Hui Ka Yan also forfeits all his personal property and the company he set up is given hefty fines
The founder of Evergrande, one of China’s largest property developers, has been sentenced to life in prison and had all of his personal property confiscated.
Hui Ka Yan, 67 and once named by Forbes as China’s richest man, with a net worth of $42.5bn (£31.2bn) in 2017, pleaded guilty in April to eight charges.
Continue reading...Owner of firm behind ‘Temu Range Rover’ will open facility in Bedfordshire in autumn
The Chinese carmaker behind the irreverently nicknamed “Temu Range Rover” is plotting further UK expansion with a major research and development centre in England.
Chery, which makes the Jaecoo and Omoda car brands, said the launch of a new R&D site was “the next step in our long-term plan” for Britain as it also moves towards manufacturing its cars in the UK.
Continue reading...The Comac C919 will fly from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, although experts say it could take generations for it to challenge the west’s dominance of the industry
China hopes to break into the world of commercial aviation with the first international flight of a Chinese-made passenger jet scheduled for Wednesday.
The Comac C919 will take off from Beijing capital international airport at 3pm, landing in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, just over two hours later.
Continue reading...Tropical cyclone brings torrential rain and high winds to east coast after hitting Japan’s southern Okinawa province
Typhoon Dolphin, the most powerful tropical cyclone to hit China this year, has made landfall on the country’s east coast, bringing torrential rain and strong winds and triggering warnings of flooding and landslides.
The storm has already swept through Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture, injuring six people and cutting power to more than 50,000 buildings.
Continue reading...Imports this year now account for 14% of the market amid claims vehicles are being dumped in the EU and UK
Chinese electric car sales have risen across Europe to a record high driven by strong demand and low tariffs in the UK and a surge in buyers in Italy.
Against a backdrop of claims that Chinese carmakers are “dumping” state-subsidised vehicles in the EU and UK to gain market share, the figures will give impetus to calls for quotas and higher tariffs to protect European manufacturers.
Continue reading...State department informs Congress of planned closures in Canada, Grenada, Japan, Indonesia and Cameroon
The US state department is to shut five foreign consulates and missions across Asia, Africa, North America and the Caribbean, drawing criticism that it is leaving a diplomatic vacuum at risk of being filled by China.
The US Congress has been served notice of the impending closures, which are being justified on cost grounds and follow a reassessment of the US’s bilateral relationships with a range of countries since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
Continue reading...State department informs Congress of planned closures in Canada, Grenada, Japan, Indonesia and Cameroon
The US state department is to shut five foreign consulates and missions across Asia, Africa, North America and the Caribbean, drawing criticism that it is leaving a diplomatic vacuum at risk of being filled by China.
The US Congress has been served notice of the impending closures, which are being justified on cost grounds and follow a reassessment of the US’s bilateral relationships with a range of countries since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
Continue reading...US former top health official, who was subpoenaed to appear at a Senate hearing into Covid-19, says Markson’s reporting about virus’s origin ‘does not make any sense’
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s chief medical adviser at the start of the pandemic, has described a book by News Corp investigative journalist Sharri Markson backing the “lab leak” theory of Covid-19’s origins as a “bunch of nonsense” in his newly released diaries.
This week, Fauci, 85, was subpoenaed by the Republican senator Rand Paul to appear at a Senate hearing into Covid-19 and his handling of the pandemic.
Continue reading...Layoffs will come in admin and development divisions in Germany, with production operations unaffected
BMW is planning to cut as many as 8,000 jobs in Germany, according to reports, in the latest sign of Europe’s largest carmakers reducing costs under pressure from Chinese rivals.
The Munich-headquartered company has started a voluntary redundancy programme agreed with employee representatives, a BMW spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Increasingly accurate and lethal attacks are revealing weaknesses in stretched defences across the Gulf
As the crisis in the Middle East escalates, Iran has been bombing US bases and critical infrastructure in the Gulf with increasing accuracy, helped by Chinese satellite imagery and tactics learned by Russia in Ukraine.
Three US soldiers were killed last Friday in an attack on the Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan, which was being protected by a Thaad air defence system. Satellite imagery later released by Iranian media showed several buildings had been destroyed.
Continue reading...Carmaker expects to sell 3% fewer vehicles this year as it pushes through a programme that could eliminate 100,000 roles
Volkswagen has reported a steep fall in profits and cut its revenue forecast amid a sales slump in China, as the German carmaker pushes through a brutal cost-cutting programme that includes axeing up to 100,000 jobs.
