News - South China Morning Post
June 13, 2026 at 5:00 PM
In the 21st century race to the moon, there is a question that engineers must ask: what happens when the main engine fails? China and the United States are answering this in contrasting ways. Their answers could reveal the value they place on human life. From the Apollo Lunar Module in the 1960s to Nasa’s new Orion spacecraft for the Artemis programme, the American architecture relies on a single, powerful main engine to do the heavy lifting. On the descent stage, one main engine controls the...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 13, 2026 at 1:00 PM
The invention of modern anaesthetics in 1846 is a pivotal milestone in the history of modern medicine, yet humans have long sought to alleviate surgical pain. Recent research has showed that in the 14th century, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) surgeons utilised a toxic plant concoction to create an anaesthetic, developed by the renowned traditional Chinese medicine surgeon Xia Quan. This discovery provides physical evidence that supports ancient texts, making it a fascinating contribution to medical...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 13, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Chinese investors in Indonesia’s nickel industry recently sent a formal protest letter to President Prabowo Subianto. The message reflects their concerns over Indonesia’s political and economic direction, and the long-term trajectory of Chinese investment and Indonesia’s industrialisation programme will hinge on how Indonesia resolves them. The letter, submitted by the China Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia (CCCI), complained about a series of government policies, including proposed royalty...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 13, 2026 at 9:00 AM
China activated the world’s first three-band optical fibre communication system early this month, technology that its developers say could expand the carrying capacity of future AI networks. According to the project team, a single fibre can carry more than five times the traffic of conventional systems, while transmission capacity per core increases by nearly half. The project, completed in Qingdao in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, was jointly developed by state-owned...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 13, 2026 at 6:30 AM
Let me pick up where I left off in a previous column. On sabbatical in China, I was reeling from being pored over by parents at the Shanghai marriage market, and judged to be too old and overqualified. But if no vigilant parent would have me for their offspring, perhaps someone in my more permanent home of London would? So I began again. Although nine months away from British dating apps had not changed them, something in myself had changed. The algorithms may rely on Photoshop and well-meaning...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 13, 2026 at 6:00 AM
A woman in eastern China has been reunited with her birth family 22 years after running away as a child, fearing punishment for breaking a bottle of shower gel. Liu Xiuhong, from a rural family in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, was nine years old when she moved with her migrant-worker parents to Jieyang, Guangdong province, where they lived in a cramped rented room, according to the mainland outlet Shicheng Media. While playing at a friend’s home in 2004, Liu accidentally smashed a glass bottle of...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM
A man in China who sparked public outrage for abusing and killing his adopted dogs has been detained for throwing objects from a height and vandalism. The period of administrative detention he was placed under lasts for as long as 15 days and it is the toughest penalty the police could impose in the case because of inadequate anti-cruelty to animals law in the country. According to the statement issued by the Police Bureau of Liangjiang New District of southwestern Chongqing on June 10, the...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 12, 2026 at 9:34 AM
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. Was Xi’s stance on North Korea military ties also a message for US, Russia? During his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said both sides should “enhance exchanges in diplomacy, law...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 12, 2026 at 6:00 AM
A 25-year-old woman in China has been diagnosed with acute pancreatitis after she followed an extreme weight-loss regime which consisted of eating once a week and hardly eating a thing for the remaining six days. The woman, who uses the alias Qingqing and lives in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province, is 1.55m tall. She previously weighed 55kg, the Xinmin Evening News reported. However, months ago, she made a rigorous plan to get slimmer. This involved eating little for six days a week and...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 12, 2026 at 2:30 AM
For much of the reform era, the United States occupied a special place in the Chinese imagination. When I was growing up in China in the 1980s, the US – or meiguo, the “beautiful country” – was more than a country. It was an idea. Many Chinese, myself included, associated it with prosperity, freedom, scientific innovation and a functioning democracy. Even those who disagreed with American foreign policy often admired its institutions and power. That admiration survived many shocks: the Belgrade...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 11, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Chinese memory module maker Biwin has signed a two-year agreement worth US$1.86 billion to secure flash memory chips, a deal larger than its annual revenue, as demand from artificial intelligence servers and data centres squeezes supply. Under the locked-volume, locked-price arrangement, Biwin would buy enterprise-grade chips in batches from the third quarter of 2026 through the second quarter of 2028, according to a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Tuesday. The supplier was not...
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Tajikistan News
June 11, 2026 at 2:15 PM
BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Mongolia from June 13 to 15, a foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Thursday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, will pay the visit at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia Battsetseg Batmunkh, the spokesperson said.
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Kyrgyzstan News
June 11, 2026 at 2:15 PM
BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Mongolia from June 13 to 15, a foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Thursday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, will pay the visit at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia Battsetseg Batmunkh, the spokesperson said.
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Turkmenistan News
June 11, 2026 at 2:15 PM
BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Mongolia from June 13 to 15, a foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Thursday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, will pay the visit at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia Battsetseg Batmunkh, the spokesperson said.
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News - South China Morning Post
June 11, 2026 at 1:00 PM
A high-ranking workplace safety official in central China’s Shanxi province has been placed under investigation over a massive coal mine explosion that killed 82. Zhang Heping, deputy director of the provincial department of emergency management, is suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law”, according to a statement released by the provincial discipline inspection and supervisory commission late on Wednesday. The provincial anti-corruption watchdog explicitly linked Zhang to the...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 11, 2026 at 11:14 AM
A Thai court on Thursday sentenced two ethnic Chinese Uygur men to death for the 2015 bombing of Bangkok’s Erawan shrine, the deadliest attack on the city in recent history that killed 20, including tourists from China, Malaysia and Singapore. The men, Bilal Mohammed, 41, and Yusufu Mieraili, 36, were arrested in a manhunt that followed the August 17, 2015, bombing which brought carnage to the heart of Bangkok at rush hour. Thai police said they found bomb-making materials at a Bangkok address...
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News - South China Morning Post
June 11, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Robotic snakes have been deployed in southwestern China to inspect power lines and ensure a stable power supply during the country’s high-pressure national college entrance exam. The snakelike robots spiral around power lines in Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan, to detect hazards such as broken wires, worn components and abnormal temperatures. The device’s developer, the power supply bureau of Kunming’s Guandu district, said the robotic snake had checked more than 130km (81 miles) of...
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BBC News
June 11, 2026 at 10:35 AM
The man allegedly posed as an "adopter" of animals but ended up abusing the dogs and cats he took in.
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BBC News
June 11, 2026 at 10:35 AM
The man allegedly posed as an "adopter" of animals but ended up abusing the dogs and cats he took in.
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Tajikistan News
June 11, 2026 at 7:08 AM
A view of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in Beijing, China, May 28, 2026. /VCGChinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Mongolia from June 13 to 15 at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia Battsetseg Batmunkh, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, will
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