Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun on Wednesday urged certain people in the Philippines to refrain from making provocations and playing with fire on the Taiwan question, stressing that resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese people that no one can interfere. 

The remark came after Philippine Armed Forces chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. on Tuesday told troops at the Northern Luzon Command to "prepare for any eventuality" such as the "invasion" of Taiwan. He also claimed that "if something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved," according to Philippine Daily Inquirer on Wednesday. 

According to The Philippine Star, Brawner claimed that part of his soldiers' job would be "to rescue" a quarter million Filipinos working in Taiwan, without detailing how the military would execute that mission. "As members of the armed forces of the Philippines, we should have that mentality that we are already at war," Brawner claimed.

Guo said on Wednesday's routine press briefing that the Taiwan question is China's internal affair and is at the core of China's core interest. Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese ourselves that no one can interfere. 

We urge certain people in the Philippines to refrain from making provocations and playing with fire on the Taiwan question. Those who play with fire will perish by it. We also oppose relevant personnel calling white black and making groundless accusations, said Guo. 

Chinese experts also slammed the Philippine military chief's hypes on the PLA's drills around Taiwan island. They said such remarks reflect Manila's self-serving motives to draw greater attention in the South China Sea and seek more backing from Washington.

The PLA Eastern Theater Command on Tuesday started joint exercises around Taiwan island. The drills serve as a stern warning and forceful deterrent against "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and are a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China's sovereignty and national unity, Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson for the theater command, said in a statement on Tuesday. 

The Philippines is using the so-called "emergency" in the Taiwan Straits to stoke regional tensions and create a pretext for interfering in China's internal affairs, Ge Hongliang, vice dean of the ASEAN College at Guangxi Minzu University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

While the Philippine military chief claimed he was not being "alarmist," such remarks are, in essence, alarmist and politically motivated, aimed at portraying the Taiwan question as a regional flashpoint to justify any external interventions, Ge said. 

He added that the Philippines has shown a tendency to portray China's legitimate actions in the Taiwan Straits - particularly the latest military exercises - as a so-called "regional threat," in an attempt to manipulate international opinion, hype up alleged "regional security risks." 

Ge said the military chief's remarks reflect Manila's self-serving considerations - by hyping up the "China threat" narrative, the country aims to advance its own agenda in the South China Sea.

Analysts also noted that the Philippines is using this narrative to draw greater attention and support from the US. Despite recent visits by the US defense secretary, Manila remains unsatisfied with Washington's stance and aims to seek more military support and security assurances.

Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday that Brawner's remarks are little more than political stunt intended to attract public attention. 

By hyping up the so-called "protection" of Filipino citizens in Taiwan island, Manila is seeking to appeal to certain voter groups and rally public support, said Xu.

Regardless of how the Philippines seeks to manipulate the narrative, such actions are both futile and irresponsible. They ignore regional peace and stability and risk further complicating the situation, the expert said.

In a miraculous survival tale reminiscent of the novel Life of Pi, a 10-year-old boy from a village in Lingshui county, South China's Hainan Province survived a perilous 24-hour drift at sea. The boy, who went out to sea to catch squid,  fell asleep and drifted a whole day and night before being rescued by a fishing boat in Sanya. 

A video of the boy drifting alone at sea in a small boat went viral online over the weekend. According to China National Radio (CNR) on Sunday, the video's uploader said they were fishing when they spotted a small green boat in the distance and heard someone calling for help. They approached and found a child, then worked together to rescue him.

"We received the rescue request from our fishing guests at around 5 pm on Saturday," said Luo Wen, captain of a local rescue team in Sanya. "They had rented our boat for fishing and rescued the boy near a coastal area. After bringing him on board, they contacted us and soon brought him back to shore, handing him over to the local police." 

Luo noted that the boy's skin has been severely sunburned from prolonged sunlight exposure, but he was in stable condition after receiving milk and bread given by the fishermen.

