Category: BBC

More than 200 children are being treated in hospital with lead poisoning in north-west China after school chefs used inedible paint to decorate their food. Eight people have been arrested after tests showed the food samples from a kindergarten in Tianshui City in Gansu province had lead levels that were 2,000 times over the national safety limit. In total, 233 children from Peixin Kindergarten had high levels of lead in their blood after eating steamed red date cake and sausage corn bun. The school principal asked the kitchen staff to…

China has lifted a ban on seafood imports from most regions of Japan, which was imposed two years ago due to concerns over the release of treated waste water from the Fukushima nuclear plant. Beijing said it will “conditionally resume” the imports from Japan with the exception of 10 of the country’s 47 prefectures, including Tokyo and Fukushima. Samples collected over long-term monitoring of nuclear-contaminated water from Fukushima had “not shown abnormalities”, China’s General Administration of Customs wrote on 29 June. A tsunami in 2011 flooded three reactors of the…

Chua Lam, a renowned food critic and cultural icon in the Chinese-speaking world, has died, according to his official social media account. He was 83. The Hong Kong-based, Singaporean-born Lam died at the Hong Kong Sanatorium Hospital with family and friends by his side, a post on his Weibo account on Friday read. “In accordance with his wishes, in order not to disturb relatives and friends, there was no ceremony and his body was cremated,” it said, without specifying the cause of his death. Known as one of Hong Kong’s…

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on China to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping routes. His comments came after Iran’s state-run Press TV reported that parliament had approved a plan to close the Strait but added that the final decision lies with the Supreme National Security Council. Any disruption to the supply of oil would have profound consequences for the economy. China in particular is the world’s largest buyer of Iranian oil and has a close relationship with…

Pope Leo XIV has appointed the first Chinese bishop of his papacy, signalling that he will continue a historic agreement that sought to improve relations between the Vatican and China. Both sides have hailed the appointment of Fuzhou Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Lin Yuntuan as an affirmation of their commitment to the 2018 accord, which was reached under the late Pope Francis. The agreement gave Chinese officials some input on the appointment of bishops. However, its contents were never fully disclosed to the public. Beijing insists that the state must approve…

A Chinese national has been sentenced to three years in prison for damaging an undersea cable connecting Taiwan’s main island and the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait. The man, identified by his surname Wang, was the captain of the Togolese-registered vessel Hong Tai 58. The Tainan District Court’s verdict on Thursday marks the first sentencing after reports in recent years of undersea cables around Taiwan being severed. Taipei has accused Beijing of sabotaging its cables, describing it as a “grey zone” tactic to pressure the self-ruled island, which China…

A new round of talks aimed at resolving a trade war between the US and China is set take place in London on Monday. US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that a senior US delegation would meet Chinese representatives. Over weekend, Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Vice Premier He Lifeng will attend the talks. The announcements came after Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping had a phone conversation last week, which the US president described as a “very good talk”. Last month, the world’s two biggest economies…

A Chinese Harvard graduate’s speech calling for unity in a divided world, delivered days after the US vowed to “aggressively” revoke Chinese students’ visas, has sparked mixed reactions in the US and her home country. “We don’t rise by proving each other wrong. We rise by refusing to let one another go,” Jiang Yurong said on Thursday, the same day a US federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s ban on foreign students at Harvard. Her speech went viral on the Chinese internet, with some saying it moved them to tears.…

China says the US has “severely violated” their trade truce and that it will take strong measures to defend its interests. China’s Ministry of Commerce said Washington has “seriously undermined” the agreement reached during talks in Geneva last month, when both countries lowered tariffs on goods imported from each other. The spokesperson added that US actions have also severely violated the consensus reached during a phone call in January between China’s leader Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump. The comments come after Trump said on Friday that China had “totally…

Brazilian prosecutors are suing Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD and two of its contractors, saying they were responsible for human trafficking and conditions “analogous to slavery” at a factory construction site in the country. The Public Labour Prosecutor’s Office (MPT) in the state of Bahia says 220 Chinese workers were rescued after it began an investigation in response to an anonymous complaint. The MPT is seeking 257 million Brazilian reais ($45.5m; £33.7m) in damages from the three companies. BYD did not immediately respond to a request for comment from…