VW said it expects sales to fall by up to 3% this year, a reversal of a previous forecast for a 3% increase on last year’s €321.9bn (£275.3bn), because of a sales slump in the highly competitive Chinese market.
Continue reading...Foreign minister Penny Wong will deliver speech criticising China’s recent launch of a nuclear-capable submarine-launched missile
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Penny Wong will warn China that Australia and other neighbouring nations will not be bullied by its “provocative” actions, after its involvement in another “destabilising and dangerous” incident this week.
The foreign affairs minister – who will deliver the address on Thursday in the Philippines, where the 59th Asean foreign minister’s meeting is being held – will also caution world leaders against placing a toll on the strait of Hormuz after both Iran and the US threatened to do amid the protracted conflict.
Continue reading...Virginia’s Mark Warner says speech was ‘just lies and long-debunked conspiracies’
Several major networks declined to air Donald Trump’s primetime televised address on Thursday, citing concerns that the content could be politically partisan or inflammatory.
CNN, ABC and NBC chose not to air the speech live, but CBS, Fox News and MS Now (formerly MSNBC) aired at least large portions of the speech live. Some ABC station station affiliates – including the Washington DC station owned by right-leaning broadcaster Sinclair – also chose to air the speech.
Continue reading...Arrest in Pennsylvania of Wu Shaoping, who is awaiting asylum decision, raises fears of deportation and persecution
A Chinese human rights lawyer has been arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raising concerns he could be deported to China where he would face persecution.
Wu Shaoping fled China at the end of 2019 amid a crackdown on human rights lawyers. He travelled to the US on a tourist visa and made an asylum claim in 2020, for which he is still awaiting a decision.
Continue reading...Opponents say president’s address about 2020 election loss is attempt to sow confusion ahead of midterms that could deliver big losses for Republicans
Donald Trump accused China of interfering with the 2020 election in a primetime televised address that laid bare his continuing obsession with his defeat to Joe Biden, but which opponents warned was a smokescreen for him to meddle in the forthcoming congressional midterms.
In a 25-minute speech on Thursday that had been hyped by Trump himself, the US president cast extraordinary doubts on the integrity of the US electoral process, saying it was “catastrophically” short of standards of fairness and trust, and vulnerable to trespassing by foreign powers.
Continue reading...Move dealt ‘severe blow to Chinese companies’ confidence in investing in the UK’, says Ministry of Commerce
China’s government has said it is “strongly dissatisfied” with the decision to nationalise British Steel this week, 15 months after the UK government stepped in to prevent the closure of its steelworks in Scunthorpe and the loss of 4,000 jobs.
On Thursday, British Steel was brought under public ownership to protect “the future of steel production”, the government announced.
Continue reading...Third round of arrests linked to independent bookshops widely regarded as clampdown on dissent in territory
Hong Kong authorities have raided two bookstores and arrested five people on suspicion of selling allegedly seditious publications, in the latest step targeting independent booksellers.
Videos and photos from multiple media outlets on Wednesday showed officers wearing vests marked with “police” seizing boxes from the building that houses Have A Nice Stay, a bookshop founded by former journalists. AFP reporters saw officers also lead away a woman in handcuffs to a van.
Continue reading...Global views appear to have flipped in Beijing’s favour, driven in part by tensions between the Trump administration and US allies, a new Pew survey shows
The world has largely viewed the US more favourably than China for years, but those opinions have flipped in Beijing’s favour this year, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, a remarkable shift driven in part by tensions between the Trump administration and US allies.
More people have favourable views of China than the US in 25 out of the 36 countries and territories that were surveyed, including Canada and Mexico. The poll was conducted from February to May, a period when the United States and Israel were engaged in a war against Iran.
Continue reading...Worse-than-expected figures for three months to June come amid concerns over lopsided economy
China has posted worse-than-expected growth figures for the three months to June as its economy expanded by just 4.3% – one of its lowest quarterly readings on record.
The rate, which came in under the government’s target of 4.5% to 5%, was one of the weakest since reporting on official quarterly GDP figures began in the early 1990s.
Continue reading...Chinese leader Xi Jinping calls for ‘all out’ rescue effort as death toll rises and 16 people remain buried after a landslide in the country’s west
The death toll from devastating storms in parts of China rose to 15 on Tuesday, with hundreds more injured and tens of thousands evacuated, state media reported, as the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, urged “all out” efforts to rescue people affected by the weather.
Thunderstorms and gale-force winds killed at least 11 people and injured 331 in the central province of Hubei, where “severe convective weather” hit cities, while tornadoes were reported elsewhere late Monday, state news agency Xinhua said.
Continue reading...