China News

To match China’s economy, India must accept its investment

Although President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a brief exchange last week at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the real action will unfold later this week at the Brics summit when Xi arrives in New Delhi with an expected delegation of 400 officials. China is one of India’s top trading partners, yet it remains unclear whether Chinese companies are welcome as investors in India. The two countries’ trade and investment relationship...

China rallies Central Asian police chiefs on terrorism threats, energy and trade

China’s top police officer has pledged deeper cooperation with his Central Asian counterparts to crack down on terrorism, separatism and extremism, while strengthening measures to protect Belt and Road Initiative investments. Presiding over an informal meeting of the China-Central Asia Public Security and Interior Ministers’ mechanism in Beijing, Chinese Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong on Monday urged his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to...

Chinese scientists propose turning abandoned coal mines into underground farms

Chinese scientists have proposed developing “underground agriculture” in abandoned coal mine tunnels as part of a push to create a green, circular economy for the country’s massive mining industry. A team of researchers from Shanxi, a major coal-producing province in central China, described the idea late last month in the journal China Mining Magazine. An estimated 15,000 abandoned mines in China are expected to close by 2030. Insulated from surface weather and natural disasters, these...

Chinese PLA aircraft to headline Egypt air show in display of export potential

Fresh off a joint air drill, China will for the first time showcase several PLA Air Force aircraft overseas at an air show this week. The featured aircraft were selected for the air show in Egypt to demonstrate the air force’s integrated combat abilities and export potential, according to a military analyst. China’s armed forces on Tuesday posted pictures of Z-20, J-16, YY-20, and KJ-500 with its social media postings about the El Alamein International Airshow. The PLA Air Force said the...

In Gyirong Port, small items speak of the human cost of the China-Nepal disaster

“I do not want to stop [searching]. If I pause, I start thinking about my brothers and sisters and all the moments of my life here.” Gui Xinwei, deputy chief of the Gyirong Border Inspection Station, was speaking to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV from the ruins of his workplace, seven days after the devastating mudslide erased the port crossing where China and Nepal meet. “I just don’t want to stop.” Gui was away on holiday on August 26 when a glacier collapsed in Nepal, triggering a massive...

Should Chinese schools demote English as a core subject?

Calls to reduce English’s status as a core subject in China’s education system have resurfaced after an internet-famous maths teacher urged the country to end “worshipping foreign things”. The controversy has revived a long-running debate over the role of English in Chinese schools. The argument came to life again after Tang Jiafeng, a maths teacher known for coaching students through the national postgraduate entrance exam, said on social media that children, parents and schools had devoted...