Semafor China

Chinese leader Xi Jinping plans North Korea visit Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit North Korea next week, aiming to court the pariah state’s dictator Kim Jong un, who has been strengthening ties with Moscow while tightening his own grip on power. In the seven years since Xi’s

DeepSeek nears $7B haul in first raise Chinese AI phenom DeepSeek is closing in on a $7.4 billion funding round, at around a $52 billion valuation, in one of the country’s largest startup raises. Tech giant Tencent and battery pioneer CATL are reportedly among the investors in th

Intelligence alliance warns of China’s spy recruiting efforts The Five Eyes intelligence alliance warned that China was using LinkedIn and other social media platforms to recruit spies.The alert from the grouping — made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US — r

Japan capitalizes on China backlash, courts Pacific island nations Kiyoshi Ota/Pool via Reuters Japan’s prime minister courted Pacific island nations at a summit in Tokyo aimed at keeping them out of Beijing’s orbit, underscoring an intensifying rivalry between the Asian powers.

Gig economy spurs revival in Chinese worker’s literature Chinese workers’ literature is undergoing a revival in the gig economy era, with a raft of work coming out about, and by, working class labor. Spanning poetry, fiction, and nonfiction — both online and in print — the writin

Beijing targets cooling consumer spending Beijing is pushing new efforts to battle the lagging consumption weighing on China’s economy. Cooling demand for solar panels, cars, and hogs is proving a drag on once booming sectors: Plummeting pork prices are particularly telling given

Mainland IPOs fuel Hong Kong’s comeback Two years after the former chair of Morgan Stanley Asia declared that “Hong Kong is now over,” the territory is making an impressive comeback on the strength of a boom in Chinese IPOs. The latest evidence that closer ties with the mainland

Expulsion of NYT reporter shows China’s dual track visa strategy Beijing’s expulsion of a New York Times reporter underscores its new approach to what propaganda officials call “telling China’s story well.” China is severely limiting visas for foreign reporters — who often dig in

China tightens rules on outbound investment Beijing’s newly tightened rules on outbound investment reflect the country’s increasingly protective posture toward its businesses and technology. The restrictions, published Monday, come weeks after China made Meta undo its purchase of

Exclusive / Tsinghua University board has become less Chinese Reporter and Lead Writer, Semafor Flagship The prestigious Chinese university board that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is reportedly poised to join has become much less Chinese over the past decade, a Semafor analysis showed