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US envoy in Hong Kong says little chance to meet local officials during term
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America’s outgoing top diplomat in Hong Kong has said he had little opportunity to meet local officials during his tenure, while also noting that the implementation of the national security law five years ago remains a source of friction. Speaking at an American Independence Day event on Thursday, United States Consul General Gregory May also confirmed an earlier report from the Post that he would soon depart Hong Kong to take on a senior role in the country’s embassy in Beijing. May, who was...
AIIB to expand global footprint with 20-member office in Hong Kong
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The Beijing-headquartered Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will open an office in Hong Kong to enhance the multilateral development lender’s fundraising power and expand its global presence, the Post has learned from sources familiar with the matter. The new office would come as a publicity victory for Hong Kong as the city redoubles its efforts to consolidate its status as an international financial centre. Negotiations with the Hong Kong government are ongoing and the final decision is...
Xiaomi enters ‘smart glasses war’ with first AI-powered eyewear
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Xiaomi is set to debut its first artificial intelligence (AI)-powered smart glasses on Thursday, marking the Chinese smartphone and electric vehicle (EV) maker’s entry into a rapidly expanding but crowded domestic market. The Beijing-based company is positioning its new eyewear as a “next-generation personal smart gadget”, according to an image posted on its official Weibo account on Wednesday. Co-founder and CEO Lei Jun said the glasses can capture first-person video and respond to voice...
China warned to watch for threats as Israeli spies in Iran open ‘Pandora’s box’
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Israel’s unprecedented success in infiltrating Iranian intelligence has opened up a “Pandora’s box” of global security threats, Chinese observers have warned, while urging China to tighten all national security measures against any vulnerabilities. According to Chinese military analyst and former air force member Fu Qianshao, one striking feature of the Middle East conflict is the critical role played by Israeli intelligence agents embedded in Iran. Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency reportedly...
How are stricter sanitation checks at border affecting China’s durian imports?
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China’s imports of fresh durians have fallen this year because of stricter sanitation checks at the border, according to people who follow the trade. The value of fresh durian imports in the first five months of this year fell by 32.5 per cent year on year to US$1.93 billion, according to the General Administration of Customs. By volume, imports were down 32.9 per cent to 390,900 tonnes. Hardest hit was Vietnam, which saw nearly 62 per cent year-on-year declines in both the value and volume of...
OpenAI: Zhipu AI is fuelling China’s global push for US tech alternatives
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OpenAI said its analysts found that Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Zhipu AI had made “notable progress” in providing infrastructure solutions to governments and state-owned firms in non-Western markets, as Beijing seeks to strengthen its global leadership in the rapidly evolving technology. In a post on Wednesday, the ChatGPT maker, which has previously urged Washington to support US companies in their competition with Chinese rivals, said Zhipu represented “China’s answer” to...
China hosts Iran defence minister and others on warship, condemns ‘hegemony’
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Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun has hosted his Iranian counterpart and other senior defence staff on an advanced Chinese warship days after the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, while stating “hegemony” is the biggest source of global chaos. Iranian Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh was among defence chiefs received by Dong on the ship on Wednesday alongside the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers meeting in Qingdao, a two-day event that ends on Thursday. Nasirzadeh...
‘Racist’ post against Malaysian Chinese general gets rebuke – from Islamist PAS
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Malaysia’s Islamist party has decried a “racist” statement by one of its leaders, who has been widely criticised for including a picture of the country’s first ethnic Chinese three-star general in a social media post warning of the political rise of the nation’s largest minority group. Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) grass roots leader Zaharudin Muhammad sparked outrage over a post on his Facebook page on Tuesday, in which he wrote a hypothetical news story of Malaysia welcoming its first...
