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Time of India
10 hours ago
- Climate
- Time of India
Is it a plane or a satellite? No, it's a Chinese paraglider at 8000 m above earth, frozen with no oxygen and still surviving
Live Events Aftermath and Investigation (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Peng Yujiang, a seasoned Chinese paraglider, on May 24, 2025, found himself at the center of a harrowing and extraordinary survival story—one that has captivated China's adventure sports community and drawn comparisons to some of the most extreme feats in paragliding who has been paragliding since at least 2021 according to his WeChat posts, launched from the Qilian Mountains in northwestern China, a region known for its government-backed paragliding base and as host of the Coupe Icare China. What was intended as a routine ground-based training session quickly turned perilous. About 20 minutes after takeoff, Peng was caught in a rare and dangerous meteorological phenomenon known as 'cloud suck'—a powerful updraft within a cumulonimbus cloud that can rapidly pull gliders thousands of meters from Peng's GPS tracker, later shared on social media, revealed he was lifted to a staggering altitude of 8,598 meters (28,200 feet)—just shy of the cruising altitude of commercial jetliners and perilously close to the world record for unassisted paragliding altitude. The ascent rate peaked at 9.7 meters per second (35 km/h), and temperatures plummeted to minus 40 degrees Celsius. Footage from Peng's own camera shows him coated in ice, without supplemental oxygen, struggling to communicate via radio as his hands such altitudes, oxygen levels are dangerously low and the risk of hypoxia, frostbite, and unconsciousness is extreme. Remarkably, Peng managed to stay conscious and maintain control for over an hour, eventually landing safely 33 kilometers from his launch site. 'I felt the lack of oxygen. My hands were frozen outside. I kept trying to talk on the radio,' Peng recounted in a Douyin video posted after his ordeal echoes that of German paraglider Ewa Wiśnierska , who survived a similar incident in 2007 after being lifted to 9,946 meters in Australia and losing consciousness for nearly 40 minutes. Both stories highlight the unpredictable dangers of high-altitude paragliding Following the incident, the Aero Sports Association of Gansu Province confirmed Peng's flight was not officially approved. Peng claimed he was conducting ground training when the winds unexpectedly lifted him. The association classified the event as an accident rather than illegal flying, but suspended Peng's flying privileges for six months pending who holds a valid paragliding license and has logged multiple high-altitude flights in the region, has since avoided media attention, asking the public to refrain from amplifying the incident. His Douyin account has been set to private, and his flight record removed from XContest, a global paragliding Chinese regulations , all paragliding flights require prior approval and are prohibited in poor weather conditions. The ongoing investigation underscores the risks and regulatory challenges facing China's growing adventure sports scene.
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
DeepSeek unveils update to R1 model
DeepSeek said it has upgraded the R1 artificial-intelligence model that helped propel the Chinese startup to global prominence earlier this year. DeepSeek completed what it described as a 'minor trial upgrade' and told users they can start testing it, according to a company representative's post in an official WeChat group on Wednesday. The company didn't provide details about the upgrade and didn't respond to an email seeking further comment. The Hangzhou-based startup stunned the global tech industry in January when it unveiled the original R1 , an AI model that outperformed Western players on several standardised metrics, purportedly at a cost of just several million dollars. That triggered a rout in global tech stocks as investors questioned whether leading firms would still need to spend significant amounts to build AI services. The debut of R1 turned founder Liang Wenfeng into a tech celebrity and a symbol of the country's ability to compete with the best of Silicon Valley. It also set off a race to launch additional AI models in China. In February, President Xi Jinping invited Liang to a high-profile gathering with some of the country's most prominent entrepreneurs. The young founder was seated among the likes of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma and Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s Pony Ma. DeepSeek's upgrade was announced just hours before the latest financial report from Nvidia Corp. , the leading maker of AI chips whose shares were pummeled in the January rout.
Economist
a day ago
- Business
- Economist
The contest to cash in on Chinese AI heats up
China's internet moguls are nothing if not fiercely competitive. Take, for instance, the jockeying for leadership in the market for cloud services. Baidu, the country's search giant, surprised industry watchers on May 21st when it revealed that revenue from its cloud-computing business in the first quarter had surged by 42%, year on year, blowing through analysts' predictions. The same day Tencent, maker of the WeChat super-app, hosted a cloud-computing conference at which the firm cut its prices and promised a big upgrade to its platform. The next day Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce firm, told an audience at its own cloud-themed conference that it was expanding globally and that its services would soon be available in dozens of countries.
