The race for gene therapy and the desperation of some parents have ended up costing the life of a six-year-old girl in China. The minor, named Mei – a fictitious name to preserve the family's privacy – died at Shanghai Xinhua Hospital in March 2025 due to thrombotic microangiopathy – that is, the formation of deadly microscopic clots –, seven days after receiving an injection of a virus at the base of her spine. The parents had opted for this therapy after learning that their daughter had an alteration in the CHD3 gene, which caused her a syndrome compatible with autism and a consequent delay in physical and cognitive development.

The European Commission has announced a fine of 550 million euros to the Chinese e-commerce platform AliExpress for the sale of illegal products online to European customers. The Community executive has concluded in an investigation that the Asian company does not comply with the Community directive on digital rights, because it does not "diligently" assess or mitigate the risks related to the products offered and purchasable on its website. And for this reason, Brussels urges it to adopt measures and threatens it with new additional economic sanctions if it disobeys the demands of the Community authorities.

A white car approached me, under the summer rain of Shanghai. While holding the umbrella with one hand, with the other I took out my phone. "Unlock the taxi door," a notification told me. I pressed accept and entered the vehicle. In front of me, I had a screen where a cartoon character told me the steps to follow: confirm your identity, put on your seatbelt. The taxi started smoothly. Under the heavy rain, the vehicle took turns, calmly overtaking other cars. I looked at the front. The driver's seat was empty. But the steering wheel turned as if guided by the most graceful of drivers. I had gotten into one of the autonomous taxis that the company Pony.ai had deployed in Shanghai.

A large fire in a shoe factory in the city of Jinjiang, in southeastern China, has left at least 28 dead, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua. The country's emergency teams have been deployed around the building to try to extinguish the flames and rescue several people who were trapped inside and on the roof of the building.

China's decision to restrict the export of rare earths, permanent magnets, and other critical minerals to Japan has turned an industrial dependency known for years into a top-tier problem for the Japanese economy. These materials are indispensable for manufacturing semiconductors, electronic components, batteries, electric motors, or defense systems, so any interruption in their supply threatens some of the most competitive sectors of Japanese industry.

In 1964, China discovered three weapons with which to shake the world. In the Lop Nor desert, in Xinjiang, the Chinese government successfully detonated an atomic bomb for the first time. In the printing houses of Beijing, the Party published the first edition of Mao's Little Red Book. A nuclear weapon and an ideological weapon. That year, however, Chinese geologists also discovered the most potent economic weapon that China currently possesses. Beneath the arid rocks of the Inner Mongolia desert lay the world's largest deposit of rare earths.

Pedro Sánchez is increasingly alone in the European Union with the migratory challenge. A few days after the entry into force of the migration reform and the agreement to create centers outside the Community territory for deporting immigrants, several European leaders have reproached the Spanish Prime Minister for his stance on migration and the massive regularization of newcomers at the European Council meeting this Friday in Brussels, according to various diplomatic sources.

Kim Jong-un offered a warm and massive welcome to Xi Jinping upon his arrival in Pyongyang this Monday. The Chinese president is on a two-day state visit to North Korea, in an attempt to revitalize relations between the two countries and strengthen his influence over the North Korean leader, after years of distancing and Kim Jong-un’s rapprochement with Vladimir Putin.

The European pharmaceutical sector is losing competitiveness compared to the US and China. This was warned by the president of AstraZeneca in Spain, Laura Colón, during a round table within the framework of the Annual Meeting of the Cercle d'Economia, in Barcelona. This situation, influenced by issues such as excessive regulation and bureaucracy, is combined with the lengthening of life expectancy which, in large part, is due to new drugs. "We must ensure that governments realize the value of drugs and that they are not just a cost," she warned.

At least 90 people died this Friday in a gas explosion that occurred this Friday at the Liushenyu mine, in Shanxi province, in central China. The accident occurred at 7:29 p.m. local time this Friday (12:29 p.m. in Catalonia) at this mining operation, where 247 people were working at the time of the incident and where rescue efforts continue, according to the official Chinese agency Xinhua.

The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in Beijing shows the strength of their alliance and how the two leaders share the vision of a new world order. Putin's official trip to the Chinese capital results in a string of mutual compliments, some agreements, and declarations of friendship.

China boasts of being the center of world diplomacy and accumulates visits from top leaders. After bidding farewell to Donald Trump four days ago, tonight it will welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin. Xi Jinping has had practically no time to put away the red carpet reserved for distinguished visitors as he is already receiving his main ally, who will be in Beijing for two days.

Kind words, promises of economic agreements and warnings about the risk of a conflict over Taiwan summarize the first face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the two world powers. Xi Jinping and Donald Trump have striven to show détente and cordiality in their first meeting in Beijing after almost a decade. From gestures they moved to words, and while Trump assured that Xi Jinping is a great leader, the Chinese president defended that both countries should be partners and not rivals.

