China This Week | Chinese export controls on Japan, and military drills with Iran, Russia and South Africa

Finally, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving the tech giant Cisco. The company appealed against a case where it was alleged to have knowingly created products that the Chinese government used to surveil and crack down on members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. The movement’s rise in the 1990s was a thorn in the side of the Communist state at the time.

Here is a closer look at these developments:

1. China’s export controls on Japan

According to a Reuters report, China has an export control list of around 1,100 dual-use items and technologies. Dual-use refers to usage for both civilian and military purposes. Once an item enters the list, Chinese manufacturers are required to obtain a licence to ship overseas.

“That list contains at least seven categories of medium and heavy rare earths. It has, however, not specified which items may be affected by the ban on exports to Japan,” the report said.

UPSHOT: The move has been criticised by Japan as “absolutely unacceptable”. However, a recent Financial Times report said the announcement would not have as large an impact, given the existing controls on “critical minerals such as gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite, advanced manufacturing equipment and machine tools, rare earths and magnetic materials and unmanned aerial vehicles, among other products.”

Zooming out, the announcement can be seen as the latest of China’s measures against Japan — ranging from tourism advisories to Chinese planning to visit Japan, to statements about Japan’s wartime atrocities against China.

These reactions have followed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks in November 2025, when she said that any Chinese attack on Taiwan could lead Japan to intervene militarily.

For China, this constituted an interference in its internal affairs, especially on a subject that it has increasingly come to consider as a “red line”. Moreover, it provided an opportunity to react to a country seen as taking a hawkish stance on China, even though some analysts have questioned the proportionality of China’s measures.

2. China, Iran and Russia hold naval drills

The BBC reported that “Vessels flying Chinese, Iranian and Russian flags have been seen sailing into South Africa’s main naval base in Simon’s Town on the Cape Peninsula in recent days.”

It added that South Africa has previously organised such exercises as well, beginning in 2019, but they had “little fanfare” attached to them. Cut to the second edition in 2023, by which Russia has launched an invasion against Ukraine and faced much criticism from the West.

UPSHOT: South Africa may seem like an odd man out in this group of participants, which are mainly countries often seen as having complicated or even adversarial ties with the US.

However, the recent trajectory of their relations — with the US President Donald Trump accusing the country of a “white genocide” — perhaps explains why South Africa may have incentives for agreeing to host such a drill. And, even before the grouping’s expansion in recent years, BRICS was seen by some analysts as an attempt to counter the US in global affairs.

It is also part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s attempts at managing ties with powerful nations, having earlier made the trip to Washington, DC, and met Trump, while forcefully denying claims of persecuting his country’s white minority.

3. Cisco and the US govt argue for corporations’ rights

Reuters reported that Cisco appealed a 2023 ruling that “breathed new life” into a 2011 lawsuit that accused the California-based company of knowingly developing technology for the Chinese government.

Both the company and the Trump administration have argued against the invocation of the 1798 Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreign nationals to seek justice in US courts. In general, they have opposed holding US companies liable for human rights violations abroad. Cisco has also argued that the products it made were legal under US law.

UPSHOT: This case was filed by an organisation representing members of the Falun Gong, which was founded in China in 1992. It was a religious movement that included a mix of meditative practices and teachings based on Buddhism and Taoism. It was founded by Li Hongzhi, 74, who began by delivering lectures across the country.

The Chinese government, however, condemned its popularity by describing it as an “evil cult”, also due to the state’s general opposition to the growth of religious movements. Its criticism also came from a perception of threat to its own power, with the rise of another powerful organising force.

As a result of their popularity and a massive gathering of over 10,000 people in Beijing in the late 1990s, the group was banned in 1999. Members of the group have since alleged that the state engaged in repressive methods and violence to shut down its activities, and have campaigned against the government.