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With the death of former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, both China and the wider world have lost a great leader. Zhu took personal risks for better US-China ties. He believed that productive Sino-American relations were good for China and for the world. He was a global leader before China had achieved its current great power status. In mid-1990, when I was president of the National Committee on Unite...
The US push to promote “burden sharing” among its allies in the Indo-Pacific has seen it focusing on increasing its military capacity while lowering the political temperature in an effort to reassure its allies. But some analysts have questioned its chances of succeeding, arguing that this deterrence strategy has intensified great power rivalry and polarisation in the region, while driving deeper ...
China has published ecological assessment reports on nine disputed South China Sea features, amid an escalating row with Washington over Beijing’s establishment of a “national nature reserve” in the contested waters. On Friday, the Ministry of Natural Resources’ South China Sea Bureau issued its 2025 marine ecological early-warning and monitoring bulletin, alongside a separate marine ecological pr...
The US is readying unprecedented economic measures against Iran, as President Donald Trump seeks to intensify efforts to force Tehran to capitulate after almost six months of war. The president said in a brief interview with Fox News that the US was planning to hit Iran’s economy hard, and that he did not care if the conflict were to end before the November US midterm elections, which would hinge ...
Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan should prioritise the Northern Metropolis mega development, strengthen the city’s position as an international financial centre and advance its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, major business chambers have said. In submissions for the city’s first five-year plan, groups including the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (AmCham) and the Federation of...
Hong Kong parents and concern groups have urged authorities to reinstate student subsidies after textbook prices recorded their sharpest increase since the Covid-19 pandemic, amid the growing use of digital learning tools. Prices for a list of textbooks now range from HK$4,000 (US$510) to HK$6,000, representing an average increase of 3.6 per cent for the 2026-27 academic year, the highest since th...
Wearing a black mariner’s cap and with a wall-to-wall bookshelf as a backdrop, Cambridge University professor Alan Macfarlane greets his social media audience with a soft ni hao – “Hello” in Chinese. In his latest video, Macfarlane follows this signature opening by thoughtfully answering a question pulled from the comments: why has making genuine friends become so difficult? Few would have expecte...
At the Goodtime Chinese School in the Bethany suburb of Portland, Oregon, an American child stops school director Zhou Yanzhuo, of China, in the hallway to ask a question in English. She requests that he speak in Chinese and the third grader, who has no Chinese heritage, handily switches languages. The child is one of several dozen students attending rigorous summer classes for Chinese language in...
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday his government would provide free online coaching lessons for competitive exams, weeks after massive youth-led protests forced the education minister to resign. Modi said the initiative was aimed at easing the financial burden on millions of families caught up in the country’s fiercely competitive education system. The 75-year-old leader made th...
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday his government would provide free online coaching lessons for competitive exams, weeks after massive youth-led protests forced the education minister to resign. Modi said the initiative was aimed at easing the financial burden on millions of families caught up in the country’s fiercely competitive education system. The 75-year-old leader made th...
For decades, the three days of summer considered the hottest of the year were among the busiest for South Korea’s dog meat restaurants, as diners sought traditional stamina-boosting foods to endure the heat. The third “boknal”, or hot day, of 2026 on Friday carried an added sense of finality. It was the last before a nationwide ban on the breeding, slaughter and sale of dogs for meat takes full e...
It may not be the most majestic creature on our beautiful planet, but the humble silkworm deserves a place alongside horses, cattle, cats, and dogs due to its profound impact on human civilisation. The luxurious fabric spun from the silkworm’s natural secretion ignited the creation of a vast global trade network, connecting Asia with the Mediterranean. This network became a catalyst for transforma...
China’s electric vehicles (EVs) already lead the way in terms of battery and autonomous driving technologies. Now, the country’s auto brands are adding a new dimension to the notion of intelligent cars: turning them into full-scale entertainment centres. A new wave of Chinese-developed EVs is hitting the market equipped with everything from voice-activated artificial intelligence (AI) assistants, ...
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he would speed up the pace of reforms and strengthen an anti-corruption drive as he sought to rebuild public support after a string of electoral defeats and party departures. Anwar acknowledged shortcomings by his administration that had led to frustration among Malaysians. While the economy grew 6 per cent last quarter and unemployment was low, Anwar sa...
Hong Kong authorities have suspended the main contractor and lift subcontractor working on a new clinical block at Queen Mary Hospital from tendering for public works after serious defects left most lifts unreliable and delayed the launch of services. An engineer and a lawmaker said on Saturday that the extent of the defects was “extremely rare” in Hong Kong and unreasonable, while the government’...