China building strong foundation for next wave of AI, robotics: Unitree CEO
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As the head of China's humanoid robotics start-up Unitree disclosed its annual revenue has passed one billion yuan (US$139.4 million), entrepreneurs and scholars said the country's strong data infrastructure, mature supply chain and vast market position it as a potential leader in the next wave of development for artificial intelligence (AI). “The rising attention on our industry, along with increasing demand and support, has created the essential conditions for leading companies to grow...
Family offices shift assets to Hong Kong, China and Europe from US: BNP Paribas
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Global family offices have allocated more of their assets to Hong Kong, China, Japan and Europe at the expense of the US amid market uncertainties triggered by American tariffs, BNP Paribas Wealth Management said. Arnaud Tellier, the Asia CEO of the French bank’s wealth-management unit, said its family office clients shifted their investment strategies after US President Donald Trump rolled out his slate of tariffs in April. “Many are actively diversifying away from US dollar assets, increasing...
Hong Kong home prices post tiny gain in April, raising hope of slump’s end
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Hong Kong’s lived-in home prices posted a small gain for the second straight month in May, according to official data, fortifying hopes of a sustained recovery in the city’s property market. An official index measuring secondary home prices inched up by 0.03 per cent in May from a month earlier, the Rating and Valuation Department said on Thursday. In April, the gauge rose 0.35 per cent from March. In the first five months of the year, second-hand home prices declined by 0.9 per cent. They are...
Hong Kong to begin independent drug review, approval in late 2026
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Hong Kong will start reviewing and approving drugs independently in phases when the city’s regulatory agency begins operation as early as the end of next year, health authorities have announced, as more new medications are expected to hit the city’s market. The Department of Health on Thursday revealed its plan to set up its drug regulatory authority as part of the city’s ambition to become an international hub for health and medical innovation. The Hong Kong Centre for the Medical Products...
‘We are not safe’: murder in Malaysian tech hub fuels student terror
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The brutal murder of a 20-year-old university student in her dormitory has renewed scrutiny on safety lapses in Cyberjaya, a township hailed in the 1990s as Malaysia’s Silicon Valley but now notorious for crime. Maniishapriet Kaur Akhara, a University of Cyberjaya undergraduate, was found dead on Tuesday due to blunt force trauma to the head, Sepang district police said on Thursday. “Investigation at the scene found no signs of forced entry into the victim’s residence. Further examination of the...
Chinese courier SF to raise US$752 million via Hong Kong shares, bonds
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SF Holding, China’s largest courier, announced plans on Thursday to raise more than HK$5.9 billion (US$752 million) through a new share placement on the Hong Kong exchange and the issuance of convertible bonds. Proceeds from the HK$2.9505 billion equity placement and HK$2.95 billion in zero-coupon convertible bonds would be used for the firm’s international and cross-border logistics capabilities, research and development of advanced technologies and digital solutions, capital structure, and...
Why are fewer wealthy Chinese likely to emigrate this year?
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The number of wealthy mainland Chinese choosing to emigrate is projected to drop to a 10-year low this year thanks to the country’s improved business environment and its growing appeal to tech entrepreneurs, according to a report by a London-based advisory firm. Henley & Partners’ annual wealth migration report also said that Hong Kong is starting to see steady inflows of millionaire migrants from the rest of Asia, with an anticipated net inflow of 800 this year, including many executives from...
Hong Kong stocks decline as HKMA currency move stokes rate concerns
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Hong Kong stocks retreated from a three-month high as property developers and lenders slumped after the monetary authority intervened in the currency market and mopped up liquidity, threatening to push up local interest rates. The Hang Seng Index fell 0.5 per cent to 24,357.56 at the local noon trading break on Thursday, halting a four-day 5.3 per cent rally. The Hang Seng Tech was little changed. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index both slipped 0.1 per cent. Sun...
