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This is the beijing hour one hour of news and information brought to you every weekday
Now here's your host tian lu with you on this friday august 14th 2026
You're listening to the beijing hour coming to you live from the chinese capital
On today's program, August 14th marks the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women.
Multiple reports of deteriorating living conditions and mental health issues aboard USS Abraham Lincoln emerge.
Remnant circulation from Typhoon Dauphin brings extreme rain to several provinces in China.
In business, China's central bank starts a 1 trillion yuan outright reverse repo operation.
In sports, Chinese and Czech tennis players win WTA Toronto doubles title for the third team crown.
In culture and entertainment, homegrown animated films rise to command China's big screen.
Now checking today's top stories.
Friday marks the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women, Girls and Women in Asia forced to provide sexual services to the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
August 14 is observed annually to commemorate the victims of the Japanese military's sexual slavery system during the war.
Civil groups from countries including China, South Korea, Japan and other countries established the day in 2012.
Researchers find that about 400,000 girls and women in Asia were forced to be sex slaves from the 1930s to 1945.
Nearly half of them were Chinese and more than 100,000 of them were from the Korean peninsula.
96-year-old Peng Zhuyin is one of the last known surviving comfort women in China.
She and her families and advocates have never stopped their fight for reparations, lasting recognition and justice.
When the Japanese troops came for me, I resisted, so they smashed me with wooden sticks.
Two toes of my left foot were broken.
Her sister Peng Renshou is also among the few surviving comfort women in China.
They were forced into being comfort women when they were teenagers.
I was still a child, just shy of 13 when I was fleeing.
A collaborator, a man in his 50s, wanted me as his concubine.
I refused.
I would rather beg on the streets.
Enraged, he incited a group of Japanese soldiers to violate me.
They gathered over 50 villagers inside Li family's two-story house in Guotan.
They pointed their machine guns at them, ready to fire.
They said these 50 lives would be spared if I come out.
I stepped forward.
They took me and defied me.
I bled so badly that I passed out.
Professor Su Zhiliang is the first Chinese scholar to spend over 30 years studying the sexual slavery system that caused untold tragedies for innocent women and girls.
Biran spoke to him to shed light on the brutal crimes and the lasting lessons from this dark chapter of history.
On the campus of Shanghai Normal University stands a brown statue of two young girls.
Eyes resolute, fists clenched.
The comfort women statues for peace.
Depicting a Chinese and a Korean girl honors more than 400,000 victims from 11 Asian countries and regions who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II.
Professor Su Zhiliang, the first Chinese scholar to study this atrocity in depth, recounts the tears.
Blood and harsh historical truth behind the comfort women tragedy.
In 1992, while conducting research at the University of Tokyo, I learned about the comfort women issue and witnessed some of the earliest survivor protests.
When I realized that the first comfort station might have been in Shanghai, I felt that, as a Chinese scholar, I could not stay on the sidelines.
Since 1993, Professor Su has devoted over 30 years to uncovering the truth.
In 1999, he founded Shanghai Normal University's Chinese Center for Comfort Women Research.
Together with his wife, Professor Chen Lifei, he traveled across China, identifying more than 300 survivors and authenticating diaries, letters, and local archives.
Evidence that clearly documents the abuses and the Japanese military's direct involvement.
In August 1945, as Japan faced defeat, the military destroyed evidence from top to bottom.
Much was lost.
Since the 1990s, we have searched for survivors one by one.
Many victims of such brutal sexual violence could not speak even at the end of their lives.
In China, we identified 358 survivors, and 24 of them went to Tokyo to sue Japan.
They lost the case, but the courts nonetheless acknowledged their victimhood.
We can never see the entire iceberg.
Only the tip is visible.
But even that small part is terrifying.
Japan is moving backward.
In the mid-1990s, Japanese history textbooks were at their most honest, acknowledging wartime wrongdoing.
At the same time, the current Japanese Prime Minister, Sanai Takaichi,
Who was then a lawmaker, began to speak for the rising right-wing movement.
She challenged then Prime Minister Tomichi Murayama on why, in his capacity as Prime Minister, admitted on behalf of Japan that the war of aggression was wrong.
Their persistent rhetoric forced history textbooks to retreat step by step.
Today, only a handful still mention the atrocities.
So Japan's younger generation grows up unclear about the past, without the knowledge needed for reflection.
Japan is dissolving its historical memory, trying to reinvent itself as a normal country.
That is frightening.
As Professor Su noted, this history must be exposed.
Chinese scholars have a duty to uncover the facts.
Helping both the Chinese public and international community understand the truth of this dark chapter.
That was Bi Ran reporting.
Some volunteers in Hong Kong have been advocating for the rights of comfort women in the city.
Zheng Sunwu spoke to Mei Li, one of the volunteers, who has been seeking justice for the victims over the past 30 years.
The woman that showed me around in Stone Nala Land is Mei Li, a full-time advocate who spent 30 years seeking justice for these victims.
The law sisters she introduced were controlled by the Japanese army and raped consecutively from 1942 to 1945, and they received neither apology nor compensation from Japan until they passed away.
I'm telling you, on Stone Nala Street back then, there were two sisters with a surname Law.
Three Japanese soldiers followed them into their home.
