A crippling drought exacerbated by a record heatwave has spread across half of China and reached the normally frigid Tibetan Plateau, according to official data released ahead of more searing temperatures yesterday.

China’s autumn harvest is under “severe threat” from high temperatures and drought, authorities have warned, promising fresh steps to protect

Taiwan is determined to defend itself and invaders will incur a “heavy price”, President Tsai Ing-wen said yesterday on the anniversary of a confrontation six decade ago in which Taiwanese forces beat back Chinese attackers.

China’s scorched southwestern regions extended curbs on power consumption yesterday as they deal with dwindling hydropower output and surging household electricity demand during a long drought and heatwave.

A United Nations waiver allowing 13 Afghan Taliban officials to travel abroad expired on Friday, as the Security Council failed to reach an agreement on whether to extend the travel exemptions.

A Chinese-Canadian tycoon who disappeared from a Hong Kong hotel five years ago has been sentenced to 13 years in prison and his company fined $8 billion for embezzlement and bribery, a Shanghai court said yesterday.

A provincial capital in southwest China has dimmed outdoor advertisements, subway lighting and building signs to save energy, official announcements said, as the area battles a power crunch triggered by record-high temperatures.

Sixteen people were killed and many left missing in flash flooding in northwest China, state media reported yesterday, as the country battles extreme weather that has shuttered factories and caused rolling power cuts.

The United States expects China to ramp up its military, diplomatic and economic “coercion” of Taiwan, its top envoy in East Asia said yesterday, after Beijing’s unprecedented drills around the island it claims as its own.

China is scrambling to alleviate power shortages and bring more water to the drought-hit basin of the Yangtze river as it battles a record-breaking heatwave by deploying relief funds, seeding clouds and developing new sources of supply.

A Chinese research vessel bristling with antennas and communication gear docked at Sri Lanka’s Chinese-run port of Hambantota yesterday despite concerns from India and the United States about its alleged spying activities.

China staged fresh military drills around Taiwan yesterday, slamming a new visit by United States lawmakers to the island days after a similar trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi triggered a furious response from Beijing.

Several regions of China including the major southwestern city of Chongqing baked in temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) yesterday, while the country’s national observatory continued its red alert for extreme heat.

The United States will boost trade with Taiwan in response to China’s “provocative” behaviour, the White House said Friday, as it insisted on the right of air and sea passage through the tense strait.

China and Nepal have agreed to build the so-called Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network, the Chinese foreign ministry said,

China has surpassed the US to become the global leader in both scientific research output and “high impact” studies, according to a report published by Japan’s National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTP).

China yesterday vowed zero tolerance for “separatist activities” in Taiwan and reaffirmed that it would take the self-ruled island by force if necessary.

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi recently made a provocative visit to China's Taiwan region in disregard of China’s strong opposition and serious representations.

Taiwan’s foreign minister said Tuesday that China aims to control the East and South China Seas via the Taiwan Strait, describing a greater ambition to upend the Asia-Pacific status quo and prevent nations from aiding the self-governing island.

China carried out fresh military drills around Taiwan yesterday, Beijing said, defying calls to end its largest-ever exercises encircling the island in the wake of a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.