China News

Beijing adopted sweeping revisions to its decades-old Civil Aviation Law on Saturday, formally bringing uncrewed aircraft such as drones under the national legal framework for the first time and signaling state support for the country’s rapidly growing low-altitude economy. The revisions, which will come into effect on July 1, were approved by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee and are a critical step in closing long-standing gaps in safety regulation. They will also guide...

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China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) on Friday announced a major milestone in the construction of one of the world’s largest underground laboratories for nuclear waste as it completed a first-of-its-kind spiral ramp. Located deep in the Gobi Desert northwest of Jiuquan in Gansu province, the Beishan Underground Research Laboratory aims to address a fundamental challenge of nuclear energy development: the safe disposal of radioactive waste. “While nuclear energy is a clean and efficient...

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Just over a year after an incident that nearly triggered a cascading failure across China’s national power grid, engineers have developed the most powerful smart direct current (DC) transformer on the planet – an innovation poised to neutralise renewable energy shocks to the system. The technology addresses an urgent need following a near total blackout in August last year, when low-frequency swings triggered by poorly integrated wind energy in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region threatened to...

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Catch up on some 2025 entries in Open Questions, SCMP’s series of in-depth interviews with global opinion leaders. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. ‘Delusional’: Jeffrey Sachs on why Western hegemony has ended American economist sees China as key to the global energy transition to zero-carbon energy, especially in markets outside US and Europe.
2. Ex-diplomat Kerry Brown on how Trump ‘stunned’ China with his ‘lack of caution’ King’s College, London...

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China has appointed its first female pilot to exclusively captain flights on its home-grown C919 jet, with more aspiring women waiting in the wings as the nation expands its talent pool and systemically transitions elite pilots who used to fly Boeing and Airbus jets to operate the narrowbody airliner. Yu Yue, who made a high-stakes switch from her decade-long career flying the US-made Boeing 737 to be a C919 captain this year, has become a source of inspiration for many in the country. According...

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Lee Jae-myung is set to become the first sitting South Korean president to travel to China since 2019 with a visit scheduled for early January. Analysts said Lee was expected to engage Beijing on security issues, including North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and the enforcement of international sanctions, while seeking to build on his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October. Neither side has confirmed the visit, but preparations are under way, highlighted by a recent strategic...

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Foreign forces have used deepfakes and other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to create public panic and obtain sensitive information, posing a threat to China’s national security, the country’s top intelligence agency has warned. Deepfake technology, which uses AI’s deep learning algorithms to simulate and forge images, audio and video, can be abused or used maliciously to endanger individual legal rights, social stability and national security, the Ministry of State Security (MSS)...

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From luxury handbags to vintage Bordeaux, China’s consumers have long associated French products with fine living. Now, France aims to hook the country’s expanding middle class on another local speciality: foie gras. China placed tight restrictions on imports of the iconic French goose liver pate amid Europe’s bird flu epidemic, but there are signs that things could change, with Beijing recently vowing to get more produce “from French farms to Chinese tables”. Paris and Beijing also signed a...

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As 2025 draws to a close amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over new arms sales to Taiwan, analysts warn that the worsening atmosphere could weigh on the substance – if not the scheduling – of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China next year to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Washington’s announcement last week of a US$11.1 billion arms package for Taiwan, the largest to date, has sharpened frictions at a sensitive moment, making it less likely that Beijing will...

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President Donald Trump’s reluctance to authorise direct military intervention in Venezuela underscored the US dilemma of how to reassert dominance in its traditional sphere while managing escalation risks in multipolar rivalry with China and Russia, observers said. But they cautioned against seeing US hesitation as weakness, noting intensified sanctions, naval blockades and diplomatic pressure from Washington, alongside a recalibrated strategy to sustain influence without overcommitment against...

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China has launched a national fund designed to channel state-backed money into early-stage bets on tech, a move officials said could ultimately steer trillions of yuan into preferred avenues of investment. Beijing’s National Venture Capital Guidance Fund was unveiled on Friday, at a ceremony which also introduced three investment vehicles covering major cross-regional agglomerations: the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. At...

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Images of a cargo ship in Shanghai carrying containerised vertical launchers, sensors and self-defence systems have gone viral and sparked online discussion for apparently showing China’s capability to convert civilian cargo vessels to military purposes. The circulated images show vertical launch systems, rotary phased-array radars, over-the-horizon radars, close-in weapon systems and decoy launchers mounted atop containers on a cargo vessel. This configuration appears to be a temporary...

