China Obesity Conference Sets Central Obesity Criteria; China Southern Flight Hit by Lightning
At the 2026 China Obesity Conference in Beijing, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention presented global obesity data and defined central obesity for Chinese adults as a waist circumference of at least 80 centimeters for women and 90 centimeters for men, based on the 2005 International Diabetes Federation criteria. Separately, a China Southern Airlines flight from Shenzhen to Wuxi was struck by lightning while taxiing on August 9, leaving more than 20 strike marks on the fuselage; no injuries occurred and the flight continued normally.
Global adult overweight and obesity numbers have exceeded 2.1 billion, with China accounting for nearly 20 percent of the total. At the 2026 China Obesity Conference held in Beijing on August 8-9, Lai Jianqiang, a researcher at the Chronic Disease and Elderly Health Management Division of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, presented the relevant data. Based on the global consensus definition of metabolic syndrome proposed by the International Diabetes Federation in 2005, the Chinese standard for central obesity is a waist circumference of 80 centimeters or more for women and 90 centimeters or more for men. This standard is one of the widely used diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome.