The Chinese LGBT community is up to five times more likely to get depression than the general public, and close to 60 per cent surveyed face the risk of being depressed, a new report has found.The Chinese Gender and Sexual Minorities Psychological Health Survey was conducted by the Beijing LGBT Centre and experts at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and released on Thursday. It was based on 9,355 collected questionnaires, with an average age of 22.It found that 59…

China’s central government has expressed strong support for Hong Kong joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), after its financial secretary said the city intended to become a member of the 15-nation trade bloc in what could be a boost to its flagging logistics sector.The China-backed RCEP was signed in November and includes the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. By eliminating…

A growing number of local authorities across China are temporarily closing coal mines to avoid more deadly incidents ahead of the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary next week, but the move is expected to add more pressure to commodity prices in the world’s second largest economy.China’s biggest coal-producing province Shanxi, which accounted for about 14 per cent of total global coal output last year, announced on Thursday the immediate closure of two local mines for at least a month following…

Singapore’s majority-Chinese population should do more to address racism-related grievances aired by members of ethnic minority groups, a minister has said in the government’s first major response to the country’s ongoing debate on racism, adding that the authorities are ready to update policies to strengthen social harmony. The comments by finance minister Lawrence Wong, seen as a potential successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, follow weeks of debate – mostly online – over recent…

Israeli researchers said they had found bones belonging to a “new type of early human” previously unknown to science, shedding new light on the course of human evolution.Archaeological digs near the city of Ramla by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem uncovered prehistoric remains that could not be matched to any known species from the Homo genus, which includes Homo sapiens – modern humans.In a study published in the journal Science, University of Tel Aviv anthropologists and…

A Chinese professor has become an overnight celebrity, not for academic achievement, but for sharing his feelings of helplessness about how to help his daughter perform academically.Professor Zhang Xiaoqiang from Chongqing University in western China wrote a line in his introduction on the university’s official website which has since gone viral.“Though I have tutored more than 70 postgraduate students, I still have totally no idea how to educate my middle-school daughter,” he wrote.The remark…

A Hong Kong gang distributing and selling fake medicine for serious illnesses had been broken up and HK$4 million (US$515,180) worth of bogus pharmaceutical products seized, a customs official said on Friday.Nine people were also arrested in raids across the city, while 110,000 tablets of counterfeit medicine, including ones used to treat blood disorders and cancer, and 1.5 litres of bogus liquefied drugs were confiscated on Wednesday.Officers raided three drug stores, as well as the…