News & Politics

A CCTV investigation in Danyang, Jiangsu — China's eyewear capital — found children's multi-focal 'myopia-control' lenses with a suggested retail price of 1,980 yuan selling wholesale for 30 yuan: a 66-fold gap. Buyers could choose the brand label and the price tier themselves; whether the cheap white-label products actually control myopia is the question parents can't easily answer.

News & Politics

Moscow State University Moves to Repatriate a Student Who Wore a Rising Sun Flag in Class

A photograph of a Chinese student wearing a rising-sun-flag garment in a Moscow State University lecture hall has set off the week's angriest debate among Chinese students abroad. The university's Chinese students' association says the school has opened an investigation; circulating screenshots claim repatriation has already been ordered — but the official result is still pending.

On the eve of the Double Ninth Festival, China's planners announced a push to turn the ageing population into consumption: more travel, sports and anti-aging products for seniors, and a three-ministry 'Filial Piety and Respect for the Aged Shopping Season' launched on October 18. Weibo's bluntest reply cut to the divide underneath: which elderly can actually afford to spend.