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The artificial intelligence boom is driving demand for optical modules that enable ultra-fast data transmission in data centres, with the latest beneficiary a chemical compound that is seeing an unprecedented surge in prices. Indium phosphide (InP) is used to make lasers that convert electrical signals into light, allowing data to travel rapidly through fibre-optic cables. As a major producer of t...
The iconic wrapper of White Rabbit, a six-decade-old Chinese milk confectionery, has recently gone viral in the West. Shared this month in a post on X, formerly Twitter, the retro packaging was hailed as an “absolute masterstroke of graphic design”. Its distinctive waxy paper – featuring a white rabbit against a red circle, with blue-and-white rabbit motifs lining both edges – has since racked up ...
We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. US-China ‘Board of Investment’ stalls before expected Trump-Xi meeting The US-China Board of Investment, one of the key outcomes of the May summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese...
A large unleashed dog has fatally mauled two smaller pets in separate attacks within 20 minutes in Hong Kong, but authorities have yet to determine whether it is microchipped, as the animal remains too “aggressive” to handle. Police on Monday said the first attack occurred at 3pm near the taxi rank at the Yoho Mall car park in Yuen Long, where a 58‑year‑old man was walking his brown miniature pood...
Hong Kong’s hygiene authorities are investigating two officers caught smoking in public while in uniform, an act that is strictly prohibited, adding that such behaviour will result in disciplinary action. A viral clip circulating on social media platform Threads shows two men in uniform smoking cigarettes in what appears to be a back alley during daytime. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Departm...
Taiwan has signed a deal with US defence start-up Vatn Systems to develop autonomous underwater vehicles and strengthen its asymmetric warfare capabilities amid growing military pressure from Beijing. The agreement with the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) – the island’s government-funded top weapons developer – is the latest in a series of moves to expand Taiwan’s ...
Last month, two Chinese companies released artificial intelligence models most people outside the industry know little about: Kimi K3 by Moonshot AI and Qwen3.8-Max by Alibaba Group Holding (which owns the South China Morning Post). The markets reacted even before publicly auditable evidence about the performance claims – detailed benchmark table, model card and licence – was made fully available....
Russia is looking into a solution for a problem that has become hard for India to ignore: how to keep oil and other strategic goods moving when sanctions, war and maritime chokepoints threaten the world’s busiest energy routes. Moscow’s proposal for a direct rail link to India through Central and South Asia remains exploratory, but analysts say it points to a wider scramble by major powers to buil...
Chinese researchers have engineered a probiotic that could make diabetes care as simple as drinking a cup of yogurt or swallowing a capsule. The “smart” bacterium, designed to sense high blood sugar and automatically release a glucose-lowering hormone, performed on par with the blockbuster drug Ozempic in animal tests, according to a study published in Nature last week. The team at East China Norm...
The European Union intends to significantly expand sanctions against Russia in the coming months over its war in Ukraine, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, told a German newspaper. “EU sanctions have already cost Russia dearly, depriving Russia’s war machine of over €1 trillion (US$1.16 trillion) and for autumn I am putting forward the most far-reaching sanctions listings since the st...
Chinese billionaire Li Shufu has relinquished his role as chairman of Geely Auto, describing the planned succession as the foundation for the future sustainable growth of the country’s second-largest carmaker. Li, the 63-year-old founder of the automotive group, announced his resignation just after Hong Kong-listed Geely reported record first-half revenue in China’s cutthroat car market on Monday....
Chinese billionaire Li Shufu has relinquished his role as chairman of Geely Auto, describing the planned succession as the foundation for the future sustainable growth of the country’s second-largest carmaker. Li, the 63-year-old founder of the automotive group, announced his resignation just after Hong Kong-listed Geely reported record first-half revenue in China’s cutthroat car market on Monday....
Hong Kong authorities have slashed the time required for environmental impact assessments by up to half using artificial intelligence (AI), as part of flagship initiatives in the first batch of projects aimed at enhancing efficiency. The first batch of 30 projects, involving 13 government departments, was announced on Monday, covering transport and food business licensing, leisure and sports facil...
Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner on Monday wrapped up two days of meetings with Israeli and Hamas leaders to break a stalemate over the US president’s Gaza plan, but no breakthrough appeared imminent as both sides dug in. Kushner met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, a day after meeting Hamas’ political leader in Egypt to revive the plan, which has stalled as Israel ha...
Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, a day after holding a rare meeting with Hamas’ leader in Cairo in a bid to push forward the US president’s Gaza plan. Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition is trailing in Israeli opinion polls ahead of an October national election, publicly rejected this month a US-backed agree...
