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US President Donald Trump’s long-standing obsession with sea power was underscored by his pledge to rebuild the US Navy into what he called a “Golden Fleet” as he returned to the White House. His financial year 2027 budget released on April 3 puts a price tag on the ambition: US$65.8 billion for 34 warships, including initial funding for a next-generation battleship he wants to name after himself,...
The number of Hong Kong secondary school leavers pursuing higher studies outside the city fell to a 14-year low in 2025, with an expert attributing the trend to a surge in mainland Chinese students targeting local universities. Only 2,671 students, or 6.5 per cent of 40,948 Form Six graduates pursuing full-time courses, chose to study outside Hong Kong last year, a survey by the Education Bureau s...
A former director of Hong Kong’s Economic and Trade Offices (ETO) in Jakarta and Bangkok is standing in the United Kingdom local elections for the right-wing Reform UK party. Lee Sheung-yuen left government in 2023 after serving as the first director of the Bangkok ETO and concurrently served as director general of its Jakarta office. He is now contesting a seat on Ealing Council in London. He als...
Buyers of illicit fuel in Hong Kong could face a maximum penalty of HK$1 million (US$127,687) and one year in prison under proposed legal amendments aimed at curbing illegal refuelling amid surging global oil prices, the South China Morning Post has learned. According to a government source, the Security Bureau has also proposed tougher penalties for sellers, increasing the maximum fine for a firs...
Myanmar’s new military-backed government wants to hold peace talks with opposition armed groups by the end of July, the country’s junta leader-turned-president said, but two key rebel groups rejected the offer on Tuesday. State media reported that President Min Aung Hlaing, who led a coup five years ago that plunged the Southeast Asian country into a civil war that continues to rage, told a go...
Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te was forced to postpone a visit to the island’s last African partner after three other nations abruptly refused to allow his aircraft to fly over their territory, in a move Taipei blamed on pressure from Beijing. This is the first time any Taiwanese leader has had to delay an overseas visit at the last minute, Lai’s office said. He had been due to depart on Wed...
Japan has scrapped long-standing restrictions on arms exports in a major break with its post-war pacifist policy that is likely to derail any potential thaw in relations with China. The plans, given final approval by the cabinet on Tuesday, could clear the way for sales of lethal equipment that had long been banned and prompted expressions of “serious concern” from Beijing. Japan’s Three Principle...
The West’s narrative of Chinese “overcapacity” is a double standard, said a former chief economist of the World Bank as he urged advanced economies to draw on “Eastern wisdom” rather than protectionism to navigate the rise of hi-tech competition. Justin Lin Yifu, a prominent advocate of Beijing’s industrial policy, dismissed claims that China’s auto-export surge was a sign of industrial imbalance....
US President Donald Trump announced a last-minute extension of the ceasefire with Iran following a mediation request from Pakistan’s top leadership, even as he appeared to suggest that American forces had inthorercepted a potentially lethal “gift from China” to Tehran. Describing the Iranian government “seriously fractured”, Trump said on social media that he agreed to hold off military operations...
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that US forces had intercepted a “gift from China” to Iran. Speaking ahead of the expiry of the current two-week ceasefire on Wednesday, Trump told CNBC that Tehran has “probably done a little bit of restocking” and implied that Beijing had been helping its efforts. He added: “We caught a ship yesterday that had some things on it, which wasn’t very nice, a...
Hutchison Port Holdings Trust has deployed Hong Kong’s first AI-powered driverless trucks, a move the container terminal operator said could help tackle a chronic manpower shortage and improve efficiency. The trust, affiliated with Hutchison Ports – a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing’s family – on Tuesday invited media to view a fleet of six electric auton...
Chinese railway giant CRRC has been forced out of a Lisbon metro contract in favour of a Polish firm, after a European Commission investigation found that foreign subsidies allowed CRRC to underbid rivals. “The in-depth investigation confirmed these preliminary findings, revealing that the subsidies in question had indeed given the consortium an unfair competitive edge, to the detriment of other b...
A Labour Department official has told an inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po inferno that the temporary removal of fireproof windows from emergency passages in the blaze-hit estate complied with occupational safety protocols, triggering questions on whether the interests of workers and residents are at odds. The inquiry also heard on Tuesday that a department officer had misled Wang Fuk Court r...
Malaysia’s Karex, the world’s top condom producer, plans to raise prices by 20 per cent to 30 per cent and possibly further if supply chain disruptions drag on due to the Iran war, its chief executive said on Tuesday. Karex is also seeing a surge in condom demand as rising freight costs and shipping delays have left many of its customers with lower stockpiles than usual, CEO Goh Miah Kiat told...
