Tag: china

160,000-year-old sophisticated stone tools discovered in China may not have been made by Homo sapiens

Archaeologists have found that early humans in what is now China were using sophisticated stone tools as far back as 160,000 years ago.

“This discovery challenges the perception that stone tool technology in Asia lagged behind Europe and Africa during this period,” the research team wrote in a statement about the discovery.

At the site of Xigou, discovered in 2017 in Henan province in central China, the archaeological team found the remains of more than 2,600 stone tools and determined that some of them were “hafted,” or attached to a piece of wood or other form of stick.

“The identification of the hafted tools provides the earliest evidence for composite tools in Eastern Asia, to our knowledge,” the team wrote in a study published Tuesday (Jan. 27) in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers already knew of extremely early tool use in East Asia, with the oldest known wooden tools there dating to 300,000 years ago. However, the new findings, which were excavated between 2019 and 2021, are the earliest known tools consisting of two materials, as is evidenced by the hafted artifacts.

Hafting “is a new technological innovation whereby the stone tool is inserted or bound to a handle or a shaft,” Michael Petraglia, director of the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University and a co-author of the paper, told Live Science in an email. “This improved tool performance by allowing the user to increase leverage and providing more force for actions such as boring.”

It appears that the tools were used to process plant materials. “Microscopic analysis on the edges of the stone tools indicate boring actions, used against plant material, likely wood or reeds,” Petraglia said.

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China Purges One of Its Top Military Leaders After He Allegedly Leaked Nuclear Secrets to U.S.

A senior figure at the very top of China’s military has been abruptly removed amid allegations he passed highly sensitive nuclear information to the United States.

Zhang Youxia, long regarded as the operational leader of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), was dismissed on Saturday for a “serious violation of discipline.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, the 75-year-old general is accused of sharing classified details relating to China’s nuclear weapons programme with Washington.

The allegations were reportedly laid out during a closed-door briefing attended by senior PLA officers.

The meeting took place only hours before Beijing publicly confirmed that Zhang was under formal investigation.

Officials at the briefing are said to have accused Zhang not only of leaking state secrets, but also of accepting bribes in exchange for promoting a senior officer to the defence minister.

He was further alleged to have formed “political cliques” within the military, a charge that often signals concerns over loyalty rather than corruption alone.

Evidence presented at the meeting was reportedly supplied by Gu Jun, a former executive at China National Nuclear Corporation, which oversees both civilian and military nuclear programmes.

Gu himself is under investigation as part of a sweeping corruption probe targeting China’s defence and nuclear sectors.

Officials told the briefing that the inquiry into Gu had uncovered a major security breach inside the nuclear establishment, to which Zhang was allegedly connected.

Zhang’s downfall is particularly striking given his status within the PLA.

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A Dangerous Year for Taiwan: Converging Pressures Raise the Risk of Chinese Invasion

Multiple political, strategic, and military factors are converging in a way that could make 2026 a uniquely dangerous year for Taiwan. Chinese leaders increasingly believe that asserting control over Taiwan is inevitable and may be achievable sooner than previously assumed.

Xi Jinping’s personal ambitions and political timeline add urgency to this assessment. He has pushed the Taiwan issue more aggressively than any predecessor and may view reunification as a defining legacy achievement. Xi has set 2027 as the target for the People’s Liberation Army to complete its modernization goals, ordering the military to be capable of a successful invasion by the PLA’s 100th anniversary.

While 2027 itself is unlikely to see major military action due to the Communist Party Congress and the regime’s emphasis on internal stability, the year immediately preceding it, 2026, is far more flexible.

Former INDOPACOM commander Admiral Philip Davidson warned in 2021 that the threat to Taiwan would become “manifest” within six years, a warning that came to be known as the Davidson Window. The term refers to a period of heightened risk, roughly between 2021 and 2027, during which China could acquire the military capability to attempt a takeover of Taiwan.

Davidson’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee underscored the pace of China’s military modernization and its narrowing gap with U.S. and allied forces in the region.

According to 2025 and 2026 U.S. Department of Defense reports, the People’s Liberation Army has expanded its missile inventory from about 1,200 in 2020 to roughly 3,500, while missile launchers grew from 800 to 1,500, supported by additional brigades and 300 new ICBM silos. Systems such as the DF-26 enable saturation strikes on U.S. bases in Guam.

