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Hong Kong property tycoon Gordon Wu Ying-sheung has said he is “very optimistic about the future of China” due to its “stability” as he received the Game Changer Award from the Asia Society for his contributions to the country’s development. At a fireside chat on Thursday after receiving the award from the city leader, the 90-year-old founder and chairman of Hopewell Holdings said he has been bett...
North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un, condemned a G7 call for the country’s denuclearisation as a violation of its constitution and an infringement of sovereignty, state media KCNA said on Thursday. Kim said denuclearisation was an “irreversibly finalised agenda” that could never be realised, and that nuclear possession was North Korea’s core interest and an irrev...
A US$300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran has emerged as a flashpoint in a newly reached ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran, raising fresh questions over who will ultimately bear the cost. Outlined in a 14-point memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the United States and Iran after more than 100 days of conflict, the fund commits Washington to work with regional partners o...
A Vietnamese police operation rescued about 400 pet cats destined for the dinner plate, uncovering a nationwide racket fuelling the country’s rampant pet meat trade that uses a criminal corridor running from the south to the north. Hundreds of desperate cat owners rushed to a Ho Chi Minh police headquarters over the weekend to see if their lost pet was among the cats rescued from traffickers by po...
Trials are under way in China to roll out autonomous navigation and other smart shipping solutions to slash logistics costs ahead of the opening of the landmark Pinglu Canal, which will link its landlocked southwestern regions to Southeast Asia to spur trade and connectivity. Intelligent barges and other vessels have been tested on the artificial waterway in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region si...
The British ambassador to China has paid a rare visit to a Chinese communist heartland where President Xi Jinping performed hard labour as a young man. Ambassador Peter Wilson on Wednesday visited Yanan in the northwestern Chinese province of Shaanxi along with Lu Kang, vice-minister of the Communist Party’s International Department, the department said. State newspaper China Daily said Wilson mad...
US President Donald Trump lashed out at critics of his agreement with Iran on Thursday, calling those who accused him of offering concessions to end the war “fools”, ahead of negotiations in Switzerland on implementing the deal. Oil prices tumbled after Trump and his Iranian counterpart separately signed their accord to end the Middle East war, with the Strait of Hormuz to reopen but two months of...
Two men linked to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London found guilty of spying on activists were sentenced to up to 10 years in jail on Thursday. Bill Yuen Chung-biu, 65, an administrative manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO), was sentenced to eight years in prison for assisting a foreign intelligence service at the Old Bailey. Co-defendant Peter Wai Chi-leung, 40...
A Thai police officer who tried to flee after shooting his wife and her mother with his service weapon outside a gym was chased down and detained by two fitness trainers. Responding to reports of gunshots, officers from Nang Rong Police Station arrived at the two-storey fitness centre owned by the shooter’s wife behind Sra Ya Ma Market in Buriram province on Wednesday afternoon, according to the T...
A sharp sell-off in Indonesian assets has taken on a political tone online, with some social media users alleging, without evidence, that Singapore stands to gain from a “Sell Indonesia” narrative around Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. The rupiah has slipped to multiple record lows and weakened about 8 per cent this year, crossing a key level and trading above 18,000 to the US dollar last week, ...
The deal between the US and Iran aims to halt the war and energy disruptions that have rattled the global economy, but observers warn the agreement is built on ground too shaky to guarantee a lasting peace. US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian electronically signed a long-anticipated memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Wednesday to end the US-Israel war on Iran....
Israel’s foreign minister said on Thursday that he was severing all contact with the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas over reported remarks in which she allegedly compared Israel to the apartheid regime that once ruled South Africa. Diplomatic relations between Israel and the EU have come under heavy strain since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023, as well as over violence by Israeli se...
Towngas customers are facing higher bills as Hong Kong’s largest piped-gas provider will raise tariffs by 4.4 per cent in August, citing higher operating costs, while pledging no further changes over the next two years. The Hong Kong and China Gas Company (Towngas) said on Thursday that the tariff increase would result in about half of its commercial and industrial customers paying no more than HK...
Chinese state media and influencers have pushed back on criticism of hit indie movie Dear You, which has been described as a tool to expand Beijing’s influence over the Chinese diaspora. The Chinese media’s counterpunch this week came in the countdown to the movie’s release in Singapore and other Southeast Asian markets on Thursday. The film, which is in the Teochew dialect of Chinese, depicts a y...
More than 90 per cent of mainland Chinese families moving to Hong Kong under the city’s talent visa schemes have cited their children’s education as the primary reason for relocating, according to a survey. The survey by Beacon Group, one of the city’s largest tutoring and college admissions consultancies, was published on Thursday and showed that nearly 80 per cent of the respondents chose to mov...
