https://www.scmp.com/rss/518975/feed Kamun Lai is Bachelor's student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, studying Journalism and Communication. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Internet users in China reacted with grief and shock after five Chinese nationals, including two children, were killed in a plane crash in Thailand on Thursday afternoon. The small turboprop plane headed to Thailand’s southeastern Trat province lost contact with air traffic control shortly after taking off from Suvarnabhumi Airport in the capital Bangkok, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported. China’s embassy in Thailand confirmed to Xinhua that five Chinese nationals were among the nine... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3275631/chinese-internet-mourns-5-nationals-including-2-kids-killed-thai-plane-crash?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3275631/chinese-internet-mourns-5-nationals-including-2-kids-killed-thai-plane-crash?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Aug 2024 08:03:54 +0000 Scientists have warned that the Tibetan Plateau is becoming warmer and wetter, raising the risk of extreme weather events. The plateau is sometimes described as the “Asian water tower”, because it is the source of many of the continent’s major rivers including the Indus, Ganges, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow River. The researchers, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, presented a summary of their findings from ongoing work on Sunday. The plateau will... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3275068/extreme-weather-risks-rising-tibetan-plateau-gets-hotter-and-wetter-scientists-warn?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3275068/extreme-weather-risks-rising-tibetan-plateau-gets-hotter-and-wetter-scientists-warn?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Aug 2024 01:00:13 +0000 Six people died and 10 were injured in eastern China on Sunday when a lightning strike triggered the collapse of a pavilion as the group sheltered from a severe storm. Lightning struck the pavilion in Fangmaoshan park in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, at around 8.30pm, bringing down the structure and trapping the 16 visitors inside, state news agency Xinhua reported. A search and rescue operation was completed before midnight on Sunday. Six people were pronounced dead on arrival at hospital a few... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3274131/6-dead-10-hurt-china-after-lightning-strikes-pavilion-visitors-sheltered-storm?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3274131/6-dead-10-hurt-china-after-lightning-strikes-pavilion-visitors-sheltered-storm?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Aug 2024 04:23:38 +0000 China’s maritime rescue force has added its first fixed-wing rescue aircraft to its fleet, boosting its ability to carry out emergency operations in the South China Sea and other key sea routes. The King Air 350ER entered service on Wednesday, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday. The plane is part of the Ministry of Transport’s rescue branch based in the eastern province of Fujian. The new aircraft, designed and manufactured by Beechcraft, a subsidiary of Kansas-based Textron Aviation,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3273909/beijings-new-rescue-plane-boost-emergency-operations-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3273909/beijings-new-rescue-plane-boost-emergency-operations-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Aug 2024 10:00:30 +0000 Grassland fires contribute more to global carbon emissions than any other type of wildfire or agricultural burning, new research by Chinese scientists has concluded. They are the largest source of emissions from open biomass burning – the burning of organic matter in forests, shrub lands, grasslands, peatlands and farmland – according to the team from the Aerospace Information Research Institute, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The researchers developed a global daily inventory of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3273533/grassland-blazes-are-biggest-source-carbon-emissions-wildfires-chinese-study-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3273533/grassland-blazes-are-biggest-source-carbon-emissions-wildfires-chinese-study-says?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Aug 2024 11:16:58 +0000 Chinese scientists have found signs of a super rainstorm etched in the shells of snails, in an experiment that could help unlock evidence in the fossil record of ancient “tipping points” in the Earth’s environment. The scientists, led by climate change researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Xian, conducted the experiment on the shells of four living specimens – two collected in the Zhengzhou area before a devastating rainstorm hit the city in July... