Day: August 16, 2026

A raw, handcrafted Chinese animation has become an unlikely box-office sensation despite being widely panned by critics and social media users. Niu Lai, or The Arrival of the Ox, has been criticised for its “rough” and “broken” style and a plot that many viewers found hard to follow. The popularity of the two American films has already seen the release of some high-profile Chinese films – including Three Kingdoms: The Beginning, a historical drama set in the third century – being delayed or cancelled. Niu Lai’s plot, which revolves around…

A leading Communist Party research group has invoked the legacy of China’s former leader Jiang Zemin in a call to rally round President Xi Jinping. The article by the Institute of Party History and Literature, published on Sunday in the party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily, formed part of the commemorations of the centenary of Jiang’s birth and highlighted the importance of supporting the leadership in the face of economic or geopolitical difficulties. “Under the party’s third-generation leadership with Comrade Jiang Zemin at its core, China calmly responded to a set of…

China should speed up plans to commandeer civilian ships for wartime operations, drawing lessons from Britain’s use of commercial vessels during the 1982 Falklands conflict, according to a defence researcher at Beijing’s top economic planning agency. As maritime security threats and great-power competition grow, Beijing should make greater use of civilian ships to support military operations, according to an article published last month in Defence Industry Conversion in China. “As China’s national security and development interests continue to extend into the maritime domain, the growing demands for maritime rights protection…

Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji will be cremated in Beijing on Tuesday, with flags across the country – including in Hong Kong and Macau – flown at half-mast, state media reported on Sunday. Zhu, who served as premier from 1998 to 2003 and played a pivotal role in transitioning China towards a market-based economy, died of an illness in Beijing on Wednesday at age 97. According to state news agency Xinhua, national flags will fly at half-mast on Tuesday at sites in Beijing, including Tiananmen Square, as well as at…

Chinese scientists have developed an AI model they say could be used to predict the risk of depression up to four years in advance. Major Depressive Disorder affects over 332 million people worldwide, according to the researchers at Shenzhen University, and is notoriously difficult to treat. The ability to predict the risk of depression and take preventive measures could prove a significant public health benefit. The model was built using data from two clinical trials on adolescent depression conducted in several European countries. In one study, the participants underwent follow-up…

Tensions between Beijing and Manila appear to have spilled over from the South China Sea to immigration, just as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr indicated he wanted to “reset” ties. Manila on Sunday dismissed Beijing’s criticism of Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr over his role in the arrests of Chinese workers at a steel plant in Misamis Oriental in May. A Chinese embassy official in Manila late on Saturday accused Teodoro of carrying out “anti-China activities” to “disrupt” bilateral ties. But the Philippine defence department said the embassy’s response did…

Africa is emerging as fertile ground for Beijing’s drive to make the yuan a major international currency and reduce reliance on the US dollar, as an increasing number of financial institutions deepen their integration with China’s payment network. Following talks in Beijing between Central Bank of Libya Governor Naji Issa and People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng last month, the country’s banks are set to join China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), an alternative to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) system. The move will facilitate direct…

Electric eels hunt in pitch-black, murky waters by generating electric fields around their bodies. Now, Chinese scientists have mimicked this natural radar, giving robots the ability to “feel” objects without making physical contact. “We want the machine to sense an approaching target – distinguish its material and surface condition – before any physical contact,” said Zhang Weiqiang, a professor at Xidian University, in a video interview last week. The team’s work was published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Materials. The researchers drew inspiration from the eel’s locating system.…