https://www.scmp.com/rss/512747/feed Kate Zhang is an intern at the Post. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com China’s education ministry has punished 27 officials over illustrations in primary school maths textbooks after online complaints that they were sexually and ideologically inappropriate. Following an investigation, Guo Ge, editor-in-chief of state-owned People’s Education Press – the biggest textbook publisher in mainland China – was removed from his post, the ministry said in a statement on Monday. Huang Qiang, Communist Party secretary and publisher at People’s Education Press, received a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3189779/chinese-officials-punished-over-problematic-maths-textbook?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3189779/chinese-officials-punished-over-problematic-maths-textbook?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Aug 2022 11:00:23 +0000 Disaster relief departments in China’s northwestern province of Qinghai were urged to step up the search for survivors after a flash flood in rural areas of the capital killed at least 18 people, with 13 others reported missing. The flood hit Datong county in the provincial capital Xining in the early hours of Thursday morning, following torrential rains overnight. More than 6,000 people across six villages were “affected”, according to the local government, which issued a level 2 alarm – the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3189496/china-steps-search-missing-after-flash-flood-kills-17-leaves?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3189496/china-steps-search-missing-after-flash-flood-kills-17-leaves?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Aug 2022 08:26:53 +0000 Close to 20 per cent of the 150,000 travellers left stranded by a growing Covid-19 outbreak in China’s southern Hainan province have flown home, local authorities said. However, frequent flight cancellations, and extra nucleic acid test and quarantine requirements are making exit difficult, even though authorities promised a gradual restoration of flight capacity for provincial capital Haikou and the top tourist city of Sanya. The island province, often billed as “China’s Hawaii”, has recorded... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3188987/chinas-covid-hit-tropical-paradise-stranded-tourists-grapple?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3188987/chinas-covid-hit-tropical-paradise-stranded-tourists-grapple?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Aug 2022 13:00:19 +0000 China saw a surge in Covid-19 cases at its most popular tourist destinations on Thursday, from Tibet and Xinjiang in the west to the southern tropical island of Hainan. Mainland China reported 1,993 new local Covid-19 infections, more than double the 952 cases reported on Wednesday. The Tibet autonomous region reported 68 new infections on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 122 since the outbreak began over the weekend. ‘I’ve got used to it’: China’s tourists increasingly undeterred... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3188572/covid-19-surge-hits-chinas-top-tourist-destinations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3188572/covid-19-surge-hits-chinas-top-tourist-destinations?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Aug 2022 11:47:17 +0000 It is only a matter of time before monkeypox is found in mainland China, but a large-scale outbreak is unlikely, according to one of the country’s top epidemiologists. “Judging from the population and transmission methods of monkeypox in European countries and the Americas, it is only a matter of time before monkeypox is introduced into mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote on his Weibo account on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3186616/monkeypox-mainland-china-only-matter-time-says-top-scientist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3186616/monkeypox-mainland-china-only-matter-time-says-top-scientist?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Jul 2022 06:09:33 +0000 Chinese customs is calling on travellers coming into China who may have been exposed to monkeypox to step forward to declare it, with more than 75 countries now reporting they have cases. The General Administration of Customs on Sunday announced new prevention measures in an attempt to stop the disease being introduced into China. The announcement said people travelling from countries with monkeypox outbreaks who had been exposed to cases or had symptoms of monkeypox should voluntarily declare... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3186501/chinas-customs-step-monkeypox-procedures-calling-travellers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3186501/chinas-customs-step-monkeypox-procedures-calling-travellers?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Jul 2022 09:11:34 +0000 The Nanjing city government has punished religious affairs officials and the leader of a Buddhist temple after social media posts revealed Japanese war criminals were honoured at the temple. The principal monk in charge of Xuanzang Temple in the eastern Chinese city has been dismissed and the temple has stopped daily activities for “rectification”, the Nanjing government said in an announcement on Friday afternoon. The director of the ethnic and religious affairs bureau of the city’s Xuanwu... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3186282/nanjing-punishes-officials-temple-honouring-japanese-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3186282/nanjing-punishes-officials-temple-honouring-japanese-war?