A gas leak last week at a chemical factory in Leshan, Sichuan, has once again revealed just how vulnerable many production facilities in China are to extreme weather events.

China’s taxi drivers, who are still struggling to recover from the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, are facing a new threat to their livelihoods. Several tech companies are promoting electric bicycle sharing schemes in urban areas, drawing even more customers away from taxis. Taxi drivers are responding with direct action.

On the fifth anniversary of the massive explosions at a Tianjin chemical storage warehouse that killed 173 people, including 104 firefighters, on 12 August 2015, China has ordered an urgent and comprehensive inspection of all its hazardous chemical storage facilities. 

The provinces most severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as most major cities in China, all saw negative economic growth in the first half of the year, according to official data on the gross domestic product (GDP) of individual provinces released last week.