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Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China science stories of the year. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. China unveils a powerful deep-sea cable cutter that could reset the world order A compact, deep-sea, cable-cutting device, capable of severing the world’s most fortified underwater communication or power lines, has been unveiled by China – and it could shake up global maritime power dynamics.
2. China tests non-nuclear hydrogen bomb, science paper...

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Taiwan’s legislature passed a motion on Friday to start impeachment proceedings against the island’s leader, William Lai Ching-te. The Legislative Yuan voted 60 to 51 in favour of the motion that argued that the leader undermined the self-ruled island’s constitutional order and democracy. Lawmakers are expected to vote on impeachment on May 19, according to the legislature’s procedures. The impeachment motion came after Lai’s administration failed to enact an amendment passed by the...

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The fascination with cryptocurrencies shows no sign of fading. With the passage of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (Genius) Act in July, US lawmakers added to the sense that crypto is here to stay. But an uncomfortable issue remains unresolved: are cryptocurrencies a genuine innovation capable of serving the common good, or a speculative threat to financial and social stability? Not all cryptocurrencies are alike. Unbacked ones, such as bitcoin or Ethereum,...

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The world’s longest expressway tunnel has opened to traffic in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, capping five years of construction on a project designed to increase China’s links with Central Asia. The 22.13km (13.75-mile) Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, the centrepiece of the Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, officially opened on Friday, creating a 20-minute drive through the Tianshan Mountains that divide northern and southern Xinjiang. The tunnel halves the travel time between the regional capital Urumqi...

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China’s biggest tech groups and a clutch of fast-rising consumer electronics brands are battling for coveted sponsorship slots at the Spring Festival Gala, as intensifying competition in artificial intelligence turns the country’s most watched television broadcast into a rare nationwide marketing battleground. Major players including ByteDance, Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding had all held discussions with state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) over high-stakes partnership...

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China has opened a new shopping centre on Woody Island in the disputed Paracel Islands, bolstering its civilian presence on the strategically vital South China Sea outpost. The Sansha City Commercial Centre opened to business on Thursday, according to the local government. The over 6,000 square metre (64,600 sq ft) complex is the latest addition to China’s civilian infrastructure on what it calls Yongxing Island, following its first hardware store last year and a hotpot restaurant in 2023. Woody...

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Beijing has imposed sanctions against 20 US defence firms and their executives in response to Washington’s massive arms sale package to Taiwan last week. The sales, if approved by the US Congress, would mark the largest-ever US weapons package to Taiwan, valued at more than US$10 billion. It includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones. Beijing views Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent...

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China has unveiled plans to tighten controls over e-cigarette production and investment to address concerns over fierce intra-industry competition and excess capacity, the latest step in the country’s broader effort to enhance its regulatory power over tobacco, a sector which enjoys a functional monopoly. The draft policy, released by the national tobacco regulator on Thursday, follows a State Council opinion issued earlier this month which placed e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches under stiffer...

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Renowned biomedical scientist Professor Chen Xiaoyuan denies allegations of sexual harassment and says he will appeal against having his tenure terminated by the National University of Singapore (NUS) over an alleged breach of staff conduct policies. The termination, confirmed to the South China Morning Post by NUS on Wednesday, followed an internal investigation into claims by a female PhD candidate who accused Chen of repeated verbal and physical misconduct since early this year. Chen broke...

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Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China space stories of the year. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. Stranded Chinese astronauts return home from space station mission Three astronauts whose return to Earth from China’s Tiangong space station was delayed after a suspected debris strike touched down on November 14 at the Dongfeng landing site in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
2. China’s Shenzhou 20 debris crisis: a catalyst for space war – or...

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Chinese surgeons have performed the world’s first operation to graft a patient’s torn-off ear onto her foot before putting it back in place. The woman’s ear was torn off in a workplace accident in April that also ripped away a large part of her scalp, medical news platform Med-J reported on Monday. Qiu Shenqiang, deputy director of the microsurgery unit at Shandong Provincial Hospital in Jinan, said the woman’s injuries had been caused by heavy machinery and left her with life-threatening...

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We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. Pentagon says Chinese aircraft carriers, 6th-gen fighters make US ‘vulnerable’ A Pentagon report contends that China’s development of its aircraft carriers, sixth-generation fighters and nuclear arsenal illustrates Beijing’s...

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China’s ruling Communist Party has vowed to keep up efforts to fight corruption next year after a record 63 high-ranking officials – known as “tigers” – were placed under investigation on suspicion of graft in 2025. During a meeting on Thursday, top decision-making body the Politburo also discussed a plan to improve conduct within the party, strengthen integrity and combat graft, official news agency Xinhua reported. It said officials at the meeting had agreed to “resolutely push forward the...

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