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For the first time in a decade, New Zealanders are more likely to see China as a friend than the US, while viewing Washington as more of a threat, according to the latest report released by a New Zealand foundation on Wednesday. 

Analysts noted that such findings go beyond temporary shifts and instead reveal an enduring trend. The survey results echo a prevailing desire of Asia-Pacific countries to pursue stability and growth, where China occupies a pivotal position. In comparison, Washington's disruptive moves against the international order have caused widespread anxiety, including among its long-standing allies.

Launched by the Asia New Zealand Foundation, the annual Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples (2026) survey found that New Zealanders' sentiment towards China has warmed since the last survey, with friend perceptions increasing from 38 percent to 43 percent. Meanwhile, sentiment towards the US has cooled significantly, with friend perceptions falling from 61 percent to 39 percent, according to the RNZ. 

In addition, 35 percent of respondents saw the US as a threat. By comparison, about 23 percent saw China as a threat, Reuters reported. 

The survey also found that 81 percent of New Zealanders see developing ties with Asia as important. The foundation's Chief Executive Suzannah Jessep said that "There is a growing recognition that prosperity, resilience and security will depend on the depth and quality of our relationships across Asia," per Reuters. 

The annual survey, now in its 29th year, polled 2,300 people in January and February.

Chen Hong, director of the Asia-Pacific Studies Center at East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that robust economic, trade and people-to-people exchanges have enabled New Zealand society to gain a more objective understanding of the real China, despite smearing and hype by some Western media and politicians, adding that, "compared with other Western countries, New Zealand pursues a more pragmatic and independent foreign policy, which has exerted a positive influence on its public perceptions of China."

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, China is New Zealand's largest goods trading partner, largest export market and largest source of imports. China is also the largest source of international students in New Zealand.

Effective July 1, 2024, China implemented a temporary visa exemption for New Zealand, with its validity extended to the end of 2026.

"In a more challenging world, New Zealanders are looking for friends," a summary of the New Zealand report said, according to the RNZ. 

About a month before the New Zealand foundation released the poll, surveys conducted by an Australian organization reflected a similar trend. 

According to a poll released on May 7 by The Australia Institute, a public policy think tank based in Canberra, 59 percent of Australians believe the country's interests are better served by a more independent foreign policy rather than a closer alliance with the US. Only 13 percent of Australians believe the US is a "very reliable" security ally.

Dr Emma Shortis, Director of The Australia Institute's International & Security Affairs Program, said the poll represents "a seismic shift" in the way Australians think about the US. 

From waging wars to slapping tariffs, the US' actions worldwide have made even its long-standing allies in Europe and the Asia-Pacific come to see that it undermines, rather than upholds, the international order, said Chen. 

According to the expert, the evolving attitudes toward China and the US in New Zealand and Australia are very likely to reflect not a temporary policy shift, but an enduring trend.

Amid a world of turmoil and profound changes, pursuing stability and development has become the shared aspiration of all Asia-Pacific countries, Chen said. "As a solid defender of regional peace and stability and a key driver of the regional economy, China plays an indispensable role in the region. For this reason, China has earned wide recognition among people in the Asia-Pacific despite slander from parts of the West," Chen said. 

Chen Xiufeng, 56, a Beijing street food vendor known as "Goose Leg Auntie," has come under scrutiny after admitting that the roasted legs she sold for years were actually duck, not goose. The revelation has sparked widespread online discussion and led to a regulatory investigation.

The Market Supervision Administration of Beijing's Haidian District released a statement on Thursday, saying it is further investigating allegations that the vendor may have misled consumers and will handle the case in accordance with the law, according to the district authority's official WeChat account.

Authorities launched an immediate investigation and questioned those involved after reports of the "Goose Leg Auntie selling duck legs" incident drew widespread public attention on Wednesday, the statement said.

The controversy erupted after a screenshot of an announcement circulated online from a group-buying chat operated by Chen. In Chen's announcement, she acknowledged that the roasted legs she sold were made from duck rather than goose.

