Month: January 2026

Chinese scientists have unveiled a cooling technology that can plunge a liquid cooling medium from room temperature to sub-zero levels in less than half a minute. This leap in thermal engineering offered a promising heat management solution for energy-hungry data centres that were mushrooming across China and the United States, they said. By harnessing the unique behaviour of ammonium thiocyanate in water under pressure, the team created a liquid cooling system that mimics squeezing a “wet sponge” – when releasing pressure, it triggers rapid redissolution of salt, absorbing massive amounts…

More foreign companies have rolled out instant delivery services exclusively for China or upgraded to more comprehensive offerings in the country, as they vie to stand out in the highly digitalised market and cater to consumers’ strong demand for instant services. Multinationals offering instant delivery now include Swedish furniture retailer Ikea, German tyre manufacturer Continental, US warehouse-style retailer Sam’s Club and German discount supermarket chain Aldi Nord. “China leads the world in internet penetration and boasts a well-developed digital infrastructure,” said Fu Yifu, a special researcher at Su Merchants Bank…

Xia Xian, a virologist who was formerly a project scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, has left the United States to take up a position studying highly pathogenic viruses – which have a strong ability to cause severe disease or illness in infected hosts – at his alma mater, Wuhan University, in central China. According to the university’s website, Xia became a full-time research professor and principal investigator in November at the College of Life Sciences and the State Key Laboratory of Virology and Biosafety, which is also…

For Choi Yu-jin, a 31-year-old Seoul-based fashion designer, the perfect getaway requires three elements: value, spotless streetscapes and unforgettable flavours. And Shanghai, she says, delivers on all counts. Three visits since 2024, with a fourth planned for April, are testament to a city that is increasingly capturing the imagination – and wallets – of South Korean travellers, buoyed by visa-free access and a burgeoning reputation for cosmopolitan appeal. “Restaurants and streets were notably clean. And even upscale dining came at lower prices than in Korea, without compromising on taste,” Choi…

A new PLA missile could provide a cheap and widely deployable option to knock out fragile US sea-lifting capabilities in an attrition war, a Chinese military magazine has suggested. The YJ-18C, a subsonic land-attack cruise missile first revealed in Beijing’s September 3 Victory Day military parade, has the potential to be repurposed for anti-ship use, according to an analysis in Shipborne Weapons Defence Review. Advertisement By sacrificing speed for improved stealth, extended range and simpler manufacturing, the YJ-18C offered a cost-effective way to arm the People’s Liberation Army’s “second tier”…

Dressed like 1970s rock stars evoking bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Velvet Sundown look the part of a real band – with one key difference: despite millions of listeners, they do not exist. The group is generated by artificial intelligence. AI-generated music is exploding, with the rapid expansion of platforms like the United States’ Suno and Udio, as well as China’s Mureka. From creation to copyright, the technology is making waves globally. But the US and China are approaching it in very different ways, and the ways they shape…

China’s unrelenting anti-corruption drive will improve – not compromise – the military’s fighting strength, two signed commentaries published in the PLA Daily have argued. The articles – one on Friday and the other on Saturday – in the People’s Liberation Army mouthpiece called corruption the “number one killer” of battle effectiveness and cautioned against both “unrealistic optimism” and “harmful pessimism” about the anti-graft campaign – suggesting the crackdown on corruption will not end any time soon. “The experience has shown that the harder the anti-corruption campaign, the stronger, the purer…