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Industry

Chinese paratrooper saves unconscious comrade in dramatic mid-air chute emergency

Soldier says he ‘would make the same choice’ after incident during parachute refresher training A Chinese paratrooper rescued an unconscious colleague after their parachutes became entangled in mid-air, the military’s official newspaper reported on Thursday. First Lieutenant Wang Rui, a team leader in the unspecified brigade, was making his 16th-ever jump, at an altitude of 800 metres (2,600 feet). Wang jumped from the transport aircraft but right before his parachute was to deploy, he was struck by another jumper, Corporal Chen Sijie, and flipped upside down, according to the PLA Daily. After regaining his bearings, Wang realised his parachute was entangled with Chen’s chute – one of the most dangerous emergencies in military parachuting.

July 9, 2026

Industry

North Korea’s premier heads to China for defence treaty anniversary as allies extend thaw

Pak Thae-song’s trip comes less than a month after President Xi Jinping made his first visit to Pyongyang in seven years North Korean Premier Pak Thae-song will arrive in China on Friday for a three-day trip to mark the anniversary of a friendship treaty between the two countries, in another sign of improving ties between the two traditional allies. This year is the 65th anniversary of the signing of the China-North Korea Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, Beijing’s only formal defence pact, and Pak will be at the head of a party and government delegation. “China and North Korea are traditional friendly neighbouring countries. Upholding, consolidating and developing China-North Korea relations has always been a steadfast strategic policy of the Communist Party and government,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Thursday. Beijing stood ready to work with Pyongyang to “strengthen strategic communication, deepen exchanges and cooperation, and continuously promote the development of the traditional friendship and cooperative relationship between China and North Korea”, Mao said.

July 9, 2026

Industry

US-Iran ceasefire collapse revives risks of global inflation

China called on the United States and Iran to stick with peace plans after a resumption of missile strikes in the Middle East spurred a jump in oil prices. “Reigniting the conflict does not serve any party’s interests,” a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. “We call on the US and Iran to follow through on their memorandum of understanding, resolve disputes through dialogue and negotiation, and avoid resorting to force.” Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose...

July 9, 2026

Industry

Active fault line threatens world’s biggest hydropower project, Chinese geologists warn

New analysis brings call for slope reinforcement for massive mega-dam project in Tibet to mitigate risks of landslides and collapses The scientists said a fracture in the Earth’s crust in the eastern Himalayan region would significantly affect the integrity of the massive hydropower project’s infrastructure. In a paper published last month in the Chinese-language journal Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology, supervised by the state-owned China Geological Survey, the team urged engineers to strengthen slope stability and implement retaining protections to mitigate the risk of landslides and collapses. The study was conducted by geologists from the Chengdu University of Technology, the Civil-Military Integration Centre of the China Geological Survey, and the Middle Yarlung Zangbo River Natural Resources Observation and Research Station. “The Paizhen Fault, which has been highly active since the Pleistocene [also known as the Ice Age], will have a major impact on the structural stability and construction of nearby structures, including dams, roads, bridges and tunnels, as well as the reservoir area,” the researchers wrote.

July 9, 2026

Industry

Super Typhoon Bavi: Shanghai expects fallout from Friday, Beijing halts outdoor activities

Across region, residents stock up, airlines cancel or reschedule flights, school is disrupted and zoo appeals for help finding lost animals Satellite imagery from China’s official weather forecaster shows Bavi covering nearly 940,000 sq km (363,000 square miles) – an area about nine times the size of the eastern province of Zhejiang or 850 times that of Hong Kong. Hui Xinyi, a high school English tutor in the Zhejiang capital of Hangzhou, is among those constantly refreshing weather apps and scrolling through social media for updates. “Whether it will actually make landfall here or just brush past is still up in the air. It’s this uncertainty that makes people really panic,” she said. Living on the 25th floor of a high-rise building, Hui plans to tape her windows and stock up on instant food and bottled water in case strong winds cause power or water shortages. She said disruptions might force her to move her classes online or postpone them altogether.

July 9, 2026

Industry

US-China scientific decoupling: the hidden costs of geopolitical rivalry

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. Here, Dannie Peng looks at what is at stake amid the countries’ historic low in scientific collaboration. In late May, Zhang Ning, founder of TopEdit, a Maryland-based company that provides editing services for academic publications,...