According to the announcement, a consumer in Beijing's Guomao central business area discovered and reported that the products sold by Chen were actually duck legs. Chen said she was cooperating with the relevant authorities as a result of the complaint.

The revelation quickly became a trending topic on Chinese social media plaforms. One netizen said that "there is nothing wrong with the food quality, so there is no need to make a fuss about it." However, other view shows that "If it is likely to mislead consumers, then it amounts to deception, whether intentional or not."

As the controversy grew, several consumers claimed that they had purchased roasted legs with a greenish discoloration, causing the hashtag "zombie duck legs" to climb to the top of China's trending topics list on Sina Weibo.

The Yangcheng Evening News reported that videos of students from elite universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University lining up to buy Chen's roasted legs went viral in late 2023, helping transform her into an internet celebrity.

Since 2024, some consumers have reported receiving duck legs with green-colored patches. According to media reports, customers who raised questions in group chats were told the coloration came from scallion juice or vegetable-based marinades.

One consumer surnamed Xu told reporters that she joined a delivery group serving the Guomao area about a week ago through a friend's recommendation. When she collected her order, a delivery worker informed her that the product was a "goose-flavored duck leg," per Red Star News. "I still mind it a little," Xu said. "It feels like a form of deception."

"If there are any corresponding penalties, I will accept them. At the same time, I would also like to apologize to the students. In the future, I still hope to be known as 'Goose Leg Auntie,' but I will make sure to clearly explain the ingredients and source materials to everyone," Chen told the reporter, according to gmw.cn.

With a circle of booths featuring handcrafts, Thai-flavor cuisines, beverages, and a main stage presenting Thai dancing and fashion shows, 2026 Thai Festival returned to Chaoyang Park in Beijing on May 30. Thai Ambassador to China Chatchai Viriyavejakul inaugurated "Thai-Chinese friendship bell pavilion" after the opening ceremony for the festival. One of the highlights of this year's festival is the introduction of "Chud Thai," or the Thai National Costume.

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Viriyavejakul said this year's Thai Festival is special as the Royal Thai Embassy in China presented the theme "Creative Life & Creative Heartbeat," reflecting the energy and creativity of modern Thailand. 

"I am proud to share that 'Chud Thai' is officially being considered for inscription on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2026," said Viriyavejakul.

This nomination reflects not only Thailand's rich cultural identity, showcasing the craftsmanship, traditional wisdom, and shared heritage woven into every garment, but also "stands as a tribute to Her Majesty Queen Sirikit The Queen Mother for her lifelong dedication to preserving and promoting Thai textiles on the international stage," he said. 

After the opening ceremony, Ambassador Viriyavejakul and other delegates inaugurated the "Thai-Chinese friendship bell pavilion."

Originally constructed in 2005, the bell pavilion was renovated in 2025 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Thailand and China. It symbolizes enduring friendship, mutual trust, and close relations between our two countries, Viriyavejakul noted. 

Throughout the two-day festival, visitors enjoyed a variety of lively performances and entertainment, experiencing a memorable "Little Thailand," including Thai instrumental performances, Muay Thai performance, durian peeling demonstration and Thai speech competition. 

A visitor to the festival surnamed Zhao told the Global Times that he and his family really enjoyed the Thai cuisine and durian-peeling competition during the event, "We are planning to go from this year's 'little Thailand' to the real Thailand next year," Zhao said. 

Since May 27, the ship-borne helicopter of the Dutch frigate HNLMS De Ruyter illegally intruded into the airspace over China’s Xisha Qundao, and then the frigate transited the Taiwan Straits, Senior Colonel Xu Chenghua, spokesperson for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command, said on Friday. 

The PLA Eastern Theater Command dispatched naval and air assets to track and monitor the Dutch frigate throughout its passage, and handled the situation effectively, the spokesperson said. 

The theater command's troops will stay on high alert at all times and resolutely safeguard China’s sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability.

After the photo of Spring Airlines flight attendants was found to be shared on the users forum of Rokid smart glasses recently, discussions and public concerns have emerged over the potential misuse of AI-equippedp wearable devices for covert photography, multiple media including chinanews.com reported on Sunday.

