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In the 1980s, then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad launched his “Look East” policy, urging his country and others in Southeast Asia to emulate the state-led economic development models of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, rather than those of market-dominated Western nations. China subsequently emerged as a prime example of state-led development, but Japan is now leaning again towards a mor...
Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation will launch a large-scale railway exhibition at Hung Hom Station on May 16, featuring four retired trains and a new immersive train driving simulator. The rail giant said on Saturday that the exhibition, titled “Station Rail Voyage: Explorer”, would feature an expanded layout with a refreshed look. “The exhibition retains four iconic retired trains on display while intr...
Oral fish oil intake may not improve and could even speed up cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, a research team from China’s Army Medical University has found. Many older adults are accustomed to taking omega-3 supplements to help protect cognitive function. However, findings from the Chinese study challenge this view. The study was based on an analysis of more than 800 older adults in Nort...
Beijing is moving to make green electricity usage a key metric in the operation of new data centre projects, as part of a major push to align the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence with national carbon goals, according to an action plan released Friday. The policy document, jointly released by four bodies – the National Energy Administration, National Development and Reform Commission, Min...
A Chinese woman who accused a famous chain of milk tea shops of planting mercury in her drink was later found to be the target of poisoning by her boyfriend. The woman, surnamed Zhang, from central China’s Anhui province, initially complained online that a Chagee shop laced her drink with mercury granules. Zhang said her boyfriend bought the drink for her on April 27. The first few sips were fine,...
A Chinese woman who accused a famous chain of milk tea shops of planting mercury in her drink was later found to be the target of poisoning by her boyfriend. The woman, surnamed Zhang, from central China’s Anhui province, initially complained online that a Chagee shop laced her drink with mercury granules. Zhang said her boyfriend bought the drink for her on April 27. The first few sips were fine,...
Elon Musk has launched a tirade against French judicial authorities currently investigating possible abuses on his X social network. France opened an inquiry in January 2025 into allegations that X, formerly known as Twitter, was used to interfere in French politics. The investigation has since widened to cover allegations of Holocaust denial, distribution of sexual deepfakes and most recently pos...
The United States has sanctioned a total of nine mainland Chinese and Hong Kong companies and individuals accused of helping Iran’s military. The decision, which risks complicating Donald Trump’s visit to China next week, was announced on Friday by the Treasury and State departments. A Treasury Department press release said those targeted were “enabling efforts by Iran’s military to secure weapons...
Huaqiangbei, home to the world’s largest electronics marketplace in southern China’s tech hub Shenzhen, is reinventing itself as the world’s artificial intelligence showroom, drawing back foreign traders and tourists hunting for the latest gadgets. For first-time visitors like Abigail Slagveer from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the sheer scale of Huaqiangbei’s electronics market is overwhelming. “I ...
Vietnam has expanded its outposts in the South China Sea by hundreds of acres over the past year, according to a new report, as Hanoi and Beijing race to reinforce competing territorial claims through land reclamation. Vietnam has added about 534 acres (2.16 square km) of land in the Spratly Islands, bringing its total reclaimed area to roughly 2,771 acres (11.2 square km), according to the Washin...
TikTok owner ByteDance is ramping up its spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure, boosting its planned capital expenditure this year to more than 200 billion yuan (US$30 billion), according to two people familiar with the matter. This represented an increase of at least 25 per cent compared with a preliminary plan discussed late last year that proposed AI capex of 160 billion yuan, they...
South Korea is drawing growing interest from Middle Eastern oil producers seeking to store crude oil at the country’s petroleum reserve bases, the world’s sixth largest, amid a prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a South Korean official and an expert on the matter have said. The strait’s closure in the wake of the US-Israel war on Iran has taken a toll not only on South Korea and other nat...
The Philippines has crowned its newest Miss Universe candidate, Bea Millan-Windorski, with the country – known for its penchant for beauty pageants – preparing to send its latest representative to the global competition in November. The 23-year-old, who grew up in Wisconsin in the United States and is a history and international relations graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, stood out ...
The United States is shifting strategy to fund local African processing and mining infrastructure, after recognising it cannot yet process the critical minerals it is racing to secure from the continent to counter China. Tom Haslett, managing director of policy for critical minerals at the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), said that unlike China, which had “significant indust...
The US is shifting strategy to fund local African processing and mining infrastructure after recognising it cannot yet process the critical minerals it is racing to secure from the continent to counter China. Tom Haslett, managing director of policy for critical minerals at the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), said that unlike China, which had “significant industry backing f...
Malaysia is resorting to cloud seeding to bring much-needed rain to the country’s “rice bowl” north, where a drought has delayed planting of the staple crop and raised supply fears. “This year ... has been affected by prolonged dry weather, low rainfall and reduced dam water levels,” said Malaysia’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Mohamad Sabu. The conditions mean farmers have missed two...
