After 20 years, China’s auto sales sputter into reverse

"Spiritual opium" is how the Chinese brand video games. After a tightening of the noose around the industry and rules at the start of the school year that limit screen time for teens to three hours a week, Fortnite has announced that it is folding. Three years on and one billion dollars spent, the popular survival game never got regulatory approval, despite the financial backing of Chinese tech giant Tencent. So what is the matter with Fortnite?

China said it took the punitive step after self-ruled Taiwan opened a de facto embassy in Lithuania.

Chinese officials ordered some of the country's biggest companies — including Alibaba, Tencent and Baiidu — to pay fines for failing to report corporate acquisitions over the past eight years.

President Joe Biden has invited 109 countries to the virtual summit which will take place on December 9 and 10. China said adding Taiwan to the guest list was a "mistake."

At least eight people were killed in Somalia's capital on Thursday (November 25) when Islamist militants launched a suicide attack on a U.N. security convoy using a vehicle laden with explosives, officials and witnesses said. The Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the huge blast which rocked Mogadishu and injured at least 23 people, including school students, sending a column of smoke above the city. Gunfire echoed around the scene, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear if any U.N. personnel were among those killed or injured in the huge blast, which targeted the U.N. convoy as it passed near the site of a school.

China's post-COVID recovery has been hurt by Beijing's crackdown on real estate and tech giants. Strong exports have, until now, saved the economy but what happens when global demand for Chinese goods slows?

East Africa has been ramping up efforts to expose its citizens to Chinese culture - particularly through language. In Kenya Mandarin is offered as a selective language in the national curriculum, while in Uganda it’s now a compulsory subject in some schools. But is this simply an exchange of cultures, or is there more to it?

Chinese real estate giant Evergrande, saddled with around $300 billion in debt, has been struggling to meet interest payments on its loans. If it collapses, some of its partner firms could be driven to bankruptcy, prospective homebuyers could lose deposits and some banks would lend less money, which would lead to a credit crunch in the world's second-biggest economy. Property developers in China have in fact created an oversupply: there is enough empty property in the country to house more than 90 million people. FRANCE 24's team reports.

The EU Commission on Wednesday (1 December) unveiled its plan to invest €300bn by 2027 in global infrastructure in digital and climate projects - as an alternative to China's Belt and Road initiative.

The governing body of women's tennis took the decision after Peng made an allegation of sexual abuse against a Chinese official. WTA chairman Steve Simon said he worried about player safety at tournaments in China.

Since September, the name Evergrande has caused panic on stock exchanges around the world. Paralysed by $300 billion in debt (€260 billion), or the equivalent of 2 percent of Chinese GDP, the country's second-largest real estate developer is now threatening Chinese growth. Evergrande has more than 1,300 construction projects across China, as well as financial products, electric cars, livestock, bottled water and even a football club.

The EU and China have pledged to boost funding of green investment projects in ASEAN. But will these erstwhile partners, whose relations have soured over the past year, be able to work side by side?