"He was very scared at the time, crying and saying that he had gone out to fish squid but couldn't find his way home," Luo told the CNR. 

The boy said he is 10 years old, and this wasn't his first time fishing alone at sea, according to Luo. 

At around 9 pm on Friday, , the boy went squid fishing near a village in Lingshui and fell asleep on the boat from sheer exhaustion and drifted away. 

Lost at sea, he saw distant lights, but the strong waves and relentless winds had drained him of strength, leaving him too weak to paddle, Luo said.

According to the report, the land distance between the boy's departure point and the location where he was rescued surpassed 30 kilometers. 

Luo said that on Friday night, the sea near Haitang Bay is windy and rough, with winds of around Force 6 and waves up to 1.5 meters high on Friday. "Even adult fishermen would hardly survive in such conditions, let alone a child. He was very lucky."

After recuring the boy, Luo and the local police managed to connect his family. An hour later, the parents of the boy arrived at the local police station and took him home.

Liang Qiuming, the Party secretary of the village, told the CNR that they organized rescue teams to comb the village and coastal areas on Friday night to search the lost boy. They also issued a missing person notice. 

Liang said that the boy is safe at home. Staff from the township government have visited his home to provide safety education and will arrange psychological counseling if needed, according to the report.

Some US senators have introduced a bipartisan legislation, attempting to change the name of "Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office" to "the Taiwan Representative Office." They claimed the move is to "underscore the US' commitment" to the island's democracy and enhances clarity in their relationship, US media reported on Wednesday.

Experts said the legislation essentially aims to create "one China, one Taiwan," and support "Taiwan independence." They pointed out some US senators are exploiting China hawks and pro-Taiwan island factions in the new US administration to further their own political goals.

Senators John Curtis and Jeff Merkley introduced the Taiwan Representative Office Act to rename "Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office", National Review reported on Wednesday.

In a press release issued by senator Curtis, the legislation does not alter the US position on Taiwan's international status, it stressed. 

Similar legislations were introduced twice, in 2023 and 2024, in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate, but did not gain enough traction to pass in either chamber. But the senators said there is "high hopes" for it this time around, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio co-authored the 2023 iteration of the bill, media report said.

In September 2021, China lodged solemn representation with the US over media reports that said the US is "seriously considering changing the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO)'s name to the 'Taiwan Representative Office,'" the Chinese Foreign Ministry slammed the move of causing serious deterioration of the China-US relationship and peace in the Taiwan Straits.

Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Thursday that internationally, the island of Taiwan is usually referred to as "Chinese Taipei" or as an economic entity, while the direct use of "Taiwan" is rare. Therefore, the latest legislation essentially aims to create "one China, one Taiwan," supporting "Taiwan independence," Wu said. 

As for the timing of the legislation, the expert said with China hawks and pro-Taiwan forces in the new US government, the senators may be seeking to leverage these forces to advance their own political agenda, driven by personal interests. 

However, the current US administration's priority is handling domestic affairs, particularly economic issues, while properly managing relations with China, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times. 

In contrast, US Congress has consistently taken a high-profile stance on Taiwan question, actively working to enhance the island's international presence, Li said, adding that some of the congressmen may have received substantial financial support from Taiwan.

It has been reported by Taiwan island-based media CNA that senator John Curtis previously served as a missionary in Taiwan, has a clear pro-Taiwan stance, and is fluent in the local language.

Nevertheless, Wu warned that this development should not be underestimated. "If the new US administration's China policy does not meet expectations, it may play the Taiwan card, potentially crossing established red lines, especially under the influence of pro-Taiwan figures," he said. 

During a Cabinet meeting in February, US President Donald Trump declined to make a commitment to the Taiwan island when asked by a reporter whether "the US would allow China to take control of Taiwan by force," Instead, US President responded by expressing desire for Chinese investment in the US, Reuters reported.

Taiwan is never a country, not in the past, and never in the future. The only reference to the Taiwan region in the UN is "Taiwan, Province of China," said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the press conference on March 7, 2025, during this year's two sessions.

