Customers flock to Daoxiangcun to pick up cakes selected by the president during lunar new year tour around city

A Beijing pastry shop visited by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on a lunar new year tour this week has been swarmed by customers hoping to get their hands on Xi-approved sweet treats.

Traffic was brought to a standstill in Beijing’s capital as the president took a tour around the city on Monday and Tuesday.

Army in turmoil after Xi Jinping placed top general under investigation for suspected corruption last month

The CIA (the US’s Central Intelligence Agency) has published a Mandarin-language recruitment video aimed at Chinese soldiers, in an apparent attempt to capitalise on the recent instability in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) after a series of high-level purges.

The video, published on the CIA’s YouTube channel on Thursday, is titled The Reason for Stepping Forward: To Save the Future.