The future of electric cars arrived this week in China. The world’s biggest car seller, BYD, unveiled a new battery giving its latest electric models more than 600 miles of range. Remarkably, the Chinese motor-maker said 250 miles of range could be injected into its new batteries in just five minutes. If true, the last remaining advantages of petrol cars – long range and quick refuelling – are beginning to disappear. But such technology requires megawatt charging points. A single charger can draw as much power as a small town…
Tag: World news
China’s foreign minister says Iran war ‘should never have happened’
War in the Middle East “should never have happened”, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has declared, even as he struck a more conciliatory tone with the US ahead of a highly anticipated visit by Donald Trump. Regime change, a key stated aim of the US president as the US and Israel continue to attack Iran, “will find no popular support”, Wang said on Sunday. “A strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle,” he added. Speaking on the sidelines of China’s…
Families of MH370 victims call for search extension, 12 years after Malaysia Airlines jet vanished
Families of those aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on Sunday urged the Malaysian government to extend a contract it signed with deep-sea exploration firm Ocean Infinity to continue a search for the aircraft that disappeared 12 years ago. The Boeing 777 was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March, 2014, becoming one of the world’s enduring aviation mysteries. Multiple search operations for the plane have been conducted in the southern Indian Ocean since then but all have proved…
Jimmy Lai will not appeal conviction, paving way for political negotiations over release
Jimmy Lai, the prominent pro-democracy activist who was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong, has said he will not appeal his conviction. The decision marks the end of a years-long legal saga for the 78-year-old critic of the Chinese Communist party (CCP), and opens the door for political negotiations to his release. A member of Lai’s Hong Kong legal team said: “We can confirm we have clear and definitive instructions not to lodge an appeal against conviction or sentence.” Lai, a British citizen, was sentenced in…
Donald Trump insists there are no wind farms in China. Here are 20 of them – in pictures
The US president has made the easily debunked claim that there are no wind farms in China Continue reading… The Guardian
Will China own the green energy future? – podcast
The conflict in the Middle East has sent energy prices soaring, and for countries that import a high proportion of their fuel, it’s a reminder of the perils of energy dependence. As the recipient of almost 90% of Iran’s crude oil, China knows this only too well. Which partly explains why the country spent the last decade heavily investing in clean power. To find out what else could be driving the strategy, Madeleine Finlay speaks to senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins. And energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose reflects on how China’s…
A Europe of clean, green cities and resurgent industry is a fantasy – unless we get really creative | Hans Larsson
“Bitterfeld, Bitterfeld, where dirt falls from the sky,” went a popular saying. Located in the intensely industrialised Chemical Triangle of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), in the 1980s Bitterfeld became known as the dirtiest town in Europe. Its chemical industry and lignite mines dumped toxic waste in waterways, and the air carried a concentrate of sulphur dioxide some 40 times today’s levels. Europe would soon be rattled out of its postwar reliance on heavy industry, in favour of cheap imports from abroad. In the last days of the GDR, environmental…
China sets lowest GDP growth target for decades as it braces for economic slowdown
China has set its target for GDP growth to a record low of 4.5-5%, the first time since 1991 that the figure has dropped below 5%, reflecting an economic strategy that is shifting away from export-led growth to a model that leaders hope will be more resilient to external shocks. Li Qiang, China’s premier, announced the target for 2026 in the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s annual parliamentary gathering, which began on Thursday. Addressing the nearly 3,000 delegates gathered in the Great Hall of the People…
Why does Yao Ming, the 7ft 6in ex-basketballer, attend China’s Two Sessions meetings?
Among the generally drab lineup of mostly middle-aged men in suits who make up the nearly 3,000 delegates to the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s parliament, a few stand out. There are delegates from China’s 55 official ethnic minority groups, who often arrive dressed in traditional outfits rather than western-style suits. There are military members, identifiable by their uniforms. And then there is Yao Ming, the 7ft and 6in tall retired basketball player who, towering over every other person in the Great Hall of the People, is hard to miss.…
Gen Z flocks to Chinese medicine as trust in US health system plummets: ‘It’s so personalized to being human’
Did you drink ice water today? If you did, that was “not very Chinese of you”, according to Sherry Zhu, a 23-year-old Chinese American creator based in New Jersey. If you were really serious about “becoming Chinese”, you would be sipping hot water every day, she warned in a TikTok video with millions of views. “I really do feel like, digestion-wise, a lot better when I’m drinking hot water,” she later explained to GQ. Zhu’s guidance is taken from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), a health system that dates back 5,000…