Day: August 25, 2026

Why Tesla has been caught up in a massive car recall in China

Media Library

Hidden door handles are widely used in modern cars in China, with around 60% of the top 100 best-selling new energy vehicles, including EVs and hybrids, having them. The minimalist design gives vehicles a “sleek look and reduces wind drag” but can be confusing to use, car industry analyst Stephen Dyer from consultancy AlixPartners told the BBC. “Even I often find it difficult to locate the switch to open the door from the inside of an unfamiliar vehicle,” said Dyer, who is based in Shanghai. But beyond their usability, the…

Chinese artist jailed over satirical Mao sculptures, say rights groups

Media Library

A Chinese artist known for his satirical sculptures of Mao Zedong has been handed a maximum three-year jail term for “slandering China’s heroes”, according to rights groups. A court in Hebei province had ruled on Tuesday that Gao Zhen’s work “infringes upon the hero’s reputation and harms public interest”. Among the 70-year-old’s most famous pieces, produced with his brother Gao Qiang, is a sculpture comprising a squad of Mao-like figures holding Jesus Christ at gunpoint. Gao has been in detention for the past two years, and the UN and many…

Typhoon Narra: record flood waters submerge homes and force mass evacuations in China

Media Library

Widespread flooding triggered by Typhoon Narra has submerged homes and forced mass evacuations in southern China, as another storm system tracked towards Japan and Taiwan. Authorities in Chongzuo, in China’s Guangxi region – famous for its giant waterfalls and karst limestone mountains – on Tuesday evacuated more than 15,000 people after water ⁠levels surpassed a record high set in 2008. Rising flood waters have prompted China to relocate a total of 54,000 people in Guangxi, state television said. Narra made landfall as a tropical storm on Tuesday evening ⁠in China’s…

Trump pick Darline Graham wins election despite struggling over Taiwan question

Media Library

South Carolina Senator Darline Graham won the Republican nomination in seeking a full term on Tuesday, overcoming a rocky moment in last week’s debate, when she struggled to answer questions about Taiwan and the South China Sea. Graham, a political newcomer, was appointed to the seat in July following the unexpected death of her brother, Lindsey Graham, one of the Senate’s most senior and influential Republicans. Backed by US President Donald Trump, she was required to contest a special primary to secure the party’s nomination for a full term. According…

China event asks if Apec’s rules can close growing AI gap between rich and poor

Media Library

A “widening” AI gap between advanced economies and developing countries has sparked calls to use the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation framework to develop an open, fairer and culturally sensitive governance system. Although the technology is often hailed as a great leveller in an era of sluggish economic growth, a conference held in southern China last weekend heard that many Global South countries lacked the critical infrastructure and talent required to harness artificial intelligence effectively. Speakers at the event warned there was a risk innovation could largely benefit a few countries and…

In China, talking to AI is normal. Now the government fears it might replace human intimacy

Media Library

When law student Zhao Wei heard that her AI boyfriend was going to be switched off, she was “heartbroken”. She had been talking to Wang Ye every day since she created him in January. “I was crying my eyes out – snot and tears everywhere,” the 19-year-old says. Zhao, who describes herself as sensitive and introverted, had become accustomed to sharing details of her daily life – such as being scolded by a teacher – with her AI. “I don’t usually talk to my real-life friends about these things because…

Chinese teens are turning to mind-numbing drugs to ‘run away from reality’

Media Library

At 14, *Xiaomei, a high-performing student from a coastal province in China, decided to overdose on cough medication. She wanted to impress an older boy who told her it would help her relax. The tablets were usually only available with a doctor’s prescription, but she managed to buy them online. At first she found that they made her a bit dizzy. But she was soon hooked to the slightly numb sensation, which, to her, felt like a brief respite from the pressure of looming exams. When taken in large doses,…

Has World War III Already Started?

Media Library

Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I wrote a column under the headline “This Is How World War III Begins.” More than four years on, I wonder how much I got right. My argument was based on the origins of World War II, which did not simply start with Germany’s invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. Instead, the war was an accumulation of regional wars and crises, beginning with Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931, which gradually gathered into a single global conflict. That gathering, abetted…

Hong Kong court verdict aims to erase Tiananmen memory, 1989 student protester says

Media Library

A Hong Kong court this month convicted two leaders of a dissolved pro-democracy group to erase the memory of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a pro-democracy activist who was a student leader during the 1989 event told Radio Free Asia. The Hong Kong High Court ruled Aug. 21 that the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, its former chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and its former vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung, were guilty of “inciting subversion of state power.” The Alliance is best known for organizing yearly candlelight vigils in…

Taiwan charges nine people for smuggling ‘high-end’ AI servers to China

Media Library

Taiwanese prosecutors charged nine people Monday, including one from Nvidia and two from Super Micro, for illegally exporting “high-end AI servers” to mainland China, adding another wave of turbulence in the AI ​​rivalry between China and the United States. Prosecutors said the servers involved were graphics processing units known as “B300,” which have been banned from sale to China. Seventy-four servers arrived in China successfully, according to the prosecutors. Of those, 50 were sent through Indonesia, 16 delivered directly to China and eight sent to Japan first, then Hong Kong,…