Day: June 19, 2026

Everyone knows the story: when Spanish conquistadors rode into the New World, Native Americans were stunned by a towering, four-legged creature they had never seen before. Horses, the theory goes, were a European import to the Americas. But a new fossil DNA study indicates that horses actually originated in North America millions of years ago and only reached Europe thanks to an unexpected genetic middleman in China. An extinct lineage called the Dalian horse, once dismissed as a local oddity in northeastern China, had a distinctive American ancestry and passed…

Carl Jung was a big fan of the I Ching, also known as the Book of Changes. He was also a close friend of Richard Wilhelm, whose German translation was probably the most influential Western version of the ancient Chinese text in the last century. But over the years, I have become convinced that the great Jung didn’t really get it. A red flag is that he thinks it is very difficult for the Western mind to grasp what I will call the Chinese spirit of the I Ching, which…

For much of the 20th century, many were accustomed to thinking of people as an ever-expanding resource. As the number of people grew, so did labour markets, consumer markets, scientific communities, production systems and armies. In 1950, the world’s population was about 2.5 billion. In 2026, it is reaching 8.3 billion. In just 75 years, the population has increased more than 3.3 times. In this sense, the current human population may turn out not to be a permanent norm, but a historical anomaly… South China Morning Post

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz signalled a major shift in Berlin’s economic relations with Beijing on Friday, saying the Chinese currency was undervalued by 30 per cent, well above the International Monetary Fund’s estimate of “about 16 per cent”. Speaking in Brussels after a European Council summit, Merz said China was “flooding markets” through the use of “high subsidies”, adding that “subsidising overcapacities” along with a “currency that isn’t convertible freely … is not… South China Morning Post

A Chinese hypersonic missile faster than five times the speed of sound, racing just above the sea surface, while staying below the radar horizon. Could this be a new nightmare for the US Navy? Possibly, if a new ambitious low-altitude hypersonic flight research programme launched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Monday yields results. The programme will look into the technology that could support the development of such weapons. The project, funded under CAS’ Stable Support Programme… South China Morning Post

A defence fair in Beijing has shown portable laser weapons that can be carried by a single soldier to shoot down drones, realising a vision that was once the domain of science fiction. The Lijian series, meaning “sharp swords”, developed by Chinese defence supplier Harbin Xinguang Optic-Electronics Technology, was displayed at the Defence Information Equipment & Technology Exhibition 2026, a three-day event that started in Beijing on Tuesday. The Lijian series uses high-energy lasers to shoot down drones at ranges up to 1,200 metres (3,900 feet), although the portable models…

South China Morning Post