Each of China’s five-year plans charting the country's development path goes through many hoops before being finalised. The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) is no different and will see several more iterations before it is discussed and launched at the National People’s Congress in March next year. Yu Zeyuan reveals the complicated and extensive process.

With Trump testing positive for the coronavirus, reactions in China range from schadenfreude among the internet community, to more dignified responses from the Chinese authorities. Zaobao correspondent Yu Zeyuan scans sentiments in China and thinks about possible implications for the upcoming US presidential election and the future of US-China relations.

Both Taiwan and mainland China have indicated that they would not fire the first shot and would only do so if provoked. Yet signs are increasing that both sides could be stumbling into war. Most recently, the PLA sent its jets over the median line of the Taiwan Strait over three days. Seth Cropsey, director of the Center for American Seapower at Hudson Institute, even offered a date for mainland China to strike. Zaobao correspondent Yu Zeyuan takes a closer look at this quagmire.

With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announcing his resignation due to health reasons, it is difficult to say what China-Japan relations will be like in the post-Abe era under a new prime minister. But Zaobao correspondent Yu Zeyuan says one thing is clear: the outlook is not positive.

Zaobao correspondent Yu Zeyuan notes the seeming aggressiveness of the PLA’s large-scale military exercises in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, but says that the intention is in fact to prevent combat rather than to initiate it.

Lai Xiaomin, former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management, was recently charged with taking bribes worth over 1.78 billion RMB. Corruption cases have been dealt with harshly in the past, but not in the case of a deputy minister-level official taking bribes of such a large magnitude. Will Lai be made an example of as a signal to other "pests” who are waiting to crawl out of the woodwork?

With China-US relations on a downward spiral and the US gearing up for battle in the South China Sea, China’s military academics say that China should stand ready to defend attacks on its reefs in the South China Sea.

Close to 20 million people across 26 provinces and cities in the areas spanning China’s southwestern region to the midstream and downstream areas of the Yangtze River have been displaced due to severe flooding over the past few weeks. The Three Gorges Dam has long been held up as a bulwark against such massive floods in the area, but recent signs that it is literally buckling under the pressure cast doubts on its ability to be an effective flood control mechanism.

For the first time in over four decades, a China-India skirmish in the disputed Himalayan border region at Galwan Valley has resulted in fatalities, and quite a number at that. Diplomatic efforts are going into overdrive, but a series of suspicions and misperceptions on both sides may see the China-India border conflict escalating even higher. China is already flexing its muscles with military exercises in Tibet. When push comes to shove, who will blink first?