Let's suppose this is the house.
From that day on, the two soldiers would return to rape them two or three times every week.
The younger sister passed away this September.
She felt tormented until the end.
She wanted to see me or speak to the media to reveal this humiliation.
During Japan's occupation of Hong Kong from late 1941 to 1945, more than 10,000 girls and women were raped and forced into military sexual slavery at hundreds of centres across the city.
On Lockhart Road in Wan Chai leads that in 1942, the Japanese army established 500 sexual slavery centers to comfort and inspire soldiers with additional centers set up in residential areas, hotels and even churches throughout Hong Kong.
In 2013, May Lee left her job and launched the website Hong Kong History Watch to call for more volunteers to help locate Hong Kong's surviving comfort women.
She pursued this work while confronting what she describes as Japan's information war aimed at erasing this history.
From time to time, they will say something to deny the war crime because psychologically, they could not face the reality.
They felt very ashamed.
That's why they denied it.
Despite decades of effort, Mei Li still faces her toughest challenges.
Many victims torn between a desire to be heard and a fear of shame choose to remain silent.
Justice remains elusive, not from a lack of evidence, but from Japan's refusal to fully acknowledge its wartime crimes, apologize or provide reparations.
That was Zheng Sunwu in Hong Kong.
A group linked to Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has claimed there is no confirmed evidence of coercion of women by the Imperial Japanese Army.
Professor Kukesu Atsushi from Yamaguchi University criticized the claim, saying more historical documents are proving Japan's wartime crimes.
He called for accountability for crimes against humanity.
At the time, women were recruited under military orders, sent to comfort women facilities and forced to carry out so-called comfort services.
The fundamental responsibility lies with the Japanese military and with the state that commanded the military.
They have tried to evade this responsibility.
More documents are still being discovered.
Some show that facilities were set up in certain places under military orders with a specified number of women assigned there.
So there is no doubt that the military, and therefore the state, was involved.
The comfort women issue is a crime against humanity.
I believe it is a crime with no statute of limitations.
In legal theory, a crime may disappear after a certain period of time, say, after 10 years, under what is known as a statute of limitations.
But I believe this issue is not subject to any statute of limitations.
I also believe it must be studied from an international perspective.
This is not just an issue involving one or two individuals.
It is a crime that humanity must never commit.
So I believe it is very necessary to study this issue from an international point of view.
It is not only violence against women, but also violence by human beings against other human beings.
That was Professor Kokesu Yasushi from Yamaguchi University.
People in South Korea have gathered in front of the Japanese embassy to commemorate the victims of Japan's wartime sexual violence.
Years after the first public testimony from a former victim, the gathering highlights the enduring resonance of history and memory.
Shin Han reports from Seoul.
Every week since 1992 people have congregated here to remember the victims of Japan's wartime sexual violence.
More than three decades later the fight to restore dignity to these victims is as fervent as ever.
I've always felt so many people are here to remember this issue and to make sure that something like this never happens again.
The moment I realized that people were coming here to remember the testimonies the grandmothers first shared, I've been wanting to come to this Wednesday protest every week ever since.
For the Republic of Korea and Japan, the issue is more than just about remembering the past.
It's repeatedly become part of a broader and sometimes difficult relationship between two neighbors that are also important security and economic partners.
The story of the victims of Japan's military sexual slavery has become an internationally recognized issue and one of the few issues through which people around the world can come together and show solidarity.
People continue to talk about it because they want to remember the victims and make sure something like this never happens again.
This gathering has continued weekly in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul without fail for decades, keeping the experiences of the victims of Japan's wartime acts in the public eye.
In honor of International Comfort Women Day, the protest also highlights how questions of history and memory still resonate to this day.
And with Japan showing signs of taking on a larger role in regional security questions about the country's wartime past have taken on renewed significance.
We have experienced how statements attacking and insulting the victims caused deep wounds among people in both Japan and the Republic of Korea, and how they ultimately damaged relations between the two countries.
I think both sides can approach the issue much more carefully, having learned from the experience that such remarks actually made relations worse.
But with the number of surviving victims declining as the years go by, there's growing concern about what happens to their stories after they're gone.
In the past, we remembered individual victims, Kim Hak-soon, Kim Bok-dong, Gil Won-ok, and so many others, by learning about their individual stories.
But increasingly, I worry that we simply refer to them collectively as sexual slavery, without really knowing what it is that we are remembering.
I think we need to return to that original spirit.
For those who continue to gather here, remembering the past is not simply about looking backward.
It's about how history is understood today and whether it can become a foundation for greater understanding and trust between two neighbors.
That was Shane Ham in Seoul.
New questions have emerged over Japan's notorious biological and chemical warfare Unit 731, which operated in northeast China through World War II.
Singaporean historian Lim Xiaobin, who studied Imperial Japan's biological warfare program, has unveiled archives revealing new details about the structure of the unit.
The Japanese embassy in Singapore declined to comment on the issue.
Marilu has more.
Examining Unit 731's organisation chart, Linh made an unexpected finding, exposing the vast scale of Imperial Japan's biological warfare.
At the very first investigation session,
The 731 site, they sent a person called Naito Ryoichi to meet the investigator and then he provided such an organisation chart to US.
