Southeast Asia Watch
‘Epoch-making’: Xi Jinping urges home-grown AI breakthroughs – but flags risks South China Morning Post
from news.google.com
China’s investigation into its top general is taking President Xi Jinping’s years-long corruption purge into his innermost circle, underlining that even close personal ties do not offer protection…
from japantoday.com
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.”
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.
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.
China Rewards Central American Allies With Major Projects While Nicaragua Gets Little La Prensa – Noticias de Nicaragua y el mundo
from news.google.com
The Chinese government was allowed to purchase the Royal Mint Court site to build a mega-embassy on it in the heat of London, the capital of Britain. The Chinese government purchased that site in 2018 under a “conservative” government’s watch, with Theresa May serving as the Prime Minister.
Now, the Labour government under Prime Minister Kier Starmer has officially approved the mega-embassy, making a definitive statement about the political direction the Soviet UK is headed towards. This follows Starmer’s ongoing efforts to delay May’s local elections, a move that can now be challenged after a recent High Court ruling.
British government approves relocation of Chinese embassy nhk.or.jp
from news.google.com
Britain’s government has approved China’s plan to construct a new embassy in central London despite concerns about possible national security risks.
The Chinese government bought the Royal Mint Court site, which is close to London’s financial district, in 2018.
But the plan has been plagued by concerns and protests over national security. Some critics have pointed out the risk of wiretapping because communication cables for exchanging sensitive information are under the site.
Protesters have staged demonstrations in central London, with some saying that the new embassy could help China intensify monitoring of people who moved there from Hong Kong and other places.
Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, a favorite of Chairman Xi, is finding his whole area of authority, education, facing “rectification” (correction) in 2026. Ding himself is facing an investigation as well. What remains unclear is whether this effective removal is the work of Xi or the party finding a way to continue to box him in. After the fourth plenary, the purges in the military have continued, with generals just recently purged again, indicating the situation is still fluid behind the scenes.
Ding Xuexiang’s Power Base Hit By Sweeping Purge as Senior Officials Fall Vision Times
from news.google.com
A communiqué issued at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the Chinese Communist Party’s top anti-corruption and internal disciplinary body, has revealed that China’s entire education system, overseen by Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, has been placed on the list of “key rectification targets” for 2026.
The campaign marks a significant escalation, expanding beyond universities to encompass all levels of education, and coincides with a growing wave of investigations into senior education officials nationwide….
According to state mouthpiece Xinhua News, the CCDI communiqué released on Jan. 14 removed earlier special campaigns targeting the pharmaceutical industry and higher education from the 2026 agenda. In their place, two new focus areas were added: “education” and “academic societies and associations.”
China’s Military Purge ‘Rivals the Cultural Revolution’ as Top Generals Vanish Vision Times
from news.google.com
Xi’s Power Wanes Amid Sweeping Party Purge and Succession Uncertainty Vision Times
from news.google.com
Keir Starmer warned he’s being manipulated by China in ‘spy hub’ plan Daily Express
from news.google.com
China’s Communist Party calls for reinforced anti-corruption efforts The Hans India
from news.google.com
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Chinese, Russian and Iranian warships arrived in South African waters for a week of naval drills starting Friday off the coast of Cape Town as geopolitical tensions run high over the United States’ intervention in Venezuela and its move to seize tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.
The Chinese-led drills were organized last year under the BRICS bloc of developing nations and South Africa’s armed forces said they will bring members of the bloc together to practice maritime safety and anti-piracy operations and “deepen cooperation.”
China, Russia and South Africa are longtime members of BRICS, while Iran joined the group in 2024.
The Iranian navy was taking part in the drills while protests grow back home against the Islamic Republic’s leadership.
It was not immediately clear if other countries from the BRICS group — which also includes Brazil, India and the United Arab Emirates among others — would take part in the drills. A spokesperson for the South African armed forces said he wasn’t yet able to confirm all the countries participating in the drills, which are due to run until next Friday.
Simultaneous disruption and progress, with a relentless Taiwan-focused capability development deadline.
