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1 week ago | 
scmp.com | Stephen Chen
Chinese researchers have unveiled a key development in underwater acoustic technology that could chart a new course for the country’s underwater defence capabilities. The innovation allowed scientists to pinpoint the depth of a low-frequency sound source with near-perfect accuracy in the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea – a critical gateway to Alaska and a focal point of US naval operations.
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2 weeks ago | 
scmp.com | Stephen Chen
As the gaming world eagerly awaits Grand Theft Auto VI, rumoured to allow players to enter over 40 per cent of its virtual buildings, scientists in Shanghai have quietly achieved something far more ambitious: a hyperrealistic digital twin of China’s largest metropolis, built not for role-playing criminals but for policing.
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2 weeks ago | 
scmp.com | Stephen Chen
Days before a devastating magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck Myanmar, flattening buildings and killing thousands, a team of Chinese seismologists published a study warning of a heightened risk of such disasters in the area. With the death toll now estimated to have passed 3,000, the seismologists have predicted the March 28 quake will not be the last such incident, with their research indicating there is currently a higher risk of catastrophic earthquakes across China and neighbouring regions.
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2 weeks ago | 
scmp.com | Stephen Chen
In a quiet demonstration of its technological prowess, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has conducted a missile defence test in the Gobi Desert where as many as 16 ballistic missiles were fired on a single target to test a cutting-edge radar system’s ability to thwart saturation attacks.
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2 weeks ago | 
scmp.com | Stephen Chen
Hidden deep beneath the South China Sea lies a realm as alien as it is vital: a frigid, lightless world where methane seeps from the ocean floor, sustaining an ecosystem of ghostly tubeworms, clams and microbial mats. Here, 2,000 metres (6,560 feet) down, China is building the world’s first long-term undersea outpost to unlock the secrets of a resource that could dwarf the Persian Gulf’s oil reserves – flammable ice.
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3 weeks ago | 
scmp.com | Stephen Chen
In the Loess Plateau in China’s Shaanxi province, where coal mining has long been synonymous with back-breaking labour and perilous conditions, the Dahaize Mine is rewriting the rules of the industry. The state-owned giant, operated by China National Coal Group, is thriving even in an era of falling coal prices – and posted a 40 per cent net profit margin in 2024. For comparison, Wall Street titan Morgan Stanley achieved just over 20 per cent last year.
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3 weeks ago | 
scmp.com | Stephen Chen
The first details of C949, a supersonic airliner project, have been quietly unveiled by Chinese state-owned aerospace giant Comac, signalling its ambitions to dominate the skies with the radical new jet that could redefine global air travel. In a recent academic paper, Comac engineers revealed the blueprint of a 1.6-Mach airliner designed to fly further and much more quietly than the retired Concorde – a feat that could position China at the forefront of a 21st century supersonic renaissance.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Stephen Chen
Chinese scientists have unveiled a propulsion breakthrough that could redefine the future of hypersonic flight. Led by Yang Qingchun, an associate professor with Beihang University in Beijing, the research team has developed an innovative secondary combustion technique that nearly doubles the thrust of a scramjet engine by injecting magnesium powder into the exhaust gases from conventional jet fuel combustion.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Stephen Chen
The plot of the Hollywood doomsday film, 2012 – where China builds survival arks on the Tibetan Plateau – is edging closer to reality with Beijing’s latest plan for getting through a global climate catastrophe. Alarmed by accelerating global climate collapse, Chinese government scientists have proposed transforming the “roof of the world” into an agricultural stronghold. It is a move that underscores Beijing’s increasing desperation in the face of looming ecological tipping points.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Stephen Chen
A compact, deep-sea, cable-cutting device, capable of severing the world’s most fortified underwater communication or power lines, has been unveiled by China – and it could shake up global maritime power dynamics. The revelation marks the first time any country has officially disclosed that it has such an asset, capable of disrupting critical undersea networks.
