Beijing

A bomb threat sparked the emergency evacuation of about 30 passengers on a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong that had just landed in Beijing, the airline confirmed on Sunday. The evacuation occurred after flight CX390 landed at Beijing Capital International Airport at around noon on Saturday, with passengers and crew members escaping via emergency slides. The airline said in a statement on Sunday “a small number” of passengers sustained minor bruises during the operation. Medical care was provided and no one on board the Airbus 330 required hospitalisation. A source with knowledge of the incident said about 30 passengers were on board. The company confirmed emergency slides were used to evacuate those on board as a precautionary measure, after authorities received messages concerning a supposed security threat. A woman said her 70-year-old father took the flight, which touched down in the capital after leaving Hong Kong at about 9am. She quoted her father as saying that ... » Learn More about Bomb threat sparks evacuation of Cathay Pacific flight in Beijing

China's Communist Party and the State Council jointly released a set of guidelines for building "cyberspace civilisation" by urging government bodies to further increase and improve control over online content, amid Beijing's wider campaign to rein in the country's internet giants. All levels of government should strengthen their governance of the "cyberspace environment" to bring ideology, culture, moral standards and online behaviour under control, according to the new guidelines, published by state-run news outlet Xinhua on Tuesday (Sept 14). The all-encompassing guidelines also include regulating internet slang and putting bigger responsibilities on platforms. They should, for example, further regulate how content is produced, published and spread online, the guidelines state. The authority will also build a national "rumour debunking" mechanism based on a state website called the 'China Internet Joint Rumour Debunking Platform', according to the guidelines. The platform ... » Learn More about Beijing pushes for national ‘rumour debunking’ mechanism

A construction project near Beijing’s Forbidden City forced authorities to publicly debunk rumours that they had discovered one of China’s most famous lost artefacts. Last week, an excavator was spotted outside the Dong Hua Gate at night, sparking a debate about whether volumes of the mostly-lost Yongle Dadian, or Yongle encyclopaedia , had been discovered. The debate became so popular that authorities had to issue a statement that said they were performing routine electrical work and had chosen nighttime to minimise traffic disruptions. The Yongle Dadian contained nearly 23,000 scrolls in 11,095 volumes and has long sparked the imagination of people who believe it held knowledge lost to time. The massive work was commissioned in 1403 by Emperor Yongle, a Ming dynasty ruler known for moving the Chinese capital to Beijing. It took 2,169 scholars five years to complete. The encyclopaedia, which covers a range of traditional Chinese knowledge from important literary works of ... » Learn More about Rumours over excavator at Beijing’s Forbidden City highlight mystique surrounding massive, mostly-lost Yongle encyclopaedia

NetEase, China's second-biggest publisher of video games for smartphones and personal computers, has downsized some of its studios and projects since early September amid the government's heightened scrutiny over the sector, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Dozens of employees, including programmers, designers and creative artists at the company's Shanghai and Hangzhou offices, had been taken off their original jobs and told to look for new assignments inside and outside NetEase, according to one person who declined to be named for discussing a confidential matter. No employee has officially been retrenched. Like other major video game publishers, Nasdaq and Hong Kong-listed NetEase have multiple studios simultaneously working on different game projects, allowing them to compete against each other for approvals and the final path to market. Multiple projects, which usually shortens development time for new games, may no longer work in China. ... » Learn More about NetEase said to scale down some game projects amid Beijing’s crackdown on video gaming sector

BERLIN (Reuters) - The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will have tight COVID-19 countermeasures in place to ensure the safety of all participants, the International Olympic Committee said on Friday. Just over a month after the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Games, IOC President Thomas Bach said in an open letter that next year's Winter Games would also require strict measures amid the ongoing pandemic. "While the pandemic is far from over, I would like to reassure you that together with our Chinese partners and friends, we are sparing no effort to make these Olympic Winter Games safe and secure for everyone," Bach said. The Beijing Winter Olympics will be held from Feb. 4-20. "As we did in Tokyo, we are putting in place rigorous COVID-19 countermeasures to ensure the health and safety of all Olympic participants in Beijing," the IOC president said, urging teams to get vaccinated and offering support in this process. The vast majority of athletes and participants at the ... » Learn More about Olympics-Beijing 2022 Games to have rigorous COVID-19 measures-IOC

