China will ban karaoke songs perceived to “endanger national security”, as state controls attempt to muzzle the mics of a KTV-obsessed nation.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Sunday it has suspended several staff following an employee’s allegations on the company’s intranet that she was sexually assaulted by her boss and a client. 

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s second-quarter revenue plunged 38 percent, according to figures released Friday, with smartphone sales suffering from US sanctions and the offloading of its budget brand Honor.

China’s crude oil imports rebounded in July from a six-month low as state-backed refiners ramped up output after returning from maintenance, though independent refineries slowed restocking amid probes by Beijing into trading and taxes. 

China’s export growth unexpectedly slowed in July following outbreaks of Covid-19 cases, while imports also lost momentum, pointing to a slowdown in the country’s industrial sector in the second half even as easing global lockdowns boost commerce. 

China yesterday tightened overseas travel restrictions for its citizens as part of efforts to contain rising coronavirus cases, after reporting its highest  number of infections in six months.

China’s climate envoy yesterday said the world’s most populous nation would release its updated plans to reduce carbon emissions “in the near future” as nations prepare to meet later this year for a pivotal global conference.

The death toll from floods in central China last month is at least 302 with dozens of people still missing, officials said yesterday, after record downpours dumped a year’s worth of rain on a city in just three days, reports AFP. Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province and the epicentre of the record flooding, was hardest-hit with 292 people dead and 47 missing, according to a provincial government press briefing, as residents were trapped in subway trains, underground car parks, and tunnels. Images of passengers inundated by shoulder-height water went viral on Chinese social media on Line 5 of the city subway where 14 people died, while dozens of cars in a tunnel were tossed aside by the deluge, many with passengers still inside.

The death toll from floods in central China last month is at least 302 with dozens of people still missing, officials said, after record downpours dumped a year's worth of rain on a city in just three days.

Hundreds of thousands of people in China were in coronavirus lockdown yesterday as the country battled its worst outbreak in months, while India reported most new cases in three weeks and US intensified vaccination efforts in the face of a Delta variant-fuelled surge.

Authorities estimate overall economic losses at nearly 90 billion yuan ($14 billion), a devastating blow to the province’s heavily agrarian economy after the torrent of rain last week burst dams and collapsed bridges.

Antibodies triggered by Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine declined below a key threshold from around six months after a second dose for most recipients, although a third shot had a strong booster effect, according to a lab study.

Journalists from several media outlets covering recent floods in China were harassed online and by local residents, with staff from the BBC and Los Angeles Times receiving death threats, according to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC).

Rancour marked the start of yesterday’s talks between Beijing and the highest-level US envoy to visit under President Joe Biden’s administration, as Beijing urged Washington to stop “demonising” China while the US made a “forceful” case against China’s human rights violations.

Chinese tech giant Tencent must relinquish its exclusive music label rights, the market regulator said Saturday, after finding that the firm had violated antitrust laws.

A warehouse fire in northeastern China yesterday left at least fourteen people dead and twelve seriously injured, state media reported. 

Beijing has announced sanctions on seven American citizens and entities in response to a US advisory on deteriorating freedoms in Hong Kong, just days ahead of a visit from a senior Biden administration official.  

China shut down ports and railways yesterday as it braced for Typhoon In-Fa as parts of the country struggled to recover from devastating floods earlier this week. 

A top Chinese official said yesterday that political tensions between Beijing and Australia were not behind a Unesco recommendation to place the Great Barrier Reef on its endangered list.

China launched its long-awaited emissions trading system yesterday, a key tool in its quest to drive down climate change-causing greenhouse gases and go carbon neutral by 2060.