Chinese authorities have arrested six people and launched disciplinary investigations into almost 30 others after more than 230 kindergarten children were poisoned by food coloured with industrial-grade lead paint The incident, which occurred in Gansu province earlier this month, is one of China’s worst school food safety incidents and has drawn national attention. An investigative report released by the Gansu provincial party committee on Sunday found a litany of failures in safety and oversight, as well as attempts to cover up the incident, bribe people in charge and modify test…
Tag: Asia Pacific
China starts building world’s biggest hydropower dam
Construction of the world’s biggest hydropower megadam has begun, China’s premier has said, calling it the “project of the century”. The huge structure is being built on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, in Tibetan territory. Li Qiang made the comments on Saturday, at a ceremony in the region to mark the start of the build, leading Chinese markets to rise on the expectation of the long-planned megaproject, first announced in 2020 as part of China’s 14th five-year plan. The dam has drawn criticism from India and Bangladesh, through which the river…
Caught between a fossil fuel past and a green future, China’s coal miners chart an uncertain path
Gazing over the remains of his home, Wang Bingbing surveys a decades-old jujube tree flowering through the rubble, and the yard where he and his wife once raised pigs, now a pile of crumbled brick. In the valley below, a sprawling coalmine is the source of their dislocation: years of digging heightened the risk of landslides, forcing Wang and his family out. To prevent the family from returning, local authorities later demolished their home. “We really didn’t want to leave,” Wang’s wife, Wang Weizhen, says ruefully. Wang’s life is the…
Risk of undersea cable attacks backed by Russia and China likely to rise, report warns
The risk of Russia- and China-backed attacks on undersea cables carrying international internet traffic is likely to rise amid a spate of incidents in the Baltic Sea and around Taiwan, according to a report. Submarine cables account for 99% of the world’s intercontinental data traffic and have been affected by incidents with suspected state support over the past 18 months. Analysis by Recorded Future, a US cybersecurity company, singled out nine incidents in the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Taiwan in 2024 and 2025 as a harbinger for…
‘Preparation is our only option’: sirens wail as Taiwan simulates China attack in city streets
Usually people in Taipei walk quite slowly. Notoriously so. But at 1.27pm on Thursday some were almost sprinting through the busy shopping district of Ximen. They knew they had three minutes to get where they needed to be without being stuck in the nearest underground bunker for the half an hour. At 1.30pm exactly, deafening sirens wailed across the city, and a text hit every mobile phone warning that “the enemy has launched a missile attack toward northern Taiwan”. Cars and buses pulled over in Ximen, and everyone was ushered…
Restaurant in China criticised for putting baby lion cuddles on menu
A restaurant in northern China has been criticised by animal welfare groups for offering an unusual item on the menu: lion cub cuddles. According to a screenshot of a menu circulating on social media, Wanhui – a restaurant in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province – has a four-course set afternoon menu costing 1,192 yuan ($166/£124) that includes playtime with the in-house animals. The restaurant’s profile on Dazhong Dianping, a popular restaurant listings app, shows pictures of the lion cubs alongside other animals, such as deer and alligators. The menu…
Oxford University Press to stop publishing China-sponsored science journal
Oxford University Press (OUP) will no longer publish a controversial academic journal sponsored by China’s Ministry of Justice after years of concerns that several papers in the publication did not meet ethical standards about DNA collection. A statement published on the website of Forensic Sciences Research (FSR) states that OUP will stop publishing the quarterly journal after this year. FSR is a journal that comes from China’s Academy of Forensic Science, an agency that sits under the Ministry of Justice. The academy describes FSR as “the only English quarterly journal…
When Albanese met Xi – podcast
Anthony Albanese met Xi Jinping for the second time in Beijing on Tuesday. Prior to the meeting, in remarks open to the media, both leaders talked about the need for cooperation and the Chinese president even reflected on the improved relationship between the two countries. So what do we know about what was discussed behind closed doors? Chief political correspondent Tom McIlroy speaks to Nour Haydar about a diplomatic visit crucial to Australian trade and security – and what Donald Trump might think of it all The Guardian
Trump permits Nvidia to sell advanced chips in China, CEO says
Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, says the chipmaker has won approval from the Trump administration to sell its advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence to China. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us filing licenses to start shipping H20s,” Huang told reporters in Beijing. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run…
China’s economy beats expectations in face of Trump’s trade war
China’s economy grew more strongly than expected in the second quarter as it proved resilient in the face of Donald Trump’s trade war. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.2% in April to June compared with a year earlier, slowing from 5.4% in the first quarter, but just ahead of analysts’ expectations for a rise of 5.1%. The world’s second largest economy has so far avoided a sharp slowdown in part due to support by Beijing and as factories took advantage of a US-China trade truce to make shipments before…