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:15:01 +0000 Beijing has announced a citywide ban on hotels hosting weddings as well as other events such as group banquets amid a small surge in Covid-19 cases in other parts of the country. Although the Chinese capital has only seen a tiny handful of cases in recent weeks, the authorities issued a new version of its epidemic prevention and control guidelines for hotels on Tuesday, which tightened control of gatherings. Hotels in the city are also required to restrict activities such as meetings,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3185938/hotels-beijing-banned-hosting-weddings-and-banquets-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3185938/hotels-beijing-banned-hosting-weddings-and-banquets-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Jul 2022 08:51:09 +0000 Face-to-face talks between Chinese academics and think tanks and their US counterparts are slowly resuming, as disrupted travel between China and the rest of the world enters its third year. A delegation of experts from the Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG), a Beijing-based non-government think tank, spent 10 days in the United States from late June to early July, visiting New York and Washington. China US businesses should team up to tackle climate change: Hank Paulson The group met... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3185112/chinese-academics-take-first-steps-back-world-stage-after?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3185112/chinese-academics-take-first-steps-back-world-stage-after?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Jul 2022 05:52:35 +0000 Beijing’s top envoy to Seoul has urged South Korean media to focus less on negative news and Western coverage of China, as Korean public opinion about its neighbour languishes. Addressing media executives at an event to mark the seventh anniversary of the Korea Foreign Language Newspaper Association in Seoul on Monday, Xing Haiming called on the media to report objectively on the “real and vivid China” and promote cooperation. “I hope that South Korean media will look at China with ‘two eyes’,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3184965/look-2-eyes-beijing-envoy-urges-south-korean-media-report-real?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3184965/look-2-eyes-beijing-envoy-urges-south-korean-media-report-real?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Jul 2022 05:30:50 +0000 Beijing has donated 250 million yuan (US$37.4 million) of aid to Afghanistan, fulfilling a promise it made to the new Taliban government last year, according to the Chinese embassy in Kabul. Chinese ambassador Wang Yu made the announcement on Tuesday at a ceremony attended by Ghulam Ghaws Naseri, acting minister of state for disaster management and humanitarian affairs for Taliban-led Afghanistan. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday that the last charter plane... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3184316/china-delivers-us37-million-aid-afghanistan-fulfilling-promise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3184316/china-delivers-us37-million-aid-afghanistan-fulfilling-promise?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Jul 2022 08:56:25 +0000 Two health officials in southern China have been suspended for refusing to investigate the case of a baby who was taken away more than 30 years ago because his parents had breached the one-child policy by having seven children. On Friday, the public health bureau in Quanzhou county, Guangxi, triggered a public outcry when they told parents Tang Yueying and Deng Zhensheng that their petition for an investigation would not be granted and dismissed their concerns that the boy had been... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3184232/chinese-health-officials-suspended-after-refusing-investigate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3184232/chinese-health-officials-suspended-after-refusing-investigate?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Jul 2022 04:00:25 +0000 Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 pose a high infection risk for vaccinated people and those with mixed immunity from an Omicron infection and vaccination, according to a new study from Germany. The study also found that only Bebtelovimab, a monoclonal antibody treatment developed by Eli Lilly, could efficiently block infection by all Omicron subvariants, while most other antibody treatments could not ward off the new strains. The Omicron variant of the coronavirus, first identified in November,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3184101/new-omicron-strains-better-dodging-protection-vaccines-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3184101/new-omicron-strains-better-dodging-protection-vaccines-and?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Jul 2022 13:49:11 +0000 It’s small, soft, eats microplastics and, with time, might be able to analyse marine pollution in real time. Scientists in southwest China say they have developed a self-propelled robot fish that can wiggle its body, flap its “fins” and swim around to suck microplastics out of the water. In a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nano Letters on June 22, researchers from Sichuan University in southwest China said the robot could also “self-heal” and absorb microplastics even when... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3183894/meet-chinese-fish-robots-can-eat-microplastics-and-maybe-help?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3183894/meet-chinese-fish-robots-can-eat-microplastics-and-maybe-help?