China News

Oil prices rose Friday as market concerns persisted over ship attacks and seizures despite Iran saying about 30 vessels had passed through the Strait of Hormuz, while the U.S. and Chinese presidents were set for a second day of talks in Beijing.Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 rose 60 cents, or 0.57%, to $106.32 a barrel by 0100 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures CLc1 were up 54 cents, or 0.53%, to $101.71.A ship was reported seized by Iranian personnel off the United Arab Emirates and headed for Iranian waters on Thursday, while the White House said U.S.

A ship was reported seized by Iranian personnel off the United Arab Emirates and headed for Iranian waters on Thursday while the White House said U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed on the need to keep the nearby Strait of Hormuz shipping lane open.China is close to Iran and is the main buyer of its oil. Iran has largely shut the strait to ships apart from its own since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28, causing the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies.The U.S.

A Chinese supertanker carrying two million barrels of Iraqi crude sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after being stranded in the Gulf for more than two months due to the U.S.-Iran war, LSEG and Kpler ship-tracking data showed.The VLCC Yuan Hua Hu is now anchored off the Gulf of Oman, near where the U.S. Navy has set up a blockade on Iranian vessels, LSEG data showed.The crossing comes as U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to meet over the next two days…

Senior U.S. and Chinese officials agree that no country can be allowed to exact shipping tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, the State Department told Reuters on Tuesday, in a sign that the two countries are trying to find common ground on efforts to pressure Iran to give up control of the vital waterway.The statement by the State Department comes ahead of a high-stakes summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, where Iran's chokehold on the strait will be on the agenda.Iran's near-complete closure of the vital trade artery ‌since the joint Israeli-U.S.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Monday urged President Donald Trump to hold fast to trade remedies proposed by his administration to rebuild U.S. shipbuilding and not offer concessions when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping.Democratic Senators Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Mark Kelly of Arizona, as well as Republicans Tim Scott of South Carolina and Todd Young of Indiana, told Trump in a letter sent on Monday that China's decades-long effort to "decimate American shipbuilding" demanded the use of U.S.

The Iran war is starting to shape China's imports of major commodities, with April data showing a sharp decline in crude oil but rising trade in metals.The headline-grabbing number from the figures released last week by customs was the slide in arrivals of crude oil, with the world's biggest importer taking in 9.37 million barrels per day (bpd), the lowest in almost four years.April's imports were down 20% from the same month in 2025 as seaborne imports from the Middle East declined sharply amid the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Monday urged President Donald Trump to hold fast to trade remedies proposed by his administration to rebuild U.S. shipbuilding and not offer concessions when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping.Democratic Senators Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Mark Kelly of Arizona as well as Republicans Tim Scott of South Carolina and Todd Young of Indiana told Trump in a letter sent on Monday that China's decades-long effort to "decimate American shipbuilding" demanded the use of U.S.

A Chinese-owned oil products tanker was attacked near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported, as President Donald Trump launched a U.S. plan that day to help stranded vessels but suspended it a day later.This was the first time a Chinese oil tanker has been attacked, a person with knowledge of the matter told Caixin on Thursday.Traffic through the vital strait, through which 20% of the ‌world's oil and gas supplies pass, has been at a virtual standstill…

The Philippine Coast Guard has accused China of conducting illegal marine scientific research near the oil and gas-rich Reed bank within Manila's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, according to a statement on Thursday."We will continue to challenge any illegal activities that undermine our sovereignty and sovereign rights," PCG commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan said.PCG aircraft spotted Chinese research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 33 near Iroquois Reef during a maritime patrol on May 6.The PCG said the Chinese vessel was seen deploying a service boat toward the reef, confirming the o

China Classification Society (CCS) has classified the Ningyuan Diankun, the world’s largest and China’s first built pure electric high-end intelligent seagoing vessel.Owned by Ningbo Ocean Shipping and built by Jiangxi Shipbuilding, the 740 TEU open-top container ship is 127.8 meters in length, featuring a twin-engine and twin-propeller system with a maximum speed of 11.5 knots.Equipped with 10 containerized batteries as its core power source, it supports both high-voltage shore power charging and rapid battery swapping.

