Month: March 2026

As the US-Israeli war on Iran enters its second month, another major shipping lane is at risk of closure but the chances of a prolonged conflict remain slim, according to Chinese analysts. The assessment came on Saturday as Iran-backed Houthi rebels joined the fray by firing missiles at Israel from Yemen. The Israeli military said it intercepted one of the projectiles. Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted a Houthi source as saying the missile attack was meant “as a warning”. Advertisement The Houthis operate in the northern part of the…

Citing security concerns, Beijing will significantly restrict drone sales, storage and transport after tightening regulation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the Chinese capital’s airspace, according to state media. Beijing has banned the sale or lease of UAVs and 17 designated “core components” to any person or organisation unless granted public security approval, according to the regulation approved by the municipal legislative body on Friday. Bringing new drones or core components into Beijing’s administrative area would also be forbidden, state news agency Xinhua reported. It noted there would be an…

The threat to employment posed by artificial intelligence was not a “robot apocalypse” that would steal jobs, but “algorithmic collusion” that could quietly erode wages and workplace safety, Ekkehard Ernst, the International Labour Organization’s chief macroeconomist, warned in Beijing on Tuesday. While public anxiety frequently centred on the potential for AI to trigger a mass wave of unemployment, Ernst said its disruptive potential had been overestimated. “I don’t think that we are anywhere close to major disruption of labour markets,” he said. Advertisement Citing a study released by American AI…

The school of architecture and urban planning of Nanjing University announced the appointment on its social media account on March 17. Penz is an emeritus professor at the university, a former director of The Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies, a fellow of Darwin College and director of the Design, Visualisation and Communication Digital Laboratory. Advertisement He was selected for China’s National Leading Talent Programme in 2025, having already collaborated with Nanjing University for many years before joining full-time. Born in France in 1953, Francois Penz studied architecture at…

The law of unintended consequences, a theory popularised by American sociologist Robert K Merton, has rarely been more applicable to any situation than to US President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. Those consequences will be far greater than generally imagined. Their impact will fall heavily on Asia, the world’s most energy-import-dependent region and will almost certainly hurt US ally Japan more than it will the US’ main rival, China. Indeed, China may even emerge from the crisis with an enhanced international image. There is widespread agreement that the assault on…

A prominent Chinese political scientist has cautioned Southeast Asian countries against leveraging China-US tensions for short-term benefits, saying this strategy could backfire. Speaking on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia on Friday, Zheng Yongnian, dean of the school of public policy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, said that in the context of South China Sea sovereignty disputes, the key challenge lay in how countries interpreted the China-US rivalry. “Many countries believe that China and the US are inevitably heading towards confrontation, perhaps even a direct…

Chinese scientists have created an all-weather electrolyte that could improve lithium batteries, allowing them to operate more efficiently at room temperature and in extreme environments. The research team from Shanghai and Tianjin said batteries made using the hydrofluorocarbon-based electrolyte had more than double the energy density of those made with traditional electrolytes when operating at room temperature. They said the batteries could also operate efficiently at minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit). Advertisement The development paves the way for longer-lasting lithium batteries that are better adapted to a…

China pledged to continue its support for South Africa on the same day that it emerged that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had been disinvited from this year’s Group of Seven (G7) summit in France following US threats to boycott the event. On Thursday, Pretoria said that Ramaphosa’s invitation – issued personally by French President Emmanuel Macron at last year’s Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg – had been withdrawn because the organisers did not want a no-show from the United States. Presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya told the SABC, the…

The way Stephen Selby tells it, Guiguzi (鬼谷子) sounds like the ancient Chinese version of Dale Carnegie’s enduring self-help book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Given its contents and message, it should have been a text for the ages. After all, whether ancient, modern, postmodern, Eastern or Western, many of us still need to kiss up to wayward bosses and stroke their egos if we want to advance our careers – not to mention ancient despots who could chop off your head for saying the wrong thing. However,…

A former top official of Guangdong province, widely seen as a “right-hand man” of former provincial governor Ma Xingrui, is under investigation for corruption. The investigation into Guo Yonghang, Communist Party secretary for Guangzhou from June 2023 until December, deepens the uncertainties about the fate of Ma, who was abruptly removed as Xinjiang’s party secretary in July and has since vanished from public life. Guo was named vice-chairman of the Guangdong provincial committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – the country’s top political advisory body – in…