US adds Alibaba, BYD, Baidu and other Chinese tech giants to military blacklist. Beijing warns of a resolute response to the Pentagon’s newly expanded blacklist of Chinese companies. Ministry of Commerce accuses Washington of using national security as a pretext to curb the development of Chinese firms.

The USTR claims that key trading partners have not done enough to restrict imports linked to forced labor. The use of forced labor is still a serious problem all over the world. The enforcement process is complex, global and difficult to trace. The tariff story comes at a time when inflation is already moving higher. The headline CPI increased to 4.2% for the 12 months to May 2026.

Min Zin was arrested by Chinese authorities on suspicion of spying. Min Zin is a U.S. citizen who writes about Myanmar and Chinese foreign policy. He disappeared June 3 after going to Kunming, in China’s Yunnan province, for a conference. He is the founder of ISP Myanmar, a think tank that wrote about China and Myanmar's relations.

Chinese investors in Indonesia’s nickel industry sent a formal protest letter to President Prabowo Subianto. They complained about proposed royalty increases, stricter foreign exchange retention rules, sharp reductions in nickel mining quotas and what they described as increasingly indiscriminate law enforcement. Chinese firms have invested more than US$65 billion in smelters, industrial estates and EV battery material processing facilities in Indonesia over the past decade.

Chinese state media did not publish a readout of a Politburo meeting in May 2026. Speculation is rife as to why the meeting was not made public. The absence of the readout coincided with a series of personnel appointments and dismissals involving provincial and ministerial officials.

Julia Löhr and Johannes Pennekamp will bring order to the economic policy debates every Saturday. Germany is experiencing its longest economic crisis since the Second World War. The topics are discussed pointedly and from different perspectives. The perspectives are broadened by short telephone calls in which influential politicians or economic researchers have their say.

Ma Xingrui was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China. Gao Shiwen, the mayor of Nanchang, has been absent from public view for months. Chen Weijun, a former senior Xinjiang official, worked with Ma during his tenure in the region. He was expelled from the party and dismissed from public office on June 8. His case was transferred to judicial authorities for prosecution.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is celebrating its 60th anniversary next year. It was founded in 1967 in Bangkok by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. It has grown from five members to 11 and is the world’s fifth-largest economic bloc, projected to rank fourth by 2030. Analysts and former diplomats say the bloc has been a remarkable success.