They're saying that Tokyo do it very small scale, Harbin very large.
Beijing, Nanjing is a small, Guangzhou is none.
But when come to Singapore, Naito, he himself put a question mark.
Until today, no one knows what is this question mark representing.
That was a report on new questions concerning Unit 731, the notorious Japanese biological and chemical warfare unit during World War II.
Coming up, multiple reports of deteriorating living conditions and mental health issues aboard USS Abraham Lincoln emerge.
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Multiple reports have emerged of deteriorating living conditions and mental health problems aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
The aircraft carrier has been on a record deployment of over eight months to support U.S. war on Iran.
Lawmakers are demanding an explanation from the Pentagon.
Ivan Rodriguez with CNN has more.
It's been more than 250 days since the USS Abraham Lincoln left its home port of San Diego last November with more than 5,000 sailors and Marines.
Its mission was extended to support U.S. operations in the war with Iran.
Lawmakers are now demanding answers over concerns about deteriorating living conditions and service members' mental health.
I don't think President Trump is listening to these alarming examples of how sailors have been pushed to the very limits.
We need to hear from senior administration officials.
How are they going to resolve this as soon as possible and deal with the disruption in the mental health, in the physical health, in the wellbeing of people serving our nation?
News outlets Stars and Stripes and the Navy Times reported there have been multiple attempts by crew members to jump overboard, citing interviews with sailors and families of those on board who described the impacts of the lengthy deployment.
Many family members described their kids or spouses telling them about non-operational toilets, moldy showers, laundry facilities that were broken for weeks.
And extended periods with no hot water for showering.
The family say their loved ones have described food shortages and standing in line at the ship's store for an hour or more, even while it often lacks basic supplies like toothpaste, soap, and deodorant.
In a statement, the U.S. Navy says, We have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship.
We take every service member's well-being seriously and have religious, medical and mental health professionals available to assess and address concerns as they arise.
CNN spoke to some of those aboard about a month before those reports.
It's hard, you know, it's hard in your mental state being out to sea for eight months without being on dry land.
It takes a toll on you.
I miss my family and I'm ready to go home.
There was a report on worsening living conditions and mental health problems among the soldiers boarding the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hicks says reports about poor conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier were completely misrepresented.
The White House says it's committed to ensuring the U.S. military is equipped with the resources necessary to counter any threat to the country.
The U.S. is stepping up its threat of economic pressure on Iran.
Defense Secretary Pete Hexer says the U.S. can maintain a naval blockade of Iranian ports indefinitely.
Treasury Secretary Scott Besant says the U.S. is going to apply measures on Iran that have never been seen.
From Washington, D.C., here's Nick Harper.
A very defiant message coming from the head of the Pentagon, the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, really saying that the United States is playing a long game here.
He was speaking about that US naval blockade that has so angered the Iranians and something that they want lifted as soon as possible.
But from the US perspective, that's all part of the economic pressure that they're trying to put on
Tehran to prevent ships from entering and exiting Iranian ports.
Pete Hegseth said that the United States could keep that blockade in place indefinitely.
He said that the US would rotate in and out US ships to put essentially fresh ships into the region.
And we are hearing reporting from the Wall Street Journal suggesting that a new U.S. aircraft carrier is heading to the region.
The USS George Washington will be heading there to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln.
All of that suggesting that the U.S. is in no hurry to end that blockade and intends, as Pete Hegseth there said,
Says there to keep that blockade running indefinitely.
Donald Trump also on social media has said that the US is in complete control of the Strait of Hormuz.
He's also said, I think we will keep it.
But that's a very different message to the one that we're hearing from Tehran.
Because the head of Iran's paramilitary unit has said that the strait is under Iran's control and management.
So we're still seeing that tussle over the important waterway, which really is not helping to cool the tensions over the wider conflict.
That was Nick Harper in Washington.
Iran has warned the U.S. against making a big miscalculation about the Strait of Hormuz based on fake intelligence.
Tehran also says Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei plans to shift the war with the U.S. to an offensive phase if Iran's conditions are not met.
Well, this all stems from a very direct post by Foreign Minister Abbas Arafat on his ex-account on Thursday.
This was a response to claims by President Trump that the U.S. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Arafat fired back, saying that
Worse than fake news is fake intelligence.
He is essentially accusing the U.S. of operating on bad information leading to what he calls an e-burn.
Bigger miscalculation over the waterway.
Now, to be clear, when Al-Chi talks about intelligence failure, he's likely pointing a finger at Israel.
This is something Iranian officials have been warning about for a while.
They have long claimed that Israeli intelligence assessments
Are designed to drag the U.S. into wider conflict on their behalf, in fact.
They point to recent history to back it up.
For instance, they claim Israeli
Calculations suggested that assassinating Iran's former supreme leader back in February would trigger a fast collapse of the Islamic Republic.
Of course, that didn't happen.
And in another instance, they say the Israelis persuaded the U.S. to join the war last year
Betting that the Iranian people would then take to the streets to topple the government.
Again, Tehran says their resilience proved those predictions wrong.
So the message from Tehran is clear.
They believe the U.S. is once again relying on flawed intelligence that could lead to a very dangerous and costly mistake.
