China

03 Feb 2019; DW: A police bomb squad was called to the Calbee snacks factory in eastern Hong Kong after staff there found a hand grenade from the First World War inside a crate of French potatoes, police said.

Officers moved cars and piled sandbags around the 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) device before safely destroying it.

"The grenade was in an unstable condition because it has been previously discharged but failed to detonate," Superintendent Wilfred Wong Ho-hon told reporters.

HEFEI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists announced that they have successfully addressed a key problem impeding the promotion of hydrogen vehicles by developing a new catalyst system for fuel cells.

A research team led by Lu Junling, Wei Shiqiang and Yang Jinlong at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), has developed a new catalyst for fuel cells, which could prolong battery life and greatly extend the range of proper temperature for cells to work.

BEIJING, Feb.2 (Xinhua) -- Construction of China's first public-private partnership (PPP) funded high-speed railway has kicked off, China Railway Construction Corporation said Saturday.

The 266.9-km railway will start from the city of Hangzhou, crossing Shaoxing and ending in Taizhou, all cities in east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rail line is designed to run at a top speed of 350 km per hour, according to the company.

SHANGHAI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- A special court to handle bankruptcy cases was set up in Shanghai on Friday, according to local authorities.

The newly established Shanghai court will handle company bankruptcies, compulsory liquidation cases and cross-border bankruptcy cases.

Shenzhen set up a bankruptcy court, the first of its kind in the country, on Jan. 14. Beijing set up the country's second on Wednesday.

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday said China was ready to tap more cooperative potentials and enhance all-round cooperation with Qatar to benefit the two peoples.

The remark came as Li met with visiting Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Hailing Qatar as China's important cooperation partner in the Middle East and the Gulf, Li said relations between the two countries had enjoyed healthy and stable development, with cooperation in trade, investment and other fields growing rapidly.

BEIJING (AP) — China urged Washington on Thursday to accept its industrial development after U.S. intelligence officials said Beijing steals or copies foreign technology, as the two sides prepared for another day of talks aimed at ending a tariff war over Beijing’s technology ambitions.

It is “totally unreasonable to make random accusations,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang.

30 Jan 2019; AFP: Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba said Wednesday that net profit increased 37 percent in the latest quarter as growth in cloud computing and other business lines helped offset a slowing expansion in core online retail.

The company's net profit grew to 33.0 billion yuan ($4.9 billion) in the October-December third quarter, compared to 24.1 billion yuan over the same period in 2017.

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's Chang'e-4 probe, having made the first-ever soft landing on moon's far side, found that the temperature of the lunar surface dropped to as low as minus 190 degrees centigrade, colder than expected.

This is the first time Chinese scientists have received first-hand data about the temperatures on the surface of the far side of the moon during the lunar night.

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The rover and the lander of the Chang'e-4 probe have been awakened by sunlight after a long "sleep" during the first extremely cold night on the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Thursday.

The lander woke up at 8:39 p.m. Wednesday, and the rover, Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2), awoke at about 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, surviving their first lunar night after making the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, said CNSA.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States kicked off here on Wednesday morning a new round of high-level talks to address their differences on outstanding economic and trade issues.

The talks, scheduled for two days, mark a significant step in the implementation of the important consensus reached by Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump during a working dinner in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Dec. 1.