The concern emerged after Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reported that a Rokid glasses user surnamed Yun discovered a post in the Rokid app's online community section dated on May 27 showing a photo of two flight attendants at work taken by the smart glasses, accompanied by the caption: "Spring Airlines flight attendants are pretty good." Yun subsequently filed a complaint through the app and made a post on social media platform cautioning covert photography of smart glasses, raising concerns that smart glasses could become a new tool for unauthorized recording, per Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.

The Global Times reporter did not locate the original post in the smart glasses' app community as of press time, and whether the post had been removed remained unverified. However, many other users have also uploaded first-person videos of various activities in the community section, including footage of strangers in public spaces such as beaches, parks and subway systems.

Yun noted that smart glasses are highly convenient in daily life, particularly for functions such as translation and meeting transcription, but she was surprised to learn that some users were purchasing light-blocking stickers designed to conceal the device's recording indicators, effectively disguising the glasses as ordinary eyewear, according to Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.

Yun discovered that several online retailers are selling stickers intended to block the recording indicator lights. The light was originally designed by the manufacturer of smart glasses to alert people when recording is taking place and help protect privacy, "yet some people are doing everything possible to bypass these safeguards," per report.

One online seller reportedly with more than 5,000 sales of such stickers, advertised that they "do not trigger alerts and do not affect photography." Customer reviews described the products as "amazing," noting that "there is no light when taking photos" and even charging indicator lights were hidden.

Tests conducted by Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reporters found that after applying the stickers, recording with the AI glasses became nearly impossible for bystanders to detect, while notification sounds could only be heard by the wearer. 

The incident has prompted discussion among Chinese netizens. One netizen expressed concern that unauthorized photography would become even more difficult to detect, while another said that "although advanced technology offers greater convenience, it is also making personal privacy increasingly vulnerable."

Both Spring Airlines and Rokid later responded to the controversy, while legal experts warned that people who secretly record and upload images without consent could face multiple forms of legal liability, according to the report.

A Spring Airlines staff member told Xiaoxiang Morning Herald on June 4 that photographing cabin crew without permission, particularly when the content is posted publicly online, could infringe upon an individual's portrait rights and privacy rights.

Rokid customer service said the matter had been forwarded to relevant staff for investigation. The company stated that if violations are confirmed, it will take action against the account in accordance with its user agreement and further strengthen guidance on proper use of the devices, according to the report.

Wan Qi, a lawyer with Hunan Jinzhou Law Firm, warned that individuals who secretly photograph others and upload the content online without consent could face civil liability as well as potential administrative or criminal penalties.

According to Wan, photographing and publishing images of individuals without their knowledge may constitute infringement of portrait and privacy rights under China's Civil Code. Victims may seek remedies including cessation of the infringement, public apologies and compensation for emotional distress. In serious cases, offenders could also violate public security regulations or even face criminal prosecution.

Wan added that merchants selling light-blocking stickers designed to circumvent privacy protections could be found to have knowingly facilitated infringement and may face joint liability, per report.

Amid a string of Japan's recent military expansion steps, Japanese media outlets on Wednesday revealed the outline of Japan's annual defense report, which claimed that China's military activities were "a grave concern," and highlighted the need for securing sustained combat capacity for potential "prolonged war." 

Chinese experts said Japan is using a well-worn trick to portray itself as a victim to drum up global public opinion and fabricate excuses for its militaristic expansion. Tokyo's rapid military buildup has gone far beyond legitimate self-defense demands and serves to pave the way for a return to militarism, a development that warrants close vigilance from the international community.

On the same day, as it responded to yet another development pointing to Japan's dangerous military tilt, China's Foreign Ministry pushed back against the Japanese Defense Ministry's allegation that China kept repeating unfounded claims, underscoring word games cannot whitewash Japan's tangible steps to boost and expand its armed forces.

Well-worn trick

According to the outline of Japan's Defense White Paper, regarding China's military activities, it cites incidents including intermittent radar illumination of Self-Defense Forces aircraft by Chinese fighter jets last December and intensified Chinese carrier operations in the Pacific Ocean, the NHK reported on Wednesday.