China conducted military drills recently including live-fire exercises in waters east of the Philippines' Luzon Island, it said on Friday, as Manila and Washington host annual drills that extend towards disputed areas of the South China Sea.Over 17,000 troops from the U.S., the Philippines and allies began their annual Balikatan military exercises this week, with combat troops from Japan joining for the first time amid persistent strains between Tokyo and Beijing.The Chinese military's…

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a contract to integrate the Patriot missile, an Army missile interceptor, into the U.S. Navy's Aegis combat system, a milestone the company said on Tuesday marks the first time the weapon will be fielded at sea.Reuters was first to report in October 2024 that the Navy was moving forward with plans to arm its vessels with Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) interceptors, driven by fears that China would deploy hypersonic…

Detentions of Panama-flagged vessels by China that followed a Panamanian court ruling raise serious concerns about efforts to undermine rule of law in the Latin American country, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission said last week that it was closely monitoring a surge in detentions of Panama-flagged vessels in China that appears tied to a Panama court ruling against Hong Kong-based port operator CK Hutchison."China's recent…

China and Pakistan on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gulf and the wider Middle East, urging the swift launch of peace talks and the restoration of normal navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, as their foreign ministers met in Beijing.Both countries have called for talks to end the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, now in the fifth week. Pakistan has previously said it is ready to facilitate peace talks between Washington and Tehran.Pakistan, which shares a more than 900‑km border with Iran, has emerged as a key mediator, building on its courtship of U.S.

Two Chinese container ships sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday on their second attempt to leave the Gulf after turning back on Friday, ship-tracking data showed.The critical waterway has effectively been shut since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28.The vessels sailed in close formation out of the strait and into open waters, data on the MarineTraffic platform showed."Both vessels successfully crossed on a second attempt today, marking the first container vessels to leave the Persian Gulf since the start of the conflict, excluding Iranian flag vessels," said Rebecca

Two Chinese container ships turned backed after trying to exit the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, ship-tracking data showed, despite assurances from Iran that Chinese vessels could pass.The operator, China's COSCO, had said in a March 25 client advisory that it had resumed bookings for general cargo containers for shipments from Asia to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq.The CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean, both Hong Kong flagged, have been stuck in the Gulf since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Feb.

China is conducting a vast undersea mapping and monitoring operation across the Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans, building detailed knowledge of marine conditions that naval experts say would be crucial for waging submarine warfare against the United States and its allies.In one example, the Dong Fang Hong 3, a research vessel operated by Ocean University of China, spent 2024 and 2025 sailing back and forth in the seas near Taiwan and the U.S. stronghold of Guam, and around strategic stretches of the Indian Ocean, ship-tracking data reviewed by Reuters shows.

"Global iron ore shipments have risen 5% y/y during the first 12 weeks of 2026, supported by stronger Chinese import demand. However, this increase has not been matched by Chinese steel production which fell 4% y/y during the first two months of the year. As a result, the additional supply has boosted portside inventories, which reached a record high of 179.5m tons on 12 March,” says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analysis Manager at BIMCO.Steel production in China has been on a downward trend since 2023, pressured by falling domestic demand.

China called for an end to conflict in the Gulf and said the safety of waterways should not be disturbed on Thursday, adding that it was ready to work with Southeast Asia to address energy shortages as oil markets reel from supply shocks.While the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has allowed China to cast itself as the more reliable superpower, analysts say it is wary of global energy market uncertainty, not least because it needs the resources it has been stockpiling since the late 2000s…

North American Blue Energy, a company backed by U.S. energy magnate Harry Sargeant III, has moved to export nearly 1 million barrels of Venezuelan crude for delivery into China, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing a document.The cargo may be the first delivery of Venezuelan oil to the Asian country since the US took control of the nation's oil sales earlier this year, the report said.U.S. President Donald Trump has been taking steps to ease sanctions against Venezuela following the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro and urging U.S.

China is in talks with Iran to allow crude oil and Qatari liquefied natural gas vessels safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Israeli war on Tehran intensifies, three diplomatic sources told Reuters.The war, which entered its sixth day on Thursday, has left the critical shipping passageway all-but shut, with countries around the world cut off from a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.China, which has friendly relations with Iran and relies heavily on Middle Eastern supplies…

Refiners in China, the world's top oil importer, have enough supply on hand to weather near-term disruption from the Iran conflict, bolstered by recent record purchases of Iranian and Russian crude and robust government stockpiling, traders said.A prolonged supply disruption could, however, force the country's refiners to curb output and run down commercial stockpiles, some of the traders said.China has around 900 million barrels in strategic inventories, or 78 days' worth of imports…

Russia will aim to keep its Urals crude oil exports steady in March by boosting shipments to China as India, a key buyer, cuts purchases following a trade deal with the U.S.Export options for seaborne Urals cargoes are set to narrow next month, with India expected to sharply reduce intake. Suppliers are turning to China, the world's top crude importer, as Turkey - the third-largest Urals buyer - lacks the capacity to process more Russian barrels.In the current market, Russia has two main choices: increase discounts or curb production.