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3273276/snail-shells-once-millennium-storm-and-what-it-all-means-climate-studies-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3273276/snail-shells-once-millennium-storm-and-what-it-all-means-climate-studies-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Aug 2024 22:00:23 +0000 It was 3.44am on June 19 and Tang Kaili, a housewares retailer in China’s southern city of Guilin, was sound asleep – when a short message from the local government appeared on her phone. It was an official alert that an upstream reservoir would begin releasing floodwater at 5am. Tang slept through it. For a week, torrential rain had been soaking Guilin, a tourist destination in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, known for its tranquil lakes, winding rivers and karst caves. Several... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3270686/can-china-balance-climate-and-energy-concerns-it-endures-more-extreme-weather?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3270686/can-china-balance-climate-and-energy-concerns-it-endures-more-extreme-weather?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Aug 2024 22:00:14 +0000 Heavy rainfall in central China’s Hunan province triggered three river dyke breaches in less than 20 hours and forced the evacuations of thousands of people, as water reached “record levels”, state media reported. The latest breach of the Juan River in Xiangtan happened early on Monday afternoon in the wake of Typhoon Gaemi, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the province’s Emergency Response Command Centre. On Sunday evening, floodwaters breached two other dykes on the waterway – a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3272307/china-battles-heavy-rain-major-flooding-thousands-evacuated-typhoon-gaemis-wake?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3272307/china-battles-heavy-rain-major-flooding-thousands-evacuated-typhoon-gaemis-wake?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Jul 2024 08:12:29 +0000 Mainland China is on high alert as Super Typhoon Gaemi approaches its eastern coast, with the storm expected to make landfall on Thursday after slamming Taiwan and bringing devastating rain to the Philippines. The National Meteorological Centre issued this year’s first red alert, the most severe typhoon alert, as Gaemi was upgraded to a super typhoon on Wednesday. Packing winds of 151.2km/h (94mph) near its centre, Super Typhoon Gaemi will be the third typhoon to hit China in a year when the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3271850/mainland-china-braces-super-typhoon-gaemi-after-storm-slams-taiwan-soaks-philippines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3271850/mainland-china-braces-super-typhoon-gaemi-after-storm-slams-taiwan-soaks-philippines?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jul 2024 08:04:24 +0000 Authorities around China have been told to step up safety checks of key infrastructure after more than a dozen people died in a highway bridge collapse brought on by heavy rain – the second incident of its kind in three months. By Sunday evening, the death toll from the bridge failure on the Danning highway in Shangluo, Shaanxi province, on Friday had risen to 15, with rescuers still searching for some of the 25 vehicles that plunged into the river, according to state news agency Xinhua. State... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3271400/china-boosts-infrastructure-checks-after-second-deadly-highway-collapse-3-months?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3271400/china-boosts-infrastructure-checks-after-second-deadly-highway-collapse-3-months?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Jul 2024 08:40:33 +0000 China has placed 15 provinces on full emergency alert amid heightened risks of severe flooding with the arrival of the year’s peak rainy season. Deadly downpours that devastated the south have moved northwards to affect the previously drought-hit central province of Henan as well as northern Hubei province. On Sunday, four people were killed when their car was swept into a river by flood currents in the city of Suizhou in Hubei, according to the local fire department. Suizhou had issued a red... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3270663/china-places-15-provinces-emergency-alert-deadly-floods-make-their-way-north?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3270663/china-places-15-provinces-emergency-alert-deadly-floods-make-their-way-north?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Jul 2024 09:35:25 +0000 Devastating rains have struck Chongqing municipality in southwest China with the Three Gorges Dam on high alert for a new round of flooding. Six people deaths had been recorded as a result of heavy rainfall in Chongqing’s Dianjiang county as of Thursday. State broadcaster CCTV said four people had been killed by “geological disasters” and the other two had drowned. The rainfall in Dianjiang reached a record single-day high of 269.2mm (10.6 inches), affecting more than 40,000 people. CCTV said it... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3270222/chinas-three-gorges-dam-flood-alert-rain-batters-megacity-chongqing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3270222/chinas-three-gorges-dam-flood-alert-rain-batters-megacity-chongqing?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Jul 2024 08:09:18 +0000 After decades of planning, construction has begun on a massive new dam on China’s Yellow River in the latest water management project aimed at controlling increasing sediment in the world’s muddiest river. The Guxian Water Conservancy Project, which is located midstream on the river between the central provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi, officially began construction on Tuesday, the Ministry of Water Resources said. Once completed, the project will control 65 per cent of the Yellow River basin... