Starting this Sunday, receiving a package from companies like Shein, Temu, or AliExpress will cost two euros more. On November 1st, the two-euro (2.5 dollar) tax that Brussels has imposed on all shipments from countries outside the European Union comes into effect to try to curb the influx of Chinese products. The new customs management tax arrives on the eve of particularly intense commercial dates, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Christmas shopping fever.

Sometimes, if they have a meal, her friends tell her to carry the bags. "They tell me: 'You carry this, you are stronger'," admits Maria Olalla (Vilanova i la Geltrú, 2005). This Sunday she will compete in the Weightlifting World Championship in the Chinese city of Ningbo. Last year she was a European junior runner-up and now she comes from being a European under-23 runner-up. Her record is 95 kilos in snatch and 220 kilos in clean and jerk. She shines in a sport she discovered four days ago. Weightlifting was so popular in the second half of the last century that even Real Madrid managed to have a section and more than 10,000 licenses were exceeded in the country as a whole (1991). Afterwards, it dropped suddenly and stabilized around 2,000, but now it is experiencing a second youth.

This photograph was taken on Monday. It has no artistic pretension, but rather a testimonial one. But after a diplomatic crisis was unleashed between the world of football and the government of China, the label on the water bottle with the smiling face of Mbappé becomes ironic. The footballer's expression acquires an almost comic meaning. For years now, Kylian Mbappé has been a commercial asset in the Chinese market. The player's face is used to sell, among other products, bottled water with isotonic properties. Judging by the bottle labels, it even seems as if the footballer provides aromatic properties. One drink tastes like peach, the other like lemon, and the one featuring the player's photograph is as if it contained the essence of Mbappé. Mbappé water. On the packaging, the footballer laughs, oblivious to the large-scale conflict that has been triggered by a spontaneous comment: the player explained that his favorite meme is one where his face is superimposed on that of Mao Zedong. The footballer referred to him as "a Chinese dictator," which is what he was. He likes it because it exaggerates his authority on the team and among his teammates. In a world of stratospheric egos, becoming a character of absolute power boosts self-esteem.

An innocent comment by Real Madrid player Kylian Mbappé on a television show, where he said that one of the memes of himself he likes the most is one in which his face merges with that of Mao Zedong, whom he described as a "dictator," has caused an authentic earthquake between China and the French footballer and, by extension, Real Madrid and the Spanish league. Aside from the withdrawal of some Chinese product sponsorships from the French star, the most forceful reaction has been that of Chinese television, which has cancelled the broadcasts of the Spanish league and any match in which Mbappé plays. The immediate reaction from Mbappé himself and the Spanish league has been to apologize, almost on their knees, with the hope that China does not carry out its threats and that there is no economic damage to the League.

In Frankenstein, the writer Mary Shelley wrote: “My courage and resolution are firm; my hopes, however, fluctuate”. Anyone with political aspirations could agree with this sentence; Catalans, without a doubt, would quickly join in. But I am not bringing it up because I have heard it said by any neighbor from, let's say, Tona, Vilafranca, or l’Ampolla, but because I found it in an excellent novel that speaks of lands very far from ours, and with a very different contextual situation. I am talking about Once Upon a Time in the East, a book by Xiaolu Guo published by Angle Editorial in collaboration with the Catalan International Institute for Peace (ICIP) within the collection Classics of Peace and Non-violence.

A few days ago I read the recently published memoirs of Francis Fukuyama. In the book, Fukuyama talks about his career from government to academia, about his direct mentors like Allan Bloom or indirect ones like Leo Strauss, about the break with his neoconservative friends, about his hobbies, which range from building furniture to assembling robots. It is one of the best manuals for anyone who aspires to be a public intellectual, combining relevance with depth.

A magnitude 7 earthquake has shaken the Chinese region of Tibet and has caused at least 16 deaths, 76 injuries and has collapsed 339 homes in the city of Nagqu, in the north of the region, according to official media reports. More than 1,600 people from the affected district have mobilized to participate in rescue efforts. Emergency supplies have been sent, including 1,000 prefabricated houses, about 3,000 tents and folding beds, as well as flashlights and winter clothing. It is the strongest earthquake recorded in the region in the last five years.

Esteve CDMO, the Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) business of the Catalan pharmaceutical company, will invest 80 million dollars, equivalent to a little over 71 million euros, in a new production plant in China. This was announced in a statement this Wednesday, in which they detail that the move will serve to undertake the "relocation, expansion, and modernization" of its operations in the Asian giant.

Catalonia's trade deficit with China reached 12.37 billion euros last year, a result that doubles the negative trade balance recorded in 2015 and is 236% larger than that of 2005, according to data from the Spanish government. In recent years, the monthly trade deficit with China has in many cases exceeded 1 billion euros, levels that double the negative balances from before the pandemic. The sector where Chinese imports are growing the most is finished automobiles and motorcycles: during 2025 it reached 1.557 billion euros in imports, fourteen times more than the 96.7 million in 2019, and far exceeds the 6.41 million exported last year from Catalonia to Beijing in this area.

The Twenty-seven are concerned about the trade deficit they have with China, which they have estimated at 1 billion euros per day. Until now, the European Union, which accuses Beijing of unfair competition practices by subsidizing its industries, had focused on the automotive industry with instruments to reduce this trade imbalance. Now the European Commission is studying developing these trade instruments to impose them in other sectors, such as chemicals and machinery, and potentially pharmaceutical products. Member states, meeting in Brussels at a leaders' summit, have urged community leaders to study imports in these sectors to assess taking measures, according to diplomatic sources who informed this newspaper.