Hong Kong authorities have suspended the main contractor and lift subcontractor working on Queen Mary Hospital’s new clinical block from public works tenders after serious defects left most lifts unreliable and delayed the launch of services. The Architectural Services Department said in a social media post late on Friday that the contractors’ poor performance had been recorded in assessment repor...
China has “strongly condemned” Japanese leaders for visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and making an offering on the 81st anniversary of Japan’s announcement of surrender in World War II. Beijing said it had lodged a formal protest after Japanese defence chief Shinjiro Koizumi and others visited the shrine on Saturday. China and many other Asian countries view the site as a symbol of Japan...
China has “strongly condemned” Japanese leaders for visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and making an offering on the 81st anniversary of Japan’s announcement of surrender in World War II. Beijing lodged a formal protest after Japanese defence chief Shinjiro Koizumi visited the shrine on Saturday. China and many other countries in Asia view the site as a symbol of Japanese militarism. Japan...
Hongkongers should exercise extreme caution in guarding their personal data, especially during online shopping and membership sign-ups, the city’s privacy watchdog has said after privacy complaints jumped more than 60 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026. Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Ada Chung Lai-ling said on Saturday that residents’ personal data had become a valuable, trade...
Hong Kong’s fintech hub Cyberport has added 66,000 square metres of space in its fifth-phase expansion and filled half of its offices with tenants including mainland Chinese tech companies, according to its chairman. Simon Chan Sai-ming also said on Saturday that Cyberport was positioning itself as a key driver in Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan by pushing artificial intelligence (AI) develop...
Russia is confounding expectations that its influence in the Middle East would drastically decline after the downfall of Syria’s Assad regime in 2024. At the time, Moscow operated about 100 military facilities in the war-torn country, following its intervention in the Syrian civil conflict from 2015 to prop up then president Bashar al-Assad in alliance with Iran and its regional proxies. When Assa...
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed talks with North Korea to formally end the long-running Korean war, as Pyongyang deepens ties with Russia while asserting its status as an “irreversible” nuclear state. The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict, triggered by a North Korean attack, ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Lee made the proposal in...
Hong Kong’s lush forests are teeming with more wildlife ranging from birds arriving from neighbouring regions to newly discovered reptile and insect species, experts have found, as they urge authorities to devise a conservation list to protect vulnerable local species. The call by the city’s conservationists to formulate a “red list” – a long-awaited measure since 2014 – coincided with National Ec...
Third plenums are ordinarily the quiet part of Vietnam’s political calendar. Between its five-yearly congresses, the Communist Party of Vietnam governs through numbered plenums of its Central Committee (CC): the first two settle personnel decisions, and the third, six months on, usually does no more than ratify the term’s work programme. This time, the third plenum of the 14th CC, held from July 2...
A truck driver has fled the scene after his vehicle crashed into roadside barriers and burst into flames on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island, with debris from the collision injuring a taxi driver and passenger travelling behind. The incident occurred at around 3.15am on Saturday during an amber rainstorm warning. A 16-tonne truck carrying electronic parts was heading towards the airport when it crashed o...
At one of the world’s biggest electronic dance music festivals in Belgium, entranced revellers recently found themselves dancing to sounds more often heard on a Singapore commute than a Tomorrowland stage. They included the MRT warning to “Sila berhati-hati di ruang platform” (“Please mind the platform gap” in Malay), familiar to millions who ride the city state’s metro system, and the piercing, r...
Picture a fisherman hauling in his nets on a calm morning at sea, when his smartwatch suddenly vibrates with an alert: “Magnetic anomaly detected – possible submarine passing 500 metres below.” Far‑fetched as it sounds, Chinese scientists have just taken a decisive step towards making that scenario real. A team from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science and the Ningbo Institute of Materials Tec...
A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 47 people, collapsing buildings and homes as well as causing panic in a region prone to deadly quakes. Authorities said more than a dozen people were injured. Authorities issued a tsunami warning but later lifted it when Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said monitoring s...
A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 40 people, collapsing buildings and homes as well as causing panic in a region prone to deadly quakes. Authorities said more than a dozen people were injured. Authorities issued a tsunami warning but later lifted it when Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said monitoring s...
A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 38 people, collapsing buildings and homes as well as causing panic in a region prone to deadly quakes. Authorities said more than a dozen people were injured. Authorities issued a tsunami warning but later lifted it when Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said monitoring s...