Richard Li’s FWD files for Hong Kong listing amid slew of jumbo IPO deals
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FWD Group, the pan-Asian insurer founded by Richard Li Tzar-lai, launched its long-delayed Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) plan, seeking to raise as much as HK$3.99 billion (US$512 million) in gross proceeds amid a slew of jumbo deals in the city. The company is selling 91.34 million shares at HK$38 each, with an option to upsize it to 105 million shares via an overallotment to IPO managers, according to its filing to the stock exchange on Thursday. The pricing pegs its market...
Hong Kong steps into currency market to defend local dollar’s peg
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The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has stepped into the financial market for the first time since 2023 to support the weak local dollar, in an effort to thwart currency arbitrageurs who engage in so-called carry trades. The city’s de facto central bank sold US$1.2 billion worth of US dollars to buy Hong Kong currency at HK$7.85 per US dollar, according to a statement on Thursday. The action came after the local currency hit the weak end of its trading band at HK$7.85. The Hong Kong...
Interstate mediation in a multipolar world: how can Hong Kong best play a role?
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If there is any consistent theme at all in international relations and global affairs throughout these past years, it is that we are now living in a multipolar world. With the end of the Cold War, the world entered a period of Western dominance that is now giving way to a more complex and fragmented world order. Disputes and differences between states will only continue to proliferate, but with a multipolar world comes an increasing number of them questioning the role of international law in...
Hong Kong Observatory may cancel No 1 typhoon signal between 2pm and 5pm
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This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. New users who download our updated app get a seven-day free trial. Hong Kong’s forecaster is considering cancelling the No 1 typhoon signal between 2pm and 5pm on Thursday as severe weather threats gradually decrease in the city, but says squally showers are still expected throughout the day. The Hong Kong Observatory said that squally showers related to a...
China’s top lawmakers review first report on new tech-driven growth model
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The Chinese government has presented its first themed report to the top legislature on “new quality productive forces” – a growth model focused on technological breakthroughs and industrial upgrades – pledging to expand the use of home-grown large language models and attract more foreign investment. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner, told lawmakers that China had made significant progress in advancing the development model, which President...
What’s next after 5 years of national security law in Hong Kong?
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In this first of a two-part series, we look at the workings of the law and how ‘soft resistance’ signals a next phase, and more importantly, as the focus shifts squarely to the economy. A year after being arrested under Hong Kong’s domestic security law, former district councillor and theatre personality Katrina Chan Kim-kam has not been charged but feels society has already punished her. Two theatre companies she worked with dropped her. An academic institution acted on an anonymous complaint...
Dubai and Abu Dhabi vie to attract Chinese luxury property buyers
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Dubai and Abu Dhabi are jockeying to become the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) top luxury property market amid increasing demand from Chinese buyers, according to agents. While Dubai was way ahead in terms of popularity, Abu Dhabi was increasingly finding favour with investors owing to its value proposition, according to Juwai IQI, a real estate broker with more than US$4 trillion in property listings globally on its platform. “Dubai and Abu Dhabi are similar markets in terms of product and...
Tencent-owned Supercell to launch titles like Clash Royale as WeChat mini games
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Finnish video game studio Supercell, developer of Clash Royale and Brawl Stars, is set to launch its popular titles on Tencent Holdings’ WeChat as installation-free mini games, leveraging the super app’s vast user base. Jakub Barczyk, business and operations lead for Supercell’s Clash of Clans, said on Wednesday that Brawl Stars was already available on WeChat, known as Weixin in mainland China, while Clash Royale was “currently being developed” for a September release on the WeChat mini-game...
China’s drug innovators bank on AI to hasten discovery to commercial success
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Upstart Chinese drug innovators are joining their foreign competitors in deploying more artificial intelligence (AI) tools to reduce the costs of discoveries in an effort to shorten the route to clinical trials and commercialisation. Genscript Biotech, based in Nanjing in eastern Jiangsu province, is developing in-house AI tools - using its enzyme prediction database and an algorithm for altering the DNA sequence of a gene - to identify and optimise promising candidates based on protein...
