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A US artificial intelligence start-up backed by OpenAI has built its first in-house model on Chinese lab Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, highlighting a growing shift by Western tech firms towards Chinese open-weight systems amid soaring development costs. San Francisco-based legal tech provider Harvey, whose high-profile backers also include Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, said on Thursday that it...
Midway through a three-month negotiating period with Beijing, new data show the trade balances of 24 European Union member states are still moving in what Brussels considers to be the wrong direction. China extended its trade surplus over all but three EU members in July compared to a year earlier, calculations based on new Chinese customs figures showed. In some instances, the monthly swing was d...
Midway through a three-month negotiating period with Beijing, new data show the trade balances of 24 European Union member states are still moving in what Brussels considers to be the wrong direction. China extended its trade surplus over all but three EU members in July compared to a year earlier, calculations based on new Chinese customs figures showed. In some instances, the monthly swing was d...
Prince Harry and other high-profile claimants must make an interim payment of £9.54 million (US$13 million) towards the legal costs of the Daily Mail publisher after losing their privacy lawsuits, London’s High Court ruled on Friday. Last month, judge Matthew Nicklin comprehensively rejected the case brought by King Charles’ younger son, singer Elton John and five other figures, rejecting alleg...
China’s three state-owned telecoms giants have made billable artificial intelligence tokens a key focus of their growth strategies, as AI adoption accelerates across the country and computing demand soars. China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom all pointed to AI and computing operations as key growth drivers in their first-half financial disclosures released this month, presenting usage of t...
A pair of landmark rocket recoveries in recent weeks has brought China a step closer to mastering reusable launch technology – a breakthrough analysts said could give the People’s Liberation Army an advantage in combat by increasing the resilience of its satellite-supported “kill chain”, the process of identifying, tracking and engaging a target. In a first for China, commercial rocket company Lan...
Hong Kong authorities will cap access to a popular Sai Kung trail overlooking hexagonal rock columns at 2,000 people per day during several stretches from next month and require real-name registration for visitors, marking the city’s first countryside crowd control measures of its kind. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department announced the arrangement on Friday for the Po Pin Chau s...
Smuggled cockroaches, frozen domestic rats and mealworms were among a haul of pests seized at a border checkpoint in Hong Kong, with a local driver arrested, authorities said on Friday. The Customs and Excise Department said officers intercepted the 118kg (260lbs) shipment – which also contained moth larvae and fruit flies mixed with declared goods – inside a goods vehicle at the Man Kam To contro...
The centenary of Jiang Zemin’s birth, marked on August 17 with a memorial in Beijing attended and addressed by President Xi Jinping, was more than an occasion to commemorate a former Chinese leader. It was also an exercise in political history: a moment to locate Jiang, the era he led and the reform legacy associated with him within the broader story of the Communist Party of China’s evolution and...
A man was sentenced to nine years and 10 months’ jail, and eight strokes of the cane on Friday for abusing multiple young boys who were under his care. The man beat his youngest victim – a six-year-old boy – with a hanger more than 600 times, forced him to hold a push-up position for hours, and made him sleep in the toilet and drink his own urine. The boy suffered severe injuries as a result, incl...
India’s long-delayed plan to build six advanced conventional submarines with Germany has moved closer to final approval, a deal analysts say could test the depth of New Delhi’s “Make in India” defence ambitions while helping it respond to growing undersea pressure from Pakistan and China. The US$7.3 billion deal would involve building submarines for the Indian navy with Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Mari...
Singapore’s latest package of tax breaks and visa incentives for fund managers could enhance its appeal as a leading asset management hub, as competition with Hong Kong intensifies for global capital and high-value financial talent, analysts have said. While the measures would help maintain Singapore’s competitiveness, they are unlikely to create a significant or lasting advantage over Hong Kong, ...
President Donald Trump announced on Friday the United States would allow tariff-free imports of up to 300,000 tonnes of ground beef over the next 90 days, in a bid to lower prices for American consumers with elections looming. “As we work to rebuild this herd and help our ranchers, for the next 90 days, the United States will allow up to 300,000 metric tonnes of product for ground beef to be impor...
China and Indonesia’s recent joint naval exercise east of Taiwan has prompted speculation that other Southeast Asian countries may follow suit. Last Wednesday’s drill – which one observer said may “lower the political threshold” for neighbouring countries – was followed by a meeting of the two countries’ foreign and defence ministers on Friday, where they discussed further military cooperation and...
An associate professor at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has been charged by the corruption watchdog for allegedly receiving HK$2.2 million (US$280,500) in bribes in return for awarding seven procurement contracts for information technology education services to a vendor. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Friday that it had prosecuted Gary Wong Ka-wai, 45, of the univ...
