Chinese ship destroyed Baltic pipeline, Eileen Gu’s link to French athlete: 7 highlights

Beijing has admitted that a Chinese-owned ship damaged a critical Baltic Sea gas pipeline running between Estonia and Finland last October, but says it was an accident.

When China announced last year plans to invest 170 billion ringgit (US$35.9 billion) into Malaysia, property players had already started rolling out the red carpet for potential investors and homebuyers looking to join the expected rush to set up shop in the Southeast Asian nation.

Beijing’s top spy agency says it has uncovered more than 1,000 cases of Taiwanese espionage during a crackdown and vowed to keep up the pressure on the island’s pro-independence forces.

Hong Kong authorities updated its existing amber outbound travel alert for Japan, urging city’s residents to closely monitor the situation after the country was hit by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that occurred off the coast of Miyazaki prefecture last Thursday.

China has piled resources into producing individuals who excel in sports where there is only moderate Western opposition. The country’s consistent dominance of diving and table tennis, in particular, is written off in some quarters as the result of China hothousing young athletes to inflate its Olympic medal count.

The Hungry Ghost Festival is one of the most eerie celebrations in Chinese culture and falls on the 15th day of the seventh month in the Chinese lunar calendar. This year, that day is August 18. According to Chinese folklore, the gates of hell are said to open on the first of the month, and ghosts and spirits are free to wander the earth.

China’s Olympic champion skier Eileen Gu is facing criticism online after videos emerged of her dancing intimately with a French swimmer accused of disrespecting a Chinese sports coach.