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3270064/china-starts-building-pivotal-dam-manage-yellow-river-worlds-muddiest-waterway?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3270064/china-starts-building-pivotal-dam-manage-yellow-river-worlds-muddiest-waterway?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Jul 2024 09:00:21 +0000 Emergency forces sealed the main dyke breach at China’s second-largest freshwater lake on Monday night, with a secondary flood defence line being put to the test, according to local authorities. Dongting Lake, in the central province of Hunan, burst its embankment on Friday, flooding more than 47 sq km (18 square miles) including the town of Tuanzhou where at least 7,000 residents were evacuated, with no reported casualties. By Saturday, the breach had widened to 226 metres (741ft). Work to seal... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3269743/floods-move-chinas-drought-hit-farmland-dongting-lake-wall-repair-holds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3269743/floods-move-chinas-drought-hit-farmland-dongting-lake-wall-repair-holds?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Jul 2024 09:00:26 +0000 China’s young people should avoid “wishful thinking” about the United States, according to Cui Tiankai, the country’s former ambassador to the US. The veteran diplomat made the remarks at a commencement ceremony at ShanghaiTech University on Sunday, telling the graduates they should avoid oversimplifying the rise and fall of a great power or the geopolitical complexities between the two countries. Cui, China’s longest serving ambassador to the US, warned against both an unrealistic adoration of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3269639/former-chinese-envoy-cautions-youth-against-blind-worship-us-or-assuming-western-decline?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3269639/former-chinese-envoy-cautions-youth-against-blind-worship-us-or-assuming-western-decline?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Jul 2024 10:42:37 +0000 Argentina has returned 14 cultural relics to China as part of joint efforts to fight the illegal trafficking of cultural heritage. The artefacts, dating from between 770BC and AD589, were handed over to Chinese ambassador Wang Wei in a formal ceremony at the embassy in Buenos Aires on Thursday. China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) said items had been “illegally exported”. They included seven bronze bells from the ancient Spring and Autumn Period (770BC-476BC), as well as... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3268452/ancient-bronze-bells-han-dynasty-frog-among-14-cultural-relics-returned-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3268452/ancient-bronze-bells-han-dynasty-frog-among-14-cultural-relics-returned-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Jun 2024 08:37:15 +0000 Zhejiang province in eastern China is on high alert for dyke breaches and casualties as more heavy rain is expected along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The provincial government’s water resources department on Tuesday raised the emergency response level to 2, the second most severe, as water levels in several hydrological stations approached flood-stage level after persistent heavy rain. The flood level is based on the design for flood-control infrastructure and historical... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3268093/provinces-along-yangtze-alert-more-flood-emergencies-heavy-rain-continues-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3268093/provinces-along-yangtze-alert-more-flood-emergencies-heavy-rain-continues-china?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Jun 2024 06:58:32 +0000 An influential financial newspaper in Beijing has warned that China must improve its disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities to counter the impact of more frequent extreme weather events on the country’s agricultural production. “Meteorological disasters are the most important factor in reducing food production,” a commentary published by the state-owned Economic Daily said on Tuesday. Over the past 10 years, China has lost an average of more than 30 million tonnes of grain per year... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3267994/china-must-be-better-prepared-extreme-weather-and-disasters-influential-newspaper-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3267994/china-must-be-better-prepared-extreme-weather-and-disasters-influential-newspaper-says?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Jun 2024 00:00:14 +0000 A Beijing woman has apologised and been fined after she insisted that diplomatic immunity allowed her to park in the middle of a road and block traffic. In a video circulated online, the woman, who was later identified as Yu Qi, secretary general of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation (APSCO), refused to move her vehicle. “Do you know what an embassy car is? Do you understand what diplomatic immunity is? Get lost!” she said through the vehicle’s window. APSCO is an inter-governmental... