Beijing Dismisses Nvidia Espionage Claim as Groundless and an Attempt to Smear China
China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun on 9 November dismissed allegations of Chinese espionage involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as groundless and an attempt to smear China. On 12 November, spokesperson Mao Ning urged Washington to stop fabricating the so-called 'Chinese spy narrative' to justify technology restrictions, stressing that China's scientific progress relies on independent innovation and open cooperation. The controversy has intensified scrutiny of US-China technology ties, with American lawmakers calling for tighter chip export controls. Nvidia's board said it had no reason to believe US national security or corporate secrets had been compromised.
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China Reaffirms Firm Support for Cuba Against US Blockade and Sanctions
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla visited China from 10 to 13 November as a special envoy of the Communist Party and government, meeting Wang Yi in Beijing on 11 November. Wang pledged firm support for Cuba's sovereignty 'no matter how the situation evolves', opposing sanctions, blockades and external interference, and called for closer coordination in multilateral forums. Rodríguez also met Wang Huning, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, thanked Beijing for its support for Cuba's energy transition amid the US fuel blockade, and reaffirmed Havana's commitment to the one-China principle.
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CPC Launches Selection of 2,360 Delegates for 21st National Congress
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee issued a notice on 7 November launching the selection of 2,360 delegates for its 21st National Congress, scheduled for the second half of 2027. The delegates will be elected across 38 electoral units, 60 more than at the previous congress in 2022. Candidates must outnumber available seats by more than 15 percent, with political standards taking priority. The process is expected to conclude by the end of June 2027. The notice calls for full-process supervision and cites vote-buying cases in Hengyang, Nanchong and Liaoning as warnings.
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China's Legislature Passes First Full Water Law Rewrite Since 2002, Prioritising Conservation
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted the revised law on 6 November. The nine-chapter legislation, comprising 102 articles, replaces a statute first adopted in 1988 and comprehensively revised in 2002. It takes effect on 22 March 2027, World Water Day. The law makes conservation the first principle and establishes a rigid constraint system based on water availability. It also requires water resources, aquatic ecosystems, water environments and water-related disasters to be managed as one system, while strengthening the protection of rivers and lakes.
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PBOC Prepares e-CNY Accounts for Offshore Banks to Cut Global South Settlement Costs
The People's Bank of China said on 5 November it is working to widen digital yuan access from domestic banks to lenders abroad. Those banks connect through CBETS, a free cross-border platform that runs around the clock. Cumulative digital yuan transactions reached 4.3 billion by the end of September, worth about 31 trillion yuan (about US $4.61 trillion). For Global South traders the rail reduces reliance on correspondent banking, though capital controls limit how recipients use the yuan.
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CASS Economist Says Local Debt Curbs Demand, Urges Countercyclical Resolution and Audit
Infrastructure investment growth exceeded 10 percent in the first quarter before turning negative. Zhang Ming traces weak consumption and investment to four debt channels, including falling land revenue and unpaid bills. He proposes an audit separating genuine operating debt from public-goods borrowing, restructured at lower rates and longer maturities. Rigid cuts shrink debt and growth, he warns, so prevention means rebalanced central-local fiscal powers and project-matched financing – an argument about growth, not austerity, for the Global South.
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China's 4,000-Metre Airborne Wind System Completes First Urban Test Flight in Yueyang
A 67-metre helium-filled airship rose from a launch site in Hunan province on 6 November. The machine is designed to reach 4,000 metres, where winds are stronger and steadier than at ground level, and to last 20 years. A tether replaces the tower, and the site took up about 0.033 hectare. The trial checked whether it can operate safely near residents, since cities concentrate power demand.
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Dongsheng 89 Soybean Reaches 2.7 Times the National Average with 150,000 Mu Planted
Guangzhou University breeders screened 200,000 mutant plants for a dwarf line tolerant of dense planting. It yielded 371.58 kg per mu on 1,650 mu of Heilongjiang farmland. The National Development and Reform Commission lists its project among 136 landmark application scenarios under a 'breed in Guangzhou, validate in the Northeast' model. CCTV Finance reported growers gain 3,000 to 4,000 yuan per hectare from the purchase price alone, and quoted a Guangzhou official saying the model should ease import reliance.
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Tiangong Sets 9.7-Picokelvin Record as a Pakistani Astronaut Joins Shenzhou-24 Crewed Flight
A Pakistani payload specialist will be the first foreign national on a Chinese crewed mission, the China Manned Space Agency said on 7 November. The South-South pairing follows joint training and a February 2025 agreement. A day earlier, Peking University and the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics cooled rubidium atoms to 9.7 picokelvin in Tiangong's ultra-cold atom rack. They held the cloud for seven seconds, a result Science published as the coldest temperature ever achieved.
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Beijing Team Cuts Seizures 92.59 Percent in First Human Test of Designer Receptors
Surgeons at Xuanwu Hospital infused a gene into the hippocampus of three adults with drug-resistant epilepsy, then switched the encoded receptor on with low-dose clozapine. Mean monthly seizure frequency fell from 4.33 to 0.33 over two months, with only grade 1 or 2 side effects. At least seven Chinese trials now test the approach, including for Parkinson's disease and chronic pain. News of that work stunned researchers at a US National Institutes of Health meeting in August.
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China Opens First School for Rare and Endangered Disciplines, Joined by 80-Plus Institutions
The University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences inaugurated the school in Beijing on 6 November. Its bachelor's-to-doctorate programme covers oracle-bone studies, bamboo-and-silk manuscripts and over ten ethnic scripts, including Turkic, Tangut and Manchu. Students work with a principal supervisor and a co-supervisor from another discipline, and a digital humanities laboratory supports the research. More than 80 universities, museums and research institutes join a national alliance, as about 500 people nationwide work in ancient Chinese writing studies.
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Daoism Forum Closes with Call for Ethical Technology and Lecture on Laozi and Machine Speech
Some 500 delegates from 46 countries and regions met in Hangzhou for the sixth edition. The declaration adopted on 6 November urges the ethical development of digital technologies and responsible use of technology. A main-forum lecture was titled 'Trustworthy words are not beautiful: Laozi, the mechanical mind and machine speech'. The title indicates how far the conversation has travelled, from temples and incense to the question of who, or what, is speaking.
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