Chinese animated film Ne Zha 2 has surpassed the global box-office earnings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, breaking into the top 5 at the global box office on Saturday with a total box office of 15.2 billion yuan ($2.07 billion).

"This is not only a milestone in breaking Hollywood's dominance, but also advances China's cultural soft power. The film's universal theme of individual determination of one's fate transcends cultural barriers, blending Chinese mythology with a coming-of-age story that resonates with audiences worldwide," Zhang Peng, a film researcher and associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, told the Global Times.

According to Xinhua News Agency, Ne Zha 2 is set to be released in 37 countries and regions across Europe. The UK and Ireland just hosted preview screenings on Friday followed by a wider release in over 200 cinemas across France, Germany, Spain, Italy and other countries on March 21.

Trinity CineAsia, the company handling the European distribution of the film, has long been dedicated to bringing Asian films to Western audiences. In recent years, it has distributed Chinese-language films such as Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, Hong Kong's official submission for the Oscars. 

The film has achieved remarkable success at the global box office. On February 17, it amassed a cumulative total of 12.052 billion yuan, surpassing The Lion King and securing its position as the first Asian film to enter the global box office top 10. Alongside this milestone, its overseas earnings reached 76.86 million yuan, establishing a new record for Chinese-language film screenings in nearly two decades.

By March 9, the film's global cumulative box office had soared to 14.88 billion yuan, overtaking Avengers: Infinity War and climbing to sixth place on the all-time global box office chart, further cementing its historic achievement.

Notably, US media outlet Deadline described the performance of Ne Zha 2 as "a rare example of a non-US film" citing one of its senior analysts, adding that this "rare" hurricane is still ongoing.

The US critics have largely celebrated Ne Zha 2 for its quality as a sequel after it was aired on February 14. For instance, New York-based film critic Simon Abrams' review highlights it as a "rare sequel that amplifies both its action and drama without sacrificing much of what already worked in the last movie."

"Rarely do you get a film that truly defines an era, shows again the unique power of cinema to move audiences, and makes an indelible mark on culture. This is 'Ne Zha 2,'" said Cedric Behrel, managing director of Trinity CineAsia, as reported by Euronews. "It signifies a major turning point in further establishing Trinity CineAsia as a pan-European distributor." 

"By seamlessly integrating elements of intangible cultural heritage and philosophical metaphors, Ne Zha has transformed Chinese mythology into a vehicle for global cultural dialogue. This success lays the foundation for the future development of a 'mythological universe,' supporting China's film industry in transitioning from a single box-office-driven model to an ecosystem-based economy," Zhang said.

French media have also been closely following Ne Zha 2 and eagerly anticipate its release in France. The French film website Écranlarge noted that this record-breaking Chinese animated film is finally coming to French cinemas, and "Beyond showcasing the growing strength of a local film industry that is increasingly turning away from Hollywood blockbusters, this record-breaking film also reinforces the ambition of Chinese cinema: to establish itself as a tool of soft power on the international stage."

Additionally, Ne Zha 2 already hit theaters in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand on March 13, followed by a release in Japanese version in Japan on April 4.

China on Sunday made public a plan on special initiatives to boost consumption. This comes as the world's second-largest economy moves to make domestic demand the main engine and anchor of economic growth.

The plan, issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, aims to vigorously boost consumption, stimulate domestic demand across the board, and increase spending power by increasing earnings and reducing financial burdens, according to the Xinhua News Agency. 

It also aims to generate effective demand through high-quality supply, improve the consumption environment to strengthen consumer willingness to spend, and address prominent constraints on consumption.

The move came after China's policymakers have delivered clear and decisive signals to encourage consumer spending, addressing doubts about the country's transition to a consumption-driven economy.

China will "place a stronger economic policy focus on improving living standards and boosting consumer spending," according to this year's Government Work Report at the just closed two sessions.