Donald Trump has landed in Beijing accompanied by a large business entourage and with the message that he wants China to open its large market to American companies. He was received at the foot of the runway by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, and a small welcome ceremony with 300 children waving flags and a military band. Trump arrived in Beijing at 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday. The official agenda begins on Thursday and includes a reception ceremony, a bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping, a state banquet, and a visit to the Temple of Heaven, one of the emblematic monuments of the capital. On Friday, the two leaders will meet again for a working breakfast before concluding the visit.

Xi Jinping rolls out the red carpet to receive Donald Trump this week on a state visit marked by the Iran crisis and overshadowed by trade tensions and rivalry between the two countries. The leaders of the world's two largest powers will hold talks in Beijing with low expectations of reaching significant agreements, but with the need to stabilize relations. In addition to the energy crisis caused by the war against Iran, the two leaders have other fronts open, such as technological competition, trade barriers, or the sale of arms to Taiwan.

The European Union has a problem with innovation. Of the fifty largest global technology companies, only four are European. The sector that leads the European economy is not software, nor artificial intelligence, but the automotive industry. While the EU has stagnated technologically in recent decades, China has gone from being an economy that needed to absorb foreign innovation to being the power that leads in areas such as green technologies. Seeing this process of divergence, could the European Union learn something from China in technological innovation?The big challenge for the EU is how to create large technology companies. Many startups and SMEs flourish on the European continent. But when they want to scale up and become giants, they encounter several barriers. Often the problem is financing: many nascent European companies move to the United States to grow, as there is a strong venture capital market there. The EU believes, in this regard, that it should develop a strong private venture capital in the American style to be able to compete in the league of the big ones.In other countries, however, the state has played the central innovative role. In China, the national government and local governments have created public venture capital entities to finance risky, cutting-edge, and ambitious technological projects – those that tend to generate reluctance in the private sector. In South Korea or Japan, governments have also played a similar role. The state has positioned itself not only as a financier but as the first buyer and user of emerging technologies, acting as a driving force. It has also played the role of bringing together the technological and military sectors, co-financing dual-use civil-military technologies.Large-scale bets

In China –but also in the United States– there is a cult of large scale that generates discomfort in Europe. We often prefer small businesses over giant ones. In the technological world, however, scale is decisive: as China does, the EU should focus its investment on large innovative projects, with a high level of risk, disruption, and technological advancement. Perhaps many of them will fail. But to create large European giants we must be willing to play a long-term game, where the stakes, the risks, and the profits are on a large scale.On the other hand, the EU should increase its commercial soul. The European continent has good results in research. The problem we usually have is when we want to bring university innovation to the market. The Chinese are experts in this: for decades, they have been able to take technologies created by others, incorporate slight improvements, mass-produce them, and bring them to market at competitive prices. In fields like quantum and industrial AI applications, perhaps Europe would still have opportunities to create a market for itself.Finally, the EU must commit to science and technology with strategies spanning decades, in the long term, while maintaining sufficient flexibility and iteration in the face of technological changes. Again: countries like China, Japan, or Korea are examples of positive strategies. We do not need to be a Communist Party regime or an economic giant to apply the positive lessons that have worked in China.

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While the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to maritime traffic and Iran and the United States continue to negotiate under the threat of resuming armed attacks, the highest officials of Iranian and Chinese diplomacy have met in Beijing. The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, traveled to Beijing to meet, this Wednesday, with his counterpart, Wang Yi. It was the first personal meeting since the conflict began. Wang Yi acknowledged the close economic and political ties with Iran and insisted on calling the war "illegitimate". The Chinese diplomat once again called for a comprehensive ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. He also reiterated China's opposition to sanctions.Wang positioned himself in favor of a solution involving the region's actors. He assured that the Gulf and Middle Eastern countries "should take the reins of their future" and that China supports "the establishment of a regional peace and security framework led by the countries of the region". Since the beginning of the conflict, the Chinese position has been to defend the need to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to restore world trade. The closure of this route directly affects Chinese interests. China used to buy 80% of Iranian oil, and 45% of the gas and oil imported by the Asian giant circulates through this route.The meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister comes a week before President Trump's visit to Beijing. A trip scheduled for May 14 and 15, which China has not yet officially confirmed.The war has become the focus of talks that were initially intended to restore trade relations. Donald Trump has requested Xi Jinping's cooperation to reach an agreement with Iran. At the beginning of the week, it was the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, who urged China to influence Iran to reopen Hormuz. And Marco Rubio also joined the pressure in statements to the press from Washington. A whole battery of pressures reminiscent of those deployed by the European Union for China to influence Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine, without success.Beijing's ambiguity

