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Hong Kong stock debuts are losing steam as a deluge of initial public offerings (IPOs) overwhelms investor appetite. Seven of September’s 12 IPOs fell on the first day of trading, raising the third-quarter total to 15 flops out of 31, based on Bloomberg data. By contrast, there were only 14 declines among 77 debuts in the first half of the year. Medcaptain Medical Technology led September’s first-...
Large-scale field trials across China show that irrigation water treated with natural minerals radiated by sunlight could dramatically increase the yields of several crops, according to Chinese scientists behind the experiments. The team said the trials, including on rice, wheat, soybeans, peanuts, sweet potatoes, sugar cane and vegetables, improved photosynthetic efficiency. Their study, conducte...
Hong Kong’s retail sales rose by 5.6 per cent year on year in August, with the latest figures showing consumer spending picking up after growth eased for two consecutive months. The retail sales value reached HK$32 billion (US$4.1 billion), according to provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Friday. Sales in the first eight months of the year rose by 8.5 per cent c...
Indonesia’s new police chief faces a difficult task to balance growing public demands for accountability and independence as the force seeks to repair its image following a series of scandals in recent years. Even as Suyudi Ario Seto, 53, replaced Listyo Sigit Prabowo on Thursday, the government is weighing recommendations to reform the powerful institution, including changes to its work culture a...
Not so long ago, Washington’s approach to relations with Beijing was anchored by a single assertive phrase: dealing “from a position of strength”. It was rooted in a unipolar mindset: a belief that the United States could dictate terms, manage competition unilaterally and demand compliance from a distance. Yet, at their recent summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump form...
Zheng Yongnian is a political scientist in China and a government adviser. His academic work is mainly about contemporary China, particularly politics, the country’s transformation and its external relations. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. Many have offered a lukewarm assessment of the Xi-Trump summit in Washington, citing the lack of a breakthrough. W...
A small Singaporean research team has beaten scientists in China and the United States to build the world’s most accurate atomic clock. The clock, built with a single ion of a rare earth metal element known as lutetium, is so precise that it would lose one second every 260 billion years – nearly 20 times the age of our universe. It is about four times as accurate as the previous record holder, a c...
Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung died of head injuries after being hit with a hammer during a car journey she believed was to pick up her daughter from school, a court has heard. Prosecutors on Friday detailed how three of Choi’s former relatives rented a remote village house and went shopping to acquire items they needed before allegedly killing the 28-year-old and disposing of her body on ...
Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung died of head injuries after being hit with a hammer during a car journey she believed was to pick up her daughter from school, a court has heard. Prosecutors on Friday detailed how three of Choi’s former relatives rented a remote village house and went on a shopping spree to acquire items they needed before allegedly killing the 28-year-old and disposing of h...
China has set a five-year goal for the expansion of intelligent computing capacity to drive artificial intelligence (AI) that calls for a more than fourfold increase on what was in place at the end of June this year. To reach the 2030 target while being blocked by the United States from importing the most advanced Western-made AI chips will require innovation, adaptation and the application and co...
Hong Kong ranked seventh globally as a destination for attracting and retaining the next generation of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), trailing traditional rival Singapore in sixth place, according to a Savills study. The two top finance hubs in the Asia-Pacific region have been stepping up efforts to strengthen their positions as regional wealth-management hubs amid an unprecedented global tr...
One of the Malaysians unaccounted for following the devastating floods in Nepal has been confirmed safe and has returned to Malaysia, according to the group representing Malaysians missing in Nepal. Malaysia Solidarity: Families in Hope (Masfih) spokesman Manivannan Rethinam said the person had reported themselves to the Malaysian embassy in Kathmandu. “For Masfih and the other families, the findi...
Mainland Chinese tourists have poured into Hong Kong during the first two days of the National Day “golden week” holiday, but retailers have warned that the surge in visitor numbers is not translating into an equally strong boost in spending. The Hong Kong Retail Management Association said on Friday that visitor spending remained relatively restrained even as shopping districts were busy. “The in...
Mainland Chinese visitors have flocked to Hong Kong’s shops and malls on the second day of the National Day “golden week” holiday, with some looking for outdoor gear and others browsing the city’s bookstores. Hong Kong recorded over 277,300 mainland arrivals on Thursday – the first day of the week-long break – representing about 47 per cent of total inbound passengers for the day, according to imm...
Mainland Chinese visitors have flocked to Hong Kong’s shops and malls on the second day of the National Day “golden week” holiday, with some looking for outdoor gear and others browsing the city’s bookstores. Hong Kong recorded over 277,300 mainland arrivals on Thursday – the first day of the week-long break – representing about 47 per cent of total inbound passengers for the day, according to imm...