Promoting consumption is not a new concept in China's policy toolbox. Consumer spending plays an increasingly important role in China's economy. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in 2024, final consumption contributed 44.5 percent to China's economic growth, surpassing investment and exports, and driving GDP growth by 2.2 percentage points.

The latest approach to boosting consumption is very comprehensive, underscoring the government's determination with pragmatic efforts to strengthen the economy, where consumption plays a key role, Hu Qimu, deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The ramped-up measures to boost consumption are particularly crucial this year, as China's economy faces challenges amid the rise of trade protectionism and global headwinds, as well as the shift from traditional growth drivers like real estate to new, more sustainable sources of growth, Hu added.

"Stimulating consumption to expand domestic demand can effectively counter external uncertainties, stabilize short-term growth, and contribute to long-term structural transformation," Hu said.

Increasing residents' income

Among the 30-points plan, it has put increasing income of urban and rural residents as the first part, which highlighted promoting reasonable growth of wage income, with the measures to implement employment support plans for key areas, key industries, urban and rural grassroots, and small and medium-sized enterprises. 

In light of changes in the situation, it will increase employment support, especially for key groups.

It also highlighted expanding channels for property income, saying that it will implement multiple measures to stabilize the stock market, and strengthen strategic reserves and enhance market stabilization mechanisms. Introducing a wider range of bond-related investment products tailored for individual investors is also highlighted there. 

Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday that wage income and property income need to progress together. "The preservation and appreciation of assets are the foundation of consumer confidence, directly influencing residents' willingness and ability to spend," he said.

Wang also said consumption and income create a positive cycle. "Increased consumption boosts economic vitality, which in turn generates more jobs and income, further stimulating consumption. In this process, government policies play a crucial role in 'activating the overall situation,'" Wang added.

The measures also include increasing support for trade-in scheme, which was launched a year ago and has played a vital role in revitalizing the consumer market. 

It said it should make good use of ultra-long special treasury bonds, support local governments to expand the scope of the trade-in program policy for consumer goods, promote the green and intelligent upgrade of large durable consumer goods such as automobiles, home appliances, and home decoration.

To support this pivotal transition, the Government Work Report unveiled stronger supportive measures, including issuing ultra-long special treasury bonds of 300 billion yuan ($41.45 billion) to support the consumer goods trade-in program, doubling the scale from last year.

In 2024, the program brought in sales of more than 1.3 trillion yuan, including more than 6.8 million cars, 56 million home appliances and 1.38 million electric bicycles. This year, more items have been added to the list of subsidized products.

"The trade-in scheme goes beyond being just an economic policy," Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao stated at a press conference during the third session of the 14th National People's Congress on March 6, emphasizing that it has spurred new growth drivers and enhanced the quality of life for millions of households.

Chinese policymakers also linked consumption to lifestyle improvements rather than just spending volume. The measures also include expanding cultural, sports and tourism consumption, promoting ice and snow consumption and boosting inbound consumption.

The market size of the ice and snow economy in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province reached 266.17 billion yuan in 2024, of which the output of ice and snow tourism was 182.33 billion yuan, said the provincial bureau of statistics.

During the 2024-2025 winter season, Heilongjiang received 135 million domestic and overseas tourists, up 18.5 percent compared with last year's winter season. Tourist spending also increased by 30.7 percent, Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday. 

Some foreign media hyped that a Chinese warship that recently sailed into the Pacific Ocean was suspected of being armed with a laser weapon. A Chinese expert said on Thursday that laser is a type of defensive weapon being developed by multiple countries, and there is no need to make an undue fuss over this potential development.

Citing the Japanese Defense Ministry, US media outlet Newsweek claimed on Wednesday that a Chinese flotilla was spotted sailing toward the wider Western Pacific Ocean this week, which included a suspected laser-armed warship.