Roughly one out of every seven young urban workers in China remains unemployed, as Beijing’s regulatory crackdowns on key industries are adding further pressure on the nation’s weak jobs sector amid more signs of a broad economic slowdown, according to the latest economic data. The official figures indicate that the surveyed jobless rate for workers aged 16 to 24 – which includes most high school and college graduates – hit 15.3 per cent in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday in its monthly update . Although last month’s rate was an improvement from 16.2 per cent in July, and was 0.2 percentage points lower than in June’s graduation season, it marked an increase from the 13.1 per cent seen in August 2019, pre-coronavirus. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge , our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our ... » Learn More about China unemployment: Beijing’s regulatory crackdowns pose yet another hurdle for young urban jobseekers

Beijing has given the green light for the formation through merger of a central government-controlled electricity transmission and distribution equipment giant, as part of a reform of industry and state-owned enterprises to drive efficiency. The move, which involves the consolidation of XJ Group and six units under dominant power distributor State Grid Corporation of China, will create a company with more than 100 billion yuan (US$15.5 billion) in assets according to state media reports. Some of the companies make products and supply software that enables the automation of power grid management, which enhances the distribution system’s capacity and flexibility to absorb intermittent renewable energy. This will help China meet its net zero carbon emissions goal by 2060 and fight climate change . Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge , our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, ... » Learn More about China’s carbon neutral goal: Beijing approves creation of power grid equipment giant to meet decarbonisation needs

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics unveiled its official motto, "Together for a Shared Future", during a ceremony at the city's Capital Museum on Friday. Chen Ning, director general of Beijing 2022's Culture and Ceremonies Department, said that the slogan was a commitment towards overcoming global challenges as a community with a shared future for mankind. The motto was chosen after a lengthy process that included a total of 79 different proposals. "This motto embodies the Olympic spirit, the Chinese way of revealing the Olympic spirit. That's because 'together' embodies a type of unity, cohesion and way of overcoming difficulties," said Chen. Earlier, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said that the Games would -- like Tokyo 2020 -- require strict COVID-19 restrictions, with Chen adding that organisers were yet to decide if spectators would be allowed. The Games will be held from Feb. 4-20, with Beijing set to become the first city to ... » Learn More about Olympics – ‘Together for a Shared Future’ unveiled as motto for Beijing 2022 Games

BEIJING (Bloomberg): An Air France-KLM flight made an emergency landing shortly after taking off from Beijing after the Boeing Co. 777 aircraft suffered a technical failure and smoke filled the cabin. The flight, destined for Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, returned to Beijing airport 14 minutes after departure, the carrier said in a statement Saturday (Sept 18). Passengers reported hearing a loud bang before black smoke began filling the cabin, the Beijing Daily said. There were no reports of injury. A Boeing spokesperson referred to Air France for any information on the incident. "A failure of the aircraft’s pneumatic system resulted in overpressurisation in one of the air conditioning pipes, which spread residue and dust in the cabin,” Air France said in its statement. Maintenance work will be carried out on the aircraft, and passengers were offered alternative flights to Paris, the airline said. Boeing, one of the world’s largest planemakers, has come under widespread ... » Learn More about Air France Boeing jet makes emergency landing in Beijing

Hong Kong’s first critical election under the Beijing-decreed electoral overhaul on Sunday (Sept 19) hit a major snag as a delay in vote counting overnight prompted candidates to demand answers on why it took over 10 hours for the full results when only 4,380 ballot papers had to be tallied. Electoral Affairs Commission chairman Barnabas Fung Wah apologised for the delay and admitted the process of delivering the ballot boxes and vote counting was “unsatisfactory”. “At this stage, I can say they were human errors or errors of judgement on whether the problem should be sort of raised to us or to be solved by the frontline staff,” Fung said at a press briefing at 6.15am on Monday. “We will look into the matter thoroughly. I think it may not be fair to pinpoint anyone in particular. I’ll ask you to wait for the election report.” At 6am on Monday, 12 hours after voting came to a close, results of only 10 out of 13 subsectors in the Election Committee which required competition had ... » Learn More about Hong Kong elections: Long delay in vote counting mars city’s first ‘patriots-only’ polls under Beijing overhaul