Doctors in southern China had to remove two 10cm-long living worms from the arm of an anguished woman after she reported a big lump. The woman, surnamed Wang, said the lump, which first appeared on her arm a year ago, got bigger and bigger. Eventually, it ballooned to the size of a quail egg. Wang said the sharp pain from the swollen mass prompted her to seek medical treatment at Shenzhen People’s...
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at Nato allies on Thursday, announcing a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe whose outcome will depend on how fast the Europeans take responsibility for their own security. “This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that Nato is moving fast and irreversibly towards Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibi...
Hong Kong’s Housing Authority will roll out two schemes in September to promote more efficient use of subsidised homes by allowing owners to lease properties without paying a premium and encouraging elderly owners to swap properties for a smaller or remote flat. The two initiatives received the green light from the subsidised housing committee of the Housing Authority, the city’s major public hous...
Hong Kong’s Housing Authority will roll out two schemes in September to promote the effective use of subsidised homes by allowing owners to lease properties without paying a premium and encouraging elderly owners to swap properties for a smaller or remote flat. The two initiatives received a green light from the subsidised housing committee of the city’s major public housing provider, the Housing ...
The mother of a 16-year-old girl who died from emaciation following lengthy detention and menacing interrogations by Japanese authorities is seeking compensation, in the latest “hostage justice” case. The lawsuit, filed with western Japan’s Kobe district court on Wednesday, argues that the girl’s 18-day ordeal at a jail traumatised her so much that five months after her release, she weighed just 2...
Hong Kong will no longer define poverty based solely on economic factors, the government has said, prompting calls from experts for multiple measurements to be adopted, arguing the new strategy makes it harder to objectively assess the city’s overall situation. The government said on Thursday it had adopted a new 21-indicator framework in its efforts to help targeted needy groups. It said the prev...
Hong Kong will measure the size of its poor using a new 21-indicator framework, abandoning the previous income-based metric said to have overestimated the number of underprivileged people by ignoring billions of dollars spent on public housing and healthcare. In a 224-page report released on Thursday, the government also raised the concept of “social transfer values” for the first time, referring ...
Taiwanese value showing goodwill to the mainland more than deepening cooperation with the United States, according to a survey conducted soon after US President Donald Trump visited Beijing last month. The survey, published by the government-funded Institute for National Defence and Security Research in Taipei on Tuesday, polled 1,127 Taiwanese residents from May 28 to 31. Asked about the most imp...
A Hong Kong court has jailed a man for 14 years for his role in an “evil” bomb plot against the authorities during and after the 2019 anti-government protests. The High Court on Thursday convicted Cheung Lai-ming of four charges after he pleaded guilty to making explosives at his public rental flat in Wong Tai Sin, with a view to carrying out attacks between August 2019 and May 2022. The 35-year-o...
As Chinese technology giant ByteDance accelerates its shift towards domestic chips for artificial intelligence workloads, a few smaller domestic suppliers stand to benefit – if they can deliver at scale amid a void left by Nvidia due to regulatory hurdles. The Beijing-based owner of TikTok is considering turning to a handful of so-called tier-two chipmakers in China – smaller rivals to Huawei Tech...
Following is an edited transcript of a conversation between John Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and South China Morning Post Executive Editor Zuraidah Ibrahim at the SCMP Plus exclusive: meet John Mearsheimer in person event on June 17 in Hong Kong. It was generated using Tongyi Tingwu, an AI-powered audio and vid...
Following is an edited transcript of a conversation between John Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and South China Morning Post Executive Editor Zuraidah Ibrahim at the SCMP Plus exclusive: meet John Mearsheimer in person event on June 17 in Hong Kong. It was generated using Tongyi Tingwu, an AI-powered audio and vid...
Malaysian police have deported two nationals from India wanted over an explosion on a railway line in Punjab, in a case Indian media have linked to an alleged militant plot tied to the Khalistan separatist movement seeking an independent Sikh homeland. The Royal Malaysia Police said the duo were sent back to India on Wednesday after Indian authorities requested help locating and arresting them. M....
Hong Kong has ranked as the second-most globally competitive economy – its best performance in seven years – climbing one spot from last year to place behind Singapore. The ranking, released by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) on Thursday, put the city ahead of 68 other economies out of 70 surveyed. Hong Kong’s position was surpassed only by Singapore,...
We have selected five Lifestyle stories from the past seven days that resonated with our readers. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. The TCM influencers demystifying ancient Chinese healing practices for Gen Z The rise of “Chinamaxxing” and a growing appetite for cupping reels and the like has launched traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) content into the...
