Olympic gold medal-winning former Chinese table tennis player Ding Ning played an exhibition match against the advanced Chinese-made “AgiBot Expedition A3” robot in Beijing, China’s capital, on Saturday. The robot exchanged rapid shots with Ding Ning during the demonstration, drawing attention to its table tennis capabilities.

The robot was shown quickly responding after recognizing the speed and direction of its opponent’s shots. The contest offered spectators a view of a robot competing with a world-class player and renewed discussion around advances in artificial intelligence and robotics technology.

China’s artificial intelligence and robotics development has been advancing rapidly, according to the report. Beyond industry and research, the use of these technologies is increasing in sports. The match involving Ding Ning and the robot is being viewed as a demonstration of that technological progress.

China is preparing to launch its uncrewed, robot-based Chang’e-7 mission to search for ice in permanently shadowed craters at the Moon’s south pole. The launch window runs from August 24 to 31, with a possible launch as early as Monday. China’s seventh lunar mission will target the rim of Shackleton Crater, near the lunar south pole.

The mission includes an orbiter, lander, rover and solar-powered hopper. The orbiter will map and image the lunar surface while relaying communications. The lander will carry scientific instruments, and the rover will examine rocks, soil and local conditions. The six-legged hopper is designed to enter and exit deep, dark crater areas that conventional rovers cannot reach.

Chang’e-7 will investigate where water ice is located, how deep it lies, its condition and whether it can be collected. The source says lunar ice may preserve records of volcanic activity and provide clues about how water entered the Earth-Moon system. Accessible water could also support future human missions through drinking water, cooling, hydrogen fuel and oxygen production.

The 2026 Mekong-Lancang Fruit, Coffee, Flower and Beer Carnival has opened at Hello World Living Mall in Kunming, capital of China’s Yunnan province. Bangladesh’s stall has drawn strong interest from local visitors and businesspeople, according to a Commerce Ministry press release issued Friday. The Yunnan Provincial Department of Commerce is organizing the international event, which features 94 stalls displaying fruits and agricultural products from Mekong-region countries.

China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, Bangladesh and Thailand are participating, with countries displaying and selling a range of fruits, agricultural and food products. Bangladesh is also participating as a co-organizer. The event is intended to strengthen regional agricultural and trade cooperation while presenting Bangladeshi agricultural diversity to international markets and creating potential new business links with China.

At the opening, Bangladesh Consul General in Kunming Shahnaz Ranu said agricultural trade and economic cooperation between Bangladesh and China had reached new heights. She said Bangladesh’s mango has already entered the Chinese market, while jackfruit export protocols were signed during Prime Minister Tareque Rahman’s China visit. Organizers expect the festival, running until August 23, to expand markets and agricultural cooperation.

China’s state media reported that the death toll from severe flooding in the country’s south has risen to 159, with 10 people still missing. The updated figure was reported by state broadcaster CCTV on Friday, following damage caused in July by heavy rain and flooding linked to Typhoon Maysak.

Guangxi was among the areas hit hardest by the disaster. State media had previously reported 39 deaths there. CCTV did not explain why the revised overall death toll was released six weeks after the flooding.

According to information presented at separate meetings on post-typhoon recovery and reconstruction in Nanning and Guigang, more than 1.65 million people were affected in the two Guangxi cities. CCTV said both areas have now fully entered the post-disaster recovery and reconstruction phase.

Chinese private space startup LandSpace achieved a major reusable-rocket milestone on Wednesday when the first stage of its Zhuque-3 commercial rocket returned and landed successfully on land after launch. The rocket lifted off at 7:35 a.m. local time from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwest China. State news agency Xinhua described the mission as a complete success.

CCTV footage showed the first stage descending slowly toward a designated desert landing site. Its landing legs deployed shortly before touchdown, allowing it to land in a controlled manner. Zhuque-3’s second stage also successfully delivered the Honghu-03 satellite into its intended orbit, according to Xinhua.

Space experts said LandSpace was the first organization outside the United States to return an orbital-class rocket booster to land using its own landing legs. Astrophysicist Richard de Grijs said China had demonstrated two separate rocket-recovery technologies through state and private sectors within a month, following the July recovery of a Long March-10B first stage from a sea-based platform. He said such competition and experimentation could support lower-cost, more frequent launches.

China’s Unitree Robotics has rapidly expanded in the global robot-dog market using technology resembling research funded by the US military, Reuters reported on August 18, 2026. The report said Unitree’s popular Go-series quadruped robots closely resemble work on movement and design carried out at US universities and research institutions.

