Tag: China

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Three days of mourning begin after Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades

Hong Kong officials have held a moment of silence at the start of a three-day mourning period to remember those killed after the city’s deadliest fire in nearly 80 years.

At least 128 people are now known to have died in the fire, which engulfed seven tower blocks on Wednesday. A further 83 were injured and 150 remain unaccounted for.

Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of corruption over the renovation works the blocks had been undergoing. Three others were detained earlier on manslaughter charges.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but officials have said it spread up and between the blocks rapidly because of flammable materials placed on their exterior.

Saturday morning’s ceremony was held outside government headquarters, and saw city leader John Lee joined by other Hong Kong officials to observe three minutes of silence.

The flags of China and Hong Kong were flown at half mast.

The government has also set up memorial points across the city, where the public can pay their respects and sign condolence books.

Once the fire started, it spread quickly to seven of the eight towers in Wang Fuk Court, in Hong Kong’s northerly suburban Tai Po distric.

It then took more than 2,000 firefighters almost two days to bring the blaze under control.

The cause of the fire remains unclear, though authorities have said that polystyrene placed on the outside of the windows and plastic netting around the scaffolding on the buildings facilitated its spread.

The tower blocks were also covered in bamboo scaffolding, which is commonly used for construction and renovation work in Hong Kong. The fire has sparked a debate on whether it should still be used.

Officials have confirmed that an investigation will be taking place over the next few weeks, with police already gathering evidence from the scene.

The fire has caused anger throughout Hong Kong – which is known for its high-rise buildings – as questions about who should be held accountable grow.

Residents of Wang Fuk Court have reported broken fire alarms and negligence from the company carrying out the renovations on the Wang Fuk Court, while Hong Kong’s fire service has said fire alarms in all eight blocks were not working effectively.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) said those arrested in the corruption probe on Friday included directors at an engineering company and scaffolding subcontractors.

Hong Kong’s Labour and Welfare Secretary, Chris Sun, told reporters that his department had made 16 checks on the works at Wang Fuk Court since July last year.

The housing estate was built in 1983 and had provided 1,984 apartments for some 4,600 residents, according to a 2021 government census. (BBC)

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Japan warns citizens in China over safety as dispute escalates

Japan has warned its citizens in China to be careful of their surroundings and to avoid big crowds amid a diplomatic row over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan.

The escalating spat has already seen Beijing advise Chinese citizens to avoid traveling to Japan and hit Tokyo stocks.

“Pay attention to your surroundings and avoid as much as possible squares where large crowds gather or places that are likely to be identified as being used by many Japanese people,” the Japanese embassy in China said in a statement on its website dated Monday.

Minoru Kihara, Japan’s top government spokesman, said Tuesday that such advice was issued “based on a comprehensive assessment of the political situation, including the security situation in the relevant country or region, as well as the social conditions.”

The diplomatic feud between China and Japan was ignited by Takaichi’s suggestion that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.

China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to take the democratic island, reacted furiously to Takaichi’s comments.

It called for her to retract the remarks and summoned the Japanese ambassador on Friday.

In a post on X on November 8, the Chinese consul general in Osaka, Xue Jian, threatened to “cut off that dirty head”, apparently referring to Takaichi, who took office in October.

Tokyo said it had summoned the Chinese ambassador over the now-deleted social media post.

Masaaki Kanai, the top official in the foreign ministry for Asia-Pacific affairs arrived in China Monday seeking to defuse the row, and was at the Chinese foreign ministry Tuesday, Jiji press agency reported.

He had been expected to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Liu Jinsong, earlier reports said.

The Japanese embassy warning also advised citizens to “respect local customs and be careful about your words and attitudes when interacting with local people”.

“If you see a person or group that you feel suspicious of, stay away from it and leave the place immediately,” it said.

Tokyo shares fell three percent Tuesday as the diplomatic spat weighed on sentiment.

Japanese tourism and retail shares dived on Monday after China warned its citizens to avoid Japan, a tourist hotspot.

