The chief of one of the world’s biggest chip equipment-makers, ASML, said isolating China completely will ‘force’ the country to ramp up innovation

Australian PM Anthony Albanese signed a strategic agreement with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Friday, which will see the two countries run joint naval patrols in the South China Sea

"The significance is that it shows that China has been able to stay 2-2.5 nodes behind the world's best (chip) companies," Dan Hutcheson, an analyst with TechInsights said

China's ban on iPhone use by government workers was extended to local government entities last month, raising fears that Apple and its suppliers could be hit hard by rising Sino-US tension

Authorities in the financial hub shut schools, the stock exchange and told workers to stay at home after over 200mm of torrential rain brought by the second typhoon in a week

Republican chair of influential House panel calls for harsher curbs after the discovery of new chips in Huawei phones "that may violate trade restrictions"

Foreign envoys complain of lack of access to officials and scholars as geopolitical tensions simmer and officials become wary of contact amid a ramped up security drive and rising anti-Western sentiment

Guterres warned of fragmentation "in world economic and financial systems" amid differing views on technology and security; he also urged solutions for poor nations' debt and climate change

Among major backers of the chip designer is smartphone giant Xiaomi, which won approval last month from China's state planner to manufacture electric vehicles

Chinese Premier told a summit of Southeast Asian leaders it was important to oppose taking sides, to avoid bloc confrontation or a new Cold War; after talks on the South China Sea made no progress yet again

Analysts expect more debate in the US on the effectiveness of chip curbs and the possibility of Congress including harsher sanctions in a competition bill it is preparing against China

Opposition MPs are calling for an inquiry into a disputed weapons shipment from China in March last year, amid concerns of increased militarization of the island chain