July 8, 2026

Industry

US hearing weighs higher tariffs over alleged forced labour, targeting China

Business groups clash with labour advocates at USTR hearing over whether new tariffs would improve workers’ rights or raise costs China’s labour practices came under scrutiny on Wednesday during a US government hearing on a proposal to impose tariffs on goods linked to forced labour, with participants divided over whether higher tariffs would effectively improve workers’ rights. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is holding a three-day public hearing from July 7 to 9 as part of its Section 301 investigation into the use of forced labour in international supply chains. The investigation and the hearings are key steps to lead to tariffs ranging from 10 to 12.5 per cent on imports from 60 economies that Washington says have failed to prevent goods made with forced labour from entering global supply chains. “China should have a higher rate [of tariffs],” said Qiang Li, founder of China Labor Watch. “If a country gets better, its rate should go down.” Li, a long-time critic of China’s labour practices, testified that many Chinese workers face excessive overtime, inadequate workplace protections and limited access to insurance compared with workers in many Western countries.

July 8, 2026

Industry

What the Iran war has revealed about Brics+

The US-Israeli military campaign against Iran was more than another Middle Eastern conflict. It became a defining stress test for the expanded Brics (Brics+), the grouping that is frequently portrayed as the flagship political platform of the Global South and a cornerstone of an emerging multipolar order. The war showed that the grouping – which has grown beyond its founding members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – is neither a military alliance nor an ideological bloc. Rather, it...

July 8, 2026

Industry

Trump surprises Nato allies EU, Ukraine with arms deals as summit ends positively

After promises of advanced air defence systems to Europe and Ukraine, US president says ‘unification’ was dominant theme of key meeting “It all goes to the benefit of Europe and us, because they’re getting the best equipment,” said Trump. It came after Zelensky’s repeated calls for the US-made interceptors, as the increased use of drones and missiles in modern warfare has highlighted the significance of air defence, especially in the war in Ukraine, which has seen Kyiv and Moscow exchanging drone attacks on each other’s territories.

July 8, 2026

Industry

Anthropic hits back after China warns of Claude Code ‘backdoor’ risks

AI firm says users in China were never authorised to use Claude Code after Beijing warned of security risks in older versions. US artificial intelligence company Anthropic said users in China being advised to uninstall its flagship Claude Code product were not supposed to be using it in the first place, responding after Beijing warned of security “backdoor” risks. The company’s statement comes after a cybersecurity platform managed by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Wednesday that Anthropic’s agentic coding tool poses “a serious threat” to Chinese users, in the latest escalation of the US-China AI race. According to a post on the WeChat account of China’s National Vulnerability Database, Claude Code’s “built-in monitoring mechanism” means that sensitive user information could be sent to a remote server without the user’s consent. Anthropic confirmed last week that it had embedded hidden code in Claude Code to track user locations in an attempt to stop illicit “distillation” of its models. The Chinese cybersecurity platform said that its warning applied to Claude Code versions 2.1.91 to 2.1.196, which span a period from April to late June.

July 8, 2026

Industry

China’s Xi Jinping calls for innovation system overhaul to beat global tech rivals

‘Seize historical opportunities’, the president says as China’s highest scientific honour goes to lithium battery and military radar trailblazers Each 2025 laureate received 5 million yuan (about US$736,000) in prize money at the national science assembly held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The 2026-2030 plan period was a critical phase for building a tech powerhouse, Xi noted, stressing the need for breakthrough innovation to drive Chinese modernisation. However, this required overcoming entrenched structural hurdles, he said, admitting that China’s tech sector still suffered from “insufficient original innovation capability in certain fields, an irrational talent structure, and low efficiency in tech investment”, alongside institutional bottlenecks that clogged progress. Xi linked the domestic push to the shifting global power dynamics. With global competition intensifying, “technological strength and innovation capability have increasingly become a nation’s core competitiveness”, he said.

July 8, 2026

Industry

Why lithium battery and radar pioneers won China’s top science award

Chen Liquan and Ben De recognised for advances in solid-state energy storage and military aviation defence And Ben De, who led the development of China’s first airborne pulse-Doppler fire-control radar – a core sensor for fighter aircraft – also won for his contributions to national defence and security. President Xi Jinping presented the pair with the awards at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday. Addressing the ceremony, Xi said that China’s 15th five-year plan period would be critical for “building a powerhouse in science and technology”, and the country must “seize historical opportunities”. He also said that China must “accelerate high-level scientific and technological self-reliance” and “solidly support and lead Chinese modernisation through scientific and technological innovation”.

July 8, 2026