They have warning Washington to be careful, and they're signaling that they feel they have survived these so-called miscalculations before.
That was Esen Kivani reporting.
Coming up, remnant circulation from Typhoon Dauphin brings extreme rain to several provinces in China.
You're listening to The Beijing Hour, 60 minutes of comprehensive news, your window on China and the world.
Now it's 24 minutes past 8 hour.
China has maintained rainstorm warning over wide swaths of the country as remnants from typhoon Dolphin continue to dump heavy rain.
Some parts of Zhejiang and Henan provinces have seen record high rainfall of hundreds of millimeters along with severe flooding and geological disasters.
More downpours and thunderstorms are forecasting parts of eastern, central and southern China.
Authorities have advised the public to avoid mountain areas and river valleys vulnerable to landslides and floods.
The Chinese Ministry of Water Resources has warned of significant rising water levels in some major areas of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River basins.
The flood warning of the Huaihe River basin, one of China's seven major rivers, was upgraded to the highest level after its largest tributary recorded nearly a meter of water over the warning level.
The excess water was diverted to another river.
The floods also breached an embankment in a county in the central province of Henan where more than 2,000 people were evacuated.
More than 4,500 residents living around the detention basin were also relocated.
China has taken multiple measures against the typhoon Dauphin over the past week.
It has become the first typhoon on record to form near the international date line, traveling over 6,000 kilometers and striking China at tropical storm intensity or higher.
Authorities issued the highest alert for the typhoon as it made landfall on Sunday.
Provinces along the east coast transferred tens of thousands of people to safe areas and dispatched several hundred rescue teams.
Young agricultural students from around the world are getting a closer look at China's farming practices, technologies and agricultural development.
They're in China as part of the Future Agriculture International Summer School organized by China Agricultural University.
From modern dairy production and artificial intelligence to differences in land resources and farming systems, the students are comparing agricultural practices and exploring what they can learn from each other.
Zhao Ying has more.
A group of young agricultural students from Brazil, Thailand, Japan and other countries has come to China to explore the development of agriculture.
They have been visiting farms, agricultural facilities and companies, including a modern dairy production facility in Inner Mongolia.
And one thing has repeatedly caught their attention, technology.
Carolina, a Brazilian student, says her observation of Chinese agriculture go beyond simply comparing the size of farms.
So here we have more technologies.
In Brazil we have also a lot of big farms and here in China we have like big farms too but also small farms and all of them apply so much technologies and the crops are different too.
So I'm here to know all of that and I think all the students are enjoying this so much.
For her, the interesting question is not simply whether a country uses technology, but how technology can be applied across different agricultural settings.
At the dairy facility, Thai student Sirnan Boramprasad was particularly interested in the use of artificial intelligence in milk production.
I think China high technology and use AI to produce like this milk production.
I think it's easy and reduce cost because AI can help.
But in Thailand, we need to learn from China so much.
But the students also say agriculture cannot be understood through technology alone.
For Tazen Han, who studies at Tokyo University of Agriculture in Japan, one major difference between China and Japan is the amount of available land.
These countries are nearly the same.
In China, it's the more land.
Japan is the only island, so they don't have enough to land the fan or everything.
In China, we can see too many lands like this.
This is the difference between these two countries.
Different geographical conditions mean that agricultural development cannot follow exactly the same path everywhere.
For these students, the value of the exchange lies not only in seeing new technologies but also in comparing different agricultural realities.
The students say the exchange gives them an opportunity to take ideas home rather than simply observe them in China.
Carolina says she has learned about technology and culture during the program.
A lot of things like in-study parts, technology, like culture.
The people here are very good with us from Brazil, from international students, so I'm loving here.
May look different from one country to another.
But for these young people, sharing experiences can open the door to new ideas and help them see the possibilities and challenges of agriculture from a different perspective.
For the Beijing Hour, I'm Zhao Ying.
29 minutes past the hour.
Beijing will have thunder showers tonight and tomorrow.
The low is 23 and it's up to 30 on Saturday.
It's time for a short break so far this hour.
August 14th marks the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women.
Tianlu with you still here on the Beijing Hour.
The transition to a greener future is no longer a distant goal.
It's happening now.
In power plants, factories, farms and cities across China.
As the world grapples with climate change, energy security and the growing demand for electricity, China is searching for new ways to cut emissions while keeping its economy moving.
Across the country, our reporters visit renewable energy hubs, industrial centers, and agricultural communities to see what that transformation looks like in practice.
Through first-hand stories and on-the-ground reporting, we explore the opportunities, the challenges, and the ideas shaping China's green transition.
Listen to China's Green Code, Rewriting the Rules of Growth, a special series from Climate Watch, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Examining the events that impact and shape china and the rest of the world this is the beijing hour one hour of news and information brought to you every weekday now here's your host
Tianlu with you on this Friday's Two to Come.
In business, China's central bank starts a 1 trillion yuan outright reverse repo operation, and sports Chinese and Czech tennis players win WTA Toronto Doubles title for the third team crown.
In culture and entertainment, homegrown,
Animated films rise to command China's big screen.
To contact us, you can email radio at cgtn.com or follow our ex-account at cgtnradio.