So far, China has limited itself to advocating for diplomatic solutions to conflicts, without getting involved. In the case of Iran, Chinese economic interests are clearer, but it remains to be seen whether China will do anything more than limit itself to statements, as in the case of Ukraine. Unlike the United States, accustomed to using military force, China bases its influence on trade. China has no allies, it has commercial partners. It limits itself to defending its interests under the axiom of not interfering in the internal affairs of its partners. The Asian giant has woven a network of commercial interests and investments to guarantee access to ports and trade routes. Routes and agreements that serve to supply itself with raw materials and to deliver its exports. For example, in these times of energy crisis, China uses its reserves to supply fuel to Southeast Asian countries, highly dependent on the Persian Gulf, and thus strengthen alliances.Officially, it is difficult for China to do anything more than make statements in defense of truces and negotiations. But it is very possible that it is supplying arms to Iran, as the United States has denounced. In the case of Russia, there is no doubt that its economic support helps Putin's regime to survive the sanctions, and there are suspicions that it exports dual-use material, civilian, but which can be used for military purposes.In the process of militarization

But in addition to the lack of will, Beijing also lacks the military capacity to confront the United States. The Chinese army has undergone a radical modernization, but it has not yet reached the level of the North American one. China currently only has 3 aircraft carriers compared to the United States' 11, and only has one military base outside its territory. But perhaps the most important thing is that the Chinese army has no experience; it has not participated in real war missions.Trump's erratic position weakens his figure and also that of the United States as a reliable ally on the international stage. This conjuncture facilitates Xi Jinping positioning himself as a stable leader and defender of international order, but it remains to be seen if China will truly benefit from the situation.In a short time, it has seen how important allies, Venezuela or Iran, for example, have been attacked and destabilized by the United States. And surely the next on the list will be Cuba. China's role as a leader of the Global South could deteriorate if it is perceived that being an ally of the Asian giant does not translate into protection against possible aggressions.

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The torrent of images from begins, and its wealth of ideas sweeps everything away. Excessive, hallucinatory, and ambitious as few recent works are, the new film by Chinese director Bi Gan shakes up many preconceived notions about what current cinema should be. For him, films must be narratively daring, visually lush, and thematically profound. In this specific case, we are talking about a fantasy tale that revisits more than a century of China's history based on how each period has been represented in cinema... or based on how those who lived through those episodes would have wished they actually were. Reality and desire sharing the screen.The overflowing narrative of

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A few days ago, the chairperson of the Kuomintang (KMT), Cheng Li-wun, traveled to Beijing and met with Xi Jinping. It had been ten years since the leaders of the KMT – the Chinese nationalist party – and the Communist Party of China had met. The visit has not been without controversy. The PDP, the pro-independence party that now governs Taiwan, criticized Cheng's visit, almost describing her as an ally of Beijing in its attempt to take control of the island.Cheng's gamble is risky. The majority of Taiwan's population feels more Taiwanese than Chinese, including many KMT voters. Although there are some voters who would like to have more ties with China, almost none want to transition to a political regime like the one in Beijing. Many would like the situation to be similar to that of recent decades, that is, an ambiguous "statu quo" situation where Taiwan can continue to prosper economically and socially, without feasible threats of a political or military takeover by Beijing.But the international context does not help. China has more and more power and the United States – especially under Trump – seem increasingly less committed to the island's future. The PDP government considers that doubling down on the United States – also with Japan and Western countries – and reducing ties with Beijing is the best mechanism to protect Taiwan. The KMT, on the other hand, is more skeptical of Washington and believes that, precisely, re-establishing ties with the Communist Party is what can calm the waters and guarantee future peace.The figure of Cheng, moreover, generates division within the KMT itself. Although there is a minority sector of the party that still bets on reunification with mainland China, the majority seeks a pragmatic point between establishing cordial relations with Beijing and at the same time increasing the island's military capacity. Cheng's rhetoric is shocking for the level of openness and defense of Beijing's supposed good intentions. Many say that her discourse moves away from the mainstream of the island and this will make her fall soon. But in the current tense and turbulent international panorama, an aggressive change of tactics can sometimes bring unsuspected benefits.A key match

The KMT is, probably, one of the parties with the worst international image worldwide. In the West, it is now seen as the pro-Beijing party that makes it difficult for the island to arm itself strongly and align itself with the United States. In China, despite current cordial relations, it is historically presented as the corrupt, militaristic, and bourgeois party that the communists defeated – even though the KMT was the one that stopped the Japanese invasion during World War II. Among progressive voices, its authoritarian past under the figure of Chiang Kai-shek is remembered.But the KMT was also the one that made the institutional changes to transform Taiwan into a prosperous economy and a democratic country. It is a party that has undergone profound transformations in different directions over the years. It still represents a more conservative and pragmatic electorate that is by no means small on the island. It continues and will continue to play a key role in Taiwan's future.

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In the summer of 2025, millions of Taiwanese watched on television as the Chinese army blockaded the island and how this caused panic. Hundreds of people looted supermarkets, the internet stopped working, and a few warplanes crossed the sky over the capital. It was fiction. The series Zero day attack broke audience records while generating a deep debate in Taiwanese society: for the first time, fiction imagined an attack by the People's Republic of China. But the possibility of this attack is not fiction, according to a report recently made public by the United States government, in which they state that they have indications of China's intention to invade Taiwan in 2027.

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