China’s firms must integrate to succeed abroad, executives say at ‘Summer Davos’
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Chinese companies should relocate their entire manufacturing ecosystems – rather than just completing the assembly of goods in another country – to solidify their overseas expansions, industry insiders said during the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin. With uncertainty over global trade on the rise in the second term of US President Donald Trump, Chinese companies will look to strengthen the resilience of their supply chain by building factories in new markets, either for export or...
Trump, at Nato summit, defends US strikes on Iran nuclear facilities
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US President Donald Trump rejected media reports that US air strikes only partly damaged Iran’s nuclear facilities as “fake news” on Wednesday, maintaining his claim that the targeted sites had been “obliterated”. Speaking to reporters during the Nato summit in The Hague, Trump said that the US had carried out a “massive” precision strike on Saturday against Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. “It was very, very successful. It was called obliteration. No other military on earth could’ve done...
China-tied AI tools like DeepSeek face US federal ban over ‘threat’
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A bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced a bill in both chambers of Congress to ban the federal use of China-linked artificial intelligence tools such as DeepSeek, writing the latest chapter in the tech rivalry between the world’s top AI powers. Titled the “No Adversarial AI Act”, the proposed legislation aims to prohibit federal agencies from procuring or deploying AI technologies developed in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. The bill was introduced in the House by US congressman John...
Nato leaders agree to 5 per cent defence spending goal in annual summit
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Nato member states committed to boost investments on defence to five per cent of their domestic output, largely endorsing US President Donald Trump’s pressure on Washington’s European allies. The North Atlantic Council (NAC), which convened on Wednesday during the two-day Nato Summit in The Hague, the member states’ leaders agreed to spend the higher percentage annually on core defence requirements and “defence-and-security-related” expenditures by 2035, in the face of “profound security threats...
CATL executive warns of risks from EV price cuts, calls on Beijing to intervene
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A senior executive from Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s largest producer of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), urged authorities on the mainland to intervene in the price war that is roiling the market for new energy cars. Ni Jun, CATL’s chief manufacturing officer, on Wednesday said the brutal discount war would not end if Beijing remained on the sidelines. “One big player cannot always lower prices [to gain market share] while driving out all other small rivals,” he...
3 spectres haunting global finance must be seen before it’s too late
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Fledgling artificial intelligence (AI) models, the opacity of shadow banking and the euphoria over cryptocurrency are new fault lines in global finance, emerging as dangers that are more dispersed and harder to contain than those of the last crisis. Without coordinated action, we risk stumbling into another systemic breakdown, one that no financial institution or government can resolve alone. Yet, world leaders, overwhelmed by tariff flare-ups and escalating wars, are unlikely to champion needed...
Did US strikes wipe out Iran’s nuclear facilities? Chinese experts sceptical
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Chinese defence experts expressed scepticism about US President Donald Trump’s claim that air strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s biggest nuclear facilities, following reports that core components of Tehran’s nuclear assets remained intact. CNN reported on Tuesday that an assessment by the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, was at odds with Trump’s claim that Iran’s enrichment sites – Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan – were “completely and totally obliterated”. While the full...
China’s Feitian 2 hypersonic vehicle shows critical capabilities in test flight
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A Chinese university has successfully flown its Feitian 2 hypersonic vehicle at a site in northwestern China, according to an announcement on the Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) website on Monday. The research team said the test represented the first successful acquisition of real-flight data for a rocket-based combined cycle (RBCC) engine using a kerosene-hydrogen peroxide propellant. The university’s statement said the test flight proved key capabilities, including...
Macau luxury property The 13 Hotel sells for HK$600 million to a local buyer
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The 13 Hotel, touted as one of the world’s most expensive hotels, has been acquired for HK$600 million (US$76.43 million) by an unidentified investor in Macau, the city’s first such property transaction in eight years. The sale of the 22-storey lodging in Macau’s southernmost district of Coloane concluded a five-year search for a buyer, Savills Macau managing director Franco Liu said on Wednesday. The acquisition was Macau’s first hotel transaction since the fourth quarter of 2017, according to...
