Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney Begins First China Visit in Eight Years as Ottawa Seeks Trade Diversification Amid US Tariff Threats
At the invitation of Premier Li Qiang, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney began his first official visit to China in eight years, meeting President Xi Jinping and other senior Chinese leaders. Talks focused on energy cooperation and ongoing tariff disputes amid rising trade tensions with the United States. Ottawa is seeking to diversify its economic partnerships as nearly 80% of Canadian exports currently go to the US. Bilateral trade between China and Canada reached US $61.74 billion in the first eight months of 2025, up 7.1% year on year. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described the visit as a “turning point” in bilateral relations.
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Beijing Condemns US Tariff Threats on Iran Trade as 116 Countries Oppose Unilateral Sanctions
On 13 January, China condemned US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs on countries trading with Iran. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, “tariff wars have no winners,” reaffirming China’s opposition to interference in other countries’ internal affairs. Highlighting multilateral opposition, Mao recalled that in June 2025, 116 countries at the UN General Assembly rejected unilateral coercive measures and proclaimed an International Day against such sanctions. China, which purchases 80–90% of Iran’s oil exports, warned that extraterritorial tariffs undermine international law and the multilateral trading system, emphasizing that unilateral coercion threatens global stability and fairness.
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China Reaffirms Taiwan as Internal Matter Following Trump Remarks and US $11.1 Billion Arms Sale
On 14 January, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian responded to US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks, reiterating that “resolving the Taiwan question is China’s own matter.” Zhu emphasised national sovereignty as cross-strait tensions rise, following December’s Justice Mission 2025 military exercises, which involved 130 aircraft sorties and 14 naval vessels. The statement comes in the context of a US $11.1 billion arms package to Taiwan approved by Washington in late 2025, which Beijing considers a serious challenge to regional stability and a violation of China’s core interests.
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China Adds 275 GW of Solar in First 11 Months of 2025, Total Reaches 1.16 TW and Cuts Power Sector CO2 by 3%
Between January and November 2025, China added approximately 275 gigawatts of new solar photovoltaic capacity, a 41.9% year-on-year increase, bringing the national total to 1.16 terawatts, according to National Energy Administration data. Deployment peaked at 93 GW in May as developers rushed to secure feed-in tariff benefits before the 1 June transition to market-based contracts. This rapid solar expansion contributed to a 1% decline in national CO2 emissions during the first half of 2025, including a 3% drop in power sector emissions, demonstrating the growing role of renewables in decarbonizing China’s electricity system.
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China and EU Agree on Electric Vehicle Price Undertaking, Replacing Tariffs With Minimum Prices
On 12 January, China and the European Union announced a price undertaking framework allowing Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers to avoid anti-subsidy tariffs, ranging from 7.8% to 35.3%, in addition to the standard 10% import duty, by committing to minimum import prices. Chinese EV makers, which held over 10% of Europe’s EV market in the second half of 2025 and achieve 30% faster development cycles than legacy automakers, saw share prices rise after the announcement. Analysts note the mechanism may reduce shipments of lower-priced models while boosting profit margins on premium vehicles, reshaping EU-China EV trade dynamic.
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China Advances Green Agriculture With 5% Fertiliser Reduction and 80% Manure Recycling in 14th Five-Year Plan
A review released on 13 January shows that China’s state-led transformation in green agriculture during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) reduced chemical fertiliser use by 5%, bringing total inputs to 49.88 million tonnes, while maintaining grain productivity. Fertiliser efficiency reached 43.3%, and manure recycling rose to 80.1%, supporting sustainable farming practices. During this period, farmland expanded by 28 million mu (1.87 million hectares) to a total of 1.94 billion mu (129 million hectares), and green food sales reached 600 billion yuan (US $85.9 billion), reflecting significant environmental and economic benefits of China’s efforts to promote greener agricultural development.
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‘Double First-Class’ University Programme Enters New Phase, Promoting Regional Balance and Student Wellbeing
At the 2026 National Education Work Conference on 8 January, China’s Ministry of Education outlined a new phase of the ‘Double First-Class’ programme, aimed at cultivating world-class universities through differentiated development. The strategy directs resources toward central-western and populous provinces, with 6 of 9 newly approved universities located in these regions. In addition, the plan advances healthy school construction to promote students’ physical and mental wellbeing as the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) begins. This phase emphasizes regional rebalancing, quality development, and student welfare, signaling a shift in China’s higher education priorities for the next five years.
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DeepSeek’s Engram Technique Bypasses GPU Limits, Challenging US Semiconductor Export Controls
On 13 January, DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng and researchers at Peking University unveiled a Conditional Lookup Architecture that stores static knowledge in conventional RAM instead of scarce GPU high-bandwidth memory. This approach enables a 27-billion-parameter model to achieve 3–5 percentage point performance gains with less than 3% overhead. The open-source Engram method, scheduled to integrate into DeepSeek V4 by mid-February, shows that algorithmic innovation can substitute for advanced hardware access. Experts note it could enable sovereign AI development in the Global South, potentially circumventing US semiconductor export controls and reducing dependence on cutting-edge GPU hardware.
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China’s Social Protection System Covers 95% of Population, Experts Call It a “High-Resilience Floor”
Over seven decades, China transformed its social welfare system from employment-based coverage to a comprehensive framework now serving nearly 1.4 billion people, with basic medical insurance covering approximately 95% of the population. Experts describe this as a “high-resilience floor”, which prioritizes human dignity over rigid procedural formalities. Through state-led collective action, fundamental life risks are distributed across society, distinguishing China’s approach from Western individualist welfare models.
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Legendary Go Player Nie Weiping Dies at 73, Remembered for 11 Historic Victories Inspiring National Pride
Legendary Go player Nie Weiping, known as the “Go Sage” (棋圣), passed away on 14 January 2026 in Beijing. He is remembered for his 11 consecutive victories against Japan’s top players in the China-Japan Super Matches (1985–1988), a breakthrough that sparked nationwide “Go fever” and helped restore national confidence during China’s reform era, when 91% of Japanese and 80% of Chinese had expected China’s defeat. His Go academy later produced 23 champions, including world top-ranked player Ke Jie.
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