News

Extreme weather in the city of Maoming in Guangdong province caused lake to flood, allowing dozens of crocodiles to escape
A Chinese city has launched an operation to find a large number of crocodiles that escaped when floods hit the region in recent days, authorities have said.
, triggering inundations in Hong Kong and other areas.

KCL study finds many leading UK institutions remain highly dependent on Chinese students
UK universities would be hugely damaged by a sustained diplomatic rift between Britain and China, according to a report that predicts difficulty in replacing the Chinese students who now take up more than one in four international PhD places.
The , co-authored by the former universities minister Jo Johnson, found that many leading institutions on Chinese students for tuition fee income as well as to fill postgraduate research courses in subjects such as economics, science and technology.

Since the United States and China reopened diplomatic relations in the late 1970s, the leaders of both countries have recognized the value of having their universities work together in research and ...

Beijing’s espionage and influence operations demand not just more, but more thoughtful, scrutiny
The news that a parliamentary researcher was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of has inevitably brought a flurry of attention to Beijing’s espionage operations. No charges have yet been brought, six months after the arrest under the Official Secrets Act, and the man involved . Countries spy on each other – be they allies, foes or somewhere in between. But whatever the truth of this case, there are reasons to be particularly concerned about Chinese intelligence efforts and Britain’s response.
One is simply that China is increasingly powerful, forceful and hostile to the west, and more repressive at home. Its nationalism is likely to intensify as its Another is its broad-brush approach. It seeks economic and technological advantage as well as traditional intelligence by a wide variety of means. As this year’s noted, its “whole‑of-state” approach means that businesses, academic institutions and ordinary citizens are liable to be co-opted, willingly or not. A third is that governments are concerned about Beijing’s other covert operations. Canada has just ordered by both China and Russia. Beijing may also be learning from Moscow. It has moved beyond covertly promoting its own position on issues to, , spreading more general disinformation designed to sow distrust within the United States. Researchers say that the Chinese state was behind posts falsely claiming that Hawaii’s wildfires were caused by a “weather weapon” being tested by the US.

A recent Pew Research Center survey has unveiled a concerning trend among Asian Americans who have chosen to conceal elements of their cultural heritage due to the fear of ridicule and a desire to ...

Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum proposed the city establish the Asian American Affairs Commission on Tuesday.

His case was a massive news story during the late Clinton era, one that taught the Chinese a lesson about American vulnerabilities that they are profiting from to this day. The story of Wen Ho Lee ...

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, experiences of anti-Asian racism have become increasingly common among Asian American medical students, a new study concludes. The Yale-led study interviewed 25 ...

MPs have the vapours over an alleged Chinese agent in Westminster. But it all seems more Johnny English than James Bond
The opening to the James Bond movie Spectre follows the titular spy in Day of the Dead costume as he moves through vast crowds at the in Mexico City. Into a six-star hotel, past a masquerade party, whereupon his glamorous companion produces a key. Up to her room, passionate kiss, she’s on the bed – but he’s stripped down to his Savile Row suit and a Glock 17, and is straight out the window across the rooftops to assassinate a man for having a terrible ponytail. Misses, survives a load of buildings collapsing, spots his mark and chases him through thousands of skull mask-wearing carnival-goers to the main square. Hang on: what’s this? Helicopter rescue for Ponytail? I don’t think so, mate – launches himself into the cabin, violence ensues, chopper whirls insanely above the heads of screaming revellers while they fight on the landing skids, gets the mysterious ring, strangles a few henchmen, bye-bye Ponytail, averts tailspin. Probably isn’t going to get his shag now but hey – it’s a living.
Anyway: pitch for the cold open to the next Bond movie. Tracking shot, obviously. Sitting at an office desk featuring a Pret sandwich wrapper and a reusable coffee cup given to him by a lobbyist for Big Vape, a young man closes the TM Lewin Men’s Shirt Sale tab on his computer – no, wait, goes back; orders another white poplin regular fit – then fires up LinkedIn and professes himself “honoured and incredibly excited to see what this next chapter holds” (his application for a Conservative party conference pass has been successful). Adds a new MP connection, nearly reposts a tweet deniably intimating another MP could be racist but decides to like it instead, then logs off and walks down a series of corridors, passing other similar young people and dispensing the trusty joke-effect observation that his football team will beat their football teams in football matches that are to varying degrees forthcoming. Arriving at a small down-at-heel meeting room, he checks the white wine on the table has been warmed to the requisite temperature, before fixing upon the door a piece of A4 paper reading “Monthly China Drinks”. Roll titles: The Spy Who Bored Me.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
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Study highlights conflict between Washington’s claims of climate leadership and its fossil fuel growth plans
The US accounts for more than a third of the expansion of global oil and gas production planned by mid-century, despite its , research has found.
Canada and Russia have the next biggest expansion plans, calculated based on how much carbon dioxide is likely to be produced from new developments, followed by Iran, China and Brazil. The United Arab Emirates, which is to host the annual UN climate summit this year, , is seventh on the list.

Every summer starting in the 1940s, David Liu's family would leave behind their Chinatown neighborhood in Manhattan for the sandy beaches of the Jersey Shore, indulging in hot dogs, burgers, ice cream ...