China’s energy crisis deepened on Friday as cold weather swept into much of the country and power plants scrambled to stock up on coal, sending prices of the fuel to record highs.

China’s central bank said Friday that the risk of spillover from embattled property giant Evergrande to the financial sector was  “controllable”, breaking its silence on the company’s debt troubles, state media reported.

Three astronauts successfully docked with China’s new space station yesterday on what is set to be Beijing’s longest crewed mission to date and the latest landmark in its drive to become a major space power.

At least 15 people have died during unseasonably heavy rain and flooding in north China’s Shanxi province earlier this month, local officials said yesterday, after the normally dry region received three months’ rain in one week.

Chinese authorities confirmed Tuesday 13 people had died after a bus plunged into a rushing river amid heavy flooding that has caused 15 other fatalities in the north.

China and India yesterday blamed each other for the failure of high-level talks to ease tensions along a disputed Himalayan border between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

China Evergrande Group offshore bondholders are concerned that it is close to defaulting on debt payments and want more information and transparency from the cash-strapped property developer, their advisers said.

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi yesterday termed China as a “great friend” to Bangladesh and emphasised the need to enhance bilateral relations between the two with a focus on trade in the days ahead.

China will continue to curb monopolistic behaviors of internet platform companies and strengthen the protection of consumer privacy and data security, central bank governor Yi Gang said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday vowed to realise peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan, though did not directly mention the use of force after a week of tensions with the Chinese-claimed island that sparked international concern.

China ordered miners in Inner Mongolia to ramp up coal production and oil prices jumped on Friday as a record surge in the cost of gas revived demand for the most polluting fossil fuels to keep factories open and homes heated.

China said on Saturday it pressed the United States to eliminate tariffs in talks between the countries’ top trade officials that Washington saw as a test of bilateral engagement between the world’s biggest economies.

China will make the protection of nature a priority and crack down on damage to habitats, the government said in a policy paper days before it hosts talks aimed at drawing up a new global biodiversity treaty.

“Realising national reunification by peaceful means best serves

Taiwan yesterday accused Beijing of bullying and damaging regional peace after Chinese fighter jets and bombers made their largest ever incursion into the island’s air defence zone. 

China's vast Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is in danger of losing momentum as opposition in targeted countries rises and debts mount, paving the way for rival schemes to squeeze Beijing out, a new study showed on Wednesday.

An American brother and sister barred from exiting China since 2018 in an apparent bid to pressure their father to return and face criminal allegations have finally left the country, Beijing and Washington confirmed yesterday.

The situation in the Taiwan Strait is “complex and grim”, Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday wrote in a congratulatory letter to the newly elected leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party, who has pledged to renew talks with Beijing.

Tesla Inc’s Shanghai factory is expected to produce 300,000 cars in the first nine months of the year, capped by a delivery rush in the end of the July-September quarter, despite a global semiconductor shortage, two sources said.

Several local governments in China have set up special custodian accounts for property projects of its most indebted developer, Evergrande, to protect funds earmarked for housing projects from being diverted, media outlet Caixin said.