Australian police charged a man with foreign interference on Friday for allegedly seeking to pass intelligence about Ukrainian military activities to Russia. The 27-year-old Russian-Australian citizen underwent “military-style” training in Russia and later joined the Ukrainian armed forces, Australian federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett told a news conference. Police allege he travelled to ...
A team of researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has conducted the city’s first robot-assisted pelvic fracture surgery in what promises to be a safer, less intrusive alternative to a procedure typically considered among the most challenging. CUHK’s faculty of medicine on Friday said the novel orthopaedic robotic surgical system could turn a “new page” in trauma care amid a ris...
Public anger has surged on mainland social media after authorities declined to classify the death of a programmer in his company’s toilet as work-related. According to Jiupai News, Xing Zhi, a 39-year-old programmer from Shenzhen and father of two, died in his company’s toilet in April. After clocking in that morning, Xing went directly to a second-floor toilet instead of his 11th-floor desk and n...
Ping An Insurance (Group), China’s largest insurer in terms of market capitalisation, is eyeing investments in Hong Kong-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to boost returns following Beijing’s green light for cross-border allocations, according to senior executives. “Allowing mainland insurance funds to invest in Hong Kong listed ETFs is set to tighten the ties between Hong Kong and the mainland ...
On August 11, a tiny line buried in a lengthy press release from French company Mistral AI spoke volumes about the strategic and technological dilemmas facing the European Union, as the bloc prepares to navigate an autumn period full of geopolitical and trade upheaval. In a bid to roll out “European infrastructure for sovereign AI”, Mistral – Europe’s great hope in the global artificial intelligen...
Even when fully mobilised, China’s industrial system would only be able to meet 60 per cent of the country’s military demand for drones in a conflict, according to a rare study looking into the expected effects of a sudden war. The estimates were produced by an artificial intelligence model that covered a multilevel supply chain linking drone assembly plants with subsystem and component suppliers....
Humanoid robots, 3D printers and artificial intelligence (AI) hubs are among the latest technologies showcased at Hong Kong’s annual electronics and technology exhibition, as the city’s finance chief encourages residents to learn how to use them. At the opening of the four-day event on Friday, hundreds of visitors crowded the 22nd Hong Kong Computer Communication Festival at the Convention and Exh...
The British headquarters and Hong Kong distributor of beauty product company Opatra London have suspended local operations after allegations of aggressive sales tactics triggered the arrest of local senior staff and a raid on a corporate secretarial office in Sheung Wan. In a statement issued on Friday, Opatra London continued to distance itself from the local distributor, which it said owned and ...
Transboundary haze has again disrupted daily life on Malaysian Borneo, forcing nearly 600 schools in Sarawak to shut on Friday as air pollution in parts of the state reached “very unhealthy” levels. The closures affecting almost 200,000 pupils were the latest disruptions caused by Southeast Asia’s persistent haze problem, which flares during dry spells when forest and peatland fires – often linked...
Japan is preparing to spend more than ever on defence as analysts say Tokyo is being forced to respond to a convergence of regional threats, fast-changing military technology and growing uncertainty over the reliability of the US security umbrella. The defence ministry is preparing to request a record budget of 8.9 trillion yen (US$56.1 billion) for the 2027 financial year, with major outlays plan...
Note: SCMP Plus subscribers can attend an exclusive event with Zhou Bo, a retired People’s Liberation Army senior colonel, in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Zhou will discuss China’s military modernisation as the PLA works towards its 2027 centenary goal. SCMP Editor-in-Chief Chow Chung-yan will host the fireside chat. Zhou is now a senior fellow at Tsinghua University. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi so...
Nissin Foods, the company that invented instant noodles, appears to have created an entirely new category with a hit product: cup noodles made with cold water. Initial supplies of the handy meal – available in Spicy Kimchi and Chicken Salt Lemon flavours – sold out a week after hitting store shelves on July 20, according to Nissin. While the Tokyo-based company did not disclose sales figures, it h...
The official death toll from Typhoon Maysak’s devastating floods in southern China jumped from 39 to 159 on Friday, as authorities updated the figures for the first time in six weeks. According to media briefings held in Nanning and Guigang in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, 10 people remained missing and the disaster affected more than 1.65 million people, state news agency Xinhua reported. The...
Carolus Winfridus was asleep when an earthquake struck off Indonesia’s island of Flores, as he was awoken by intense rumbling and saw his wardrobe doors flying open. He and his family quickly scrambled for a way out of their house in the town of Maumere, Sikka Regency, one of nine regencies hit by Saturday’s devastating 7.7-magnitude quake that killed almost 80 people and displaced nearly 100,000....
A Chinese historian has presented fresh research on China-based Korean independence leader Sin Kyu-sik at a symposium in Seoul co-hosted by Gwangbokhoe, the official association for those who fought against Japan’s occupation. The academic exchange, which was backed by South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, underscored how a shared legacy of anti-Japanese resistance continues to ...