The outline labels such military activities "a grave concern" for Japan and the international community and "an unprecedented top strategic challenge," using wording nearly identical to that in the 2025 White Paper, the Japanese media outlet said in the report.

Claiming China's intensifying military operations near Japanese territories, the outline frames the issue as one to be countered by comprehensive national strength plus cooperation and coordination with allies and like-minded partners, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Wednesday.

The full Defense White Paper is expected to be submitted to Japan's Cabinet for review this summer, according to NHK.

The worsening China-Japan relations stem entirely from rampant domestic neo-militarist sentiments in Japan, yet Japan habitually shifts blame on security issues. Worse still, Tokyo pretends to be an innocent victim to mislead the world and rebrand itself from a troublemaking provocateur into an aggrieved party. It is a well-worn trick to build public opinion and prepare for more provocations against China down the line, Lü Chao, an expert at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Hype over the so-called China threat works as a pretext for Japan to expand its military and roll out risky military initiatives, Lü said, noting that every unfounded allegation it levels at China is crafted to justify its own militaristic expansion.

According to NHK, the outline of the paper also creates a new section dedicated to "new forms of warfare," citing the extensive deployment of low-cost drones and protracted combat seen on Ukraine's battlefields. Building on that, the outline underscores the importance of preparing for emerging warfare leveraging AI and drones, securing sustained combat capacity for potential prolonged war, and bolstering defense industrial and technological foundations.

Neo-militarism in Japan has gained alarming momentum, with Tokyo's top priority being to shake off post-war legal shackles on its military, Lü said. "Its massive push for drones and other military equipment far exceeds genuine self-defense needs. This outright military expansion aims to grow Japan's regional leverage and clear the path for a militaristic comeback," the expert said.

Wordplay cannot whitewash military build-up

In response to previous media disclosures of the draft of the Sanae Takaichi administration's first Defense White Paper which reveal that it frames China's activities in the Pacific as a "security threat" and expresses vigilance, Jiang Bin, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, said on May 28 that what Japan does contradicts what it says. The more it tries to whitewash the inconsistency, the more obvious it gets, he said. 

Jiang laid out a batch of dangerous moves taken by Japan. He told the press conference that in recent years, the Japanese government has sharply hiked its defense budget, developed and deployed offensive weapons, eased restrictions on exporting lethal weapons, pushed to revise the pacifist Constitution, clamored to be a war-capable nation, and even touted abandoning the three non-nuclear principles. 

"If these actions still qualify as 'exclusively defense-oriented,' then there would be no such word as offensive in the dictionary," Jiang said.

Apart from the long-running policy shifts, fresh dangerous moves from Tokyo have kept emerging recently. 

At the end of May, Japan and Philippines has agreed to begin formal negotiations to conclude a security intelligence-sharing agreement. The two countries also recently announced to start talks on maritime delimitation in the waters east of China's Taiwan island, which seriously infringed upon China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.

Ironically, as reported by Reuters, at the just-concluded Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Japan's Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi rebutted criticism that Japan was embracing new militarism, and claimed: "Think about it. There's a country that has a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons and strategic bombers. Japan ⁠has neither of such weapons, and yet Japan is labelled 'new militarism'?"

Refuting such claims, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a regular press conference on Monday that "the remarks from the Japanese official you mentioned have no basis at all. They have zero authority in front of history, law, facts and figures. There is no way that making such remarks will help Japan earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community."

However, it seems to have become a repeated pattern for Japan to reject accusations over military expansion when such issues are raised. Following Lin's remarks, Japanese Defense Ministry spokesperson claimed the next day that China keeps repeating factually unfounded claims and called such reaction regrettable, Japanese media outlet Livedoor News reported.

Responding to the matter, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday that Japan's justification for its behavior is better characterized as evasion and denial, which is nothing but camouflage for remilitarization. 

"The Japanese side has been mum about the militarist invasion and war crimes, still less Japan's obligations under international law. To this day, Japan remains unrepentant over its dark history," Mao said.  

