Southeast Asian foreign ministers hold a closed-doors retreat in Malaysia on Sunday, as the country hosts its first meeting as chair of the regional bloc ASEAN amid an intensifying civil war in Myanmar and confrontations in the South China Sea.

Beijing hit its GDP growth target of 5 percent in 2024, according to its statistics bureau—but deflationary pressures remain.

Chinese exports and investment in Mexico are quickly rising. The Trump team fears its neighbor could be used as a backdoor to the U.S. market.

The regional bloc ASEAN and China should make headway on a protracted code of conduct for the South China Sea by tackling thorny "milestone issues", including its scope and if it can be legally binding,

The last time Trump hit China with tariffs, Beijing devalued the yuan, blunting the impact. This time, Xi Jinping has signaled the country should defend its currency.

China’s population has fallen for the third straight year, pointing to further demographic challenges for the world’s second most populous nation that is now facing both an aging population and an emerging shortage of working age people able to support their elders.

The fall came despite a slight rise in births last year, the first increase since 2016. State efforts to cajole women to have children have met resistance.

China has reported that its economy expanded at a 5% annual pace in 2024, achieving Beijing’s target of “around 5%” growth helped by strong exports and recent stimulus measures.

As Donald Trump prepares for his second term, China’s dominance of global manufacturing is greater than ever.

Analysts say they see signs of malaise in China’s domestic economy, but those problems were offset mainly by robust exports and a $1 trillion trade surplus.