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Industry

Industrial fire kills 3, including 2 Chinese citizens, in Russia’s far east

More than 100 others were wounded in the blaze at the remote Amur Gas Chemical Complex, a petrochemical site in Russia’s Amur region Three people, including two Chinese citizens, died in a fire on Tuesday at a petrochemical site in Russia’s far eastern Amur region, the company announced. “The deaths of three people … two citizens of the People’s Republic of China and one Russian citizen, have unfortunately been confirmed,” Amur GKhK said in a statement. According to the company, 24 people were also taken to hospital “with more or less serious injuries” while 122 others sustained “light injuries” without needing hospitalisation. “Search and rescue operations are continuing at the site,” Amur GKhK said, adding that “emergency services are working to extinguish the main fire and carry out the controlled burning of residual industrial gas”. The company specified that “the main installations of the complex were not damaged” as “the fire broke out in an auxiliary technical area of the facility”.

August 25, 2026

Industry

China seeks public tips on procurement violations as PLA Rocket Force probe continues

Authorities asked for clues about problems in PLARF’s purchases spanning all stages of the process and different forms of procurement Suppliers, bidding and tendering agencies, evaluation experts and relevant military personnel are invited to provide information on suspected violations related to the Rocket Force’s procurement, according to a notice on Monday on the PLA’s official procurement website. The authorities asked for clues about problems in the PLARF’s purchases of goods and services, construction projects, and food and medical supplies, spanning all stages of the process and different forms of procurement, including requirements drafting, procurement evaluations, contract performance and online purchasing. The notice did not set a time limit on when the alleged violations occurred. Reports will be accepted via a special telephone line and post by November 30, 2026. Notably, this is not the first time the PLA has publicly appealed for tip-offs; the military procurement website – the main bid information platform for suppliers – made a similar request in December 2025, regarding procurement irregularities within the Air Force.

August 25, 2026

Industry

Brazil fines TikTok record US$30 million for profiting from children’s data

ByteDance penalised for allegedly collecting data from 1 in 5 Brazilian children and failing to block minors from using TikTok Brazil’s data protection authority fined ByteDance US$30 million on Tuesday over its handling of children’s data on TikTok, the largest penalty it has imposed since it was created in 2020. The National Data Protection Authority, known as the ANPD, found five breaches of Brazil’s data protection law and gave ByteDance 10 working days to appeal. The company must also erase the records of users aged 13 to 18 whose parental authorisation is not regularised within 60 working days, instruct every partner it passed those records to do the same, and report back with system logs signed off by its data protection officer. Failure on any of those counts carries a daily fine of over US$26,000. According to Technical Note 50, the 25-page document that underpins the sanction, a user who downloaded TikTok in Brazil reached the personalised feed at once, without declaring an age or reading the terms of service. Investigators at the agency’s inspection unit ran the same test abroad.

August 25, 2026

Industry

China’s J-16s face off against Egypt’s Rafales in combat drills as Iran war rumbles on

PLA pilots test strategic reach in 6,000km mission as Middle East conflict pushes Cairo and Beijing closer Chinese fighter jets have conducted combat training with their Egyptian counterparts in a joint exercise following a major Chinese air force deployment to the Middle East. The aircraft flew more than 6,000km (3,730 miles) over nine hours to reach Egypt, crossing four countries, according to a report by state broadcaster CCTV. However, it did not specify which four countries the PLA Air Force aircraft flew over, or whether their route approached Iran or any Persian Gulf nations. “Through cross-border deployment and rapid loading and unloading operations, the exercise tested the air force’s capabilities in long-range force projection, rapid deployment and integrated operations,” CCTV reported. During the flight, the J-16s conducted aerial refuelling from YU-20 tankers before landing at an airbase in Egypt on August 21, the report said. The PLA Air Force then unloaded supplies, sorted equipment and coordinated briefings ready for training missions within a single day, according to the report.

August 25, 2026

Industry

Xi’s 13-year corruption campaign just keeps accelerating

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption is picking up pace even after more than a decade of investigations, according to a South China Morning Post deep dive. There were 65 probes into civilian officials of vice-ministerial grade or above last year versus just 19 in 2013, when Xi took office, the research shows. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), China’s top anti-corruption body, has also started 46 investigations so far this year, compared with 39 in the...