Rain dampened visitor numbers at some of Hong Kong’s popular attractions on Friday morning, the second day of the National Day “golden week” holiday. Queues at the Peak Tram terminus in Central remained short, with passengers waiting less than an hour to board. Among them was Jasper Huang, a mechanical engineer in his twenties from Xiamen, Fujian province, who was visiting Hong Kong with friends f...
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his election rival Flavio Bolsonaro are leaving no controversy unturned in their last-ditch efforts to discredit each other and win over voters ahead of Sunday’s nail-biter election. A campaign dominated by scandals and insults has done little to ease the deep political polarisation in Latin America’s biggest economy, one of the last major leftist b...
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s reshuffling of his cabinet signals an urgent need to address criticism and dipping ratings by banking on experienced technocrats and trusted figures in key positions, observers say. But although the appointment of a new foreign minister raises hope of some restraint on Prabowo’s more “impulsive” foreign policy decisions, the president’s self-imposed role as ...
US artificial intelligence company Anthropic appears to have stepped up enforcement of geographical restrictions on its Claude models in Hong Kong, with local users reporting abrupt account suspensions after accessing the service through virtual private networks (VPNs). A wave of complaints surfaced on social media platforms X and Reddit on Thursday, as users who had operated accounts for months u...
US artificial intelligence company Anthropic appears to have stepped up enforcement of geographical restrictions on its Claude models in Hong Kong, with local users reporting abrupt account suspensions after accessing the service through virtual private networks (VPNs). A wave of complaints surfaced on social media platforms X and Reddit on Thursday, as users who had operated accounts for months u...
The first apartment came up for auction and nobody moved. More than 60 people crowded into a room in Singapore to watch seven properties seized in one of the world’s biggest money-laundering cases go under the hammer. Their opening prices totalled more than S$43 million (US$33.6 million). But when bidding began for a luxury unit at Gramercy Park, an upscale condominium near the city state’s Orchar...
Hong Kong airport authorities’ move to take back the massive 11 Skies mall project will catalyse the development of its aviation hub, a government adviser and a hospitality sector expert have said, calling for better access and immersive entertainment to attract footfall. Their remarks came on Friday, two days after developer New World Development (NWD) announced it would return the project to the...
Finland is investigating a slew of suspected break-ins at the homes of members of parliament, which the prime minister said could be linked to a foreign power. Following media reports, speaker of parliament Jussi Halla-aho on Thursday said parliament had been made aware of a “significant” number of apparent intrusions at the homes of several politicians. Finland, which shares a 1,340km (830-mile) ...
Finland is investigating a slew of suspected break-ins at the homes of members of parliament, which the prime minister said could be linked to a foreign power. Following media reports, speaker of parliament Jussi Halla-aho on Thursday said parliament had been made aware of a “significant” number of apparent intrusions at the homes of several politicians. Finland, which shares a 1,340km (830-mile) ...
We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Chinese commercial reactor achieves nuclear fusion with clean hydrogen-boron fuel In a first, a Chinese company has achieved high-par...
We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Chinese commercial reactor achieves nuclear fusion with clean hydrogen-boron fuel In a first, a Chinese company has achieved high-par...
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday threatened unspecified measures against Ukraine unless Kyiv acknowledged what Seoul says was a confidentiality agreement covering the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers and apologised. “If the refusal to acknowledge the facts and issue a public apology continues, we will take additional measures,” Lee said in a social media post. Lee also...
Ethiopia and Eritrea broke diplomatic ties on Thursday, accusing each other of stoking internal conflicts as fighting continued in northern Ethiopia. Long-standing tensions between the two neighbours reached a crisis point after heavy fighting broke out last week between Ethiopian forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), raising fears of a return to the devastating 2020–2022 civil w...
Thitu Island and its residents have come under the spotlight after the Philippines, in a bid to reinforce its claims in the South China Sea, announced plans to file an updated maritime chart with the United Nations. Observers say the filing would not establish Philippine sovereignty but could help Manila identify and challenge competing claims in more precise legal terms. More than just a technica...
A condemned female murderer who survived two lethal injections during a botched execution by the US state of Tennessee was in critical condition and receiving “life-saving care”, her lawyer said on Thursday. In an extraordinary chain of events, Christa Pike, 50, was whisked from a prison execution chamber to a hospital Wednesday night, still alive despite two deadly doses of pentobarbital. “What w...
