News - South China Morning Post

More than 1,500 Hong Kong residents toured the revamped Huanggang Port border crossing on Sunday as authorities pushed ahead with preparations for its opening. A Security Bureau spokesman said that participants took franchised buses or cross-boundary coaches from various districts to reach the crossing and were shown the new port building in groups. “The event effectively enhanced participants’ un...

Losses linked to the abrupt closure of Hotstone Yoga have risen to nearly HK$8 million (US$1 million), with close to 700 reports filed by affected customers in Hong Kong, according to authorities. The Customs and Excise Department said that as of 6pm on Sunday, it had received 694 reports relating to the yoga chain, involving service contracts worth about HK$7.8 million. The Consumer Council said...

Beijing has been urged to do more to protect its overseas interests with a call for diplomatic engagement to reshape international rules and deeper security cooperation with other countries. As China’s expanding global footprint comes under pressure from geopolitics and restrictions from the West, a Chinese analysis posted on the Global Security Research social media account has called for a major...

China Eastern Airlines has reported a male passenger to the police for allegedly disturbing order, after a flight attendant was filmed kneeling in a cabin aisle to apologise for bumping his elbow with a service trolley. In its second statement on the incident, the carrier said on Saturday that it believed the actions of the passenger amounted to disturbing order aboard a civil aircraft and had sev...

The Hong Kong Observatory has issued an amber rainstorm warning, with the signal expected to remain in place until 10pm on Sunday. The weather forecaster issued the warning at 8.20pm. “A few squally thunderstorms are expected to occur over Hong Kong,” a spokesman for the Observatory said. Showers would be heavy at times in the evening. The forecaster also warned that intense gusts reaching 70km/h...

For American and Chinese people interested in the outcome of the latest summit between China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, their conclusions could not be more different if they turn to the media and pundits for guidance. Chinese state media spared no superlative, echoing the official description of the summit as: forging the right way for the major powers to get along and w...

Hong Kong health authorities will deploy on-site staff and step up support via a dedicated hotline for patients visiting Kai Tak Hospital amid booking and transport queries as the city’s largest public hospital begins its phased opening. From Monday, Kai Tak Hospital’s family medicine integrated centre will start operations, while specialist outpatient services and automated features in the hospit...

Thousands of young protesters and opposition parties staged protests in the national ⁠capital and Mumbai on ⁠Sunday, demanding the resignation of Election Commission Chief ⁠Gyanesh Kumar, as police detained demonstrators for a third consecutive day. Opposition leaders Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray led protests in Mumbai calling for the scrapping of revisions to the electoral roll and Kumar’s...

A 60-year-old Hong Kong woman has lost more than HK$21 million (US$2.7 million) in a cryptocurrency scam after a fraudster posing as an investment expert she met online duped her. The clerk reported the case to police on Saturday, saying she had befriended an individual claiming to be an investment specialist on “Baby Kingdom”, a popular online parenting forum and community website, on March 15 th...

Nearly 1,500 Myanmar nationals who were sent back from Malaysia arrived in the country’s largest city on Sunday despite warnings from the UN refugee agency and rights groups that conditions for return remain unsafe. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021, triggering widespread opposition and plunging large par...

Authorities in the Chinese capital are releasing more than a billion parasitic wasps and encouraging caterpillar-catching competitions to try to contain the spread of the invasive North American fall webworm. The caterpillars have blanketed trees in Beijing and surrounding areas this summer, spinning clouds of greyish-white webs as they eat their way through foliage. The insects are the fuzzy larv...

In the third instalment of a four-part Health Matters series on traditional Chinese medicine, Aidyn Fitzpatrick speaks to a Hong Kong fencer studying TCM and local practitioners to see how athletes, both elite and amateur, are using TCM alongside Western medicine for smarter injury recovery. Fresh off helping Hong Kong clinch a bronze medal in the women’s foil team event at the 2026 Asian Games in...

It is no secret that Chinese emperors had many women in their lives, and the imperial concubine system was a significant feature of feudal social structures. Ming-era (1368–1644) emperors could have upwards of 9,000 consorts, ostensibly to ensure an heir. Unfortunately, these women often existed in gilded prisons, barred from leaving the palace grounds and frequently subject to the wrath of a crue...