According to a press release by Japan's Ministry of Defense Joint Staff on Wednesday, seven warships of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, including two Type 052D destroyers, two Type 054A frigates, one Type 075 amphibious assault ship, one Type 071 amphibious transport dock and one Type 903 replenishment ship, transited the Miyako Strait southeastward from Monday to Tuesday. 

Photos of the Chinese warships were attached to the Japanese press release. Citing a previous report by specialist outlet Naval News, Newsweek claimed that the Type 071 amphibious warship in the Chinese flotilla is "armed with a laser-based directed energy weapon," which is placed in a protective and extendable cupola between the ship's main gun and the command bridge. 

While China has publicly displayed land-based laser weapons, such as the LW-30 laser defense system displayed at Airshow China 2022, the country has not yet made any official announcement of ship-borne laser weapons.

In late 2024, the US Navy tested the HELIOS laser weapon system with the USS Preble destroyer against a threat-representative cruise missile, Naval News reported on February 4.

Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times on Thursday that shipborne laser weapons represent a development trend for several countries, as they attack at the speed of light, require no trajectory predictions, and are supposed to be more cost-effective than traditional naval guns and missiles.

Shipborne laser weapons are mainly designed for close-in defense purposes against targets such as drones, loitering munitions and cruise missiles, rather than being an offensive weapon, because contemporary warships may have difficulties providing enough electricity to cause enough damage for offensive purposes, especially considering energy losses in the atmosphere at sea level, Fu said.

Regardless of whether claims of the Chinese warship carrying an alleged laser weapon are true or not, there is no need for foreign media to be paranoid or make an undue fuss, Fu said, noting that China has been making in naval developments such as electromagnetic catapult technologies, and the country has also displayed land-based laser systems, so any new development should not be surprising.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Saturday stressed stepping up the development of winter sports and related industries to create new opportunities for service consumption and a new growth driver for the economy.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during his inspection tour to northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

He highlighted the need to utilize distinctive advantageous resources, enrich the supply of quality products, stimulate the vitality of the winter economy, and continuously improve the well-being of the people.

While visiting the Harbin Songhua River Ice and Snow Carnival, Li said it was necessary to further tap into local resources to build snow and ice venues accessible to the public and create more engaging and entertaining winter activities.

He urged the province to continue to develop new consumption scenarios and new forms of business, expand and improve service consumption, and leverage its distinctive advantages to strengthen development.

The premier then visited a local ice sports center. Noting that the recently concluded 9th Asian Winter Games has further fueled public enthusiasm for winter sports, he called for efforts to leverage this opportunity to further promote mass participation in winter activities and develop industries related to winter sports equipment.

While talking with designers at a local company engaged in culture and tourism, Li said more work should be done to continuously increase the appeal of ice and snow cultural products, reinforce the principal role of enterprises in innovation to create more products and services, and strengthen international exchanges and cooperation in the sector.

When asked how the emergence of new uncertainties in the transatlantic relationship between the European Union (EU) and the US affects China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Monday that amid the rise of unilateralism and protectionism, and the interweaving of uncertainties and instabilities, the international community yearns for peace and stability more than ever before. It also expects a healthy and stable China-EU relationship more than ever before and hopes that China and the EU will become constructive forces in a changing world more than ever before.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the EU. China will work with the EU to maintain the partnership orientation, enhance strategic communication and coordinated cooperation, jointly uphold multilateralism, and address global challenges together. We will strive to inject new vitality into China-EU relations and provide more certainty and stability to the turbulent world, Guo said.

Chinese researchers from the Tianjin University (TJU) and Tsinghua University have collaborated to develop the world's first "dual-loop" non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) system, marking a significant advancement in human-machine mutual learning, the Global Times learned from the Tianjin University on Tuesday.

Researchers told the Global Times that they had successfully employed the system to achieve real-time control of a drone, demonstrating its ability to handle more complex tasks.

The achievement was published in Nature Electronics on Monday.

Practical BCI should be able to decipher brain signals and dynamically adapt to brain fluctuations. This, however, requires a decoder capable of flexible updates with energy-efficient decoding capabilities.

