Month: March 2024

China is the largest bilateral creditor of Sri Lanka, which declared bankruptcy in 2022 and suspended repayments on some US$83 billion in local and foreign loans after it ran out of foreign reserves. Debt restructuring was top of the agenda for Gunawardena’s visit to China, where he held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing before travelling south to Hainan province to address the Boao Forum. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of a meeting in Beijing on Wednesday.…

Guangzhou entered the summer season on March 23, the city’s meteorological bureau announced on Saturday. “This marks the earliest onset of summer in Guangzhou since complete meteorological records began in 1961. The previous record was set on March 26, 2021,” local daily Yangcheng Evening News reported. Typically, summer in Guangzhou would begin on April 16. However, over the past decade, the season has consistently started earlier, including four years when it arrived in March, the report said. Saturday’s announcement from Guangzhou officials came as prematurely high temperatures were reported across…

China issued a travel advisory for citizens visiting the United States, asking them to take safety precautions and be prepared for “various unexpected situations”, such as being searched. Several Chinese students and company employees have recently been subjected to “unwarranted interrogations and harassment” by US airport law enforcement officers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on its WeChat account on Friday. Their phones, computers and other luggage items were searched piece by piece, and several people were banned from entering the country, it said. Americans studying in China are safe…

The second milestone transplant took place in the United States, where a pig’s kidney was put into a patient with end-stage kidney failure. The procedure had previously been performed on clinically dead patients. These surgeries, as well as others in recent years, have demonstrated the life-saving potential of xenotransplantation – the transplantation of organs or tissues from one species into another. “One of the potential benefits of xenotransplantation is the limitless graft supply that would help a lot of patients with urgent need for transplant,” said Albert Chan Chi-yan, a…

Ren on Thursday met Dai Houliang, chairman of both the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and its listed arm PetroChina, in Shenzhen where they discussed “improving corporate governance, digital transformation and intelligent development, as well as scientific and technological innovation”, according to a report on Friday by China Petroleum Daily, the CNPC’s official newspaper. The talks were held in conjunction with Dai’s visit to Huawei’s Computing Innovation Lab, the report said. The facility is responsible for research and development on the telecommunications equipment giant’s Kunpeng and Ascend processors used…

The relics, on display since January at the Meridian Gate – the pavilion and main entrance to the 600-year-old palace – also reflect the Global South’s growing willingness to organise exhibitions outside Western mediation, observers said. From Al-Ula’s sandstone altars to Persian ceramics carved with Quranic patterns, the exhibitions examine the intertwined histories of Islam and ancient China through the exchange of goods and cultures along the Silk Road. How China’s Saudi-Iran deal shows Beijing’s Mideast influence Many of the relics cannot be displayed elsewhere because of extensive sanctions imposed…

DAPA plans to contract the first 20 units of KF-21 this year, while the remaining 20 units will be contracted by February next year after completing performance verification tests by June, which will include the jets’ connectivity with air-to-air missiles and active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar capabilities. The South Korean arms procurement agency stressed that securing fighter aircraft that met “the future battlefield operation concept” was essential following the retirement of older operational fighter jets. “Through this project, it is expected to contribute to strengthening the air force’s base…

China’s consumption recovery wasn’t as impressive as in other major economies in the absence of big government handouts to relieve pressure on pandemic-hit incomes. Given this, the 7.2 per cent rise in retail sales last year was decent. Domestic tourism was a big surprise, with revenues more than doubling to about 4 per cent of the gross domestic product. The automotive sector was also a significant positive with output up by 9 per cent. The property sector was the main drag. Real estate under construction was down by 7.2 per…