by Khaliun Bayartsogt Agence France-Presse TSAGAAN KHAD, Mongolia (AFP) – Snaking across the barren Mongolian desert, a convoy crawls along the once-busy highway to the Chinese border — its truckers desperate to finally deliver their cargo of coal after months of brutal Covid-19 delays and no pay. Pre-pandemic, the route was packed with drivers delivering the vital fuel to China — the world’s biggest coal importer — currently grappling with widespread power cuts threatening its […]
Tag: china
China says recent test was spacecraft not missile
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China on Monday denied a report it had recently launched a hypersonic missile, saying it tested a spacecraft to trial reusable technologies. The Financial Times reported Saturday that Beijing had launched a nuclear-capable missile in August that circled the Earth at low orbit before narrowly missing its target. FT sources said the hypersonic missile was carried by a Long March rocket and that the test had been kept under wraps. But […]
Asian markets drop on inflation woes, China growth slows further
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Asian markets struggled Monday as inflation concerns returned to the fore, with commodity prices rallying and central banks preparing to roll back their ultra-loose monetary policies. Adding to the grey mood was data showing growth in China’s economy, the world’s second-biggest, slowed further in the third quarter, hit by a property-sector crisis and a looming energy crunch. The losses follow a healthy run-up last week across the world fuelled by […]
China growth slides to 4.9% in third quarter
by Beiyi SEOW Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s economic growth tumbled more than expected in the third quarter, official data showed Monday, as the property sector struggled with tighter policy measures and an energy crisis loomed. After a swift coronavirus bounceback, recovery in the world’s second-biggest economy is losing steam, with gross domestic product growth coming in at 4.9 percent on-year, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), citing an “unstable and […]
China’s ‘space dream’: A Long March to the Moon and beyond
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The arrival of three astronauts at China’s new space station on Saturday marks a landmark step in its space ambitions, its longest crewed mission to date. The world’s second-largest economy has put billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a permanently crewed space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the Moon. The country has come a long way in catching up with the United States […]
Chinese astronauts arrive at space station for longest mission
by Jing Xuan Teng Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — Three astronauts successfully docked with China’s new space station on Saturday on what is set to be Beijing’s longest crewed mission to date and the latest landmark in its drive to become a major space power. The three blasted off shortly after midnight (1600 GMT Friday) from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwestern China’s Gobi desert, the China Manned Space Agency said, with the […]
WHO unveils new team to investigate pandemic
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization unveiled Wednesday a team of scientists it wants to investigate new pathogens and preventing future pandemics — plus reviving the stalled probe into Covid-19’s origins. The group of 26 experts will be charged with producing a new global framework for studies into the origins of emerging pathogens of epidemic and pandemic potential — and their remit includes SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 disease. […]
15 dead after heavy rain, floods in China coal region
BEIJING, China (AFP) — At least 15 people have died during unseasonably heavy rain and flooding in north China’s Shanxi province earlier this month, local officials said Tuesday, after the normally dry region received three months’ rain in one week. The flooding hit the coal-rich landlocked region during a nationwide energy crunch, and after record floods killed more than 300 people in central Henan province in July. At least 60 coal mines in the province […]
Thouands evacuated and coal mines shuttered as floods hit north China
BEIJING, China (AFP) — More than 120,000 people have been evacuated, coal mines shut and crops destroyed after unseasonably heavy rainfall flooded north China’s Shanxi province over the weekend, state media reported Monday, with more rain forecast. The deluge comes just months after record floods hit the country’s central Henan province in July — killing more than 300 people — and raises fears about ensuring the supply of energy ahead of the winter. Many parts […]
Triads arrested in Hong Kong speedboat smuggling raids
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Dozens of Hong Kong triad members have been arrested in a series of operations targeting gangs using high-powered speedboats to smuggle contraband to the Chinese mainland, police said Monday. Smuggling has been a mainstay of the triad organised crime gangs operating on both sides of the border for years but the phenomenon has surged during the coronavirus pandemic. Police embarked on a crackdown after a marine officer was killed last […]
In Glasgow, China-US tensions could shape climate future
by Shaun TANDON Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (AFP) – Global momentum is building on the climate crisis but action will be impossible without two nations, China and the United States, which together account for more than half of emissions — and whose governments don’t get along. Ahead of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, experts believe that breakthrough US-China cooperation could be the catalyst for a historic agreement on climate change — but also […]
Taiwan leader says island will not bow to China
by Sean CHANG Agence France Presse TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan will not bow to pressure by Beijing and will defend its democratic way of life, President Tsai Ing-wen said Sunday, following a spike in incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defence zone. Self-governed Taiwan’s 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by authoritarian China, which views the island as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, […]