The US Army funded the Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance from 2010 to 2020, involving MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, NASA and other institutions. Its findings were publicly released to advance robotics worldwide. Researcher Ben Katz said Unitree’s robot-dog design was nearly identical to MIT’s Mini Cheetah robot.

While US innovations did not move into large-scale production, China began mass-producing similar technology at lower cost. Unitree’s Go2 model, launched in 2023, was priced at about $1,600. The company says it sold more than 18,000 quadruped robots and over 5,500 humanoid robots last year. The United States recently added Unitree to a list of companies linked to China’s defense industry.

The US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold spent four days without power in the South China Sea last month after an engineering fault affected its generator, the 7th Fleet said. The Arleigh Burke-class vessel was conducting routine operations in the Indo-Pacific on July 24 when the problem occurred. The roughly 10,000-ton warship lost its ability to move independently, while toilets, galley services, air conditioning and potable-water supplies were disrupted.

Sailors endured the outage in intense heat, with average daytime temperatures in the South China Sea in late July ranging from 89 to 98 degrees Fahrenheit, or 32 to 37 degrees Celsius. Spokesman Commander Matthew Comer said no sailors were injured and that the crew showed resilience, professionalism and composure. The cause of the power failure remains under investigation.

USS Robert Smalls supplied cooked food to Benfold, while other ships from the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group based in Japan also assisted during the four days. Benfold was later towed to Subic Bay in the Philippines for repairs, which were completed on August 8 before it returned to duty. It was the second power-loss incident involving a destroyer in the Pacific Command area, after USS Higgins lost power and propulsion for several hours in May.

China’s Foreign Ministry urged the United States to stop creating tensions and provoking conflict in the South China Sea, according to remarks published on August 15, 2026. Spokesperson Guo Jiakun responded to US claims concerning Huangyan Island, saying the island is an inseparable part of Chinese territory.

Guo said establishing and managing a national nature reserve on Huangyan Island falls within China’s sovereignty, and that the United States has no right to comment on the matter. He also said Washington has no right to support the Philippines based on what China described as an illegal and invalid arbitration ruling concerning the South China Sea.

The spokesperson further called on the United States to stop using maritime issues as a pretext to make accusations against China. The statement restated China’s position on sovereignty over Huangyan Island and its opposition to US involvement in the dispute. The report did not include responses from the United States or the Philippines.

Rising fuel prices linked to the Iran war are increasing demand for electric trucks across Asia and driving a sharp rise in Chinese exports, according to a report published on August 14, 2026. Use of electric trucks, from light vehicles to heavy trailers, is also growing rapidly in China, while domestic sales have increased in the world’s largest car market.

Pakistan-based outlet Dawn reported that in the four months after the United States and Israel began war against Iran in February, China’s exports of heavy electric trucks more than doubled year on year to 16,823 units. Nearly half of those shipments went to countries in South and Southeast Asia. Exports to South Asia rose more than fivefold, while shipments to Southeast Asia increased nearly threefold.

Higher fuel costs are offsetting the disadvantage of electric trucks’ relatively higher upfront purchase prices. The report said rising energy expenses are pushing countries across Asia toward electric transport more quickly. Chinese manufacturers are therefore focusing not only on their domestic market but also on selling electric trucks in newer markets across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

China is advancing an Arctic maritime trade route to Europe, known as the Arctic Silk Road, using the Northern Sea Route along Russia’s northern coast. A report published on August 13, 2026 said Chinese shipping company Sea Legend is moving to establish regular container services from Ningbo in China to Felixstowe in the United Kingdom. Under favorable conditions, the voyage could take about half the time of the conventional route through the Suez Canal.

Analysts say melting Arctic ice is gradually creating commercial opportunities for the route. The Northern Sea Route could reduce the Asia-Europe journey by about 30 to 40 percent compared with established shipping routes. China sees the passage as a strategic alternative if the Suez Canal, Red Sea or other major sea lanes face disruption from war, political tensions or security crises. Recent tensions in the Red Sea and parts of the Middle East have disrupted international shipping and increased interest in alternative routes.

Russia is also seeking to expand use of the Northern Sea Route, with its oil exports to Asia via the passage rising significantly this year. Major constraints remain, including harsh Arctic weather, seasonal sea ice, and the need for specialized vessels, advanced navigation and rescue infrastructure. Environmentalists have raised concerns that increased shipping could add pressure on the region’s environment and biodiversity.

