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In this photo illustration, the People's Republic of China flag is displayed on a smartphone with an Artificial intelligence chip and symbol in the background.

Budrul Chukrut / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters

China spends big on AI

In the first half of 2024, capital spending on AI infrastructure by the Chinese tech giants Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu doubled year-over-year to about $7 billion. The spending spree reflects a thirst for artificial intelligence despite ever-stringent US regulations limiting their access to powerful chips, data centers, and AI models. TikTok parent company ByteDance and an AI startup called Moonshot are also boosting their spending.
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Flags of the European Union and China are seen in this multiple-exposure illustration.

illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Reuters

Viewpoint: Amid deepening divisions, EU and Chinese leaders set to meet this week

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel will visit Beijing on Dec. 7 for in-person meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. The two sides want to show a commitment to dialog at a time when their relations are coming under mounting strain, as underscored by the recent opening of an EU probe into unfair Chinese competition in the electric vehicle sector.

Similar to last month’s meeting between Xi and US President Joe Biden, this week’s EU-China summit is not expected to produce any major breakthroughs. To find out more, we spoke with Emre Peker, a director for Eurasia Group’s Europe practice, and Anna Ashton, a director for the China practice.

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A Philippine flag flutters from BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated Philippine Navy ship that has been aground since 1999 and became a Philippine military detachment on the disputed Second Thomas shoal in the South China Sea.

REUTERS/Erik De Castro

Rough waters in the South China Sea

Philippine officials say a Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military supply boat in the South China Sea on Sunday. The incidents took place near the Second Thomas, or Ayungin, shoal in the Spratly Island chain near a Philippine naval outpost in an area Beijing claims as its territorial waters.

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The headquarters of the People's Bank of China is pictured behind an iron chain in Beijing.

REUTERS/Jason Lee

Will China’s property woes get political?

As China’s financial troubles mount, analysts forecast stormy skies for its economy — and potentially, its politics.

Much of the turmoil centers on the country’s real estate sector, which has traditionally driven up to 25% of its economic growth. Last Friday, property development giant China Evergrande Group filed for bankruptcy in the US after two years of restructuring. The same day, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index announced that it would be dropping Country Garden Holdings, the country’s largest property developer, from its listing as of Sept. 4. Earlier this month, Country Garden missed a deadline to pay $22.5 million in loan interest and is described as “teetering on the edge of default.”

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U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on voting rights during a speech on the grounds of Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., January 11, 2022.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Hard Numbers: Biden ditches filibuster, Afghan aid, global economic slump, Chinese lockdowns

60: After sending mixed signals during his campaign and in office, US President Joe Biden now wants to get rid of the Senate filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation. The current rule allows the minority to block any law that doesn’t have the 60 votes needed to end debate in the 100-member upper chamber of the US Congress.

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