Not just manufacturing: Li Qiang vows China will be major consumption power
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Premier Li Qiang has pledged that China will become a “consumption powerhouse” capable of fuelling domestic and global growth, even as he acknowledged the country was grappling with a slump in cross-border investment and persistent trade tensions. Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Tianjin on Wednesday, Li reiterated Beijing’s commitment to boosting demand in the world’s second-largest economy and defending globalisation. “This will make China a mega-sized consumption...
Child sexual abuse cases in Hong Kong nearly double over decade
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The number of child sexual abuse cases in Hong Kong has nearly doubled over the past decade, reaching more than 500 last year, with over one in five of the perpetrators aged 16 and below, authorities have said amid a rise in harmful incidents targeting youngsters. Lawmakers on Wednesday called for the government to urgently address a rise in the number of younger abusers. They also asked authorities to release the guidelines for the coming mandatory reporting mechanism for suspected child abuse...
China urging private firms to invest more in cross-border infrastructure
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China will significantly encourage private enterprises to participate in infrastructure projects, including cross-border connectivity initiatives championed by the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Minister of Finance Lan Foan said at the lender’s annual meeting. As the global economy slows and international development aid declines, developing countries are increasingly constrained by limited public resources for connectivity investments, Lan said at the meeting in Beijing on...
South Korean student shares harrowing escape from Israel amid missile barrage
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A South Korean college student has recounted her harrowing escape from Israel amid a barrage of Iranian missile strikes as a fragile ceasefire between the arch-foes takes hold following a 12-day conflict. The woman, who is studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, chronicled her June 13 evacuation during the aerial clash in a video posted to YouTube last Thursday. She said she was woken up by air raid sirens at 3am, forcing her to rush into a bomb shelter. “I initially thought the...
Boss Zhipin taps buoyant Hong Kong market with US$288 million share offering
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China’s largest online recruitment platform Kanzhun, also known as Boss Zhipin, said on Wednesday it had issued 30 million new class A ordinary shares in Hong Kong, the company’s first public fundraising in the city since its dual primary listing in December 2022. The offering, aimed at enhancing the company’s financial flexibility and strengthening its liquidity, is expected to raise up to HK$2.26 billion (US$288 million). The maximum issue price per share was HK$78, representing a premium of...
China’s AI capital spending set to reach up to US$98 billion in 2025: BofA
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Capital expenditure on artificial intelligence (AI) in China is forecast to reach 600 billion yuan to 700 billion yuan (US$84 billion to US$98 billion) this year, according to a Bank of America (BofA) report, as the mainland and the United States race for primacy in the vital technology. That would represent as much as a 48 per cent overall growth this year for China’s AI capex from 2024, BofA Securities’ co-head of China equity research Matty Zhao, who also heads Asia-Pacific basic materials,...
Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation to promote managing director Jeny Yeung to CEO
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The MTR Corporation has promoted managing director Jeny Yeung Mei-chun to CEO from January next year and tasked her with leading the Hong Kong rail giant through a transformation. The corporation, which is nearly 75 per cent owned by the Hong Kong government, said on Wednesday that Yeung would succeed CEO Jacob Kam Chak-pui on January 1 next year for a three-year term following a global selection process. Kam, 63, was made chief executive officer in April 2019 and had his contract renewed...
China’s plug-in hybrid exports spike in wake of EU tariff exemption
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Chinese plug-in hybrid electric cars are rapidly flooding the European market, with exports to the bloc rising an extraordinary 600 per cent year on year in May as China’s brands take advantage of an exemption in European Union tariffs. The trend is part of a wider boom in sales of Chinese passenger plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), with China’s overall exports of the cars soaring 127 per cent year on year in May, according to data released on Monday by the China Automobile Dealers...
