China is putting ecosystems on the road to recovery
European industry has bristled at EU plans to force businesses to diversify their supply chains away from China, as the bloc gears up for a new package of de-risking measures later this year. In December, the European Commission will present a trio of new instruments, none of which will name China, but the overall aim is to wind down dependencies on Beijing and allow the EU to punch back in a trade war scenario. One tool – DiversifyEU – could compel businesses in key sectors to expand their...
Shen Jiaoqi, a banker living in southern China’s Guangdong province, cannot stop watching microdramas. The shows are so addictive that she sometimes spends entire days gazing at her phone. One time, she even kept watching while she showered. “Honestly, I was watching for the eye candy rather than the plots,” she said. “The AI has really made the characters look stunning.” Shen is far from alone. Microdramas have exploded in popularity in China over the past few years, offering viewers a quick...
Immigration rules are discouraging a growing number of air travellers from visiting certain destinations, a global aviation survey has found, while geopolitical tensions are also influencing travel decisions, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), an airline industry body, said its annual Global Passenger Survey found that 43 per cent of respondents had been put off from visiting certain destinations by immigration requirements, up from 33...
Australia has returned two stone sculptures to China after more than 30 years abroad. The statues, showing the heads of a military official and civil servant, had been given to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra by a private collector and date back to the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration received the heads on Wednesday, according to the state broadcaster CCTV. They are thought to have been removed from two imperial mausoleums in Henan...
On a hillside in Anji, in Zhejiang province, a cluster of umbrella-like canopies steps gently down the slope, following the rows of tea bushes. There is no grand entrance, no plinth, no monumental block of stone. On October 22, at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, this project, Anji Hood by RoarcRenew Architects, was named Cultural Space of the Year at the Frame Awards 2026, chosen from more than 1,000 submissions by 100 jurors across 10 panels. I served on the Frame Awards 2026 grand jury for the...
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced additional military cooperation funding for the Philippines and agreed with Manila on efforts for enhanced interoperability between their forces on Wednesday, as Washington sought to strengthen its defence posture along the first island chain. The Pentagon disclosed neither the size of the funding increase nor a timetable for the coordination initiative following Hegseth’s meeting with Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr in Cebu on the...
Huawei Technologies started presenting its case on Wednesday, arguing that as a cutting-edge global tech leader it had no interest in stealing trade secrets, in a high-stakes criminal trial involving dozens of witnesses, legions of lawyers and untold millions of US dollars in legal fees. The Shenzhen-based company has pleaded not guilty to 14 criminal counts in New York’s Eastern District Court, including racketeering conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud and trade secret theft spanning more than...
Real Madrid has issued an apology to China over Kylian Mbappe’s controversial remarks about the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, after the Spanish football club’s initial response failed to quell anger in China. In a statement published on its website on Wednesday, the club apologised to the Chinese people for “any discomfort” caused by the French footballer’s remarks, a day after Mbappe issued his own public apology. The apology came after Chinese state broadcaster CCTV Sports rejected Real...
Hong Kong International Airport has become one of the first two organisations certified under an international aviation industry group’s digital identity programme, as it seeks to expand its facial recognition system beyond the city. However, the wider adoption of facial recognition technology has been slower than expected, due to government regulations and privacy requirements, according to a senior aviation industry official. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced on...
When a star like our sun grows old, it puffs up into a red giant that can gobble up its nearest planets. But Chinese astronomers say they have found three solar systems where planets should have been eaten this way yet somehow survived – a puzzle that could change how scientists picture Earth’s distant future. Using Nasa’s TESS space telescope, a team led by Qian Shengbang from Yunnan University showed that three Jupiter-like planets – each hugging an ageing star in the northern sky – had lived...
Traffic police have issued more than 220,000 tickets for parking-related offences in each of the past three years, raking in at least HK$70 million (US$8.92 million) a year for Hong Kong’s coffers, but a lawmaker said inspections could be enhanced to target more offenders. In a written reply to the Legislative Council on Wednesday, Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said police issued 259,589, 242,550 and 225,489 fixed penalty tickets in 2023, 2024 and 2025 respectively to...