Epoch Times
a day ago
- Epoch Times
Chinese Regime Targets 5 Types of Foreign ‘Spies'
The Chinese communist regime's Ministry of State Security has listed five types of foreign 'spies' and urged the Chinese public to point them out and report them to authorities. Analysts said the regime's move is aimed at shifting public focus away from China's political and economic crises. The ministry published an article titled 'Exposing the Many Faces of Spies' on its official social media account on WeChat on May 25, listing five types of identities that foreign spies would use. The article has been reposted by major Chinese media outlets. The five types include 'detectives who don't investigate, scholars who don't research, businessmen who don't do business, tourists who don't sightsee, and lovers who don't care,' according to the ministry. The ministry defines the 'detectives who don't investigate' as 'those foreign spies who use detective companies and consulting companies as cover' to seek out sensitive information in high-tech fields and military facilities 'under the pretext of verifying information and providing paid consultation.' In recent years, the regime has already cited its Related Stories 1/30/2025 9/12/2024 The ministry described the 'scholars who don't study' as those who frequently visit Chinese universities and research institutes 'under the banner of academic exchanges and scientific research cooperation' to collect sensitive information and core technology. The 'businessmen not doing business' refers to 'foreign spies pretending to be influential businessmen, using the guise of investment and cooperation, and using money and emotional seduction to carry out defection,' according to the ministry. The 'tourists not sightseeing' refers to those 'foreign agents who enter China under the guise of sightseeing, visiting relatives and friends, and conduct surveying and on-site search activities near military facilities and sensitive areas on their own or by inducing Chinese personnel.' As to the 'lovers who don't care,' the ministry said that foreign spies approach Chinese students studying abroad through developing romantic relationships with them or online dating to turn them. In addition to the five categories, the ministry said 'foreign spies may also disguise themselves as journalists, visa officers, non-governmental organization staff, and other identities.' The ministry told the Chinese public to 'be vigilant' and required them to report these so-called foreign spies and 'suspicious activities in a timely manner to state security agencies.' Lai Jianping, a former Beijing lawyer and president of the Canada-based Federation for a Democratic China, told The Epoch Times on May 26 that the Chinese communist regime itself does exactly what they warned in the article around the world. 'The spies [the Chinese regime] sends to all parts of the world are truly omnipresent,' Lai said. The agents working for the Chinese regime include 'those sent from China and those hired locally, both Chinese and Westerners, and they come from all kinds of different professions.' There have been increasing reports of Chinese expats and students stealing information and spying for the Chinese regime in the West, especially in the high-tech sector and around military facilities. 'So, the Chinese authorities think that the whole world, including those democratic countries, is acting the same as the Chinese rogue regime,' he said. Chinese nationals (background 3rd R and 2nd R) and their alleged Philippine accomplices (L and 2nd L), arrested for alleged espionage, are escorted out of a room by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents after a press conference at the NBI office in Manila on Feb. 25, 2025. Ted Aljibe / AFP Lai said the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) suspects everyone coming from outside is a spy and coerces all Chinese citizens to work for the Party to catch the so-called spies in order to maintain its authoritarian rule. He said the purpose of the CCP's Ministry of State Security to publish such an article calling on all Chinese to seek out the so-called foreign spies is to 'isolate China from the world and make Chinese people fall into a state of panic about national security, and inspire everyone to be vigilant and even hate outsiders.' It will produce 'a chilling effect', Lai said, as the spy catching 'will make the Chinese people fall into mutual suspicion, mutual denunciation, and everyone feels that they are in danger.' Police officers patrol outside the Jingxi Hotel in Beijing on July 15, 2024. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images Reminiscent of Mao's Era The Chinese regime is not really trying to prevent spies, but to create fear in Chinese society, Sheng Xue, vice chair of the Canada-based Federation for a Democratic China and a Chinese-Canadian writer, said of the Chinese ministry's article. 'Because one of the most important principles of the CCP's rule is based on fear, as it's essentially a terrorist rule, they are trying to intensify this fear in society,' she told The Epoch Times on May 26. She said the ministry's article includes journalists, tourists, businessmen, scholars, even foreign lovers, NGOs, and many other groups 'to make people immediately feel hostile, resistant, and vigilant against any foreigner or Chinese returned from the outside world, treating anyone who has any contact with the outside world as an enemy.' 'In Mao Zedong's era, they always did this,' she said. Mao was the Chinese communist leader of China from 1949 until his death in 1976. During Mao's era, the CCP locked down the country, antagonized anything foreign, Western, or democratic, and launched back-to-back mass political movements to purge 'enemies' from within, forcing Chinese people to watch, report, and denounce each other, including between family members. Sheng said that communist China is now very isolated internationally, as its aggressive expansion of political and economic influence has kept other countries on edge. 'The CCP undoubtedly feels such pressure, so they try to bind the Chinese together with it to treat the outside world as an enemy,' she said. Another reason for the spy-catching propaganda now, she said, is that the CCP is trying to shift people's focus from its current political and economic crises. 'The CCP needs to divert attention from the serious internal economic downturn, the people's discontent, social anxiety, youth unemployment, capital outflow, and other problems,' she said. 'So, it constantly uses the so-called national security or the so-called people's safety to set up a target, which is foreign hostile forces, to shift social conflicts outward.' Luo Ya and Xia Song contributed to this report.
New Straits Times
2 days ago
- New Straits Times
Immigration busts two salons secretly offering sex services
KUALA LUMPUR: Two salons in Jalan Kuchai Lama and Bandar Sri Petaling here, which were secretly offering sex services under the guise of hair and facial treatments, were busted following a raid by the Immigration Department yesterday. The syndicate is believed to have used the WeChat application to promote its services, providing clients with a catalogue of foreign women to choose from before making a booking. Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said the 6pm operation involved checks on 59 individuals, comprising three foreign men, 45 foreign women and 11 locals. "Three foreign men and 45 foreign women, aged between 23 and 35, from Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Laos were detained for various offences. "Three local men, believed to be caretakers, were also arrested. Intelligence gathered over a two-week period revealed that these premises have been operating for the past two years," he said in a statement today. Zakaria said the premises operated by advertising men's hair and facial grooming packages while discreetly offering sexual services as part of the package. "Subscription fees ranged from RM150 to RM250 depending on the type of service requested by the customer. The outlets operated from 3pm to 2am daily. "All the foreign women lived at the premises, which were equipped with dormitory-style bedrooms. The illegal operation was believed to generate profits of RM1,000 to RM1,500 per day," he said. During the raid, several foreign women were found entertaining customers, comprising locals and tourists. Offences identified included lack of identification documents, overstaying, permit abuse and other violations under the Immigration Act 1959/63, Passport Act 1966, and Immigration Regulations 1963. "All detainees have been placed at the Bukit Jalil Immigration Depot for further investigation and action," he added.