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3267569/beijing-parking-row-ignited-debate-diplomatic-immunity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3267569/beijing-parking-row-ignited-debate-diplomatic-immunity?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Jun 2024 11:12:53 +0000 China needs to follow the example of global metropolises such as London and New York in building public infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather, according to a commentary published in the environment ministry’s official newspaper on Thursday. The China Environment News article by Yang Pingjian, a researcher at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Science, comes as the country encounters yet another summer of severe weather, with the south reeling under deadly floods and... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3267414/new-york-london-could-show-china-way-climate-proof-future?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3267414/new-york-london-could-show-china-way-climate-proof-future?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Jun 2024 02:05:08 +0000 Chinese farmers have grown wheat in the country’s largest desert amid ongoing efforts to turn arid regions into fertile soil and the drive to strengthen food security. The first harvest of a 400-hectare (988-acre) wheat crop is under way in the southwestern edge of the Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in western China, according to state media. China has the largest area of desertified land in the world. Its almost 300 million hectares of desertified land – land that has... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3267097/xinjiangs-400ha-desert-wheat-harvest-milestone-chinas-push-food-security?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3267097/xinjiangs-400ha-desert-wheat-harvest-milestone-chinas-push-food-security?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Jun 2024 10:00:02 +0000 A team of Chinese archaeologists have hauled up more than 900 artefacts from two ancient shipwrecks in the South China Sea, the National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) of China said on Thursday. The researchers used deep-sea technologies to investigate the Ming dynasty sites on the northwest continental slope at a depth of 1.5km (0.9 miles) in three phases over the last year. The archaeologists said they believed the shipwrecks – both merchant vessels, referred to as No. 1 and No. 2 –... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3266629/south-china-sea-ming-dynasty-shipwreck-treasures-offer-new-clues-ancient-trade-route?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3266629/south-china-sea-ming-dynasty-shipwreck-treasures-offer-new-clues-ancient-trade-route?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Jun 2024 09:01:06 +0000 China’s leading aircraft manufacturer said it successfully conducted the maiden flight of a new commercial aerial freight drone in northwestern China, as Beijing moves to strengthen the uncrewed vehicle market and boost its potential. The HH-100 prototype took off on Wednesday from Lantian general aviation airport in Xian, capital of Shaanxi province, said the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), an aerospace conglomerate. During the flight, the HH-100 performed normally and completed... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3266611/chinas-aviation-leader-puts-cargo-drone-test-beijings-push-strategic-industry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3266611/chinas-aviation-leader-puts-cargo-drone-test-beijings-push-strategic-industry?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Jun 2024 07:59:53 +0000 China is facing higher than average temperatures this summer as forecasters warn that preparations are needed to combat the threat of droughts and power shortages. Some regions may see extreme high temperatures, but the overall situation is expected to be less severe than in 2022 when the country suffered its worst heatwave on record with abnormally high temperatures lasting over 70 days. “Temperatures in most parts of the country are expected to be higher than the average for the same period in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3265817/china-warned-prepare-hotter-average-summer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3265817/china-warned-prepare-hotter-average-summer?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Jun 2024 04:00:13 +0000 A number of Chinese provinces have used artificial intelligence to monitor the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, and crack down on cheating and other violations. A record number of 13.42 million students have registered this year for the exams, which start on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Education. Provinces including Guangdong and Hainan in China’s south and Shandong in the east have adopted an “artificial intelligent patrol system” to supervise the exams to strengthen... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3265764/chinese-provinces-bring-ai-stop-cheating-gaokao-university-entrance-exams?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3265764/chinese-provinces-bring-ai-stop-cheating-gaokao-university-entrance-exams?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Jun 2024 09:30:37 +0000