China’s property slump could extend into 2027 with more price drops: Goldman
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China’s prolonged property downturn could extend into 2027 with another 10 per cent decline in real home prices, as policymakers maintain a cautious stance despite mounting risks to the broader economy, Goldman Sachs said. In a report on Wednesday, the Wall Street bank compared China’s property slump with 21 major housing busts from history in both developed and emerging markets, finding that such downturns typically lasted six years and involved a median real price drop of 30 per cent. China’s...
Wat’s the problem: Cambodia resurrects cultural theft claims against Thailand
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As Thailand and Cambodia remain locked in a border dispute, another conflict has erupted – this time on the cultural stage, with Cambodia condemning a Thai temple for copying the design of its world-renowned Angkor Wat. Accusations against Wat Phu Man Fa in Buri Ram province, a region that borders Cambodia in northeast Thailand, have been levelled since the construction of the 100-million-baht (US$3 million) temple began in 2020. But now, they have escalated to the national level. Cambodia’s...
China’s top security agency mocks CIA informant drive: ‘farcical’
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China’s top intelligence agency says a recent CIA campaign aimed at recruiting informants from China is a sign the US spy agency is desperately looking for ways to survive as Washington slashes budgets. “Yet, as resources shrink, the CIA has doubled down on hyping the ‘China threat’ as its lifeline, peddling fear to Congress and taxpayers to carve out a larger slice of the budget pie,” the Ministry of State Security (MSS) said in an article published on Wednesday on its official WeChat...
US tariffs not only killing trade, but chilling investment, leaders warn
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Uncertainties created by the United States’ tariff blitz are not only disrupting global supply chains, but also causing investors to delay decisions, entrepreneurs and policymakers said at the “Summer Davos” forum. The warning at the annual gathering, which kicked off in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin on Tuesday, came as the trade war continued to cast a chill over the global economy, with US President Donald Trump threatening to reimpose tariffs on dozens of countries within...
JD.com hires full-time food delivery riders to challenge Meituan, Alibaba
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JD Logistics has kicked off recruitment of full-time meal delivery riders, as its parent – e-commerce giant JD.com – intensifies efforts to compete with Meituan and Alibaba Group Holding in the lucrative Chinese food delivery market. Hong Kong-listed JD Logistics said on Tuesday it had started hiring full-time riders for JD.com’s food delivery business, in a move aimed at broadening the subsidiary’s service offerings, according to a filing with the stock exchange. Beijing-based JD.com launched...
Twin shocks of Israel-Iran war, Trump tariffs bring global recession closer
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The outbreak of a new war in the Middle East, together with a destructive tariff war, makes for a lethal combination in a sluggish world economy. Notwithstanding the tentative ceasefire, the odds of imminent global recession have increased sharply. One shock was bad enough. US President Donald Trump’s tariffs imply downside risks to global growth. But the potential for a second shock – a war between Israel and Iran that has now ensnared the United States – compounds the problems for an...
Experts in China assess combat debut of US bunker-busting GBU-57 in Iran
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Chinese military analysts have closely followed Saturday’s US strikes on Iranian facilities, and especially the bombs used – the GBU-57, a powerful “bunker buster” designed to penetrate deeply buried targets. While praising the success of the B-2’s long-range delivery and the bunker buster’s performance, they also pointed out the limitations in its effectiveness, especially against sites like Fordow that are deep underground. Mainland China is believed to have the world’s most extensive...
Hong Kong tops global list for priciest homes despite slump: Deutsche Bank
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Hong Kong remains the world’s most expensive city to buy a home, despite a 20 per cent decline in prices over the past five years, according to the Deutsche Bank Research Institute’s Mapping the World’s Prices report. Despite economic headwinds and high mortgage costs, the average price for a flat in the city centre stood at US$25,946 per square metre – keeping Hong Kong ahead of rivals like Zurich, Singapore and New York, according to the report released on Tuesday, which covered 69 cities...