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Inside China

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Just a few years ago, Xi Jinping’s economy was on the brink of world domination.

‘China Shock 2.0’ could destroy Europe as we know it

Europe’s leaders are waking up to a terrifying danger.

  • Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

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Mu Jie, 49, makes little more than the equivalent of $1.20 per order as a driver for instant grocery delivery platform Xiaoxiang (Little Elephant) in Beijing.

Working from sun up to sun down, China’s delivery drivers caught in a price war

China’s army of food delivery drivers are paying the price as tech giants wage war for control over the lucrative market.

  • Lisa Visentin
Traditional Russian wooden dolls called Matryoshka depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump, and China’s President Xi Jinping, displayed for sale at a souvenir shop in Moscow last year.

Xi says he has a ‘similar personality’ to a powerful world leader. It isn’t Trump

The West has imposed widespread sanctions against Russia in an attempt to isolate Putin over his illegal invasion of Ukraine. They have been unsuccessful.

  • Clinton Fernandes
Geely chair Li Shufu has overseen the meteoric rise of the company.

The Chinese electric vehicle giant that just toppled BYD

Electric car powerhouse BYD passed Tesla in global sales last year. But it is a different story at home.

  • Keith Bradsher
Xi Trump Iran

‘Eating bitterness’: China is set up to outlast Trump’s America

Donald Trump goes to Beijing badly needing Chinese help to extricate himself from a quagmire that threatens to destroy his presidency and is entirely of his own making.

  • Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Illustration by Dionne Gain

The empire of pain and paranoia that awaits Trump inside Xi’s China

The US leader and Chinese leaders will meet this week – the first humiliated by Iran, the second suppressing any sign of despair among his people.

  • Peter Hartcher
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Chinese president Xi Jinping is in a much stronger negotiating position than Trump.

Trump heads to China weak and embarrassed

Donald Trump isn’t holding a winning hand as he gets ready for his summit with Xi Jinping.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin’s pain: The walls are closing in on Russia

The US may have gone soft on Russia, but the Europeans are getting more assertive, and they have also upset China in the process.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
Ma Peizeng (right), 73, and his wife Wu Xiuhua, 73, at the door that opens into their shared courtyard residence in Dafangjia Hutong in east Beijing’s Dongcheng district.

The hidden life in Beijing’s hutongs

In Beijing’s old hutong districts, residents such as Ma Peizeng and his wife have built modest lives in tiny spaces, sharing communal courtyards and public bathrooms with their neighbours, as the city has gentrified around them.

  • Lisa Visentin
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea in October 2025.

China has already won Trump’s impulsive war

As Trump blusters and bullies his way through another week, China’s Xi Jinping is watching and smiling.

  • Ambrose Evans-Pritchard