Now it is deceiving the Japanese public and international community by mixing up concepts - calling overseas deployment "collective self-defense," buildup of offensive capabilities "acquiring counter-strike capabilities" and export of lethal weapons "equipment and technology cooperation," said Mao.

"Japan's repeated denial of neo-militarism shows its unease, as China's remarks have laid bare the real nature of its continuous military buildup and left Japan fearing more countries will see what it is doing and grow wary of its defense direction," Da Zhigang, a researcher at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Noting such continuous military moves by Japan could carry long-term risks and adverse impacts on regional peace and security, Da said it is essential for more countries to recognize Japan's true strategic orientation.

"Facts do not lie. Juggling with words does not whitewash Japan's rearmament. The harder Japan tries to hide it, the louder the alarm for the international community," spokesperson Mao said.

When asked to comment on the US designating two criminal groups in Brazil as terrorist organizations, a move that Brazil has denounced as undue interference in its politics, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Friday that China has noted the relevant reports. China consistently advocates non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

In the scientific version of her obituary, Dolly the Sheep was reported to have suffered from severe arthritis in her knees. The finding and Dolly’s early death from an infection led many researchers to think that cloning might cause animals to age prematurely.

But new X-rays of Dolly’s skeleton and those of other cloned sheep and Dolly’s naturally conceived daughter Bonnie indicate that the world’s first cloned mammal had the joints of normal sheep of her age. Just like other sheep, Dolly had a little bit of arthritis in her hips, knees and elbows, developmental biologist Kevin Sinclair of the University of Nottingham in England and colleagues report November 23 in Scientific Reports.
The researchers decided to reexamine Dolly’s remains after finding that her cloned “sisters” have aged normally and didn’t have massive arthritis (SN: 8/20/16, p. 6). No formal records of Dolly’s original arthritis exams were kept, so Sinclair and colleagues got Dolly’s and Bonnie’s skeletons and those of two other cloned sheep, Megan and Morag, from the National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh. Megan and Bonnie were both older than Dolly at the time of their deaths and had more bone damage than Dolly did. Morag died younger and had less damage.
Dolly’s arthritis levels were similar to those of naturally conceived sheep her age, indicating that cloning wasn’t to blame. “If there were a direct link with cloning and osteoarthritis, we would have expected to find a lot worse, and it would be more extensive and have a different distribution than what we’re finding in ordinary sheep,” says study coauthor Sandra Corr, a veterinary orthopedic specialist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
Dolly’s slightly creaky joints may have stemmed from giving birth to six lambs, including Bonnie. Pregnancy is a risk factor for arthritis in sheep.

For decades, the name “virus” meant small and simple. Not anymore. Meet the giants.

Today, scientists are finding ever bigger viruses that pack impressive amounts of genetic material. The era of the giant virus began in 2003 with the discovery of the first Mimivirus (SN: 5/23/09, p. 9). The viral titan is about 750 nanometers across with a genetic pantry boasting around 1.2 million base pairs of DNA, the information-toting bits often represented with A, T, C and G. Influenza A, for example, is roughly 100 nanometers across with only about 13,500 base pairs of genetic material.

In 2009, another giant virus called Marseillevirus was identified. It is different enough from mimiviruses to earn its own family. Since 2013, mega-sized viruses falling into another eight potential virus families have been found, showcasing a long-unexplored viral diversity, researchers reported last year in Annual Review of Virology and in January in Frontiers in Microbiology.

Giant viruses mostly come in two shapes: polyhedral capsules and egglike ovals. But one, Mollivirus, skews more spherical. Pacmanvirus was named for the broken appearance of its outer shell. Both represent potential families. Two newly discovered members of the mimivirus family, both called tupanviruses and both with tails, have the most complete set of genes related to assembling proteins yet seen in viruses (SN Online: 2/27/18). Once unheard of, giant viruses may be common in water and soils worldwide. Only time — and more discoveries — will tell.
Virus length and genome size for a representative from each of two recognized giant virus families (mimivirus and marseillevirus families) and eight potential families are shown. Circles are scaled to genome size and shaded by size range, with influenza A and E. coli bacterium included for comparison. Years indicate when the first viruses were described.

