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If South Korea and Japan sign a military logistics support agreement, their ties with the US would deepen as they act in concert to deter China and North Korea, analysts said. However, they noted that several “hurdles” must be cleared before the deal could be sealed, including domestic opposition in South Korea to expanding security ties with Japan due to concerns it could sour relations with Chin...
Alibaba Group Holding chief technology officer (CTO) Wu Zeming has joined the company’s elite steering committee, joining co-founders Jack Ma and Joe Tsai in playing a central role in formulating the tech empire’s strategy. According to Alibaba’s website, the other members of the committee of the Alibaba Partnership are group CEO Eddie Wu Yongming and Jiang Fan, CEO of the e-commerce business unit...
The wide-ranging geopolitical rivalry between Beijing and Washington could soon expand into biotechnology, raising the prospect of fresh tensions even as American pharmaceutical firms have turned to China’s fast-growing industry for new drug candidates. Biotech in the world’s second-largest economy has long been viewed as a predominantly low-cost manufacturing base with opportunities arising from ...
Two Hong Kong media organisations have joined forces with one of Kazakhstan’s largest state-owned conglomerates to strengthen collaboration in journalism and information exchange. The South China Morning Post also signed a partnership with Kazakhstan’s special financial zone to boost ties between Central Asia, Hong Kong and mainland China. The agreements are among 13 memorandums of understanding (...
Two Hongkongers have been found guilty of murdering a man after a financial dispute and then blackmailing his wife for a HK$3.6 million (US$459,331) ransom for his “release” even though he was already dead. A High Court jury on Tuesday also found that the defendants – Chan Wah-hing, 67, and Chan Yiu-lung, 33 – disposed of the victim’s body in grass near Ping Yeung Village before sealing the site w...
Indonesia’s deepening ties with France have given President Prabowo Subianto a chance to advance Jakarta’s defence modernisation, strengthen relations with Europe and expand its international footprint. But analysts say the Paris visit has also fuelled a debate at home on whether deals and diplomatic goodwill arising from Prabowo’s frequent foreign trips can translate into benefits for ordinary In...
A Kenyan court blocked on Tuesday for another three weeks a proposed US Ebola quarantine facility that has triggered protests killing two people and ordered the government to disclose its agreement with Washington. The proposed 50-bed unit on an air force base in central Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus in Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda has angered many Kenyans. They accuse the US...
Australian beef will soon be subject to an additional 55 per cent import duty in China, with shipments of the meat about to surpass an annual quota set by Beijing, China’s Ministry of Commerce confirmed on Tuesday. Imports of Australian beef have already reached 90 per cent of this year’s quota, meaning that a tariff adjustment will soon be triggered, the ministry announced via an alert. Until rec...
China’s leading cartographic scientist Zhou Chenghu – the former deputy director of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) – is under investigation for corruption, the country’s top watchdog has confirmed. Zhou was under investigation by central and local anti-corruption bodies for “suspected serious violations of duty”, the ...
China’s leading cartographic scientist Zhou Chenghu – the former deputy director of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) – has been detained by anti-corruption authorities. According to a notice posted on Monday by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), China’s top internal disciplinary and supervisory bod...
A young man in rural China has gained tens of thousands of online followers in two weeks by impersonating Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Yang Yang, 28, who lives in a village in Dandong in northeastern Liaoning province, has gone viral on social media for his videos showing him imitating the artificial intelligence (AI) titan. He released the clips using an account called @huangyinxun, which is how Huan...
Cambodia said on Tuesday it had launched a compulsory conciliation process under international law aimed at resolving a long-running maritime boundary dispute with Thailand and had informed the United Nations and Bangkok. The move follows a Thai government decision last month to unilaterally terminate a 2001 agreement with Cambodia that provided a framework for negotiations over the disputed area...
For decades, Umno was the party that defined power in Malaysia. Now, after years of scandal, defeat and uneasy coalition politics, it is turning to its birthplace of Johor to prove it can still win on its own terms. The southern state’s snap election will test whether the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) can still attract Malay voters, defend its strongest remaining state government and ...
For decades, Umno was the party that defined power in Malaysia. Now, after years of scandal, defeat and uneasy coalition politics, it is turning to its birthplace of Johor to prove it can still win on its own terms. The southern state’s snap election will test whether the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) can still attract Malay voters, defend its strongest remaining state government and ...
Chinese authorities have praised the return of Tianya – which was one of the country’s most popular internet forums in the pre-algorithm, pre-short-video era – while cautioning that freedom of speech must be balanced with responsibility. The pioneering web portal was launched by Tianya Community Network Technology Co. in 1999, when the internet was in its infancy in China, but suddenly closed in A...
