China

Introduced to the commercial market in 2018, ‘cloning’ represents the most extreme form of humanisation in the country’s pet economy. By 2025, spending on dogs and cats had reached 312.6 billion yuan, whilst Chinese companies are increasingly focusing on developing their own brands and conquering foreign markets.

The summit that yesterday in New Delhi brought together 11 countries that are in open conflict with one another on many issues. The final declaration is a 140-point document that makes no mention of Ukraine or Washington, nor does it propose a common currency. Beneath the surface, the divisions between India and China remain irreconcilable.

"4 Rivers 6 Ranges" hits theatres today. The work of a director born to Tibetan exiles in Darjeeling, the film relates the story of the Dalai Lama’s flight to India in the 1950s, seeking to link the theme of the diaspora to the evolution of India's policies. Chinese state television has accused the film of being separatist propaganda.

Lawyer Chow Hang-tung and trade unionist Lee Chueuk-yan received the harshest sentences. Five years and two months for former MP Albert Ho. They were charged with “incitement to subversion” for calling for a democratic system. All books and documents relating to the 4 June 1989 massacre in Beijing were also seized.

A flight attendant of Chinese descent, she was the first to raise the alarm from the first aeroplane to hit the Twin Towers. Today, the leisure centre where she used to play as a child bears her name, and a foundation set up by her family supports children and the elderly. Her memory is intertwined with that of San Francisco’s Chinese-American community.

Beijing has confirmed that the Chinese president will attend the BRICS summit on 12-13 September. This is his first visit to India in seven years, marking a thaw facilitated by Trump's slights against India. However, following the 2020 conflict in Ladakh, a border agreement remains elusive, and competition persists.

Father Andrew Ding Wang, 44, was ordained today under the 2018 Sino-Vatican agreement. Leo XIV conferred on him the title of archbishop, as required by the jurisdiction of the Holy See (and the history of the local Church), even though China has no metropolitan sees. Three of the four bishops chosen in recent weeks in China were born after 1980.

On 9 September 1976, the ‘helmsman’ of China’s path to communism died. Still honoured in Beijing as a talisman, his name means nothing to Generation Z, who are chasing the China of social media. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping has revived his rhetoric on the primacy of the Party and his methods for promoting his nationalist agenda.

At the Oceania Island Leaders' Forum meeting currently underway in Palau, agreement was reached on a text that, while not specifically naming Beijing, criticizes the test conducted in July. The meeting was also marked by Chinese attacks over the invitation to Taiwan's Foreign Minister.

Father Wang Genxian, aged 55, of the Diocese of Fuzhou, was swept away by the flood whilst on his way to a church on pastoral business. A three-storey building collapsed in Xianyou County. Hundreds of people have died in the long series of natural disasters that have struck China in recent weeks.

Due to the economic crisis, some of these establishments have become temporary shelters for the homeless and gig workers. In a small town in Guizhou, the owner has turned his café into a trendy place with live online broadcasts during which he raises funds to make up for the shortcomings of social services.  

The appeal lodged by the Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong and the other four trustees of the Fund in Defence of Protesters – who in 2022 (after being briefly detained by the police) were fined for breaching company regulations – has been dismissed. Margaret Ng announces a further appeal: “Freedom of association is at stake”.