At an Aug. 21 press briefing the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said it has planned ten flagship projects for Phase II of its Quality-Strengthening-the-Chain initiative following a successful Phase I. Phase II will continue priorities including high-end instruments, new energy and industrial robots; expand into embodied intelligent robots and solid-state power batteries; and add industrial machine tools, drones and advanced synthetic biological manufacturing, using a 'three-ba

Aug 20 — In Bern, Swiss federal president and minister for economic affairs, education and research Guy Parmelin met with MOFCOM minister Raimondo to announce completion of upgraded China–Switzerland free trade agreement negotiations and the signing of a memorandum of understanding.

Hainan provincial meteorological bureau says a South China Sea tropical depression is likely to stall and loop over the northern Beibu Gulf and Qiongzhou Strait for the next three days and may intensify into a tropical storm. From Aug. 22–24, Hainan’s northwest half expects heavy to very heavy rain with locally extreme totals; the rest of the island will see moderate to heavy rain with isolated heavy showers. Offshore areas around Hainan will see gusts of Beaufort 8–9, with the northern Beibu Gulf reaching Beaufort 9–10; Qiongzhou Strait may face prolonged suspension of ferry and shipping services.