You're also welcome to subscribe to our Substack newsletter Beyond Beijing for the world's biggest stories, along with sharp insights and exclusive analysis.
But first, check in today's headlines.
The Chinese Defense Ministry has urged vigilance against Japan's acts of new militarism.
Japanese media reports that the country's defense ministry is set to submit a record-high budget of nearly 9 trillion yen, or 58 billion U.S. dollars, for fiscal year 2027.
Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Chen Xi urged Japan to stop its acts of remilitarisation.
Historical facts must not be forgotten, and justice and peace must not be compromised.
We urge the Japanese side to earnestly reflect on itself, recognize and atone for its crimes, adhere to the post-war international order, and stop its dangerous acts of remilitarization.
Any return to the wrong path will bring a more crushing defeat and a more complete reckoning.
The remarks came a day ahead of the 81st anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender in World War II.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Nobuo will pay an eight-day state visit to China starting Sunday.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the China-Ecuador Comprehensive Strategic Partnership .
The Chinese foreign ministry says bilateral ties have maintained strong momentum under strategic guidance of the two heads of state.
The two sides have signed a document on Belt and Road Cooperation and a free trade agreement.
China hopes the visit will help achieve new progress in bilateral relations.
China has maintained rainstorm warning over wide swaths of the country as remnants from typhoon Dolphin continue to dump heavy rain.
Some parts of Zhejiang and Henan provinces have seen record-high rainfall of hundreds of millimeters, along with severe flooding and geological disasters.
More downpours and thunderstorms are forecast in parts of eastern, central and southern China.
Authorities have advised the public to avoid mountain areas and river valleys vulnerable to landslides and floods.
Russia has hit back at Japan's opposition to President Vladimir Putin's visit to Iturup, one of the disputed Kuro Islands in the Pacific, which Japan calls Iturof.
The Russian foreign ministry dismissed Japanese Prime Minister Sano Takahashi's comments, saying they cause extreme outrage and are absolutely unacceptable.
Tokyo considers it one of the four islands in Japan's northern territories, while Moscow views it as part of the Southern Kurils.
It's Putin's first visit to the island after observing Pacific Fleet drills.
Takeuchi says the visit hurts the feelings of the Japanese people.
Volunteers and workers have continued sorting donations at the stadium in Colombia's capital, Bogota.
Monday's 7.5 magnitude quake has killed more than 270 people, with hundreds still missing.
More than 1,500 volunteers turned up at El Campain Stadium to help collect and sort donations.
Stadium Communications Director Erica Delgado says five warehouses have already been filled with humanitarian supplies.
The outcome was very positive.
More than 1,500 volunteers showed up here at the stadium, and we filled five warehouses in the stadium completely with humanitarian aid.
Then at night, we had to open this hangar to continue receiving more aid.
And right now, we set up another hangar and are setting up yet another one.
Volunteers continued their work on Thursday as donations arrived from local residents and regional partners.
A public health organization in Germany says 12,500 people in the country have died from heat-related causes in four months, the highest number in a decade.
The figures are based on data from the Federal Statistical Office and 52 weather stations from April to early August.
The institute says over 75% of the deaths occurred in the fourth week of June when temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius across large parts of Germany.
You're listening to the Beijing Hour.
Coming up in business, China's central bank starts a 1 trillion yuan outright reverse repo operation.
The Beijing Hour, your window on China and the rest of the world.
36 minutes past the hour, turning to business, here's Wang Zihang.
Thank you, Tianlu.
Stock markets on the Chinese mainland closed higher on Friday.
The Shanghai composite was up slightly.
The Shenzhen component gained nearly half a percent.
Telecommunications equipment and non-metallic material shares led the gainers.
Timothy Pope has more.
Volatility does seem to have set in for the moment on the Chinese mainland stock markets.
We've had another week of investors throwing their money from one side of the market to the other and back again, although there have actually been some consistent winners.
The market started fairly muted after Thursday's sell-off, but there was a late recovery and that helped the Shanghai Composite Index close flat.
The Shenzhen component added almost half of 1% and the China export gained 1.1%.
Biotech stocks, they did pretty well pretty much all this week.
We talked before about the really strong first half of the year that we've seen for Chinese innovative drug companies and that's really getting reflected in the market at the moment.
And the other winners were optical module and data center cooling companies.
We had investors looking for new angles to buy a slice on the AI infrastructure build-out.
You saw it wasn't just investors doing that, actually.
Optical module maker Zhongji InnoLight announced that it's buying a more than 10% stake in Zhongshi Technology.
Also called Beijing Jones Tech, which makes thermal management products for data centres.
It helps keep all of Zhongji Inner Light's products cool while they're running.
Zhongji is spending around 1.75 billion yuan on that purchase.
Its shares were up 2.4% after that announcement and Zhongshi hit its 20% daily limit gain.
There was Timothy Pope on the mainland markets.
Elsewhere in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index lost more than 1.1%.
Over to Japan, the Nikkei rose nearly 0.6%.
China Central Bank has started a 1 trillion yuan outright reverse repo operation to maintain ample liquidity in the banking system that's about 148 billion US dollars.
The operation will have a fixed quantity and be conducted through interest rate bidding with winning bid determined at various price levels.
It will have a tenor of 185 days.