Asia’s two top economies are closely entwined, with China the biggest source of tourists — almost 7.5 million visitors in the first nine months of 2025 — coming to Japan.

Before taking power last month, Takaichi was a vocal critic of China and its military build-up in the Asia-Pacific.

If a Taiwan emergency entails “battleships and the use of force, then that could constitute a situation threatening the survival (of Japan)”, Takaichi, 64, told parliament on November 7.

Under Japan’s self-imposed rules, an existential threat is one of the few cases where it can act militarily. (JapanToday)

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Chinese state media blast Japan PM as Taiwan spat rumbles on

A spat between China and Japan over Japanese Premier Sanae Takaichi’s Taiwan comments showed no signs of abating on Wednesday with a series of vitriolic commentaries in Chinese state media and calls in Tokyo to expel a Chinese diplomat.

Takaichi sparked the furore with remarks in parliament last week that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could amount to a “survival-threatening situation” and trigger a potential military response from Tokyo.

That drew a formal protest from China and a threatening post from China’s Consul General in Osaka, Xue Jian, which Tokyo said was “extremely inappropriate” and complained to Beijing about.

While Takaichi has since said she would refrain from making such comments again and Tokyo called for mutual efforts to reduce friction on Tuesday, a brace of Chinese state media commentaries suggest the furore could rumble on.

State broadcaster CCTV said in an editorial late on Tuesday that Takaichi’s remarks were of “extremely malicious nature and impact” and have “crossed the line” with China.

A post on a social media account affiliated with CCTV called Takaichi a “troublemaker”, using the word as a play on the pronunciation of her family name in Chinese.

“Has her head been kicked by a donkey?” said the post on the Yuyuan Tantian account. “If she continues to spew shit without any boundaries like this, Takaichi might have to pay the price!”

The CCTV editorial also likened Takaichi’s reference to “survival-threatening situations” with Japan’s 1931 invasion of northeast China’s Manchuria.

Japan’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (JapanToday)

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U.S., China talks sketch out rare earths deal, tariff pause for Trump and Xi to consider

Top Chinese and U.S. economic officials on Sunday hashed out the framework of a trade deal for U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to decide on later this week that would pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls, U.S. officials said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur had eliminated the threat of Trump’s 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting November 1. Bessent also said he expects China to delay implementation of its rare earth minerals and magnets licensing regime by a year while the policy is reconsidered.

Chinese officials were more circumspect about the talks and offered no details about the outcome of the meetings.

Trump and Xi are due to meet on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, to sign off on the terms. While the White House has officially announced the highly anticipated Trump-Xi talks, China has yet to confirm that the two leaders will meet.

“I think we have a very successful framework for the leaders to discuss on Thursday,” Bessent told reporters after he and the U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and top trade negotiator Li Chenggang for their fifth round of in-person discussions since May.

Bessent said he anticipates that a tariff truce with China will be extended beyond its November 10 expiration date, and that China will revive substantial purchases of U.S. soybeans after buying none in September while favouring soybeans from Brazil and Argentina.

U.S. soybean farmers “will feel very good about what’s going on both for this season and the coming seasons for several years” once the deal’s terms are announced, Bessent told the ABC program “This Week.”

Greer told the “Fox News Sunday” program that both sides agreed to pause some punitive actions and found “a path forward where we can have more access to rare earths from China, we can try to balance out our trade deficit with sales from the United States.”

China’s Li Chenggang said the two sides reached a “preliminary consensus” and will next go through their respective internal approval processes.

“The U.S. position has been tough, whereas China has been firm in defending its own interests and rights,” Li said through an interpreter. “We have experienced very intense consultations and engaged in constructive exchanges in exploring solutions and arrangements to address these concerns.”

Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, his first stop in a five-day Asia tour that is expected to culminate in Thursday’s face-to-face with Xi in South Korea.

After the weekend talks, Trump struck a positive tone, saying: “I think we’re going to have a deal with China”.

