Month: August 2025

Chinese space engineers made small but deliberate changes to last year’s historic sample retrieval mission to the far side of the moon to avoid political friction in the South China Sea, according to a new paper. Advertisement The Chang’e-6 spacecraft left the Wenchang spaceport on Hainan Island on board a Long March-5 rocket in May 2024, returning to Earth the following month with the world’s first lunar samples from the moon’s hidden side. According to the paper published last month by China’s Journal of Astronautics, the Long March-5 flew southeast…

Advertisement Wu Zeke, deputy head of the warfare bureau at the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department, told reporters on Wednesday there would be “combat-oriented joint formations” made up of land combat, maritime combat, air defence and missile defence groups, as well as information warfare, unmanned combat, rear support and strategic strike groups. He said aircraft flying over Tiananmen Square during the parade on September 3 would be in “modular” and “systematic” formations. Wu Zeke, deputy head of the warfare bureau at the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department (centre),…

South China’s Guangdong province has announced its ambition to join the country’s commercial space sector race, promising financial and policy support for companies wanting to build low-orbit satellite constellation systems and promote their application in futuristic industries including space mining and space tourism. Advertisement Guangdong plans to use government procurement to support key innovative products and application scenarios for satellite constellation systems, which also include telecommunications and logistics, according to a commercial space policy statement released by the provincial government on Tuesday. “Companies will be supported in continuously scaling up…

The world’s two most-populous countries made significant progress on the diplomatic front recently, and those championing such moves may have Washington to thank. Advertisement India has agreed to a long-standing Chinese proposal to ease border tensions while also resuming direct flights and business links, as both sides explore trade cooperation – particularly in strategic sectors like rare earths – in a bid to reset their strained ties. Experts highlight that even as deep mistrust lingers, the Asian powers view mounting US tariff pressure as an opportunity to show Washington that…

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is likely to showcase a new type of advanced stealth attack drone during September’s Victory Day parade in Beijing, rehearsal images circulating online suggest. Advertisement The FH-97, a single-engine, ground-attack uncrewed aircraft, has been described as potentially China’s first combat-ready stealth drone, capable of coordinated aerial warfare alongside crewed jets. Photos leaked online over the weekend appeared to show an FH-97 takng part in the rehearsals for the massive military parade on September 3, which will commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender and the…

Could a city best known for its classical gardens and ancient canals emerge as China’s answer to Boston – the global epicentre of biotechnology innovation? Advertisement Five years ago, the eastern city of Suzhou set forth a bold vision: to transform itself into the “Pharma Valley of China” by 2030, benchmarking its ambitions directly against Greater Boston’s world-leading life sciences ecosystem. The city in Jiangsu province, steeped in history and famous for its ancient water towns and picturesque gardens, hosts the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park – a hub for electronic…

This year, China marks the 80th anniversary of its victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression – part of the broader victory in the World Anti-Fascist War. Across the country, commemorative exhibitions, television documentaries and a wave of summer blockbuster films have been rolled out to mark the occasion. Advertisement These films, set in the dark days of the 1930s and 1940s, are not just historical dramas; they are cultural reminders. They show the destruction of war, the brutality of the Japanese military aggressors, the resilience of ordinary…