Outright reverse repo operations is a tool the central bank introduced to maintain liquidity in the national banking system.
It can be conducted once each month with a tenor of no more than a year.
Analysts note that the tool, working alongside with other policy stakeholders,
A measure signals the central bank's moderately accommodative monetary policy direction.
It will help cushion the banking system against liquidity strains from tax payments, local government bond supply and seasonal fluctuations.
China's exports of electric trucks to other Asian countries have spiked, adding to a surge in domestic sales.
This comes as a higher fuel cost due to the Iran war accelerate regional electrification.
Reuters report says in the four months after the US and Israel launched the war, China's exports of heavy e-trucks more than doubled from the same period last year to over 6,820 vehicles.
Half went to South and Southeast Asia, with shipment to South Asia up more than five-fold and to Southeast Asia nearly tripling.
Yue Jiao Ting, with China's largest engineering machinery manufacturer Sani Heavy Industry Company,
Says the war has opened the door to these new markets.
The company previously focused on Europe but is pivoting to Southeast Asia and developing cheaper models.
Yue says before oil prices rose, buyers in these countries might have needed 28 months to recoup their investment in an electric heavy truck.
Now it takes only 18 months.
To boost charging infrastructure, the company is also selling customers systems to generate and store power as well as charge the trucks.
A loofah plant may not look like much, but processing can transform it into a premium bath and kitchen cleaning product, selling for more than US$10 apiece.
Behind this transformation is a partnership between two Chinese regions, one with land and labor, the other with technology and markets.
Yu Bo-kun has the story.
I have one of those at home.
But before it becomes a bath sponge, it starts right here at Huangmen County, where vast stretches of farmland are dedicated to grow luffas.
Here in the village, farmers are busy harvesting mature luffas from the fields, getting them ready for the next stage of processing.
I decided to join them and see how it's done.
I tried picking a few myself.
He used to grow soy beans.
Now, by growing luffas, he earns around $400 a month.
These luffas aren't meant for the dinner table.
They're grown for their natural fiber, which is used in making cleaning and bath product.
Before becoming finished goods, they're soaked, peeled and sun-dried.
I'm now putting on my boots to join the farmers to peel the luffas.
These luffas have been soaking for about three days.
Now I'm going to beat them against the ground to get the outer layer off.
This is fun.
You're going to wash off the green thing on those loofahs.
Okay.
Might work.
This raw loofah's crop can sell about 20 yuan per kilo or about $3 per kilo.
But after they're made into kitchen and bath products, the prices can jump five times.
In other words, it's no longer just an agricultural product.
It's becoming a consumer good.
So how does a simple luva become a much more valuable product?
It takes more than a farm.
It takes technology, processing, and also access to global market.
And that's where Ningbo comes in.
While Huangmei has the land and labor, Ningbo on China's eastern coast has the know-how and the market.
The two regions have been working together for three years.
From a loofah in Huangmei fields to a product sold worldwide, it's more than a crop.
It's a supply chain linking land, technology, and global market.
That was Yu Guopeng reporting.
Shanghai's foreign trade remained robust in July, marking 18 consecutive months of growth.
Imports and exports exceeded 447.5 billion yuan, or around 66.4 billion US dollars.
That's up 12.6% on a yearly basis.
Trade with ASEAN nations reached almost 81.3 billion yuan, soaring 54.3%, while trade with the European Union stood at 79 billion yuan, up 7.7%.
Foreign-invested companies in the city recorded imports and exports of nearly 230 billion yuan, up 11%, while private enterprises reached 188.6 billion yuan, up 15%.
The combined imports and exports of integrated circuits, memory components and servers and related accessories reached almost 93 billion yuan, jumping 62%, contributing 9 percentage points to the city's overall foreign trade growth.
In the first seven months of this year, the city's cumulative imports and exports totaled 3 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.7%.
Now, as second-hand home sales rise in Shanghai, the renovation and building materials market is also picking up steam.
With demand continuing to grow, renovation companies are seeing a steady increase in orders.
A report on home decoration consumption trends in Shanghai shows that in the first half of this year, the market was heavily concentrated on existing homes, with 92% of renovation demand coming from second-hand home renovations.
Wang Kaiqi is the general manager of Shanghai Shendu Hou Decoration Company.
Orders for renovating homes over 20 years old have more than doubled on a yearly basis.
This year, for the first time, the proportion of partial renovations exceeded that of full-scale renovations.
Homeowners are willing to invest more in concealed works, plumbing and electrical systems and space utilization.
The average decision-making cycle for Shanghai homeowners was 31 days, shortened by 23.5% on a yearly basis.
Now, US producer inflation cooled in July on a yearly basis as energy prices dropped from the prior month.
According to the Department of Labor, the producer price index last month jumped 4.7% from a year ago, down from a 5.5% increase in June.
The PPI was flat on a monthly basis.
Karina Mitchell has more details.
We saw in the monthly numbers for CPI in the previous session, which were in line with estimates.
But PPI for the month of July unchanged.
The estimate was to see a rise of two-tenths of 1%.
Year over year, that number working out to 4.7%.
That is the lowest number we've seen since March.
So inflation is starting to take lower.
It's just taking a painfully long time.
For it to do so.