Trump had threatened new 100% tariffs on Chinese goods and other trade curbs starting on November 1, in retaliation for China’s expanded export controls on rare earth magnets and minerals.

China controls more than 90% of the world’s supply for the materials, which are essential for high-tech manufacturing from electric vehicles to semiconductors and missiles. The export controls and Trump’s threatened retaliation would disrupt a delicate six-month truce under which China and the U.S. reduced tariffs that had quickly escalated to triple-digit rates on each side.

The U.S. and Chinese officials said that, in addition to rare earths, they discussed trade expansion, the U.S. fentanyl crisis, U.S. port entrance fees and the transfer of TikTok to U.S. ownership control.

Bessent told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that the two sides have to iron out details of the TikTok deal, allowing Trump and Xi to “consummate the transaction” in South Korea.

On the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, Trump hinted at possible meetings with Xi in China and the United States.

“We’ve agreed to meet. We’re going to meet them later in China, and we’re going to meet in the U.S., in either Washington or at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said.

Among Trump’s talking points with Xi are Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans, concerns around democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, and the release of jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

The detention of the founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily has become the most high-profile example of China’s crackdown on rights in Hong Kong.

Trump also said he will seek China’s help in U.S. dealings with Moscow, as Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on.

Tensions between the world’s two largest economies flared in the past few weeks as a delicate trade truce, reached after a first round of trade talks in Geneva in May and extended in August, failed to prevent the United States and China from hitting each other with more sanctions, export curbs and threats of stronger retaliatory measures.

China’s expanded controls of rare earths exports have caused a global shortage. That has prompted the United States to consider a block on software-powered exports to China, from laptops to jet engines, according to a Reuters report. (JapanToday)

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Takaichi elected LDP leader; likely to become Japan’s first female prime minister

Japan’s ruling party picked hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi as its head on Saturday, putting her on course to become the country’s first female prime minister in a move set to jolt investors and neighbors.

The Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for almost all of the postwar era, elected Takaichi, 64, to regain trust from a public angered by rising prices and drawn to opposition groups promising stimulus and clampdowns on migrants.

A vote in parliament to choose a replacement for outgoing Shigeru Ishiba is expected on October 15. Takaichi is favored as the ruling coalition has the largest number of seats.

Takaichi, the only woman among the five LDP candidates, beat a challenge from the more moderate Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, who was bidding to become the youngest modern leader.

Takaichi got 183 votes, while Koizumi garnered 156 in a runoff.

A former economic security and internal affairs minister with an expansionary fiscal agenda for the world’s fourth-largest economy, Takaichi takes over a party in crisis.

Various other parties, including the expansionist Democratic Party for the People and the anti-immigration Sanseito, have been steadily luring voters, especially younger ones, away from the LDP.

The LDP and its coalition partner lost their majorities in both houses under Ishiba over the past year, triggering his resignation.

“Recently, I have heard harsh voices from across the country saying we don’t know what the LDP stands for anymore,” Takaichi said in a speech before the second-round vote. “That sense of urgency drove me. I wanted to turn people’s anxieties about their daily lives and the future into hope.”

Takaichi, who says her hero is Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, offers a starker vision for change than Koizumi and is potentially more disruptive.

An advocate of late premier Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” strategy to boost the economy with aggressive spending and easy monetary policy, she has previously criticized the Bank of Japan’s interest rate increases.

Such a spending shift could spook investors worried about one of the world’s biggest debt loads.

Naoya Hasegawa, chief bond strategist at Okasan Securities in Tokyo, said Takaichi’s election had weakened the chances of the BOJ raising rates this month, which markets had priced at around a 60% chance before the vote.

Takaichi has also raised the possibility of redoing an investment deal with U.S. President Donald Trump that lowered his punishing tariffs in return for Japanese taxpayer-backed investment.

The U.S. ambassador to Japan, George Glass, congratulated Takaichi, posting on X that he looked forward to strengthening the Japan-U.S. partnership “on every front”.