US President Donald Trump’s call to “substantially” reduce US-South Korea military drills has revived speculation that he is trying to persuade North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un to attend another summit between them even though Kim has expressed no such interest. Trump’s comments in a social media post on Sunday came as South Korea and the US began their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise on Mond...
China’s pharmaceutical contractors are showing financial resilience in the face of Washington’s push to curb reliance on Chinese supply chains. Analysts said investors were bullish because the US government’s recent measures to curb Beijing’s rise as a global pharmaceutical supplier had met resistance from industry players reluctant to give up China’s cost advantages. Hong Kong-listed shares of Wu...
China’s ability to set its own technological course in the face of sustained US export restrictions may be the key factor in the two countries’ contest over artificial intelligence, a prominent analyst has argued. Zheng Yongnian, dean of the school of public policy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), made the case in his preface to The Rise of Atlas, a new book about the development...
A Hong Kong court has dismissed an appeal by a senior police officer against his 6½-year jail sentence for fraudulently securing more than HK$26 million (US$3.31 million) in mortgages by concealing his affiliation with the force. In a written judgment delivered on Monday, the Court of Appeal upheld Superintendent Harbour Chan Hoi-kong’s conviction on two counts of fraud, finding that he must have ...
A Hong Kong court has dismissed an appeal by a senior police officer against his 6½-year jail sentence for fraudulently securing over HK$26 million (US$3.31 million) in mortgages by concealing his affiliation with the force. In a written judgment delivered on Monday, the Court of Appeal upheld Superintendent Harbour Chan Hoi-kong’s conviction on two counts of fraud, finding that he must have knowi...
Alibaba Group Holding has agreed to sell its wholly owned gaming business Lingxi Games to Trustar Capital as the Chinese technology giant pivots away from noncore sectors to prioritise e-commerce and artificial intelligence, according to an internal letter issued on Monday. “As part of Alibaba’s broader strategy to sharpen its focus, the group has decided to entrust Lingxi to Trustar Capital,” sta...
Controversial “parent awakening camps” are attracting anxious Chinese mothers willing to invest significantly in confronting gaming addiction and poor academic performance. Promoted by an increasing number of family-education services on mainland social media, these programmes promise to transform parenting practices and mend strained family relationships. Reports from mainland media indicate two ...
Hong Kong’s sports sector helped to generate an extra HK$46 billion (US$5.9 billion) in value for the economy in 2024, the year local athletes clinched two gold and two bronze Olympic medals, with a lawmaker calling for targeted policies to build on that success. The Census and Statistics Department on Monday released an analysis of contributions to Hong Kong’s economy by sports and related activi...
Hong Kong’s sports sector helped to generate an extra HK$46 billion (US$5.9 billion) in value for the economy in 2024, the year local athletes clinched two gold and two bronze Olympic medals, with a lawmaker calling for targeted policies to build on that success. The Census and Statistics Department on Monday released an analysis of contributions to Hong Kong’s economy by sports and related activi...
Malaysia may finally scrap the university law that generations of students have blamed for stifling campus dissent, but activists and academics say the harder fight will be over what comes next. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has promised to abolish the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, better known by its Malay acronym AUKU, a law that has long sat at the centre of arguments over how m...
China’s retail sales growth trailed expectations, the pace of industrial output expansion slowed and a drop in investment worsened as its economy struggled to regain pace at the start of the second half of the year. July retail sales rose by 0.6 per cent, missing the 1.3 per cent expectation among economists polled by financial data provider Wind, and slowing from June’s 1 per cent rate. Industria...
Shares of ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s leading DRAM maker, jumped 12 per cent on Monday to close at a record 61.80 yuan (US$9.16), lifting its market capitalisation to 4.13 trillion yuan and extending its lead as China’s most valuable listed company. The Hefei-based chipmaker first overtook Hong Kong-listed Tencent Holdings on Thursday as China’s most valuable listed company, when ...
Shares of ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s leading DRAM maker, jumped 12 per cent on Monday to close at a record 61.80 yuan (US$9.16), lifting its market capitalisation to 4.13 trillion yuan and extending its lead as China’s most valuable listed company. The Hefei-based chipmaker first overtook Hong Kong-listed Tencent Holdings on Thursday as China’s most valuable listed company, when ...
Hong Kong recorded about 4.5 million visitor arrivals in July, up 3 per cent from a year earlier, as major international conventions boosted business travel while bad weather weighed on growth from mainland China, according to the Tourism Board. The board said on Monday that a series of major international meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE), including the 108th Lions Internat...
Global commercial real estate investment markets are roaring back to life. In the first half of this year, direct investment in commercial property rose 27 per cent in annualised terms. The sharpest increase was in the Asia-Pacific, where transaction volumes were up 38 per cent to US$92.5 billion, the strongest half-yearly performance on record, according to data from JLL. While there have been ma...
