The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has dispatched two armed patrol vessels to watch over more than a hundred Chinese boats that it said were “swarming” the disputed area around a small reef in the South China Sea.

On Sunday, the PCG released photos and videos that it said show ships belonging to the Chinese Maritime Militia, moored close to each other near the small, boomerang-shaped Julian Felipe Reef. This tactic allows them to create floating outposts at sea, according to Philippine media.

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was the subject of yet another report unflattering to his record on China this week, this time for reportedly providing $90,000 in tax relief to the subsidiary of a Chinese-headquartered solar panel manufacturer with a factory in Jacksonville, Florida.

Hundreds of illegal Chinese-owned marijuana growing operations have been popping up across Maine over the past three years.

Defaults by Chinese borrowers have surged to an unprecedented level since the Covid pandemic as the country faces huge economic challenges.

Official records now show a staggering 8.54 million people in China, primarily between the ages of 18 and 59, are officially blacklisted for missing payments on various financial obligations, ranging from home mortgages to business loans.

The Taliban’s appointment of a new ambassador to China, Bilal Karimi, heralds a significant realignment in Afghanistan’s international relations. This appointment is not just any diplomatic maneuver; it’s a strategic chess move in a complex game of power, influence, and survival. Karimi’s arrival in Beijing, the first such instance since the Taliban reclaimed power over two years ago, is a bold statement of intent, showcasing the group’s relentless pursuit of legitimacy and economic support in the face of global isolation.

Naval forces from Iran, Russia and China are set to stage a joint naval exercise in the Persian Gulf, where the three powerhouses will conduct large-scale maritime drills involving various divisions of their military forces, Press TV reports.

Forces from the three countries will jointly practice exercises during the 2024 Marine Security Belt naval war game, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani told the IRINN news channel on Friday evening.

The United States must expand and modernize its nuclear arsenal beyond planned improvements to deter combined aggression from communist China and Russia, according to a new congressional report.

Planned nuclear capacity “limits” the United States' ability to effectively prevent a war with China and Russia, says the report (pdf) by the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States.

Forecasts estimate that the population living in the provinces west to east will experience the second cold wave of the winter season from Tuesday to Friday, with drops in temperatures of up to 16C reaching minimums of -30C in some areas of Inner Mon

"Global boiling"

The first synthetic cellular organism was created in 2010 and based on a very small, very simple bacterium called Mycoplasma mycoides. The bacterium was called synthetic because its DNA genome was chemically synthesized rather than replicated from an existing template DNA, as occurs in all other known cellular life on Earth. The experiment was undertaken in order to develop a system that would allow creation of a minimal bacterial cell that could lead to a better understand of the first principles of cellular life.

Hospitals are overflowing with children suffering from mysterious antibiotic-resistant pneumonia or similar severe ailments in large cities across China. The Chinese government continues to claim that no new pathogen has been found and that the surge in chest infections is due simply to the usual winter coughs and colds.