I’m a little perplexed and bemused by the brouhaha surrounding Hong Kong’s decision to draft its first five-year plan, as if the sky is falling in around the city’s famed laissez-faire economy. Predictably, Yale University’s Stephen Roach (he...

Tensions between Beijing and Manila appear to have spilled over from the South China Sea to immigration, just as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr indicated he wanted to “reset” ties. Manila on Sunday dismissed Beijing’s criticism of De...

Tencent Holdings’ WeChat is already the undisputed super-app for over a billion people in China, handling everything from splitting dinner bills to hailing taxis. Now, Tencent is embedding an artificial intelligence agent named Xiaowei into the pla...

Whether he is pulling a pint, tossing a builder’s helmet in the air or running with Olympic medallist Mo Farah, the UK’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has embraced social media with a deft touch. As well as putting out videos on his own account...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the US is getting ready to squeeze Iran with unprecedented economic pressure, a claim critics greeted with scepticism given the country is already subject to a naval blockade and thousands of sanctions. While the...

Africa is emerging as fertile ground for Beijing’s drive to make the yuan a major international currency and reduce reliance on the US dollar, as an increasing number of financial institutions deepen their integration with China’s payment network...

Hong Kong’s immigration chief has rejected claims that world‑class snooker players are using a local talent scheme primarily to cut their tax bills, saying zero‑tax Middle Eastern destinations would be more logical if avoidance were the only go...

Changes in US trade policy and interest rate trends will significantly affect Hong Kong’s economy but the impact will be “primarily psychological”, the finance chief has said, while expressing optimism for growth momentum to continue into the s...

Melania Nius was at her husband’s hospital bedside on Indonesia’s Flores Island when a powerful quake shook their town to its core, sending patients fleeing into the chaos outside. Melania, 56, recounted how she prayed as she fought to get her fa...

Scorching weather will persist across Hong Kong on Sunday and Monday, with maximum temperatures climbing to 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) before a low-pressure system brings squally thunderstorms and unsettled weather by midweek. The very hot we...

In a cramped handicraft shop in Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po neighbourhood, 70-year-old Jen Kwong was sifting through reels of embroidered and sequinned ribbons while other shoppers around her were hunched over containers of tiny beads and trinkets. Kw...

After last year’s border conflict with Cambodia, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers left Thailand, exposing how dependent parts of its economy had become on cross-border labour. Thailand has tried to ease the squeeze by holding on to workers ...

Electric eels hunt in pitch-black, murky waters by generating electric fields around their bodies. Now, Chinese scientists have mimicked this natural radar, giving robots the ability to “feel” objects without making physical contact. “We want t...

China’s southern manufacturing powerhouse of Guangdong province welcomed nearly 40 computer science students from Tsinghua University this week, part of a targeted push by local authorities to bridge a widening gap in China’s artificial intellige...

A man in central China has completed more than 200 trips to remote mountain villages in a year, visiting elderly parents on behalf of their children who work and live far from home or overseas. Tian Rui, 39, from Yichang in Hubei province, is a forme...

During a crackdown on organised crime, Zeng Jianbin, a real estate developer in Mianyang, in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for being a “gang leader”. In 2023, the Mianyang Intermediate People’...

For Asian musicians, the Grammy Awards represent the ultimate dream and recognition of success in the global music industry long dominated by their Western counterparts. When BTS, widely regarded as the world’s most famous Asian pop act, decided no...

An ageing society and a widening income gap threaten Hong Kong’s social fabric. In the last of a five-part series on the city’s five-year plan, we look at what can be done to address these key issues. Read part one here, part two here, part three...

Sales of luxury homes in mainland China’s top cities are picking up as high-net-worth individuals, benefiting from the country’s tech boom, splash out billions of yuan to improve their housing. The buying binge has sparked expectations of a broad...

The cables that link Australia with the rest of the world lie mostly unseen, stretched across the seabed and threaded through some of the Indo-Pacific’s busiest and most contested waters. This vulnerability could also become a strategic advantage, ...

Colombia’s new President Abelardo de la Espriella on Saturday called on his US counterpart Donald Trump to suspend tariffs currently targeting the South American nation, which is reeling after a deadly earthquake. US tariffs on Colombian products r...

A China-led team has cleared the last major hurdle in the race to commercialise the most promising alternative to conventional silicon solar technology, paving the way for the next generation of low-cost, high-efficiency panels to be made on an indus...

Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis University Town is no longer just a planning concept. After site visits by a university town task force, the government has reportedly absorbed lessons from overseas models, expanded the university town area to more ...

Iranian authorities revealed on Saturday that three of Tehran’s pilots who went down early in the Middle East war were still being held in Qatar, calling on the Gulf state to release them. Iran had previously reported one pilot killed and others mi...

Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 11 people on Saturday, in the deadliest attacks since a truce between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on June 20. Lebanon’s health ministry and state news agency said an air strike that ...

Police in Virginia have arrested a 19-year-old in connection with a shooting on Saturday that left five people injured. No one died in the shooting, though one victim sustained critical injuries. Chesterfield county police announced the arrest of Cam...

Hong Kong police have launched an internal investigation into a female officer who posted a video of herself dancing in uniform on mainland Chinese social media, and ordered her to remove it. The video, which has gone viral in recent days, shows a sh...

Taiwan’s push to build a modern counter-drone shield has come under renewed scrutiny after an official audit uncovered technical shortcomings and a key procurement programme collapsed following repeated testing failures. The developments have fuell...

Hong Kong authorities have conducted a counterterrorism drill at the revamped Huanggang border crossing and used a new “crowd flow” test to simulate an unexpected surge in passenger numbers, with about 5,000 civil servants taking part. The counte...

The upgraded Huanggang border crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen is due to begin service following about six years of redevelopment. Sources previously said the Huanggang Port Hong Kong Port Area could open as early as September, becoming the ci...

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....

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan should prioritise the Northern Metropolis megaproject, strengthen the city’s position as an international financial centre and advance its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, major business chambers have sa...

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 textbo...

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 th...

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...

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 a...

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 2...

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 natu...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 afte...

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 complaints jumped more than 60 per cent year on year in the first hal...

Hong Kong fintech hub Cyberport has added 66,000 square metres (710,420 sq ft) of space in its fifth-phase expansion, with more than half of its offices already leased to tenants including mainland Chinese technology companies, according to its chair...

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...

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 technical...

Hong Kong’s lush forests are teeming with more wildlife ranging from birds arriving from neighbouring regions to newly discovered reptile species, experts have found, as they urge authorities to devise a conservation list to protect vulnerable loca...