August 25, 2026

Industry

Why was China’s response to North Korea’s latest missile launches so muted?

Missile tests hours after China’s foreign minister left Seoul won’t alter Beijing’s focus on regime stability, analysts say South Korea and Japan condemned the launch as a provocation. Beijing declined to criticise the barrage fired into the sea east of the peninsula, with China’s foreign ministry saying the following day that it had “noted the reports” and did not have any “new comment”. During his meetings in Seoul, Wang urged South Korea to pursue “genuine strategic autonomy”, avoid taking sides between China and the United States and move towards “peaceful coexistence” with its northern neighbour.

August 25, 2026

Industry

For states, being part of everything doesn’t mean being part of nothing

A coalition may call itself a commitment. It still has to say what that commitment is. The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to send a letter to dozens of countries, pressing them to choose sides in the US-China artificial intelligence race. Those that join Beijing’s proposed AI cooperation framework would be excluded from the US-led AI coalition. “To be part of everything is to be part of nothing,” the draft says. An American official summarised the message more bluntly: countries...

August 25, 2026

Industry

America proposes new US$103,265 H-1B visa fee, expanding charge beyond new arrivals

The extra upfront cost of hiring skilled foreign workers could make it far less attractive to sponsor Chinese and Indian professionals The US Department of Homeland Security proposed the additional fee on Monday for every H-1B petition subject to the annual numerical cap of 85,000 visas. That figure includes the 20,000 visas reserved for people holding US master’s degrees or higher. Employers would pay the new charge when filing a petition, on top of existing fees. Universities and certain non-profit or government research organisations would be exempt. The new measure would also go further than an earlier one. A US$100,000 fee imposed by presidential proclamation in September 2025 mainly targeted new H-1B arrivals from overseas. The US$103,265 charge would apply more broadly, including to cap-subject petitions filed for people already in the US seeking a change of status. That means the new policy could have an impact on many international students working in the US under Optional Practical Training.

August 25, 2026

Industry

China’s anti-corruption fight: data deep dive

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August 25, 2026

Industry

China’s anti-corruption legal framework is about to extend beyond its borders

A draft law aimed at combating cross-border corruption has been submitted for its first reading by the country’s top legislature On Tuesday, the draft Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law was submitted for its first reading during the 24th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), which runs until Friday. Enacting the law is a vital initiative to complete China’s foreign-related legal framework, protect national interests, promote compliant overseas business growth and “enrich the legal ‘toolbox’ for fugitive repatriation, asset recovery and handling foreign-related corruption cases”, according to state news agency Xinhua. The law codifies a decade of anti-corruption practices to close jurisdictional loopholes and target offshore financial crimes, aiming to resolve long-standing systemic hurdles, specifically the “difficulty in detecting, collecting evidence, repatriating illicit assets” and prosecuting offshore offences, it said. Comprising six chapters and 47 articles, the draft law establishes key principles, scope and national positioning regarding cross-border corruption.

August 25, 2026

Industry

Debate star and physicist Guo Yanliang leaves a top European quantum lab for China

Renmin University recruit aims to probe complex quantum matter using ultracold atomic sandbox with lasers Guo Yanliang, a champion debater who honed his argumentation skills in international contests and on online variety shows, has left one of Europe’s top quantum laboratories to set up his own research group in Beijing. Guo, 33, says he sees scientific research as a debate between different opinions, which made him more compatible with China than Europe. This year, he returned to China to take a position as associate professor at Renmin University of China where he is building an ultracold atom experiment platform. While he has had papers published in Science and Nature and secured a spot on MIT Technology Review’s “Innovators Under 35 China” list, the physicist says he returned because China offered better support for his long‑term research goals. “The research environment here is more in line with my research characteristics,” he told DeepTech, the Chinese branch of MIT Technology Review, last month.

August 25, 2026

Industry

US targets China’s telecoms grip in Venezuela with new sanctions carve-out

The United States is opening Venezuela’s telecommunications sector to new investment and technology while explicitly excluding Chinese companies, a move that could reshape a market where Huawei and ZTE have become deeply embedded and give Western suppliers an opening as the country expands its 5G networks. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday issued two general licences easing some sanctions restrictions on Venezuela’s telecommunications sector,...

August 24, 2026