Typhoon Dolphin struck eastern China on Sunday evening, prompting authorities to move more than one million people to safety from Shanghai and other areas. China’s weather authority said the storm first made landfall in Yuhuan, Zhejiang province, at about 5:30 p.m. local time, with maximum winds of 150 kilometres per hour. About an hour later, it made a second landfall in the city of Wenzhou.

Transport across the region was severely disrupted after the typhoon hit the coast. About 1,400 flights were cancelled in Shanghai alone. Authorities had earlier issued the highest-level red alert for Dolphin, but downgraded the warning to a tropical storm on Monday morning.

The storm is moving farther inland, while authorities have maintained warnings through Wednesday over risks of torrential rain, severe flooding and landslides. Heavy rain is forecast on Monday in Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, as well as Shanghai. Local administrations urged residents to stay indoors unless necessary. Parts of Shanghai Disneyland and Legoland, along with several tourist sites and observation platforms in the Bund area, were closed.

China has launched two artificial intelligence-powered remote-sensing satellites and successfully placed them into orbit from a coastal sea area off Shandong province in eastern China. The satellites were launched Wednesday aboard a Smart Dragon-3 rocket, state news agency Xinhua reported Thursday. They are intended to provide intelligent remote-sensing services to Uzbekistan and Indonesia.

The satellites were developed by Star.AI Spatio-Temporal Intelligence Technology Co. Ltd. The company said the AI-enabled systems can conduct data analysis and computing in space. It said this could provide disaster early-warning and decision-support information within minutes, compared with several hours required for data analysis by conventional satellites.

One satellite will continuously monitor the production cycle of Uzbekistan's cotton industry. The other will monitor crop growth and assess disaster-related risks to help protect agricultural production in Indonesia, according to Xinhua. China said the mission would advance the integrated use of AI and space technology, with applications for Global South countries in agriculture, weather, mineral exploration and disaster management.

China has begun commercial production of domestically developed immersion deep ultraviolet, or DUV, lithography machines, Reuters reported. State-owned Shanghai Aisengna Electronic Technology Group is leading the project, developed with engineers from Chinese lithography companies. Chinese researchers also say they are nearing development of homegrown extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography technology, an advance that could mark a major shift in the semiconductor industry.

Lithography is central to advanced semiconductor manufacturing. DUV can produce chips down to 7 nanometres through skilled engineering techniques, while EUV is considered nearly essential for 2, 3 and 5 nanometre processors. Dutch company ASML has long held an effective monopoly in the commercial EUV market. After US export restrictions limited Chinese access to advanced chips, equipment and software, China made semiconductors a national strategic priority and invested tens of billions of dollars in research, manufacturing, equipment, materials and talent.

Analysis found that Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro, launched in 2023, used a 7-nanometre processor made by SMIC. China is investing across chip design, equipment, materials, memory and fabrication, while CXMT and YMTC have expanded their positions. The source says the United States, Taiwan’s TSMC and ASML remain leaders in chip design, manufacturing and EUV technology respectively.

China is leading a new 29-country artificial intelligence group called the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, or WICO. The alliance was formed during an AI summit in Shanghai in the third week of July, where President Xi Jinping formally announced it. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attended the event. Xi said WICO aims to promote cooperation in AI and that no single country should dominate the technology.

The source says WICO includes Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa, Senegal and Pakistan. Chinese Premier Li Qiang first unveiled plans for the group last July. China has already deployed AI technology in several countries in Africa, South America and Asia and said that cooperation would continue. Beijing accuses Washington of restricting access to AI technology for many countries by citing national security concerns.

According to the report, China wants to use the bloc to counter possible US influence over planned UN international AI rules. The United States announced the Pax Silica partnership last December, and India joined the related agreement in February. Its members also include Australia, Greece, Israel, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, Singapore, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.

The death toll from a major landslide in Pengshui County, Chongqing municipality in southwestern China, has risen to 41, authorities said Tuesday night. The landslide struck on July 17, burying several residential buildings at the foot of a mountain and along a riverbank. Officials identified 30 additional victims after DNA testing and confirmation of identities from bodies and remains recovered at the site.

The reported death toll had stood at 11 as of last Friday. State media footage showed large amounts of rock and earth covering a residential and commercial road. Hundreds of rescue workers carried out operations at the scene, according to the report.

Rescuers had previously said there were no signs of survivors while searching for 50 people missing under the debris. Two weeks earlier, another landslide in the northwestern province of Gansu buried 33 people, with at least 21 deaths reported in that incident.