China’s Defense Ministry released a new video in a bid to showcase the country’s rising military capabilities two weeks ahead of the 90th birthday of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The video, named “PLA Today,” is China’s latest bid to show the world how far its military capacity has increased since its inception nine decades ago, and also how far it would go to preserve the country’s hard-won peace and order.

The 16-minute English-language video, with Chinese subtitles, displayed a host of unmanned “smart” military vehicles, reconnaissance robots and drones, followed by footage of live-fire drills in the South China Sea and the East China Sea in July last year.

The video also sought to reaffirm the PLA’s commitment to “safeguarding world peace and regional security,” by highlighting its efforts in conducting UN peacekeeping tasks and escort missions around the Gulf of Aden, with footage of crew members from foreign ships saying “Thank you China” after being rescued by Chinese forces.

“Peace is a core value of the Chinese civilization,” the video said, “China pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature.”

The video has aroused patriotism online.

Beijing police have detained 63 members of Shanxinhui, a company suspected of organizing and leading a pyramid scheme, who gathered in the city on Monday.

The suspects were held in police custody for allegedly “impairing the administration of social order,” police said Wednesday.

Another four people were put under non-criminal detention for “disrupting order in public places,” according to police.

Some suspects who “took the lead in creating trouble and refusing to listen to police orders” have been taken away for further investigation.

An earlier police statement said “some members of Shanxinhui were incited by those with ulterior motives to illegally gather in Beijing, seriously disturbing the capital’s social order.”

The gathering allegedly broke laws and rules, it said.

Chinese police have previously investigated Shanxinhui for allegedly manipulating people into taking part in pyramid selling and cheating them out of huge amounts of property under the guise of helping the poor.

Police in east China’s Zhejiang Province have detained 18 suspects in connection to activities of the “Almighty God” cult.

Police in Changxing County caught the suspected cult members following an investigation. Police also confiscated laptops and books used by the cult for dissemination of information.

“Almighty God,” known in Chinese as Quannengshen, grabbed national headlines in 2014 with viral videos showing five of its members beating a woman to death at a McDonald’s in the eastern city of Zhaoyuan, condemning her as an “evil spirit” after she refused to give them her mobile phone number for recruitment purposes.

First appearing in the 1990s in central China’s Henan Province, Quannengshen claims that Jesus has been resurrected as Yang Xiangbin, who is the wife of the cult’s founder Zhao Weishan, also known as Xu Wenshan. The couple fled to the United States in September 2000.

According to Dong Jianfeng, a police officer from Changxing County, most of the apprehended suspects showed signs of depression.

“Some of them are divorced and do not seem to know how to vent their suppressed emotions,” Dong said. “Some of their families have experienced bad accidents and caused them to become depressed.”

According to initial investigations, the cult’s financial sources mainly came from “donations” from its members. The higher the donation, the more rights a member obtained. More donations allowed members access to higher positions within the cult, according to police.

“Every member was willing to donate their money, and the amounts ranged from 10,000 yuan (1,481 U.S. dollars) to tens of thousands of yuan,” Dong said.

“The cult’s ‘leaders’ imposed spiritual control over the members,” Dong said. “They were told that as long as they gave donations, the Almighty God would keep their illness at bay.”

Of the detained suspects, eight have been “re-educated” and denounced their cult beliefs, police said.

China will select its third group of astronauts this year, Yang Liwei, deputy director of China Manned Space Engineering Office said Wednesday.

The first and second astronaut groups were all previously airforce pilots. However, the selection of the third group will also include engineers who will be responsible for maintenance, assembly and other tasks, Yang, China’s first astronaut, said at the opening ceremony of the country’s inaugural astronaut photography exhibition.

Photos taken by astronauts from different periods reflect the development of China’s space exploration, he said.

“When I was on the spacecraft, I took photos through two windows. Astronauts on the Tiangong space lab had more perspectives for photography. They had a better working environment and living space than before,” he said.

Looking at the Earth from space is different with looking out from an airplane, Yang said. “The higher you are, the larger your angle of view is. The Earth seen from space is sphere-shaped, and mountains and rivers also look different.”

“As Chinese, we are so proud when we look at the Earth,” he said, reminiscing about viewing the motherland from space.

Yang hopes the exhibition will cultivate an increased interest in space among the general public. “Space exploration is a massive project which needs the support of more people, especially youth,” said Yang.

Chinese medical experts have developed Z2, an antiviral peptide that can kill the Zika virus.

The achievement was published in the international journal Nature Communications on July 26 and has aroused wide attention in the global medical field, China News reported.

The World Health Organization warned about the Zika virus after 2007 outbreak, calling it a public health emergency of international concern. More than 80 countries have reported infection cases by March 2017.

The new drug has been show to kill the Zika virus in rats and can prevent pregnant rats from passing on the virus. It was developed by Lu Lu and Jiang Shibo’s research team at the School of Basic Medical Sciences at Fudan University and by research teams at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center as well as the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology under the Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

Jiang said there is currently no vaccine or drug that can effectively prevent infection. But the Z2 peptide can combine with surface proteins of the virus to make it inactive.

Jiang added that the peptide is able to penetrate the placental barrier. This not only lowered the infection rate of the pregnant rat but also that of the fetus, stopping vertical transmission.

Experts said that the polypeptide inactivating agent could become a new drug for preventing the virus, as it is also safe for high risk groups, including the pregnant.