially placed under investigation on Saturday.

He was detained by military corruption investigators earlier this week, according to reports from Chinese outlets.

President Xi has reportedly sent a special task force to Shenyang in northeast China, where Zhang was previously stationed.

Blurb:

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is scrambling to walk back his China pivot after President Donald Trump threatened to hammer Canada with massive tariffs if Ottawa turns itself into a trade conduit for Beijing.

Carney now insists Canada has “no intention” of pursuing a free trade deal with the Chinese Communist Party.

It comes just days after President Trump warned that any such move would trigger a 100% tariff on Canadian exports entering the United States.

The sudden reversal follows a series of events that exposed Canada’s quiet but aggressive realignment toward Beijing.

Blurb:

China reportedly hacked and surveilled the mobile phones of top officials in Downing Street for years as a part of a global espionage dragnet.

A report from London’s Daily Telegraph has claimed that a Chinese spying operation saw the communications of senior officials in the administrations of prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak monitored between 2021 and 2024.

Although it is unclear if the phones of prime ministers were caught up in the surveillance scheme, a source is quoted by the broadsheet as saying that the Chinese infiltration reached “right into the heart of Downing Street”.

Blurb:

President Donald Trump has launched a sweeping new effort to shut down Canada’s new alliance with China to help the Chinese Communist Party establish a “new world order.”

Trump is seeking block Communist China from further entrenching itself in North America by cutting off Beijing’s growing influence inside Canada.

The move comes as Trump formalizes what allies are calling the “Donroe Doctrine,” a return to hard-line American hemispheric dominance modeled on the Monroe Doctrine.

Blurb:

For most of its history, the United States has been blessed by geography. Since the country’s founding nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, both Europe and Asia have often been beset by war and upheaval. America was fortunate to have oceans between them while also having neighbors, Canada and Mexico, who were weaker and incapable of posing a serious threat. Mexico’s instability has posed problems of its own, but the U.S. could always count on Canada. Until now.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has embraced China, America’s foremost geopolitical adversary. And he’s done so with undisguised relish.

Blurb:

Xi wished Indian President Droupadi Murmu congratulations on the South Asian nation’s Republic Day on Monday, according to Chinese state media.

Blurb:

 

 

The world watches closely as the brave people of Iran protest against the Islamic Republic (IR) regime. Regime security forces have killed thousands of people as part of a crackdown on the protests, with an estimate placing the death toll for January 8 and 9 at more than 36,500. President Trump urged Iranians to “keep protesting,” telling them that “help is on the way.”

Blurb:

China made a major announcement over the weekend, saying it was investigating the army’s top general for suspected serious violations of discipline and law.

Gen. Zhang Youxia was the highest military member just below President Xi Jinping.

The Defence Ministry said Saturday that authorities were investigating Zhang, the senior of the two vice chairs of the powerful Central Military Commission, China’s top military body, and Gen. Liu Zhenli, a lower member of the commission who was in charge of the military’s Joint Staff Department.

Blurb:

 

 

The U.S. and Taiwan recently reached a historic trade deal. Taiwanese companies will invest at least $250 billion in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chipmaker, pledged $100 billion in U.S. investment in 2025. Taipei will provide an additional $250 billion in credit guarantees to Taiwanese companies.

President Donald Trump came to Davos and delivered the news that the global order was dead. While much hand wringing conspired amongst Europe’s elites, and America’s Democrats (including Gavin Newsome), at the end of the day all had to acknowledge the reality of power. If America says the global order is dead, it’s dead.

Trump let the Western Hemisphere know, “The USA is the economic engine of the planet, and when America booms, the entire world booms. History shows that when America goes bad, the whole world goes bad. When we go down, you follow us down. When we go up, you follow us up. Trump on the burgeoning US economy in Davos ‘Instead of hiring bureaucrats we’re firing them”

Blurb:

NATO Secretary General Warns China’s Investments Come With Strategic Strings Attached – dailycaller.com

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned Wednesday that Western leaders must not grow complacent about China’s intentions, even as some U.S. allies deepen economic and diplomatic ties with Beijing.

China has been steadily expanding its influence across NATO countries. Rutte pushed back on “Special Report with Bret Baier” against suggestions that Western leaders are rethinking their approach to China, while warning about Beijing’s long-term military ambitions.

“It’s not up to me to comment on what any allies are doing in terms of their relationship with China. I think collectively as NATO, we have a position,” Rutte told Bret Baier when the host asked about a change in the way leaders deal with China. “The position is that we should not be naive. I can tell you, Bret, these huge investments the Chinese are making in the military are not there to organize parades in Beijing.”