Month: September 2025

As China’s National Day holiday approaches, prices of hairy crabs, one of the most popular seasonal gifts at this time of the year, are down markedly as the first batches are delivered to markets across the country. Advertisement Industry insiders predict that prices will fall further, citing higher production, shrinking gift-giving demand and weak household spending. Businesses and wealthy individuals have long regarded hairy crabs, which are prized for their unique flavour, as an ideal gift for clients and officials. They have also served as an important gauge of consumer…

China’s Sanxingdui archaeological site – considered a cornerstone of early Chinese civilisation from 4,500 years ago – is pioneering digital exhibitions to show a broader international audience its immense collection, including top national treasures not permitted to travel overseas. Advertisement Yu Jian, deputy director of the Sanxingdui Museum in southwestern China, said the institution planned to show its artefacts at an international exhibition next year. Final plans for the exhibition required state approval, Yu told reporters last week at the museum in Guanghan, Sichuan province. While many of Sanxingdui’s most…

Convergence theory has long been a Western fantasy in conquering the world with liberal democratic values. It proposes that societies, especially as they industrialise, tend to become more alike in various aspects of social organisation, including work, class structure, family patterns and culture. Advertisement However, convergence theory oversimplifies the complexities of social change and ignores the unique cultural and historical contexts of different societies. It does not adequately account for power dynamics between nations and it overestimates the potential for developed nations to impose their values and structures on less…

This year marks half a century of formal diplomatic relations between China and the European Union as well as the 25th anniversary of the founding of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. As part of a series of reports examining ties between the two powers, Meredith Chen and Nora Mankel look at how China flipped the technology script with Europe. Advertisement In 1978, as China was emerging from the ruins of the Cultural Revolution, Beijing sent a high-powered delegation on a whirlwind 36-day mission to western Europe. They…

When the General Debate of the UN General Assembly’s 80th session opened on September 23, the cavernous hall in New York was once again filled with the familiar spectacle: heads of state taking the rostrum, diplomats scribbling notes and the global press parsing every phrase. Advertisement But this year’s theme – “Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights” – rang painfully hollow. As delegates extolled cooperation, the world outside the glass walls at Turtle Bay seemed consumed by war, inequity and mistrust, not least with…

The end of this month’s military parade in Beijing – a time slot traditionally reserved for the People’s Liberation Army’s most lethal nuclear weapon – was marked by a formation of DF-5C missiles, the latest variant of China’s first-ever long-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) DF-5 series. Advertisement The PLA’s other latest ICBM systems include the DF-61 and DF-31BJ, as well as the DF-41 – known to be China’s latest ICBM version in service. The DF-61 and DF-31BJ were also first unveiled in the September 3 Victory Day parade marking the…

China’s top anti-espionage agency has warned of foreign attempts to bypass Chinese export controls to obtain rare minerals essential for cutting-edge military applications. Advertisement The warning from the Ministry of State Security on Saturday came as it revealed two antimony smuggling cases, one involving a family-run criminal network and the other a group of traffickers. “Certain foreign countries, in an effort to expand their reserves of rare metals such as antimony, have sought to circumvent China’s export controls in order to obtain our scarce strategic resources,” the ministry said in…