Rescue efforts underway after M7.0 quake hits southwest China's Xizang
Fighter jets typically house their main radars behind a radome in the nose, while conventional airborne early-warning aircraft often carry large radar arrays in prominent structures above the fuselage. Although aircraft wings offer a large surface area, their relatively thin cross-sections leave limited internal space for radar equipment. Top Chinese military aircraft designers have now proposed a revolutionary method to integrate large antenna arrays into aircraft wings, using flight manoeuvres...
A prominent Chinese economist’s social media channel has been restricted as Beijing steps up regulatory scrutiny of financial market influencers. Chinese internet users on Saturday noticed that the WeChat account of Ren Zeping, known for his outspoken comments on investments and policies, had been stopped from gaining new followers and a member of his team said posting had been suspended. Clicking the follow button generated a message saying “this account cannot be followed due to its violation...
Over nearly four decades, Operation Santa Claus (OSC) has grown from a quirky holiday fundraiser into an “engine” for community change in Hong Kong. For some beneficiaries, the journey was a full circle. Rachel Chow Chiu-yan learned about the fundraising drive in Young Post when she was a student, later pitched for funds on behalf of a group helping teenage girls and later joined the charity. “Ten to 20 years ago, Operation Santa Claus disbursed some funding to charities that saw it as seed...
A dense sea of demonstrators packed the southern edge of Paris on Saturday as protests got under way in an uneasy festive mood, with early marches remaining peaceful even as heavily reinforced police braced for potential unrest across the country. Elsewhere in France, police began dispersing unauthorised gatherings in Lyon and Nice, firing tear gas in Lyon as demonstrators defied local protest bans. French authorities expect up to half a million people to hit the streets on Saturday across the...
Halloween has arrived early in Hong Kong, with costumed revellers and families thronging the city’s streets a week early and some establishments seeing business increase by up to 20 per cent. The streets of Central were packed on Saturday as visitors and locals alike joined events held under the Tourism Board’s inaugural “Hong Kong Halloween Month”. The campaign, which started last Saturday, involves street celebrations in Central, including Lan Kwai Fong, Kai Tak, Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui...
Taiwan should not rely on a single foreign satellite provider for critical wartime communications, analysts have warned, after sudden restrictions on the use of Elon Musk’s Starlink disrupted Ukrainian drone operations. The episode has renewed debate in Taiwan over the risks of entrusting essential communications to foreign commercial operators whose services could be restricted for political, military or business reasons. Analysts said this was particularly relevant as Taipei was trying to...
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the Chinese border city of Dandong on Saturday, according to state news agency Xinhua. The trip, Kim’s first visit to China in more than a year, comes ahead of next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where Donald Trump and other world leaders are expected to visit. He was accompanied by Wang Huning, China’s fourth-ranked official, according to Xinhua. Wang called on the two countries to expand...
When Grant Newsham, a retired US Marine colonel and security analyst, sat down for an interview that aired last month, he called China’s economic rise illusory and said there were “600 million Chinese at least who live on US$5 a day or less”. His remarks quickly drew online criticism as well as accusations that he was using outdated figures from 2020 while ignoring differences in purchasing power. Some commenters argued that uneven development was common across countries. Others questioned how...
Just weeks before Donald Trump’s second trip to China this year and his third meeting with President Xi Jinping, whom he has called a “truly great” friend, his administration is intensifying its crackdown on Confucius Institutes – Beijing-backed centres that promote Chinese language and culture at universities abroad. Long viewed by critics as instruments of Beijing’s soft power and cultural diplomacy, the institutes are back in the crosshairs of US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who says the...
Hong Kong and mainland Chinese police have arrested 33 people in a joint crackdown on a syndicate that allegedly stole credit cards from residents who had travelled north to Shenzhen, with losses exceeding HK$1.8 million (US$229,500). Superintendent Tsang Chun-kit of the Crime Kowloon East Regional Headquarters said on Saturday that “card carriers” then immediately crossed the border to buy mobile phones and resell them for cash, all before the victims could realise what had happened. “All the...
Typhoon Champi continued to batter China’s eastern coast on Saturday, grounding over a hundred flights and prompting the authorities to relocate tens of thousands of people, while weakening as it moved towards Japan. Flights from airports in Shanghai as well as Fujian and Zhejiang provinces were grounded. China Eastern Airlines said it had cancelled 39 domestic flights to and from Shanghai’s two main airports while flights to and from the cities of Fuzhou and Wenzhou were also affected. The...
Hong Kong authorities should act as a “visible hand” to break down barriers erected by vested interests and revive growth momentum through reform under its maiden five-year plan, a former Beijing official overseeing the city’s affairs has said. Deng Zhonghua, former deputy director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, also said the city had to adopt a reform-oriented approach to empower emerging industries through deregulation. Hong Kong also needed to address “deep-rooted...