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Jul 2022 11:00:21 +0000 The Chinese city of Dandong has eased its strict lockdown rules after a woman and her father are facing detention for clashing with police as they tried to visit a hospital. Earlier this week a video clip that showed the pair arguing with police went viral on social media. The police stopped them travelling to a local hospital because their health codes were yellow, indicating they had been to a place with confirmed cases, and they could not provide coronavirus test results or a travel permit... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3182989/covid-19-china-woman-and-ailing-father-threatened-detention?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3182989/covid-19-china-woman-and-ailing-father-threatened-detention?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Jun 2022 14:00:26 +0000 The Chinese Communist Party has introduced new restrictions on the business activities of senior officials’ families as part of the ongoing anti-corruption drive. The guidelines from the general office of the party’s Central Committee vary according to sector and the officials’ rank, according to state news agency Xinhua. “The more senior the officials are, the stricter the rules are, and those for comprehensive departments [which oversee multiple areas of industry or government] are stricter... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3182396/chinas-anti-corruption-drive-brings-tighter-rules-officials?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3182396/chinas-anti-corruption-drive-brings-tighter-rules-officials?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Jun 2022 12:00:27 +0000 A new railway that circles the world’s second-largest sand-shifting desert has begun operating in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in western China, after a new section completed the loop. The first passengers boarded the Hotan-Ruoqiang railway on Thursday as Beijing doubles down on its vast project to integrate the region with the rest of the country – while Western companies look to diversify and decouple from the supply chain in Xinjiang, citing fears of sanctions and human rights... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3182031/new-railway-completes-2700km-loop-taklamakan-desert-move?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3182031/new-railway-completes-2700km-loop-taklamakan-desert-move?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jun 2022 04:10:42 +0000 Victims of what could be one of China’s largest financial scandals found themselves unable to step outside to join planned protests because their health QR codes had turned red, reigniting fears that the large-scale data collected for contact tracing would be abused for other uses. Since late May, hundreds of people have taken to the streets in China’s central Henan province, calling for authorities to ensure the return of their deposits that were frozen in four rural banks in the province. The... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3181635/chinese-health-code-turns-red-financial-victims-about-protest?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3181635/chinese-health-code-turns-red-financial-victims-about-protest?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Jun 2022 08:23:54 +0000 One person has died and two are injured after a military jet crashed near the airport in Laohekou, Xiangyang, in central Hubei province on Thursday morning. State broadcaster CCTV’s military channel reported that a J-7 fighter jet crashed during training. The pilot parachuted from the plane and was taken to hospital for examination and treatment along with two injured members of the public. The cause of the crash and whether there are other casualties are being further investigated, CCTV... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3180989/plane-crash-central-china-leaves-homes-fire-pilot-parachutes-safety?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3180989/plane-crash-central-china-leaves-homes-fire-pilot-parachutes-safety?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Jun 2022 05:08:06 +0000 Residents in a city in Inner Mongolia have been urged to stay at home after reports of a new outbreak of Covid-19 infections – just as pandemic restrictions have been eased in two of China’s biggest cities, Beijing and Shanghai. The National Health Commission said on Monday that 16 new local cases had been reported in Inner Mongolia, the third day in a row of more than 10 community cases and taking the total in this outbreak to 41. There were also 33 new local asymptomatic cases, amounting to 49... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3180610/covid-outbreak-shuts-down-chinese-city-beijing-and-shanghai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3180610/covid-outbreak-shuts-down-chinese-city-beijing-and-shanghai?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Jun 2022 09:32:42 +0000 Elderly people over 60 who refuse to get a Covid-19 vaccine will not have their basic medical insurance suspended, a local government in China’s port city of Wenzhou has clarified, after a notice from community officials sparked alarm. Residents of the community in Wenzhou’s Kunyang town had been notified that, unless they had hospital certificates to exempt them, unvaccinated elderly people would be barred from public spaces like supermarkets, the Beijing-based China News Weekly reported on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3180223/coronavirus-china-no-jab-no-insurance-notice-over-60s-blamed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3180223/coronavirus-china-no-jab-no-insurance-notice-over-60s-blamed?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Jun 2022 05:00:15 +0000