Hong Kong Legislative Council president Starry Lee Wai-king has urged officials to respect lawmakers’ dissenting views amid a recent rise in government pushback, stressing that public policies “always have pros and cons”. Speaking at a media gathering on Tuesday, Lee said she had relayed lawmakers’ concerns to the government regarding officials’ recent rebuttals. She described the relationship bet...
Hong Kong’s retail sales rose by 8.6 per cent year on year in April, extending the upturn for a 12th consecutive month, although industry leaders warned that a broad-based recovery had yet to take hold, with gains driven by specific factors rather than a general rebound in consumer spending. Provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Tuesday showed retail sales reached...
Hong Kong’s retail sales rose by 8.6 per cent year on year in April, extending the sector’s recovery for a 12th consecutive month, supported by continued growth in visitor arrivals and holiday spending. Provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Wednesday showed retail sales reached HK$31.4 billion (US$4 billion) in April, compared with HK$28.9 billion a year earlier. ...
The surge of interest in Chinese humanoid robotics has raised a practical question for investors, corporate strategists and supply chain executives: who makes the parts? Reduction gears. Torque sensors. Precision bearings. Industrial software. The further one traces the supply chain, the more often the answer leads to companies that are not household names or well understood by foreign investors. ...
The arrest of Philippine Senator Jinggoy Estrada has deepened a stand-off in the Senate, leaving the chamber split between two 11-member blocs and raising the risk of a wider political crisis, analysts told This Week in Asia. They warned the stalemate could stall legislation, delay military appointments and complicate Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio’s impeachment trial, leaving the Senate’s bas...
A renowned artificial intelligence researcher who spearheaded foundational AI research for TikTok owner ByteDance has announced his departure from the company. The unexpected development comes as the firm is increasingly looking to monetise its core AI offerings, including subscription plans for its flagship consumer AI app Doubao. Gu Quanquan, also an associate professor of computer science at th...
A prominent Hong Kong basketball coach has apologised after a viral video showed him forcing a pupil to slap himself in front of others in a school playground circulated online. The clip – involving basketball veteran Yung Kam-wah – also sparked concern from a child protection group, which warned that such acts could cause physical injury and emotional harm. In the video circulating on social medi...
A viral video showing a basketball coach forcing a pupil to slap himself in front of others at a Hong Kong school has sparked concern from a child protection group, which warns the act could cause physical injury and emotional harm. In a video circulating on social media platform Threads on Tuesday, three men in white T-shirts are seen standing around a boy on a school playground in broad daylight...
Malaysia has urged Norway to help expedite a refund for the cancelled missile procurement deal, with Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin insisting that Oslo cannot absolve itself of responsibility. Khaled said he had recently met Norway’s defence minister and conveyed Malaysia’s position that the Norwegian government’s refusal to approve an export licence was the cause of the issue. “The source...
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s net satisfaction rating has hit an all-time low, with observers citing deep-seated economic anxieties as the main driver behind the slump – even as expanded media exposure has helped boost awareness of his foreign policy initiatives. The latest Social Weather Stations survey put Marcos’ net satisfaction rating at minus 15 in March: a 12-point drop from m...
Social welfare authorities have applied for a protection order for a baby without documentation after police arrested his parents who continue to refuse a DNA test for the boy’s registration on privacy grounds. The couple were detained on Tuesday following an intervention by the city’s welfare minister, who said authorities only received an email reply from them on Monday evening after five days o...
Hong Kong police have arrested the parents of a baby without a legal identity after they continued to refuse a DNA test for the boy’s birth registration on privacy grounds. The couple were detained on Tuesday following an intervention by the city’s welfare minister, who said authorities only received an email reply from them on Monday evening after five days of unsuccessful attempts to contact the...
Hong Kong authorities have arrested the parents of a baby without legal identity after they continued to refuse a DNA test for the infant’s birth registration on privacy grounds. The arrest followed an intervention by the city’s welfare minister on Tuesday, who said authorities had received an email reply from the couple only on Monday evening after five days of unsuccessful attempts to contact th...
The parents of a Hong Kong baby without legal identity have insisted on not providing DNA proof for birth registration on privacy grounds, with the city’s welfare minister saying authorities would “strive to meet” the family after finally receiving an email reply from them. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han on Tuesday said that the Social Welfare Department had finally received a ...
The parents of a Hong Kong baby without legal identity have insisted on not providing DNA proof for birth registration on privacy grounds, with the city’s welfare minister saying authorities would “strive to meet” the family after finally receiving an email reply from them. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han on Tuesday said that the Social Welfare Department had finally received a ...