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REPORT: Kamala Campaign Probed Walz’s Links To Chinese Communists During Veep Selection

A Democrat who once bragged about his fondness for China was questioned about potential foreign ties during Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign, according to multiple sources familiar with the vice presidential vetting process.

The revelation surfaced as fallout continues over the Harris campaign’s questioning of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro about whether he had ever acted as an agent for Israel, a claim Shapiro detailed in his recent memoir and confirmed by CNN.

“I told her how offensive the question was,” Shapiro wrote.

Sources told CNN that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was also subjected to intense scrutiny over his long history of praise for China and its communist system, with the campaign pressing him on whether his views and travel raised concerns about foreign influence. The outlet cited four unnamed sources familiar with the vetting process.

The questions, sources said, were not arbitrary.

Walz has a well-documented record of expressing admiration for China during his years as a teacher, including remarks praising communist ideology.

“It means that everyone is the same and everyone shares,” Walz said in 1991 while teaching.

“The doctor and the construction worker make the same. The Chinese government and the place they work for provide housing and 14 kg or about 30 pounds of rice per month. They get food and housing,” he added.

Minnesota Public Radio later reported that Walz exaggerated how often he traveled to China, raising further red flags during the vetting process.

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Uncovered: Secret room beneath Chinese embassy that poses threat to City

China is to build a hidden chamber alongside Britain’s most sensitive communication cables as part of a network of 208 secret rooms beneath its new London “super-embassy”, The Telegraph can reveal.

This newspaper has uncovered detailed plans for an underground complex below the vast diplomatic site in central London, which Beijing has sought to keep from public scrutiny.

Despite the apparent security risk, Sir Keir Starmer is expected to approve the embassy before a visit to China later this month, when he is due to meet Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.

The plans, which are redacted in all publicly available versions, can only be revealed because The Telegraph has uncovered the unredacted documents.

The drawings show that a single concealed chamber will sit directly alongside fibre-optic cables transmitting financial data to the City of London, as well as email and messaging traffic for millions of internet users.

The same hidden room is fitted with hot-air extraction systems, possibly suggesting the installation of heat-generating equipment such as advanced computers used for espionage. The plans also show that China intends to demolish and rebuild the outer basement wall of the chamber, directly beside the fibre-optic cables.

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Federal prosecutors unseal sweeping NCAA basketball illegal game-fixing scheme tied to China

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia have unsealed criminal charges in what they say was a years-long, international scheme to rig NCAA Division I men’s basketball games, and even some pro games in China, all to make money through illegal sports betting.

Speaking at a news conference, David Metcalf, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said the case involves “the criminal corruption of collegiate athletics” and charged that 26 defendants were behind game-fixing operations in the U.S. and overseas. Stressing the broader significance of the allegations, Metcalf said: “When criminals pollute the purity of sports by manipulating competition, it doesn’t just imperil the integrity of sports betting markets. It imperils the integrity of sport itself and everything that sports represent to us.”

According to the indictment filed in federal court and reviewed by ReadWrite, the defendants are charged with violations including bribery in sporting contests, wire fraud, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting. Prosecutors stress that the charges are only allegations, and that all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they’re proven guilty. The case, officially titled United States v. Smith et al., was filed on January 14, 2026.

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The Critical Minerals Trade: The Illegal Route Connecting the Amazon with China

A complex network of actors has emerged around the critical minerals of the Amazon. Some operate along contested river corridors, trading with guerrilla groups and corrupt security forces. Others, under a façade of legality, move massive quantities of material through large port cities connected to international trade routes. Together, these operations endanger the environment and the sovereignty of entire nations.

The grayish-black sand and small stones sifted from river sediments and dug from pits across the Amazon hold little recognized value for local communities. Yet these materials are rapidly shipped abroad, where Chinese refineries process a wide variety of minerals and rare earth elements. 

In Venezuela, much of the mineral output is first collected in centers operated by the Venezuelan Mining Corporation (CVM). Collection hubs for cassiterite and coltan in Los Pijiguaos and Morichalito, two nearby towns in the state of Bolívar, were established in 2023, after the Venezuelan government designated cassiterite, nickel, rhodium, titanium, and other rare-earth-related minerals as strategic resources for exploration, extraction, and commercialization. 

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Carney Threatens US, Goes Full Vassal State As He Kowtows To China’s Xi Jinping -Gives Merit To Trump’s Greenland Argument

The former nation of Canada is now a full vassal state of the Chinese Communist Party. This is of course already known, as Justin Trudeau moved far down that path while trying to conceal his true intentions.

