Month: July 2025

China and Japan have traded accusations after a series of close encounters between their warplanes last week. Advertisement On Sunday the Chinese defence ministry accused Japanese reconnaissance aircraft of “repeatedly” entering China’s air defence identification zone in the East China Sea. The comments followed a Japanese statement issued three days earlier that accused a Chinese JH-7 fighter-bomber of making “unusual approaches” towards a Japanese YS-11EB electronic-intelligence aircraft. on Wednesday and Thursday. “Such unusual approaches by Chinese military aircraft could lead to an accidental collision,” the Japanese defence ministry said. However,…

The fallout between China and India over the 14th Dalai Lama’s succession plan has put a strain on their improving relations, but observers say the dispute is unlikely to completely jeopardise the thaw between the neighbours. Advertisement The dispute was triggered last week by comments from a senior Indian minister, Kiren Rijiju, who said only the Dalai Lama himself and the institution he established had the authority to identify his successor as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Then on Sunday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended 90th birthday greetings…

Catering at luxury hotels typically involves high-end banquets and formal entertainment, with exquisite decor and masterfully crafted dishes often seen as worth the high price tag. Advertisement But for many consumers in China, that is changing. In July, the five-star Zhongwu Hotel in Changzhou, Jiangsu province – ranked second among 10 luxury hotels in the city on Trip.com – surprised observers when it launched a street vendor service offering budget meal boxes prepared by its catering team. “You must first solve the problem of survival. If you can’t even solve…

Meituan, mainland China’s top on-demand delivery giant, said on Sunday that daily orders on its platform have surged to another all-time high – a sign that the company has managed to fend off competition from rivals like JD.com and Alibaba Group Holding. Advertisement The Beijing-based company said daily transactions had reached 150 million, just days after surpassing 120 million last week. The firm’s record daily orders for both food and retail goods delivery comes at a time when major Chinese e-commerce players are investing heavily to boost transaction volumes in…

The government-affiliated kindergarten that Lily Wang works for in northeastern China used to be reserved for the children of officials, but China’s plunging birth rate means it is having to cast its net wider nowadays. Advertisement “The leadership has shifted its approach, enlarging the enrolment base and learning from the southern regions by adopting group-based management,” said Wang, a senior teacher at the kindergarten in Harbin, Heilongjiang’s provincial capital. It began recruiting pupils from the general populace in autumn last year. While it still gives priority to officials’ children when…

China has expanded the probe into a kindergarten lead poisoning scandal that has shocked the nation, with the central government getting involved in a rare intervention in a provincial investigation. Advertisement On Saturday night the authorities in Gansu said the investigation would be led by provincial leaders working alongside a task force from the State Council, the country’s cabinet. Parents said local tests had not highlighted that anything was amiss and the problem only came to light when the children were tested in another province. The local police said on…

Advertisement But politicians in India, sitting downstream, have voiced fears the dam could be a “water bomb” exacerbating floods in monsoons, or that it could steal water in dry seasons. Since Beijing approved the project in December last year, there have been lots of discussions, but little proof. Now a joint study by Hohai University and China’s Ministry of Water Resources suggested the dam’s impact on the Yarlung Tsangpo could be opposite to India’s fears. The study draws data from two large dams already working upstream: Zangmu and Jiacha. Measured…