According to the researchers, the latest system is based on a 128k-cell memristor chip. The approach features a hardware-efficient one-step memristor decoding strategy that allows the interface to achieve software-equivalent decoding performance.
The researchers have also developed an interactive update framework that allows the memristor decoder and the changing brain signals to adapt to each other.

Xu Minpeng from the Haihe Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interaction and Human-Machine Integration, TJU, told the Global Times that achieving mutual learning between the brain and machine through information exchange remains a critical and complex challenge in current BCI research.

"Specifically, mutual learning allows machine systems to adjust according to user intentions, enhancing the system's flexibility and autonomy. Users can also continuously optimize their control abilities through interaction with the system, achieving a 'symbiotic' enhancement. This collaborative evolution not only improves the application efficiency of BCI systems, but also drives the overall advancement of intelligent systems," Xu said.

To address the challenge of mutual learning, the joint research team found that the non-stationary characteristics of ctroencephalogram (EEG) signals not only are derived from the background EEG variability as researchers traditionally believed, but also correlate strongly with task-related EEG evolution. Based on this, they innovatively proposed a "dual-loop brain-computer collaborative evolution framework," which was implemented using memristor neuromorphic devices. Under this "dual-loop" framework, the learning loops of the brain and machine collaborate to jointly enhance system performance.

Experimental results demonstrate that this new approach significantly improves decoding speed and reduces energy consumption compared to traditional methods. Notably, in a continuous six-hour interaction experiment, the system's performance not only remained stable, but also achieved an accuracy improvement of about 20 percent. This achievement undoubtedly lays a solid foundation for the practical application of BCI technology, according to Xu.

The performance enhancement can be attributed to two aspects, Xu explained in details. First, this research developed a low-power, high-precision, high-speed brain-computer decoding hardware system: compared to traditional purely digital hardware solutions, the normalization decoding speed of the memristor chip can be improved by more than two orders of magnitude, with energy consumption reduced by less than three orders of magnitude, effectively supporting the successful execution of four-degree-of-freedom drone control tasks. Second, this research realized a new type of BCI system based on neuromorphic memristor devices, where the performance of the BCI did not decline during long-term brain-computer interaction but instead achieved an accuracy improvement of about 20 percent.

When asked for further plan to apply the system in practice, Xu said that that, "on one hand, we need to adopt multimodal brain-computer feedback technology to promote the rapid positive evolution of specific brain functions, exploring the brain's complex, parallel task execution potential to support more complex brain-computer interaction tasks. On the other hand, we need to study the collaborative training model of brain signals and memristor hardware intelligent computing models to achieve more efficient cross-modal information processing and complex decision support."

He predicted that, in the future, the system could could evolve into portable or wearable BCI devices enabling long-term brain-environment interactions and serving as assistive technology in daily life and medical rehabilitation scenarios. It could also be applied in closed-loop neural modulation applications in medical rehabilitation (such as assisting in the treatment of brain diseases or helping stroke patients regain motor functions).

Members of the Shenzhou-19 crew aboard China's orbiting space station completed their mission's second series of extravehicular activities (EVAs) at 1:12 a.m. (Beijing Time) on Tuesday, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

Astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze worked for 8.5 hours to complete multiple tasks, including the installation of space debris protection devices and an extravehicular inspection. They were assisted by the space station's robotic arm and a team on Earth.

Cai and Song, the two crew members assigned to undertake spacewalk duties, have since returned to the Wentian lab module safely.

Since completing their first spacewalk on Dec. 17, 2024, the crew members have undertaken a series of tasks, including the inspection and maintenance of the space station's equipment, system-wide pressure emergency drills, and preparations for the second series of EVAs.

They have completed nearly half of their space journey and are scheduled to carry out a significant number of in-orbit scientific experiments and technological tests, the agency said. Amid their busy schedule, they will also welcome the upcoming Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese Lunar New Year.