But her nationalistic positions – such as her regular visits to the Yasukuni shrine to Japan’s war dead, viewed by some Asian countries as a symbol of its past militarism – may rile neighbors like South Korea and China.

South Korea will seek to “cooperate to maintain the positive momentum in South Korea-Japan relations”, President Lee Jae Myung’s office said in a statement.

Takaichi also favors revising Japan’s pacifist postwar constitution and suggested this year that Japan could form a “quasi-security alliance” with Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by China.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te welcomed her election, saying she was a “steadfast friend of Taiwan”.

“It is hoped that under the leadership of the new (LDP) President Takaichi, Taiwan and Japan can deepen their partnership in areas such as economic trade, security, and technological cooperation,” he said in a statement.

If elected prime minister, Takaichi said she would travel overseas more regularly than her predecessor to spread the word that “Japan is Back!”

“I have thrown away my own work-life balance and I will work, work, work,” Takaichi said in her victory speech.

Some of her supporters viewed her selection as a watershed in Japan’s male-dominated politics, though opinion polls suggest her socially conservative positions are favored more by men than women.

“The fact that a woman was chosen might be seen positively. I think it shows that Japan is truly starting to change and that message is getting across,” 30-year-old company worker Misato Kikuchi said outside Tokyo’s Shimbashi station.

Takaichi must also seek to blunt the rise of Sanseito, which broke into the political mainstream in a July election, appealing to conservative voters disillusioned with the LDP.

Echoing Sanseito’s warnings about foreigners, she kicked off her first official campaign speech with an anecdote about tourists reportedly kicking sacred deer in her hometown of Nara.

Takaichi, whose mother was a police officer, promised to clamp down on rule-breaking visitors and immigrants, who have come to Japan in record numbers in recent years.”We hope she will … steer Japanese politics in an ‘anti-globalism’ direction to protect national interests and help the people regain prosperity and hope,” Sanseito said in a statement. (JapanToday)

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China’s new K visa beckons foreign tech talent as U.S. hikes H-1B fee


China’s new visa program aimed at attracting foreign tech talent kicks off this week, a move seen boosting Beijing’s fortunes in its geopolitical rivalry with Washington as a new U.S. visa policy prompts would-be applicants to scramble for alternatives.

While China has no shortage of skilled local engineers, the programme is part of an effort by Beijing to portray itself as a country welcoming foreign investment and talent, as rising trade tensions due to U.S. tariffs cloud the country’s economic outlook.

China has taken a series of measures to boost foreign investment and travel, opening more sectors to overseas investors and offering visa waivers for citizens from most European countries, Japan and South Korea among others.

“The symbolism is powerful: while the U.S. raises barriers, China is lowering them,” said Iowa-based immigration attorney Matt Mauntel-Medici, referring to China’s new visa category, called the K visa, which launches on Wednesday.

The K visa, announced in August, targets young foreign science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates and promises to allow entry, residence and employment without a job offer, which could appeal to foreign workers looking for alternatives to U.S. job opportunities.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration said it would ask companies to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B worker visas, widely used by tech companies to hire skilled foreign workers.

“The U.S. has definitely shot itself in the foot on H-1Bs, and the timing is exquisite for China’s K visa,” said Michael Feller, chief strategist at Geopolitical Strategy.

Other countries including South Korea, Germany and New Zealand are also loosening visa rules to attract skilled migrants.

Immigration experts say the main attraction of the K visa is no requirement of a sponsoring employer, which has been regarded as one of the biggest hurdles for those seeking H-1B visas.

The H-1B visa requires employer sponsorship and is subject to a lottery system, with only 85,000 slots available annually. The new $100,000 fee could further deter first-time applicants.

“It’s an appealing alternative for Indian STEM professionals seeking flexible, streamlined visa options,” said Bikash Kali Das, an Indian student at Sichuan University.

India was by far the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of approved beneficiaries.

