Day: March 30, 2026

Flight bookings in China have grown 20 per cent year on year ahead of the annual Ching Ming Festival holiday that starts this weekend and follows public school breaks in much of the country – despite higher airfares on account of rising fuel prices. Holiday bookings had reached 2.04 million flight tickets as of Thursday, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing figures from data provider TravelSky Technology. CCTV’s Sunday report said cross-border holiday flight bookings inbound and outbound stood at… South China Morning Post

Taiwan has pushed back against a growing number of foreign governments that label it part of China in their internal systems. But questions are mounting over whether Taipei’s retaliatory moves can deliver results. The dispute has widened in recent weeks after South Korea, Denmark and Cameroon were found to have changed how they designate the island in official systems, such as those that handle visa documents, residence permits and international conference credentials. Taipei has responded with a mix of symbolic and practical countermeasures. Advertisement These include relabelling “Korea” as “South…

The recent surge in US service members in the Middle East suggested the Iran war could become a protracted, low-intensity conflict as Donald Trump eyes his trip to China in May, Chinese military analysts said. On Sunday, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that several hundred US Army Rangers and Navy Seals had arrived in the Middle East, joining roughly 3,500 marines and sailors who were deployed earlier and bringing the number of American troops in the region to over 50,000 troops, a 10,000 increase since the…

China’s pig prices have plunged to their lowest level in nearly eight years, as the country struggles to deal with a persistent supply glut triggered by the spread of huge industrial farms and a post-holiday drop in meat consumption. Live pigs were selling for 11.05 yuan (US$1.60) per kilogram on average during the third week of March, down 2.9 per cent from the previous week and 28 per cent from a year earlier, data from China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs showed. Prices are now at their lowest level…

China is seeing surging public interest in science fiction amid its push for technological development, with revenues reaching a record high and online search traffic more than tripling last year, according to a new report. China’s sci-fi industry saw its gross revenues reach 126.1 billion yuan (US$18.2 billion) in 2025, up 15.7 per cent year on year, according to an annual report released at the China Science Fiction Convention on Friday, as reported by Xinhua. The report also highlighted a 203.3 per cent year-on-year surge in sci-fi-related search traffic in…

Science and Nature are among the world’s most prestigious journals, which most scientists strive to publish in but never will. By the age of 30, quantum physicist Zhu Zijie had already published in both with significant discoveries on the behaviour of cold atoms. After graduating from Peking University, he went to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) – Albert Einstein’s alma mater – for graduate studies and stayed there as a postdoctoral researcher for over a year. Advertisement In March, Zhu returned to China from Switzerland to…