Month: June 2026

An engineer who spent decades in Norway’s energy industry has returned as distinguished professor at the China University of Petroleum-Beijing, a post he says will build a bridge with Europe to help create sustainable energy solutions. In a ceremony on June 13, university president Jin Yan handed a letter of appointment to Yang Tao, a member of both the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences and the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, for a position at the Chinese institution where he had first earned his chemical engineering degrees. Yang…

In a historic ruling, the US Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a Trump administration executive order targeting birthright citizenship, preserving a defining principle of what it means to be born an American. The court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Barbara, holding that children born in the United States to undocumented parents or parents on temporary visas are entitled to US citizenship. “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights – to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to…

Ro Khanna, the ranking member of the US House Select Committee on China, has defended calling a witness “racist” during testimony last week over comments on Chinese-Americans who obtain US citizenship through birthright. The heated exchange took place during a June 25 hearing on economic espionage and subnational influence, where Khanna confronted Michael Lucci, founder of the Texas-based State Armor non-profit organisation, over a controversial social media post published in April. In the post, Lucci referenced two Chinese-Americans – one linked by authorities to an alleged attempted bombing at MacDill…

When people talk about the race for artificial intelligence, they usually focus on software. Headlines revolve around ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek or the latest breakthrough model. Governments announce AI strategies and investors pour billions into start-ups promising to transform everything from medicine to education. Nonetheless, the most consequential battle in the AI age may not be over algorithms at all. It may be over the machines. Behind every chatbot response and AI-generated image lies a vast physical infrastructure of semiconductor factories, data centres, cloud networks, transmission lines and power plants. These…

China’s top leadership has warned of the dangers of extreme weather and the need for better forecasting and disaster prevention, according to state media. The Politburo issued the warning at its first flood and drought prevention meeting for the year in Beijing on Tuesday, a gathering chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Politburo urged local governments to take “forceful” measures against drought, flooding and typhoons, to “always put the safety of people’s lives first”, evacuate in a timely manner and prevent mass casualties. A ‘super’ El Nino is forming:…

China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said it had noted the 30-year prison sentence given to self-exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui, who was convicted in a US court for orchestrating a fraud scheme that bilked his followers out of more than US$1 billion. “Guo Wengui is a fugitive wanted under an Interpol red notice issued at the request of the Chinese government, and we have noted the relevant reports,” ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Tuesday. The billionaire businessman, also known as Ho Wan Kwok and Miles Guo, was sentenced on…

The Communist Party’s membership grew at a slower pace and its average age continued to climb last year, according to official data on the world’s second-biggest political party. In line with tradition, the data was released on the day before July 1, the date of the party’s founding in 1921. The party had 101 million members at the end of 2025, an increase of 1 per cent from the previous year, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Central Committee’s Organisation Department, the party’s top personnel office. That…

South China Morning Post