Despite its promise, the K visa faces hurdles. Chinese government guidelines mention vague “age, educational background and work experience” requirements.

There are also no details on financial incentives, employment facilitation, permanent residency, or family sponsorship. Unlike the U.S., China does not offer citizenship to foreigners except in rare cases.

China’s State Council did not respond to a request for comment asking for more details on the logistics and underlying strategy of the K visa.

Language is another barrier: most Chinese tech firms operate in Mandarin, limiting opportunities for non-Chinese speakers.

Political tensions between Delhi and Beijing could also become a factor that could limit the number of Indian K visa applicants China is willing to accept, experts said.

“China will need to ensure Indian citizens feel welcome and can do meaningful work without Mandarin,” said Feller.

China’s talent recruitment has traditionally focused on China-born scientists abroad and overseas Chinese.

Recent efforts include home-purchase subsidies and signing bonuses of up to 5 million yuan ($702,200). These have drawn back U.S.-based Chinese STEM talent, especially amid Washington’s growing scrutiny on ties to China.

“The recruitment effort targeting Indian tech talent in China is growing but remains moderate compared to the more intensive, well-established, and well-funded initiatives aimed at repatriating Chinese STEM talent,” said Sichuan University’s Das.

A Chinese STEM graduate who recently got a job offer from a Silicon Valley-based tech company was also sceptical about the K visa’s prospects.

“Asian countries like China don’t rely on immigration and local Chinese governments have many ways to attract domestic talent,” he said, declining to be named for privacy reasons.

The U.S. has over 51 million immigrants — 15% of its population — compared to just 1 million foreigners in China, less than 1% of its population.

While China is unlikely to significantly alter its immigration policy to allow in millions of foreign workers, analysts say the K visa could still boost Beijing’s fortunes in its geopolitical rivalry with Washington.

“If China can attract even a sliver of global tech talent, it will be more competitive in cutting-edge technology,” Feller said. (JapanToday)

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Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigns after election defeats

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has announced he is stepping down after less than a year in the role, following two major election losses.

The move comes a day before his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was expected to vote on whether to hold an internal leadership vote that could have forced him out.

The LDP has governed Japan for most of the past seven decades, but under Ishiba it lost its majority in the lower house for the first time in 15 years and then lost its majority in the upper house in July.

Japan, the world’s fourth-largest economy and a key US ally, now faces a period of political uncertainty as tensions rise with China and regional insecurity mounts.

“Now that a conclusion has been reached in the negotiations concerning the US tariff measures, I believe this is precisely the appropriate time,” Ishiba said, referring to a deal signed last week to ease tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on Japanese cars and other exports.

Until Sunday, he had resisted calls to resign, saying it was his responsibility to settle the dispute with Washington before stepping down.

“I have strongly believed that negotiations concerning the US tariff measures, which could be described as a national crisis, must be brought to a conclusion under our administration’s responsibility,” he said.

The 68-year-old said he would continue his responsibilities “to the people” until a successor was selected.

The LDP will now choose a new leader, who will become prime minister following a vote in parliament.

Ishiba, who took office in October 2024 promising to tackle rising prices, struggled to inspire confidence as the country faced economic headwinds, a cost-of-living crisis and fractious politics with the US.

Inflation, particularly the doubling of rice prices in the past year, was politically damaging.

Public support further slid after a series of controversies, including criticism of his decision to appoint only two women to his cabinet and handing out expensive gifts to party members. (BBC)

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Putin, Modi, Erdogan to attend Tianjin Summit as Xi welcomes world leaders

Chinese President Xi Jinping began welcoming dignitaries including United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and Egyptian Premier Moustafa Madbouly on Saturday before a summit attended by leaders from more than 20 countries.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation gathering will be held in the northern port city of Tianjin on Sunday and Monday, days before a massive military parade in nearby Beijing to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will be among some 26 world leaders slated to attend the parade.

