Day: May 21, 2025

Chinese army reveals helicopter encounters with foreign navy over East China Sea

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The People’s Liberation Army has disclosed that helicopter encounters with a foreign navy took place repeatedly over the East China Sea in which the two aircraft came as close as 10 metres from each other. Advertisement The “provocations by foreign force” transpired 11 times over a period of 10 consecutive days, state broadcaster CCTV said in a report on Wednesday. The report did not specify either the time or location of the encounters, nor did it reveal the identity of the “foreign force”. But it said the Chinese helicopter was…

China’s ‘vegetable capital’ to test farming know-how in UAE’s harsh deserts

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Shouguang, a city in eastern China known for its copious vegetable production, is building a 100,000-square-meter centre for smart agriculture in the harsh deserts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to export the country’s technological advances in farming. Advertisement Leading UAE agritech firm Silal signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Shouguang Vegetable Industry Group on Monday to co-invest 120 million dirham (US$32.67 million) in the centre to transform desert farming in the Middle Eastern country, state news agency Xinhua reported. The collaboration – part of a global outreach campaign by…

In Taiwan and China, young people turn to AI chatbots for ‘cheaper, easier’ therapy

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In the pre-dawn hours, Ann Li’s anxieties felt overwhelming. She’d recently been diagnosed with a serious health problem, and she just wanted to talk to someone about it. But she hadn’t told her family, and all her friends were asleep. So instead, she turned to ChatGPT. “It’s easier to talk to AI during those nights,” the 30-year-old Taiwanese woman, tells the Guardian. In China, Yang*, a 25-year-old Guangdong resident, had never seen a mental health professional when she started talking to an AI chatbot earlier this year. Yang says it…

Japanese leaders need to give up their rice obsession

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. When you are the Japanese minister of agriculture and millions of citizens conditioned from birth to revere rice are agonising over record-high prices and depleted supermarket shelves, you have a couple of choices.  You could reassure them that their pain is fully recognised at the highest levels of government, that effective relief measures will kick in soon and that fundamental reform is being rushed through to redress decades of misguided…

Illegal entry from mainland China raises alarms about Taiwan’s maritime security

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A man from mainland China reportedly entered Taiwan illegally by sea and spent more than a month travelling freely around the island before surrendering to immigration authorities – exposing yet another loophole in the island’s maritime security. Advertisement The man – identified only by his surname, Li – departed from a beach near Fuzhou, Fujian province in September 2023, according to Taiwanese media, which first reported on the case on Wednesday. He boarded a mainland Chinese cargo vessel, sailing under the Tanzanian flag, in the Taiwan Strait after arrangements were…

Chinese drone maker EHang sees flying taxis take off by 2030 on the mainland

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Flying taxis could be used for public transport within the next five years on the mainland, according to a senior executive of Chinese passenger drone maker EHang Holdings. Advertisement “I believe that by 2030, China will likely have fixed-route air shuttle services,” chief financial officer Conor Yang said in an interview on Tuesday. “It’s also possible that in some cities, with sufficient infrastructure such as take-off and landing points, air taxi services could emerge.” The Nasdaq-listed developer of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for urban air mobility and…

Removing US tariffs would ‘kneecap’ president amid China trade talks: Trump team in court

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The Donald Trump administration defended its controversial tariffs before a trade court in New York on Wednesday, arguing that striking down the levies would “completely kneecap” the US president amid the country’s trade talks with China. Advertisement It was the second time in a week that the Court of International Trade heard a lawsuit challenging whether Trump’s use of a “national emergency” under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was legally justified to support the tariffs. The IEEPA is a 1977 law allowing a US president to impose economic measures…

Alibaba’s entertainment group renamed after killer whale as it seeks to revive growth

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Alibaba Group Holding is renaming its digital entertainment division as part of a broader push to reinvigorate growth outside its core e-commerce and cloud businesses. Advertisement Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group will be renamed Hujing Digital Media and Entertainment Group, using the Chinese name for the orca, or killer whale, Alibaba said in a statement on its official WeChat account on Wednesday. “Orcas are large but flexible and smart, and can adapt to various complex environments,” the entertainment group said in a letter to employees. “These characteristics are very…

Has the Liberal party lost Chinese Australian voters for good? – video

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After two thumping election loses, the Liberal party has a lot of soul-searching to do if it wants to regain government, especially with Chinese Australian communities. In its post-2022 election review, the party admitted more work needed to be done to win votes with Chinese Australians after electorates with significant communities all voted against the Liberal party at a higher rate than others. So why was the drubbing repeated in 2025? The Guardian

Did China just take the lead in race for space-based AI computing dominance?

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China’s launch last week of a cluster of 12 satellites that will form the foundation of the world’s first orbital computing constellation signalled the country’s ambition to dominate space-based computational power. Advertisement The constellation, a collaboration between aerospace innovators like Guoxing Aerospace and AI specialists at Zhejiang Lab is designed to process data in orbit rather than rely on land infrastructure. The system aims to take advantage of the unlimited solar energy and lower cooling demands of space, as well as today’s falling launch costs. There is also the promise…