Maritime tensions, economic strain: Top stories on China, Taiwan of 2024

TOKYO -- The story of China in 2024 was largely one of international security tensions mixed with domestic economic challenges.

Taiwan's elections in January set the stage for more cross-strait friction, with the presidential victory of Lai Ching-te, a vocal advocate of the democratic island's sovereignty. Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own, considers Lai a "dangerous separatist" and tested his fledgling government with several rounds of major military maneuvers. At the same time, maritime tensions flared between China and two other key U.S. partners in the region, Japan and the Philippines.

At home, the world's No. 2 economy maintained a growth target of "around 5%" at its annual legislative "two sessions" in March, despite a floundering property sector and sluggish consumption. President Xi Jinping's economic policy remained a global focus throughout the year, as China's prolific exports prompted other governments to raise trade barriers and Beijing's stimulus measures sparked a bright yet brief rally in the country's stock markets.

Hong Kong, China's international finance hub, experienced its own pressures from a property and retail downturn, while adjusting to life under strict national security laws. Some enterprising young Hong Kongers found a way to capitalize on declining rents in prime commercial areas: opening claw machine arcades.

In November, the U.S. presidential election presented a new yet familiar challenge for Beijing: the return of Donald Trump to the White House. Trump's threats to impose steep tariffs on imports from China and other countries, coupled with global upheavals like the sudden fall of Beijing's "strategic partner" Bashar Assad in Syria, served as late-in-the-year reminders that 2025 will be anything but predictable.