Nicaragua’s China Bet Is Changing Washington’s Leverage – OpEd

The fallout from the Nvidia scandal may test the fragile truce between the US and China, analysts say, as calls in Washington grow to tighten semiconductor export controls just days before US President Donald Trump is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Shenzhen, China. “I think that [scandal] could have a bigger impact down the line during the meeting in Miami or even further down the line,” said Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies....

Hong Kong customs has requested the removal of e-commerce and social media listings by drug dealers who used the name of Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei as a code name to push “space oil”, also known as etomidate. Yang’s name was just one example of the subtle linguistic workarounds used by illicit vendors to evade platform filters. Customs had made about 64 requests to remove illicit items from platforms including Taobao, JD.com and Pinduoduo since signing agreements with them over the past year,.

For Sunny He, a 32-year-old Shanghai resident, this year’s Singles’ Day shopping season culminated in a single, high-value purchase: a 12,000-yuan (US$1,797) iPhone 18 Pro Max, sweetened by a 300-yuan voucher on Alibaba Group Holding’s Tmall marketplace. “For me, Double 11 definitely isn’t as lively as before because I have less spare cash than in previous years,” He said. “Even so, I’ll take advantage of this chance for products that I couldn’t bear to buy at full price, like a new...

China’s Singles’ Day turns 18: bye coupon math, hello AI tokens South China Morning Post