The Times • 19th July 2017Religion is banned, Chinese communists are told China’s estimated 85 million Communist Party members have been warned by a party chief that they are not allowed to have religious beliefs, and that those who do will be punished.
The Times • 19th July 2017China offers cut‑price copy of US Reaper drone China has shown off its deadliest military drone to the international arms market and it bears an uncanny resemblance to the American Reaper — but is for sale at half the price.
The Times • 18th July 2017China shuts illegal chatrooms selling babies to highest bidders The Chinese authorities have shut a series of online chat groups that were used to organise deals to trade babies for cash.
The Times • 18th July 2017Chinese leadership contender Sun Zhengcai purged in Chongqing corruption inquiry A provincial Communist party chief who had been tipped to succeed President Xi has been detained by a commission investigating corruption and removed from his post as a city leader.
The Times • 18th July 2017President Xi promotes protégés and sidelines their rivals The national congress of the Communist Party, the biggest event in China’s political cycle, will take place in October or November — and the backstage plotting is in full swing.
The Times • 15th July 2017Thousands march through Hong Kong after Liu Xiaobo’s ashes are scattered at sea Thousands of people marched through Hong Kong in a candle-lit vigil in memory of the pro-democracy Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
The Times • 14th July 2017Mall in Shanghai uses gaming booths to keep husbands busy Shanghai’s largest shopping centre has introduced TV and video-game booths to keep men occupied while their partners scour the stores.
The Times • 13th July 2017Chinese troops head for Africa to open first foreign military base Chinese troops have been dispatched to the country’s first overseas military base in the Horn of Africa as Beijing beefs up its international military presence.
The Times • 10th July 2017Film fans turn up late to avoid propaganda movie Chinese film fans have been boycotting cinemas that have been ordered to show a propaganda film in which many of the biggest stars quote Chairman Mao and promote “core socialist values”.
VICE Motherboard • 10th July 2017Inside China's supermassive alien-searching radio dish The 500 metre wide FAST dish has made a poor rural province the centre of China's search for extraterrestrial life.
The Guardian • 7th July 2017Failure of China's 'straddling bus' shows there's no magic bullet for traffic woes The plan always seemed a bit too good – or at least too brilliantly weird – to be true.
Aspire • 3rd July 2017On the Fast track: a trip to China's enormous alien-searching dish The 500 metre-wide dish has transformed the rural area it lies in; now its search for ET is set to begin.