It is the last opportunity to negotiate. Brussels already has ready trade defense measures in case China does not agree to limit its exports to Europe and reduce the trade deficit, which the European Commission estimates at 1 billion euros per day. European Commissioner for Trade, Maroš Šefčovič, meets this Thursday in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, who is to present his counter-proposal.

On Friday, 48 hours before Brazil's elections, Washington suspended consular services throughout the country “for security reasons,” a controversial decision supported by Australia, which added tension and further distrust from Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government regarding the Republican administration's interference in the Brazilian electoral process.

The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Food and Fisheries, Òscar Ordeig (Vic, 1978) traveled last week to China to kick off a promotional campaign for Catalan sausages and wines in the Asian giant, led by Prodeca. The country has traditionally been one of the largest importers of Catalan agri-food products and, despite the effects of African swine fever, Catalonia seems determined to continue betting on this market. However, in a more convulsive environment and a changing economy, the executive branch advocates for a change of model that puts aside growth based on volume and leans more towards claiming quality.

In recent weeks, we have seen how autonomous AI agents from large American companies have hacked companies, US government websites or Australian ones, or United Nations databases. These “out of control” AIs have carried out illegal actions with the goal of achieving the objectives they were assigned. The lack of “alignment” between human values and the amoral actions taken by AIs has led some experts to speak, in extreme scenarios, of a 10% chance that an “out of control” AI could end humanity.

Xi Jinping arrives in Washington with the perception of being an equal. Or at least, with the perspective that every day he is a little closer to being one. After hosting in May, this time the Chinese leader is the guest of the American president, Donald Trump. Only four months have passed since the last time the two leaders met in Beijing, and although China is also struggling with a weakened economy, Xi has more room to maneuver: he is not beholden to his voters.

China agrees with the United States in expressing concern about the security risks that artificial intelligence (AI) can cause. The two world powers leading in AI development are aware of the danger that this powerful technology could escape human control. But the similarities end with the diagnosis; the response to the problem is divergent. China sees the risks as manageable and opts for state oversight, in contrast to the somewhat apocalyptic discourse issued by heads of major American companies who warn of a future with an out-of-control AI that could even endanger humanity.

Until a few years ago, it seemed that the most powerful and wealthy states were destined to dominate the battlefield. The great technological military advances of recent decades—"stealth" combat aircraft or satellite-guided cruise missiles—required vast resources and deployment capability. The United States, the main designer and manufacturer of these technologies, was in the lead. In recent years, however, we have seen how the two great technologies that have revolutionized the world of war, drones and artificial intelligence (AI), are within everyone's reach and often benefit the weaker party, whether in the fields of Ukraine or flying over the Strait of Hormuz.Both drones and AI are technologies that "democratize” war: they can be accessed by both rich and poor states, by both governments and non-state actors, from armed guerrilla groups to drug trafficking gangs. They are technologies that favor asymmetric power: a $35,000 Iranian drone can intercept a $4 million American missile in Hormuz; a criminal group can devise a cyberattack with a cheap subscription to an artificial intelligence, without having to hire a team of IT experts.In this context, China has positioned itself as one of the main suppliers of these "democratizing" technologies. The Chinese market produces between 70% and 90% of civilian drones worldwide: many, for example, end up dismantled and rebuilt as military drones in Ukraine, where 90% of the drones on the battlefield contain Chinese components. Furthermore, China is currently the main supplier of military drones, which it exports to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, or Ethiopia.On the other hand, China has positioned itself as the main market for open artificial intelligence models, with companies such as Deepseek, MiniMax, or Alibaba leading this market. Chinese open-weight models are free-licensed and can be freely modified, which makes them attractive both for an emerging company and for countries with few resources. It may also prove attractive to non-state military or criminal actors who wish to integrate AI into their military or cyberattack operations.Although it has become one of the major suppliers, the proliferation of these technologies is an issue that worries China, especially in the case of AI. Although Washington and Beijing are rivals and are trying to delay each other's technological development, neither has an interest in criminal groups beginning to strengthen thanks to these technologies. In fact, in a context where an agreement between the United States and China on how to govern AI is very difficult, stopping its proliferation in the criminal world could be one of the few points where they could find common interests.

"We are the first to open this path, we trust that this will serve the rest of the system." With these words, the rector of the University of Barcelona (UB), Joan Guàrdia, has announced one of the institution's major bets: taking the leap to China. The UB will be the first Catalan university to open a campus in China, and it will do so hand-in-hand with the Harbin Institute of Technology, a leading center in technology and engineering, considered one of the nine best universities in the country, according to the Chinese government.

All activities in life are subject to norms or rules. It is one of the characteristics of civilized societies. It is evident that advances, as happened back in the day with the internet, begin by breaking some ways of doing or working, but over time they become normalized, although there are always those who find a way to go down the path of illegality or know how to take advantage of the lack of rules. We must be careful to reduce this aspect as much as possible.

The alarm call surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) that the co-founder of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, launched on Saturday, calling for a slowdown in its development, has shaken the public debate on this issue. Until now, the European Union has been an exception in the world when it comes to regulating AI. While Europe, which currently does not have a strong industry in the sector, is placing limits on certain functions to prevent them from colliding with basic rights, the two world powers, the United States and China, have long been competing head-to-head to lead the development of this technology. And in the midst of this battle and after the warning from the big tech companies, China has redoubled its commitment in recent hours to control its development, calling for the creation of a "security barrier".