Hong Kong will begin importing hundreds of foreign domestic carers as early as the second half of 2027 under a new pilot scheme, with their pay up to 20 per cent higher than that of domestic helpers, the city’s labour minister has said. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said on Sunday that the carers would be equipped with both specialised elderly care skills and general domestic...

Hong Kong’s first Legislative Council president suggested reviewing the number of seats in the city’s legislature, citing the need to use public funds properly. Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai also said on Sunday that Hong Kong and Shenzhen authorities had discussed the development of a plot at the two cities’ border before the handover to Chinese rule in 1997, but the plan failed because of opposition withi...

Taipei’s dilemma over its history during World War II appeared to deepen as Beijing and Washington looked to the Flying Tigers as a source of connection and goodwill during last month’s Xi–Trump summit. US President Donald Trump’s description of China as an American ally during the war has raised concerns in Taiwan that what could have been a valuable historical connection with the United States e...

Russia struck a bridge in Kyiv on Sunday soon after Germany’s chancellor arrived in Ukraine’s capital on a surprise visit to demonstrate European support in the face of an upsurge in attacks. Air raid sirens blared across Kyiv, urging residents to shelter soon after Friedrich Merz arrived under tight security, with warnings of approaching Russian attack drones. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko then con...

More than 60 per cent of Hong Kong’s eight-year-olds could be short-sighted by 2028, optometrists have predicted, citing a shrinking “hyperopic reserve” that normally helps delay nearsightedness. The Hong Kong Association of Private Practice Optometrists released the findings on Sunday from a study of more than 3,500 pupils at eight primary schools conducted between November and May, urging parent...

When the Auspicious Ark entered Dakar, Senegal, on September 25, the scene looked closer to a public health mission than a naval deployment. Senegalese people and members of the Chinese community were waiting at the port as the vessel arrived for the first visit by a Chinese naval hospital ship to Senegal. The Auspicious Ark is a PLA Navy vessel. That places the visit within a wider Chinese mariti...

Beijing has hit back at a US lawmaker’s criticism of coffee chain Starbucks for opening its first stores in Xinjiang, rejecting the allegation that China has committed human rights abuses against the far-western region’s mostly Muslim Uygur population. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun on Saturday said claims of “genocide” in Xinjiang were a “blatant lie” and accused the “US group” who raised...

A cluster of whale and whale shark strandings across Indonesia – five in the past three weeks alone – has raised questions over whether such incidents are becoming more frequent, with experts pointing to a mix of environmental shifts, human activity and improved reporting as possible explanations. On September 25, a whale shark became stranded and died on a beach in Aceh province, just days after...

Despite signs that Hong Kong property prices could have bottomed out and begun rebounding in August, market sources said at least 100 secondary residential homes were sold at a loss in September, up from at least 81 the previous month. Hong Kong’s property market dodged an immediate setback from the US Federal Reserve’s rate increase in September, and agents estimated that home prices could end th...

A flight bound for Okinawa returned to Hong Kong airport on Sunday morning after its landing gear was suspected to have failed to fully retract after take-off. Hong Kong Airlines said the crew of flight HX676, which departed at 8.57am, decided to return to ensure flight safety, in line with standard procedures. “[The flight] encountered a suspected incomplete landing gear retraction issue after ta...

Funds raised through initial public offerings in Hong Kong more than doubled year on year to over HK$388 billion (US$49.4 billion) in the first nine months of 2026, already surpassing the total amount for the whole of last year, according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po. Adding to the positive outlook, Clara Chan Ka-chai, CEO of the government-owned Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC),...

A 20-year-old US marine was arrested on Sunday in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture on suspicion of robbing and murdering a local woman, police said. Davin Ballard stationed at the Futenma Airbase is suspected of killing Anna Yagi, 39, and taking her wallet and backpack in the early hours of Saturday at a hotel in Naha, according to the Okinawa prefectural police. The suspect has denied the charges, they...