Pop star Fujii Kaze has become the latest Japanese act to cancel a show in Hong Kong, which was scheduled as part of his world tour this year. Without offering a reason, Kaze’s official website on Tuesday stated: “Show in Hong Kong has been cancelled”. Hong Kong was originally listed as one of the stops in his “Prema World Tour” last year. The tour, which kicks off in October, will cover Asia, Eur...
Behind China’s landmark crackdown on the e-commerce and food-delivery sectors lies a darker narrative of resistance, secrecy and violence, after regulators uncovered a vast network of “ghost” bakeries and imposed a record fine on seven major platforms. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) levied a 3.6 billion yuan (US$528 million) fine on seven platforms run by PDD Holdings, Meitu...
Modern military supremacy – from stealth jets to hypersonic missiles – hinges on micron-scale “super powders” engineered using precision mills. A new Chinese facility unveiled last week – described as the largest in the world – may give the country a critical edge in this field. The mill in the southern province of Guangdong uses new technology that the company behind it said was 10 times more eff...
Modern military supremacy – from stealth jets to hypersonic missiles – hinges on micron-scale “super powders” engineered using precision mills. A new Chinese facility unveiled last week – described as the largest in the world – may give the country a critical edge in this field. The mill in the southern province of Guangdong uses new technology that the company behind it said was 10 times more eff...
A consortium led by Sino Land, alongside state-backed mainland developers China Overseas Land & Investment and China Merchants Land, has won a tender for the Kam Sheung Road Station Phase Two development, signalling continued confidence in Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis and its long-term growth prospects, particularly among mainland developers. The group – which also includes Great Eagle Holdings...
A consortium led by Sino Land and Great Eagle Holdings, alongside two major mainland Chinese developers, has won the tender for the Kam Sheung Road Station Phase Two development, signalling continued confidence in Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis and its long-term growth prospects. The group – which also includes state-backed developers China Overseas Land & Investment and China Merchants Land – pl...
Hong Kong’s commercial property market attracted US$1.6 billion in investment in the first quarter, up 41 per cent from a year earlier, as demand for office, retail and hotel assets picked up amid improving liquidity, according to JLL. Investment volumes could receive a further boost from global investors looking to redeploy their capital amid the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran, the prop...
A former top foreign ministry official said on Tuesday he had faced “constant pressure” from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office to speed up the appointment of his pick as the ambassador to the US, deepening a row that threatens the British leader. A war of words over who should ultimately take the blame for appointing Labour veteran Peter Mandelson to Britain’s highest diplomatic post despi...
South Korean police have moved to detain Bang Si-hyuk, the founder of K-pop giant Hybe – the entertainment company behind groups including BTS – in a case that has spilled beyond finance and into the politics of Seoul’s uneasy alliance with Washington. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it had requested an arrest warrant for Bang through the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, citi...
The South China Morning Post received six honours at the State Street Institutional Press Awards Asia-Pacific 2025 on Tuesday. The awards, which recognise outstanding news reporting on institutional finance across Asia-Pacific (APAC), drew a record 246 submissions this year from eight economies – mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and France. Most notably, SCM...
Beijing is putting its power strategy under the microscope as China navigates the impact of a shipping crisis in the Strait of Hormuz that risks becoming a long-term economic liability. Calling energy security a pillar of national stability, Premier Li Qiang on Monday convened a high-level study session of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, according to Xinhua. The meeting, focused on coordinatin...
The Hong Kong government is seeking to confiscate HK$56.5 million (US$7.2 million) from former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s bank accounts and all of the shares in his 17 companies after he was jailed for 20 years under the national security law, court documents show. The secretary for justice applied to the High Court earlier this month to seize Lai’s assets linked to three conspiracies to ins...
Indonesia’s parliament passed a law on Tuesday to protect the rights of domestic workers after more than two decades of deliberations and multiple delays. The bill was first introduced in 2004 to protect the country’s 4.2 million domestic workers, almost 90 per cent of them women, according to data from the Ministry of Manpower. They were previously not legally classified as workers, meaning they ...
A long-standing pricing gap between the mainland China-listed and Hong Kong shares of dual-listed companies has narrowed – and in some cases reversed – as global investors re-rate China’s technology companies. The Hang Seng AH Premium Index, a widely watched gauge of the valuation gap between dual-listed companies’ A shares trading on mainland exchanges and their H shares in Hong Kong, has remaine...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong will face squally thunderstorms and a nine-degree plunge in temperature later this week as a cold front sweeps across the South China coast, with the mercury expected to dip to 21 degrees Celsius (69.8 Fahrenheit) on Friday, the city’s forecaster has ...
A Chinese employee has caused widespread jealousy among netizens after she won seven days of paid “rain leave”, meaning she can stay home when it rains. The woman, whose personal details have not been divulged, from Changsha in Hunan province, southern China, works at a spicy snack company and went viral after winning the unusual prize in a company raffle. The company, Mala Wangzi, which literally...