Graphic: C. Chang; Sources: P. Colson, B. La Scola and D. Raoult/Annual Review of Virology 2017; J. Andreani et al/Frontiers in Microbiology 2018

When you’re stressed and anxious, you might feel your heart race. Is your heart racing because you’re afraid? Or does your speeding heart itself contribute to your anxiety? Both could be true, a new study in mice suggests.

By artificially increasing the heart rates of mice, scientists were able to increase anxiety-like behaviors — ones that the team then calmed by turning off a particular part of the brain. The study, published in the March 9 Nature, shows that in high-risk contexts, a racing heart could go to your head and increase anxiety. The findings could offer a new angle for studying and, potentially, treating anxiety disorders.
The idea that body sensations might contribute to emotions in the brain goes back at least to one of the founders of psychology, William James, says Karl Deisseroth, a neuroscientist at Stanford University. In James’ 1890 book The Principles of Psychology, he put forward the idea that emotion follows what the body experiences. “We feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble,” James wrote.

The brain certainly can sense internal body signals, a phenomenon called interoception. But whether those sensations — like a racing heart — can contribute to emotion is difficult to prove, says Anna Beyeler, a neuroscientist at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Bordeaux. She studies brain circuitry related to emotion and wrote a commentary on the new study but was not involved in the research. “I’m sure a lot of people have thought of doing these experiments, but no one really had the tools,” she says.

Deisseroth has spent his career developing those tools. He is one of the scientists who developed optogenetics — a technique that uses viruses to modify the genes of specific cells to respond to bursts of light (SN: 6/18/21; SN: 1/15/10). Scientists can use the flip of a light switch to activate or suppress the activity of those cells.
In the new study, Deisseroth and his colleagues used a light attached to a tiny vest over a mouse’s genetically engineered heart to change the animal’s heart rate. When the light was off, a mouse’s heart pumped at about 600 beats per minute. But when the team turned on a light that flashed at 900 beats per minutes, the mouse’s heartbeat followed suit. “It’s a nice reasonable acceleration, [one a mouse] would encounter in a time of stress or fear,” Deisseroth explains.

When the mice felt their hearts racing, they showed anxiety-like behavior. In risky scenarios — like open areas where a little mouse might be someone’s lunch — the rodents slunk along the walls and lurked in darker corners. When pressing a lever for water that could sometimes be coupled with a mild shock, mice with normal heart rates still pressed without hesitation. But mice with racing hearts decided they’d rather go thirsty.

“Everybody was expecting that, but it’s the first time that it has been clearly demonstrated,” Beyeler says.
The researchers also scanned the animals’ brains to find areas that might be processing the increased heart rate. One of the biggest signals, Deisseroth says, came from the posterior insula (SN: 4/25/16). “The insula was interesting because it’s highly connected with interoceptive circuitry,” he explains. “When we saw that signal, [our] interest was definitely piqued.”

Using more optogenetics, the team reduced activity in the posterior insula, which decreased the mice’s anxiety-like behaviors. The animals’ hearts still raced, but they behaved more normally, spending some time in open areas of mazes and pressing levers for water without fear.
A lot of people are very excited about the work, says Wen Chen, the branch chief of basic medicine research for complementary and integrative health at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health in Bethesda, Md. “No matter what kind of meetings I go into, in the last two days, everybody brought up this paper,” says Chen, who wasn’t involved in the research.

The next step, Deisseroth says, is to look at other parts of the body that might affect anxiety. “We can feel it in our gut sometimes, or we can feel it in our neck or shoulders,” he says. Using optogenetics to tense a mouse’s muscles, or give them tummy butterflies, might reveal other pathways that produce fearful or anxiety-like behaviors.

Understanding the link between heart and head could eventually factor into how doctors treat panic and anxiety, Beyeler says. But the path between the lab and the clinic, she notes, is much more convoluted than that of the heart to the head.