The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. Sixteen more countries are affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are also due to arrive in Tianjin ahead of the summit.

China and Russia have used the organisation — sometimes touted as a counter to the Western-dominated NATO military alliance — to deepen ties with Central Asian states.

Other leaders including Iranian and Turkish presidents Masoud Pezeshkian and Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend the bloc’s largest meeting since its founding in 2001.

Multiple bilateral meetings are expected to be held on the sidelines of the summit.

The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin will discuss the Ukraine conflict with Erdogan on Monday.

Turkey has hosted three rounds of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine this year that have failed to break the deadlock over how to end the conflict, triggered when Moscow launched its invasion of its pro-European neighbour in February 2022.

Putin will also talk about Tehran’s nuclear programme on Monday with his Iranian counterpart Pezeshkian, a meeting that comes as Iran faces fresh Western pressure.

Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, triggered a “snapback” mechanism on Thursday to reinstate UN sanctions on Tehran for failing to comply with commitments made in a 2015 deal over its nuclear programme.

Russia’s foreign ministry warned that the reimposition of sanctions against Iran risked “irreparable consequences”.

Tehran and Moscow have been bolstering political, military and economic ties over the past decade as Russia drifted away from the West.

Relations between them grew even closer after Moscow launched its offensive against Ukraine.

Modi’s visit comes after a trip to Japan, and is his first to China since 2018.

The world’s two most populous nations are intense rivals competing for influence across South Asia and fought a deadly border clash in 2020.

A thaw began last October when Modi met with Xi for the first time in five years at a summit in Russia. (Punch)

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Nvidia and AMD to pay 15% of China chip sales to US

Chip giants Nvidia and AMD have agreed to pay the US government 15% of Chinese revenues as part of an “unprecedented” deal to secure export licences to China, the BBC has been told.

The US had previously banned the sale of powerful chips used in areas like artificial intelligence (AI) to China under export controls usually related to national security concerns.

Security experts, including some who served during President Donald Trump’s first term, recently wrote to the administration expressing “deep concern” that Nvidia’s H20 chip was “a potent accelerator” of China’s AI capabilities.

Trump on Monday dismissed security concerns, saying the chip in question was “old”.

Under the agreement, Nvidia will pay 15% of its revenues from H20 chip sales in China to the US government.

AMD will also give 15% of revenue generated from sales of its MI308 chip in China to the Trump administration, which was first reported by the Financial Times.

Nvidia told the BBC: “We follow rules the US government sets for our participation in worldwide markets.”

It added: “While we haven’t shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide.”

AMD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deal sparked surprise and concern in the US, where critics said it raised security risks and questions about the Trump administration’s approach to dealing with private businesses.

“You either have a national security problem or you don’t,” said Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation.

“If you have a 15% payment, it doesn’t somehow eliminate the national security issue,” she added.

On social media, some investors called the arrangement a “shakedown”, while others compared the requirement to a tax on exports – which has long been considered illegal in the US.

“Regardless of whether you think Nvidia should be able to sell H20s in China, charging a fee in exchange for relaxing national security export controls is a terrible precedent,” wrote Peter Harrell, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who formerly worked for the Biden administration.

“In addition to the policy problems with just charging Nvidia and AMD a 15% share of revenues to sell advanced chips in China, the US Constitution flatly forbids export taxes,” he added.

Democratic congressman Jake Auchincloss said: “Now the US government is financially motivated to sell AI to China? Makes me shudder to think what a TikTok deal might look like.”

The H20 chip was developed specifically for the Chinese market after US export restrictions were imposed by the Biden administration in 2023.

Sales of the chip were effectively banned by Trump’s government in April this year.

Beijing has previously criticised the US government, accusing it of “abusing export control measures, and engaging in unilateral bullying”.

Nvidia’s chief executive Jensen Huang has spent months lobbying both sides for a resumption of sales of the chips in China.He reportedly met US President Donald Trump last week.

