Day: October 2, 2025

Advertisement A warming Earth also made Ragasa – the strongest storm recorded this year – more powerful when it made landfall in Guangdong province, according to researchers from Imperial College London. They added that as the planet continued to warm, tropical cyclones were expected to become increasingly destructive. “In the case of Ragasa, a category three at landfall [under the scale used to measure Atlantic hurricanes], we estimate that this type of event was about 49 per cent more likely compared to pre-industrial times,” the rapid attribution study from Imperial’s…

Long known as China’s coffee capital, the southwestern province of Yunnan is moving higher up the global value chain as rising international prices and overseas demand fuel an export boom. Advertisement The value of outbound shipments of coffee and derivative products from Yunnan hit 7.7 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) in the first eight months of 2025, the highest of any region, with beans shipped to more than 30 countries including Germany and Vietnam. Overseas orders are also driving industrial reforms, with factories upgrading their equipment and technology to meet changing…

Chinese investors sitting on 150 billion yuan (US$21 billion) worth of gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are likely to enjoy an extended run of a world-beating rally in the metal’s price amid robust demand, according to Swiss banks Julius Baer and Lombard Odier. Advertisement Even after gaining almost 50 per cent this year, gold prices were set to rise to US$4,000 an ounce in the next 12 months, Julius Baer said, while Lombard Odier said the precious metal would rise to US$3,900. JPMorgan Private Bank was more bullish, predicting gold would…

As Washington and its allies continue to slap sanctions related to Xinjiang on Chinese companies, citing allegations of human rights violations, a group of scholars is trying to challenge some of those claims, digging into their years of field research and networks of contacts in the far western autonomous region. Advertisement Yet in their efforts to debunk the claims, the academics keep running into a brick wall: the reticence of regional authorities. Generally seen by Beijing as well meaning, the scholars said they enjoyed decent access to the region. But…

For over a decade, commentators have warned of China’s looming economic decline. Today, the challenges are real: US-China trade frictions, weak household consumption, an overstretched property sector and a shrinking workforce. Making money in China may feel harder than before. Advertisement Yet to see China solely through the lens of stagnation is to miss the profound transformation under way. Far from collapsing, China is restructuring. More importantly, it has nurtured a generation of entrepreneurs and consumers who are driving competitiveness at scale and continuing to integrate into global systems. A…