Hong Kong has proved a brutal market for companies offering online bike sharing. The number of operators rose to a peak of seven in 2017 before falling to just two today: home-grown Locobike and mainland China’s Helloride. They are going head to head in several districts as they seek to overcome challenges in a city that has proven fatal for past players. Retired economist Thomas Yuen Wai-kee has ...
Over the past year, retired economist Thomas Yuen Wai-kee has used shared bikes operated by Locobike and Helloride a few times each month to go on leisure rides in Hong Kong. So far the 62-year-old, a former assistant economics professor with Hong Kong Shue Yan University, has enjoyed their services, saying the two dockless shared bike operators offer different experiences. “Locobike provides more...
It took less than six minutes for Japan’s Type 88 missile to find its mark, a decommissioned Philippine warship 75km (47 miles) off the coast of Ilocos Norte. The US-made Tomahawk took rather longer to hit its target, some 630km (390 miles) away. It was, analysts say, a pointed display of resolve: Japanese, American and Filipino troops bringing this year’s Balikatan joint exercises to a thunderous...
Rescuers on Saturday recovered the body of an Indonesian woman caught in a volcanic eruption at Mount Dukono on Indonesia’s remote island of Halmahera a day earlier, as search operations continued to find the bodies of two Singaporeans, officials said. The slain hikers were among 20 who set out to ascend the 1,355-metre (4,445-foot) volcano in defiance of safety restrictions and became stranded wh...
Indonesian authorities on Saturday located two Singaporeans who went missing after Mount Dukono erupted on the Pacific island of Halmahera, officials said, but it was unclear whether they were alive. “We have identified the coordinates of their locations. It’s around the crater rim,” said Iwan Ramdani, the head of Indonesia’s rescue agency. “This is on drone surveillance and is consistent with wi...
Indonesian authorities resumed their search on Saturday for three hikers missing after Mount Dukono erupted on the island of Halmahera, a rescue official said. At least 100 rescuers, military and police personnel, as well as two thermal drones, were deployed to find the two Singaporeans and one Indonesian, said Iwan Ramdani, the head of the local rescue agency. Survivors have told police that th...
China’s export sector showed strong resilience last month, with the total value of outbound shipments hitting a monthly record even as the Strait of Hormuz crisis during the US-Israeli war in Iran showed little sign of abating after driving up energy and shipping costs. The value of China’s exports rose in April by 14.1 per cent, year on year, to US$359.44 billion, according to data released by th...
China’s export sector showed strong resilience last month, with the total value of outbound shipments hitting a monthly record even as the Strait of Hormuz crisis showed little sign of abating after driving up energy and shipping costs. The value of China’s exports rose in April by 14.1 per cent, year on year, to US$359.44 billion, according to data released by the General Administration of Custom...
China’s export sector showed resilience last month, even as the Strait of Hormuz crisis showed little sign of abating after driving up energy and shipping costs. The value of China’s exports rose in April by 14.1 per cent, year on year, to US$359.44 billion, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs on Saturday. The reading was above the 6.96 per cent growth forecast comp...
Japan’s Mogami-class destroyer appears to be pulling ahead in the race to become the next generation of warships for the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN), in what would be another major deal for Japan’s defence industry just weeks after Tokyo announced it was lifting its long-held ban on weapons exports. Under its 2025 Defence Capability Plan, the government in Wellington has committed to replacing i...
Two Singapore residents who had been on board a hantavirus-hit cruise ship have tested negative to the rare respiratory disease, according to Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA). The two men aged 65 and 67 had been on the MV Hondius and also the same flight as a confirmed hantavirus case from St Helena to Johannesburg on April 25, the CDA said a day earlier. The confirmed case did not t...
You can perhaps judge the rise and decline of a society by the quality of its public intellectuals. In the last century, the United States had some genuinely great thinkers such as Walter Lippmann and Hannah Arendt who addressed a literate public while producing enduring works that can still be read today with great benefit. Now you have people like Francis Fukuyama and Sam Harris who may be studi...
Hong Kong schools have recorded net student rises for two consecutive years, with the current academic year seeing an increase of about 7,200 pupils, a surge that an industry leader has attributed to the influx of dependants of admitted talent. The Education Bureau published enrolment figures on its website on April 28. The data covers all government, aided, private, international and direct subsi...
In an extraordinary break from the diplomatic restraint typical of central banks, a dozen leaders of the world’s foremost monetary institutions issued a joint statement in January declaring their “full solidarity” with the US Federal Reserve and its embattled chair, Jerome Powell. “The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the ...