That’s the overriding theme of the 25th edition of the Department of Defense’s China Military Power Report, released on Dec. 23, 2025. Despite extensive leadership purges and ongoing disciplinary investigations across China’s military and defense industry, the 2025 report concludes that China continues to make progress toward General Secretary Xi Jinping’s 2027 “Centennial Military Building Goal” and associated warfighting capabilities against Taiwan.
The report shows China’s military undergoing simultaneous disruption and advancement, with leadership purges and procurement-related investigations generating short-term turbulence even as Xi’s armed forces surge forward.
Chinese vice premier meets Disney CEO Xinhua
from news.google.com
A team of researchers in China has just pulled the curtain back on a new sodium-sulfur battery design that could fundamentally change the math on energy storage. By leaning into the very chemistry that has historically made sulfur a headache for engineers, they have managed to build a cell that is incredibly cheap to make but still packs a massive energy punch.
The design, which is currently being tested in the lab, uses dirt-cheap ingredients: sulfur, sodium, aluminum, and a chlorine-based electrolyte. In early trials, the battery hit energy densities over 2,000 watt-hours per kilogram – a figure that blows today’s sodium-ion batteries out of the water and even gives top-tier lithium cells a run for their money.
China warns satellites from Elon Musk’s Starlink are ‘safety and security’ risk South China Morning Post
from news.google.com
China’s Xi renews promise to take back Taiwan 1News
from news.google.com
China Courts Ireland to Mend Strained Ties with EU Modern Diplomacy
from news.google.com
China signals it won’t give an inch to the US in Latin America MSN
from news.google.com
China’s cargo ship spotted with drone launch system, raising military concerns newskarnataka.com
from news.google.com
China is using AI to monitor every aspect of life of every citizen in its country by integrating it into every technology used in daily life, A report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute shows how China has been building the very central-controlled AI-mass-machine many in the west hope to bring over here. The cutting edge nature of their pre-crime surveillance capacity is the envy of the world for oligarchs everywhere, and thus will define the next decade or more.
Report reveals how China uses artificial intelligence to surveil 1,4 billion people – CPG Click Petróleo e Gás
A document from the Australian institute ASPI shows how China integrates cameras, drones, courts, prisons, and tech giants into an AI ecosystem that automates censorship, predicts protests, monitors minorities, and exports inexpensive mass surveillance models used by other authoritarian countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, around the world.
In a report cited in a news article by CNN Brazil, Published on December 6, 2025, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute describes how China has been using artificial intelligence to transform its surveillance apparatus into a system capable of… Predicting protests, monitoring prisoners, and controlling what 1,4 billion people can see online.The document points out that technology is already infiltrating daily life, connecting the Great Firewall, cameras scattered throughout cities, and digital monitoring tools to a single political project.
A growing number of ultra-wealthy Chinese nationals are turning to U.S. surrogates to have children on American soil, taking advantage of America’s largely unregulated market and birthright citizenship, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
In one such case, Chinese video game billionaire Xu Bo has sought parental rights for at least four unborn children in Los Angeles, having already fathered or arranged surrogacy for at least eight additional children, according to the WSJ. The trend coincides with intensifying debates over the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of U.S. citizenship for anyone born in the country, a policy the Trump administration has sought to reinterpret.
U.S. Lawmakers Rebuke Starmer Government Over Collapsed UK Spy Case, Warn of ‘Dangerous Precedent’ for CCP Espionage The Bureau | Sam Cooper
from news.google.com
Trump trade adviser: UK is servant of communist China The Times
from news.google.com
The daughter of pro-democracy activist, businessman, former newspaper owner, and Catholic convert Jimmy Lai has spoken out for the first time since her father’s incarceration five years ago as his trial under Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law (NSL) continues to plod along.
In an EWTN video interview and in a Washington Post op-ed, Clarie Lai says that her father, who just turned 78 years old, is languishing in prison, “shrinking to nothing. If China fails to act, he’ll be a martyr.”
“My father is suffering from rapidly deteriorating health,” Claire wrote in the Post. “He has diabetes and hypertension, his hearing and vision are failing, he has suffered from months-long infections and is in constant pain that sometimes leaves him struggling even to stand up. But the most visible and alarming sign of his plight is severe weight loss.”