Day: December 30, 2025

China’s factory activity returned to expansionary territory in December – beating market expectations to end an eight-month contraction – but analysts said it might be premature to view the rebound as a sign of sustained stabilisation. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) stood at 50.1 in December, up from 49.2 the previous month, according to data released on Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics. The reading exceeded a projection of 49.6 from economists polled by the financial data provider Wind. Advertisement The monthly index compiles survey data given by…

China is set to break its own record in hypergravity research with a colossal new centrifuge that can spin multi-tonne samples at unmatched intensities. The machine, known as CHIEF1900, was built by Shanghai Electric Nuclear Power Group and shipped to Zhejiang University in eastern China on December 22 for installation. Once up and running, it will allow researchers to compress space and time, recreating catastrophic events such as dam failures and earthquakes inside a laboratory, according to the university. With a capacity of 1,900 g·tonne – a unit that combines…

European aviation giant Airbus won another two major orders from Chinese clients for a total of 90 A320neo aircraft on Tuesday, just a day after receiving orders for 55 passenger jets of the same model from two other Chinese airlines. The orders came weeks after Airbus’ CEO accompanied French President Emmanuel Macron on a state visit to China and mark a big win for the European manufacturer over its American competitor Boeing in one of the world’s biggest aviation markets. Air China, Beijing’s state-owned flag carrier airline, announced in a…

Myanmar’s military junta is staging the country’s first general election since its coup in 2021. Western critics have dismissed it as a “sham”, while the generals have insisted that the polls are “free and fair”. Posting on X, Tom Andrews, the United Nations rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, called the election “a theatre of the absurd”. He may be right but it is also beside the point. Andrews was a long-time foreign supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose second-term government was overthrown by the military shortly after a…

President Xi Jinping has issued a mandate to expand grain production as China moves to shield its food supply from global volatility, calling for renewed efforts to modernise agriculture and rural areas over the coming year. Speaking at a two-day work conference in Beijing that ended on Tuesday, Xi urged a “no-relaxation” approach to grain output and called for higher overall production capacity and efficiency by integrating high-quality land, seeds, machinery and farming techniques. “We must improve the effectiveness of policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit rural areas and enrich farmers,…

As families and friends gather to bid farewell to a turbulent 2025, the unassuming potato will, no matter where you live, almost certainly find its place on the dinner table. Domesticated nearly 10,000 years ago in Peru, it did not voyage beyond the Americas until the 16th century. Yet no vegetable has played a more significant role in human history and politics than this humble tuber. Dubbed the calorie king, potatoes produce more calories and nutrients per unit of land than any other major crop. A single acre could feed…

China-founded start-up Tripo AI on Tuesday launched a major update to its flagship platform, renamed Tripo Studio 1.0, that speeds up artificial intelligence-driven 3D content creation by up to 200 per cent compared with its previous version, as the company’s international user community continues to expand. A pioneer in large-scale, general-purpose 3D models, Tripo AI’s user base has more than doubled to 6.5 million from 3 million in August, company founder and CEO Simon Song Yachen told the South China Morning Post in a recent interview. After the launch of…