Day: May 31, 2026

China responds to Japan-Philippines boundary talks with expanded sea patrols

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According to a statement from China’s coastguard, a formation led by its vessel Daishan conducted law enforcement patrols on Monday in waters east of Taiwan “in accordance with the law”. “This is a necessary action taken in response to Japan and the Philippines’ unilateral announcement of the launch of maritime boundary delimitation negotiations in waters east of China’s Taiwan island, which seriously infringes upon China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” China Coast Guard spokesman Jiang Lue said in the statement. Advertisement “We urge Japan and the Philippines to…

Why a fabled Chinese surgeon’s tomb may help rewrite history of anaesthetic use

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On October 16, 1846, the American dentist William T.G. Morton successfully demonstrated the use of inhaled ether anaesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, an event widely considered a turning point in modern surgery. But this record may have to be rewritten after new evidence emerged that in the 14th century AD, Chinese surgeons were making their own anaesthetics from plants. Their use had previously been recorded in ancient Chinese texts, but now the first physical evidence confirming this has been found. Advertisement The paper was published on Tuesday in…

China Exports Surveillance

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When I first read about how China tracks its citizens with surveillance cameras and also ranks them according to a set of political and social criteria set by the Communist Party, it was impossible not to think of “1984” and Big Brother. Since then, China has become the world’s superpower of surveillance, much of it augmented by artificial intelligence. It’s Mao-era policing on steroids. And as my colleagues David Pierson and Berry Wang write, that model of policing is now being exported to authoritarian states and weak democracies across the…

US takes step to halt Nvidia AI chip shipments to Chinese firms outside China

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The US Department of Commerce on Sunday moved to close a year-old potential loophole it had created that may have led companies to export ‌the world’s most advanced chips – such as Nvidia’s most sophisticated Rubin and Blackwell processors, as well as AMD’s MI350x – to Chinese entities located outside China. The unexpected guidance suggests the United States’ best artificial intelligence chips may have been making their way to the subsidiaries of Chinese AI firms based in places such as Malaysia for almost a year despite broader US efforts to…

The Guardian view on the splinternet: where China led, Iran and others are eagerly following | Editorial

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China boasts of having the world’s largest population of internet users: 1.125 billion by the end of 2025, according to official figures. But as one joke has it, the Great Firewall – blocking not only politically sensitive material but also global tech firms such as Google and Meta – has produced what looks more like the world’s largest intranet. Beijing is not an anomaly, but a pioneer. Its extraordinary investment in the apparatus of “cyber sovereignty” – others would call it censorship and repression – is guiding other authoritarian countries. A realm defined by…

China’s Rise in Drug Development Looms Over U.S.

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For decades, an annual gathering of oncologists has featured drug trials that were run mainly at American and European hospitals. But at this year’s meeting, which is being held in Chicago this weekend, the signs are everywhere of China’s ascendance as a powerhouse in drug development — and of the threat that many believe it poses to American biotechnology. The clearest sign: In what appears to be a first, one of the conference’s five coveted headliners is a presentation of a clinical trial conducted only in China. That milestone at…

The Museum of Wretched Ideas Has Reopened

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It’s the year 2026, and sometimes it feels as if we’re taking a nice leisurely walk through a Museum of Wretched Ideas. Consider what’s happening at home. Tariffs raise prices and restrain economic growth, while the federal government embraces both Gilded Age corruption and a version of the spoils system. A disturbing number of young people on the right are fascinated with fascism. An extraordinary 34 percent of young people overall express a favorable view of communism, and young Americans are far more likely than their parents or grandparents to…

In Taiwan, ‘Mainland Spouses’ From China Become a Focus of Infiltration Fears

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Among the hundreds of thousands of Chinese women who have settled in Taiwan after marrying men from the island, Hsu Chun-ying stood out for her political ambition. She organized other migrants from China, mingled with prominent Taiwanese politicians and came close to becoming a candidate for the legislature. Now she is in jail, fighting charges that she was recruited by the Chinese Communist Party to secretly infiltrate and influence Taiwan, the island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory. Prosecutors have accused her of taking instructions from Chinese officials to…

How China’s home-grown WS-10 engine helped make the country a modern air power

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As China marks the 20th anniversary of completing its first domestically developed high-thrust turbofan engine for fighter jets, the WS-10 – Woshan-10, meaning Turbofan-10 – continues its crucial role in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The WS-10 turbofan engine was code-named Taihang after the famous Chinese mountain range. The Taihang engine family serves as the backbone of the PLA’s major active combat fighters, powering fourth-generation jets such as the J-10C, the J-11B, the air force’s J-16 and the navy’s carrier-based J-15. It has also played a vital role for variants…