Day: August 2, 2025

The agency’s advertisement promised just the kind of “cutting-edge” expertise that Chris Wong was looking for. Advertisement The 21-year-old arts student was aiming to get into a graduate programme overseas after completing his studies in Australia, and the “commercial research” firm could give him a ticket in. For nearly 20,000 yuan (US$2,800), the Beijing-based agency would guide Wong through a three-month independent online course of study in his field to produce a research paper that would be published in a leading journal. The paper would help him stand out from…

A senior Chinese official has visited the epicentre of the country’s chikungunya fever outbreak, as the number of cases of the mosquito-borne virus rises. Advertisement Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong visited the southern city of Foshan in Guangdong province earlier in the week, urging authorities to “strictly implement port health quarantine measures”, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday. Liu told city authorities to “improve prevention and control measures”, “effectively eliminate mosquitoes” and “cut off epidemic spread channels”, the report said. Foshan, a manufacturing hub of 10 million residents, accounted for…

At 8.30am on Monday, 24-year-old Lisa Sun leaves her flat in Shenzhen and begins her long commute to work. Advertisement It starts with an e-bike ride through her neighbourhood, followed by a packed Metro journey, a border crossing intermission, and a similarly packed MTR trip. Ninety minutes later, she steps out into the bustle of Causeway Bay in Hong Kong – ready to start her day at the office. She repeats the same journey in reverse after work, finally getting home close to 9pm. Sun, born in the southwestern province…

China is investing hundreds of millions of US dollars to develop soy bean and grain farms in Angola as it seeks to reduce its reliance on the United States for supplies and improve food security. Advertisement Last month, two giant state-owned Chinese firms signed deals worth US$350 million to develop tens of thousands of hectares of land in the southern African country. One of the companies, SinoHydro Group, a hydropower and civil engineering firm, will invest more than US$100 million in return for a 25-year, tax-free land concession covering 30,000…

They could not look less alike in the supermarket aisle, but a Chinese-led research team has uncovered an ancient link that makes a forerunner of the tomato a genetic parent of the potato. Advertisement By examining genomes and data sets from cultivated and wild potato species, the scientists traced the tuberous plant’s evolution back about nine million years to a moment when a tomato ancestor created a hybrid with a group of potato-like – but tuberless – plants called etuberosum. They published their findings in the journal Cell on Thursday.…

Chinese authorities have tightened oversight of imported Vietnamese durians this year after finding “excessive levels” of two potentially harmful substances in the popular, high-value fruit. Advertisement The General Administration of Customs of China now requires enhanced pre-export safety checks and compliance testing before shipments leave the source country, with “qualified” test reports to be attached to durians, a customs official told the Post, requesting anonymity due to internal rules. She said the administration had intensified testing for the organic compound alkaline yellow and the metal cadmium in Vietnamese durians, after…