Charlie Dai, vice president and principal analyst at global research firm Forrester, said the agreement to hand over 15% of China chip sales to the US government in exchange for export licences was “unprecedented”.

“The arrangement underscores the high cost of market access amid escalating tech trade tensions, creating substantial financial pressure and strategic uncertainty for tech vendors,” he added.

In a letter last month to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a group of 20 security specialists said that while the biggest buyers of Nvidia’s H20 chips were civilian companies in China, they expect them to be used by the military.

They wrote: “Chips optimized for AI inference will not simply power consumer products or factory logistics; they will enable autonomous weapons systems, intelligence surveillance platforms and rapid advances in battlefield decision-making.”

In a statement to the BBC, Nvidia said: “America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership. America’s AI tech stack can be the world’s standard if we race.”

The Nvdia and AMD agreement comes as the boss of Intel, a rival chip maker, met with Trump at the White House on Monday after the president called for his immediate resignation due to his ties to China.

Intel said the pair had “a candid and constructive discussion on Intel’s commitment to strengthening U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership”.

Trump wrote on Truth Social the meeting was “a very interesting one”.

“Mr. Tan and my Cabinet members are going to spend time together, and bring suggestions to me during the next week,” Trump added.

Last week, Trump said on social media that Lip-Bu Tan was “highly conflicted”, apparently referring to his alleged investments in companies that the US said were tied to the Chinese military.

Mr Tan pushed back, stating it was “misinformation”. (BBC)

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North Korean defector to sue Kim Jong Un for abuse

A North Korean defector is filing civil and criminal charges against the country’s leader Kim Jong Un for abuses she faced while detained in the country.

Choi Min-kyung fled the North to China in 1997 but was forcibly repatriated in 2008. She said she was sexually abused and tortured after her return.

When she files the case in Seoul on Friday, it will be the first time a North Korean-born defector takes legal action against the regime, said a South-based rights group assisting Ms Choi.

South Korean courts have in the past ruled against North Korea on similar claims by South Koreans but such verdicts are largely symbolic and ignored by Pyongyang.

The case names Kim and four other Pyongyang officials. The rights group, the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), says it also plans to take Ms Choi’s case to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.

“I earnestly wish for this small step to become a cornerstone for the restoration of freedom and human dignity, so that no more innocent North Koreans suffer under this brutal regime,” Ms Choi said on Wednesday, according to a statement by NKDB.

“As a torture victim and survivor of the North Korean regime, I carry a deep and urgent responsibility to hold the Kim dynasty accountable for crimes against humanity,” she said.

Ms Choi fled North Korea again in 2012 and settled in the South. She said psychological trauma from the ordeal remains and that she continues to rely on medication.

For years international rights groups have documented alleged human rights violations by North Korea, ranging from the abuse of political prisoners to systematic discrimination based on gender and class.

Hanna Song, executive director of the NKDB, told BBC Korean that the lawsuits were significant because they were pursuing criminal charges “in parallel” to civil cases.

Previous court cases against North Korea had been “limited to civil litigation”, she said.

In 2023, a Seoul court ordered North Korea to pay 50 million won ($36,000; £27,000) each to three South Korean men who were exploited after being taken as prisoners of war in North Korea during the Korean War.

In 2024, the North Korean government was also ordered to pay 100 million won to each of five Korean Japanese defectors. They were part of thousands who had left Japan for North Korea in the 1960s and 1980s under a repatriation programme.

They said they had been lured to North Korea decades ago on the promise of “paradise on Earth”, but were instead detained and forced to work.

North Korea did not respond to either of the lawsuits.

But Ms Song, from the NKDB, argued that the rulings offered much-needed closure to the plaintiffs.

“What we’ve come to understand through years of work on accountability is that what victims really seek isn’t just financial compensation – it’s acknowledgment,” said Ms Song.

“Receiving a court ruling in their favour carries enormous meaning. It tells them their story doesn’t just end with them – it’s acknowledged by the state and officially recorded in history.” (BBC)