And that was mirrored in the CPI annual data that we got again in the previous session.
Now, if you look at the core number for PPI, that saw a rise of two tenths of one percent below the estimate of three tenths of one percent year over year.
That number working out to 4.2%.
We did see margins increase in certain sectors, including health and beauty, food and alcohol.
And by contrast, we saw prices fall when it comes to freight and truck transportation as well.
A major factor because of that was
A final drop in demand energy prices.
It was off by 3.1% for the month and gas prices down by almost 6%.
Of course, so much of that tied to that memorandum of understanding that was signed.
By the U.S. and Iran all but fallen by the wayside now.
And so much of this inflation story is tied to what happens in the Strait of Hormuz.
But markets Wall Street did like the tamer inflation data overall and traders are now betting that we do not see a rate hike from the Federal Reserve when it meets for its policy meeting in September.
On the day, U.S. benchmarks finished higher.
The S&P finishing at an all-time record high, up by 7 tenths of 1%, and actually crossing the 7,800 mark for the first time ever during the trading session.
Quick look ahead to Wall Street and what to expect on Friday.
We will get another round of economic data, this time retail sales.
So we'll see how consumers are dealing and handling their spending in the face of sticky inflation.
We'll also get a first read of consumer sentiment for August as well.
So a lot to look forward to.
That was Corinna Mitchell reporting.
Thank you very much.
That was Wang Zihang with Business.
You're listening to the Beijing Hour.
Coming up in sports, Chinese and Czech tennis players win WTA Toronto doubles title for the third team crown.
Sideline story brings you all things sports related the hottest topics latest events juiciest stories all with a very personal take
Subscribe to sideline story podcast for heated sports discussions covering events that are happening in china and around the world
47 minutes past the hour, turning to sports.
Here's Yang Guang.
Thank you, Tianlu.
We begin in tennis.
China's Zhang Shui and Czech player Katarina Sieniakova have won the women's doubles title at the WTA 1000 event in Toronto, beating Sarah Irani and Nicola Milica Martinez in straight sets.
The top seeds controlled the final and went through the tournament without dropping a set.
It is Jiang's fourth doubles title of the year and 19th of her career.
It's also Jiang and the senior cover's third title together and their second this season.
At the Chinese Athletics Championship's 17-year-old Chen Yuji clocked 11.08 seconds to win the women's 100m and set a new Asian U-20 record.
Since 2024, Chen has won the national championships, national games and Asian U-20 titles in the event.
In the men's 100 meters, veteran Xie Zhenye lined up against a field of much younger runners, including several born after 2005.
He won in 10.1 seconds, finishing more than a tenth of a second ahead of the run-up.
I have a message for the young sprinters.
Don't tell yourself it's impossible.
You've always had that strength inside you, and you are capable.
Just look at me.
Even at 33, I'm still running and still able to deliver solid results.
You will inevitably face all kinds of hardships along your journey.
I've gone through all of them.
In the end, you'll figure out that you're still who you are and you can make it.
So keep pushing forward.
Xie will compete at the Nagoya Asian Games in September, marking his fourth appearance at the Continental event for China.
In basketball, China beat Uruguay 83-78 in a warm-up game in Foshan Guangdong province.
Head coach Guo Xicheng noted that the fixture served as highly valuable preparation for the Chinese team.
We need to improve our awareness of taking the initiative on offense throughout the game.
Secondly, we have to be more patient on defense.
We exposed some issues in both of these areas today.
On the offensive end, we met the team's requirements and showed what we are capable of from our daily training.
However, we ran into problems in the second quarter on offense.
We failed to sustain our attack and keep moving on the court.
China made a fast start with He Xining scoring the team's first six points.
Uruguay responded with crisp ball movement and effective pick and rolls to keep the game close at halftime.
Both teams struggled offensively after the break, but China took a six-point lead into the final quarter.
Guard Pan Junlin then sparked China with a steal leading to Zhu Junlong's corner three before setting up her for a faster break layup to extend the lead to double digits.
Uruguay mounted a late comeback but foul trouble limited its chances.
At the WTT Europe Smash in Sweden, China's Lin Shidong and Zhou Jihao advanced to the men's singles last 16, while six Chinese players including Wang Manyu and Wang Yidi reached the women's singles last 16.
In mixed doubles, Lin Shidong and Kwai Man swept France's Alexis Lepone and Japan's Satsuki Odo 3-0 in the quarterfinals to reach the semifinals.
Lin says their opponents are strong.
We had never played them before, so it took a while to get used to their game.
Once we did, we handled the rallies well.
We were sharp on the first three shots and linked up pretty smoothly in the rallies.
All three Chinese pairs in the men's and women's doubles were eliminated in the quarterfinals.
And finally, at the World Snooker Tour China Open, Chinese player Si Jiahui lost 6-2 to Australian star Neil Robertson, missing out on the quarterfinals.
Si struggled to find his rhythm early on, missing several long-range shots as Robertson took control and built a 4-1 lead.
Si fought back in the sixth frame, forcing Robertson into a defensive shot before making a century break to pull one frame back.
But Robertson gave him no further chances, winning the next two frames to seal the victory.
Thank you very much.
That was Yang Guang with sports.
You're listening to the Beijing Hour, coming up in culture and entertainment.