Mark Carney is doing no such thing as he kowtows to China’s Xi Jinping while on a recent trip to China.

“A pleasure to meet with President Xi in Beijing. Canada and China are forging a new strategic partnership. We’re leveraging our strengths — focusing on trade, energy, agriculture, seafood, and other areas where we can make massive gains for both our peoples,” Carney declared in Beijing.

“The progress we have made in the partnership sets us up well for the new world order.”

A reporter asked — What did you mean by the new world order?

“The architecture, the multilateral system is being eroded—undercut. The question is what gets built in its place,” Carney replied

Regardig Greenland, Carney threatened Trump.

“We are NATO partners with Denmark. Our full partnership and our obligations to Article 5 and Article 2 stand. We stand fully behind those.”

The US is urging allies to move faster on reducing reliance on Chinese critical minerals, planning a Feb. 4 meeting of foreign ministers to strengthen and diversify supply chains, reported Bloomberg.

It is not likely President Trump will take these comments sitting down.

The move may backfire as the sight of a Canadian leader licking Beijing’s boots will likely increase the American public’s support for President Trump’s Greenland viewpoint.

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Fentanyl Deaths Fall As Evidence Points To China Crackdown Trump Long Advocated

A sharp decline in U.S. overdose deaths appears increasingly tied to a disruption in the global fentanyl supply chain – an outcome that new research suggests may stem in part from intensified pressure on Chinese chemical suppliers.

The findings, published Thursday in Science, enter a long-running debate over what finally reversed a drug crisis that pushed annual overdose deaths above 100,000 during the Biden administration. Fatalities began falling in mid-2023 and dropped more sharply thereafter, a trend that has continued under Donald Trump, who has long-framed fentanyl trafficking as a national-security threat and used tariffs, border enforcement and overseas interdictions as leverage.

While public-health officials have pointed to billions spent on addiction treatment, naloxone distribution and domestic law enforcement, the research places renewed emphasis on a crackdown by Beijing – specifically, efforts to prevent fentanyl from being manufactured at all.

The paper concludes that the illicit fentanyl market experienced a significant supply contraction, “possibly tied to Chinese government actions,” citing falling purity in seized drugs, reduced seizure volumes and online reports of shortages. The findings align with arguments long advanced by Trump and his advisers: that pressuring China’s chemical sector was central to choking off supply.

“This demonstrates how influential China can be and how much they can help us – or hurt us,” said Keith Humphreys, a co-author of the study and a former White House drug policy adviser under President Barack Obama.

U.S. law-enforcement agencies have for years scrutinized China’s role as a key supplier of precursor chemicals used by Mexican criminal organizations to synthesize fentanyl. During Trump’s first term, Beijing agreed to classify fentanyl-related substances, though traffickers adapted by shifting to precursor chemicals instead.

Since 2023, however, Chinese authorities have shut down some chemical suppliers and tightened oversight. The Drug Enforcement Administration, in its latest annual drug intelligence report, said China-based suppliers are increasingly wary of selling internationally – evidence, the agency said, that enforcement pressure is having an effect.

According to the CDC, estimated U.S. drug deaths fell in 2024 to about 81,700, with roughly 49,200 involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. While 2025 data are not yet available, researchers believe the downward trend is continuing.

The timing remains contested. Formal U.S. – China cooperation was announced ahead of a November 2023 summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, months after overdose deaths had already begun to fall. Researchers acknowledge the mismatch but suggest Chinese enforcement may have begun quietly before the agreement was made public.

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Former U.S. Navy sailor gets more than 16 years for selling secrets to China

A former U.S. Navy sailor convicted of selling technical and operating manuals for ships and operating systems to an intelligence officer working for China was sentenced Monday to more than 16 years in prison, prosecutors said.

A federal judge in San Diego sentenced Jinchao Wei, also known as Patrick Wei, 25, to 200 months. A federal jury convicted Wei in August of six crimes, including espionage. He was paid more than $12,000 for the information he sold, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Wei, an engineer for the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, was one of two California-based sailors charged on Aug. 3, 2023, with providing sensitive military information to China. The other, Wenheng Zhao, was sentenced to more than two years in 2024 after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of receiving a bribe in violation of his official duties.

U.S. officials have for years expressed concern about the espionage threat they say the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who have stolen sensitive government and commercial information, including through illegal hacking.

Wei held a security clearance that gave him access to sensitive national security defense information about the ship’s operations and capabilities.   

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