Homegrown animated films rise to command China's big screen.
From north to south, east to west, people in China are chasing their dreams and leaving their mark.
Want to know how they beat the odds and made a difference?
Footprints brings you the true life stories of their journeys.
Now it's 52 minutes past the hour turning to culture and entertainment.
A decade ago, Chinese animation was overshadowed by Hollywood and dismissed as children's entertainment.
Today, homegrown animated films command nearly half the market, rivaling global studios in technical ambition and storytelling as the latest summer hit shows.
Shen Li has the details.
A jolt at the summer box office, not a live-action blockbuster, an animation.
All Wishes Come True,
Drawn from The Legend of the Eight Immortals, has hauled in over 1.4 billion yuan in just three weeks, topping this year's animation chart and breaking into China's all-time top 10.
The plot is full of surprises, twist after twist.
You don't know the truth until the very last second.
From the art style to the way it blends traditional culture with modern life I loved every bit of it.
Here at the Beijing Cinema, tickets for All Wishes Come True are among the best sellers.
And if this looks familiar, it should.
Over a decade ago, another domestic animation burst onto the big screen exactly this way.
No stars, no marketing, just quality and word of mouth.
Da Shu!
Da Shu!
The arc begins in 2015, Monkey King Hero is Back, 954 million yuan.
In 2019, Nezha smashed through 5 billion, propelling homegrown animation past 60% market share.
Then 2025, Nezha 2 erupted to 15.4 billion, the world's highest grossing animated feature.
Across China, the medium has been quietly redrawing the box office map.
Animation remains a dominant force this summer.
Last year, three titles alone, Nezha 2, Zootopia 2, and Nobody claimed 42% of annual ticket sales.
Today, quality comes first.
That's a return to cinema's essence, and animation is riding that wave.
Across a decade of breakout hits, Chinese animation has surged, title after title, earning both critical acclaim and commercial triumph.
I am what I am was absolutely stunning.
It made me rediscover traditional lion dance.
For decades, Chinese culture on screen came through a Western lens.
Now the lens has turned, and movie buffs can't wait for what's next.
I'm really excited about sci-fi animation.
I'd love to see campus stories.
The more diverse the better, fantasy, detective, mystery.
From margins to mainstream, the next chapter of Chinese animation is still being written, and the next big hit may already be in the making.
That was Shen Li reporting.
An art exhibition is underway at the Taikon Art Museum in Beijing.
Titled Blues on Whites, it traces the evolution of Chinese contemporary art since the 1990s.
Dozens of paintings, installations and images explore themes of personal experience, family ties, generational change and memory, inviting visitors to pause and reflect.
Works by international artists add a global perspective on social changes over the past three decades.
The exhibition runs through October 7th.
Pakistani blockbuster The Legend of Mola Jat has won two awards at the 7th Jackie Chan International Action Film Week, the Special Jury Award and the Best Art Direction Award.
It is the first Pakistani film to receive recognition at the internationally acclaimed Action Film Festival.
A reboot of the 1979 cult classic Mola Jet, the film reimagines a Punjabi folk hero for a global audience.
Shanghai will see more rain tonight and tomorrow with a low of 26 and a high of 29.
Chongqing will be clear tonight, tomorrow sunny with a low of 29 and a high of 38.
Nanchang will see more rain tonight, easing into thunder showers tomorrow with a low of 25 and a high of 30.
Lhasa will be overcast tonight and tomorrow with a low of 13 and a high of 24.
Elsewhere in Asia, Islamabad will see moderate rain tonight easing to light tomorrow.
The low is 25 and is up to 35 on Saturday.
Vientiane will have moderate rain tonight and tomorrow with a low of 24 and a high of 32.
That's it for this edition of the Beijing Hour Making News today.
August 14th marks the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women.
Multiple reports of deteriorating living conditions and mental health issues aboard USS Abraham Lincoln emerge.
On behalf of staff, this is Tian Lu in the Chinese capital, hoping you'll join us for the next edition of the Beijing Hour and open a window to the world together.
The best military commander is not he who fights a hundred battles and wins every one of them.
The best military strategy does not lead to the desiccation of the enemy's capital city.
Decoding the Art of War will help you understand why there's no art in war and how Sun Tzu stayed undefeatable using the science of war with fun stories and insightful breakdown of famous battles.
Find Decoding the Art of War wherever you listen.
A poem for the Tibetan antelope, the gentle spirit of the Qinghai Cizon Plateau, spoken by voices from across the world.
Every spring, female antelopes migrate hundreds of miles to Zhuonai Lake to give birth, as we build gentle passages for their journey.
Hello, little Tibetan antelope.
Eyes opening to the light for the very first time.
To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower.
So much wonder calls for so much courage.
But have no fear.
The way home is right there, waiting for you.
From the snows of Kunlun to the winds of Tangula, the wilderness will teach me to be strong.
But the call of life itself never ceases.
A train runs toward the horizon.
A road stretches through the wilderness.
The bridge that soars through the clouds is no barrier across the land, but a gateway to where I truly belong.
Tibetan antelopes' hoof prints loosen the soil, letting snow melt sink into the earth.
Human presence passes through, but we've never walked this land alone.
