News - South China Morning Post

Amid Hong Kong’s commercial property downturn, British conglomerate Jardine Matheson has sold a street shop in Causeway Bay for HK$80 million (US$10.2 million) after holding it for more than 50 years, accepting a price HK$10 million below its earlier valuation. The property, a ground-floor shop in H&S Building at 36 Leighton Road, with a gross floor area of about 11,727 square feet, was acquired b...

The world is on the cusp of a “China shock 3.0” driven by exports of artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology and robots, which could hit harder than the current wave, a leading economist on China has said. “We are already at the starting point of the China shock 3.0,” Alicia Garcia-Herrero, a senior fellow at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel and chief economist for Asia-Pacific at investment...

Susan Thornton is a former American diplomat who for decades worked on US policy in Eurasia in the State Department before becoming acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs during the first Trump presidency. She is the director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a senior fellow at the Paul Tsai China Centre,...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has called a nearly US$1.5 trillion defence budget request “absolutely critical”, warning that whoever falls behind in autonomy, robotics and AI will fall “even further behind” as Washington eyes China’s rapid military modernisation. Speaking at a panel discussion during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting and Exposition on Wednesday, H...

Be warned. The global economy is likely to experience a recession next year. War across the Middle East is set to escalate, wrecking energy supplies for many years, even as the artificial intelligence (AI) bubble is ripe to burst. This, however, would also create an energy leadership opportunity for China. High energy prices already fuel demand for Chinese renewable energy products and electric ve...

SpaceX boss Elon Musk said on Wednesday that any disruptions reported by Ukraine in using the Starshield satellite communications system would be the responsibility of the US government, not his company. “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” Musk said, referring to US President Donald Tr...

US stocks dropped to their worst day since July on Wednesday, following the latest signal that inflation is getting worse. The S&P 500 sank 1.1 per cent for a fifth loss in the six days since setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 48 points, or 0.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite slid 1.9 per cent as stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry led the way lower. Sto...

Bank of America, the second-largest US bank, failed to promptly report hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions bearing signs of Chinese money-laundering networks, US regulators said on Tuesday, announcing more than US$1.21 billion in penalties for broader anti-money-laundering and sanctions failures. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, said the activity included...

The Yemeni government has spoken with Beijing about the Houthis’ alleged attempts to utilise Chinese-made technology for weapons, a Yemeni minister said on Wednesday, as the two sides’ long-running civil war escalates. “The Chinese are partners and we have discussed with them about, you know, the use of dual products,” Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba said in response to an Agence France-Presse que...

Irish author Sally Rooney can no longer sell her books in the UK because of her support for the activist group Palestine Action, her publisher Faber said on Wednesday. Rooney has previously expressed her support for the group, which was banned as a “terrorist” organisation by the UK government in July 2025. It is not banned in Ireland, where Rooney lives. The proscription, which the organisation i...

Leaders of the EU’s 27 member states will instruct Brussels to “urgently” come up with new weapons to counter the imbalances they believe are caused by China’s economic policies, at a meeting in the Belgian capital on Thursday. The instruction – part of a draft statement being negotiated ahead of this week’s European Council summit – comes after the European Union and China reached a surprise deal...

Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department has extended a scheme allowing property owners to install smart fire alarm systems rather than traditional safety equipment to another 6,000 old buildings, but conceded that no installations had been completed although the policy was rolled out over five months ago for 3,600 blocks. Lai Kin-mo, acting deputy chief fire officer for building improvement, said on...

Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML expects China to account for about 20 per cent of its total sales this year, after seeing shipments to the market more than double during the previous quarter despite mounting US pressure for tighter export restrictions on less advanced chipmaking machinery. The company’s sales to China surged 109 per cent in the third quarter compared with the previous thr...

The United States Army has launched a new task force aimed at countering Chinese efforts to block American and allied warships and aircraft in a potential conflict. The 4th Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) – established at Fort Carson, Colorado on October 8 – is the latest addition to a series of specialised formations developed for operations in the western Pacific. Those formations were earlier ac...

A Ukrainian man accused of helping to mastermind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines four years ago went on trial for war crimes in Germany on Wednesday, with his defence calling for the case to be dismissed. The closely watched trial – the first involving one of the alleged perpetrators of the 2022 attacks in the Baltic Sea – opened at the Higher Regional Court in the northern city of Hambur...

Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday that China stands ready to import more high-quality goods, particularly high-value-added products, as part of efforts to promote more balanced trade. Li made the pledge at a symposium for the autumn session of the biannual Canton Fair, China’s largest foreign trade exhibition. The nearly three-week-long event officially opens on Thursday, with more than 32,000 ex...

US President Donald Trump said “massive” oil, gas and mineral exploration is set to begin in “our new and beautiful Greenland” early on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear what exploration or developments the US president was referring to in his post, and Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, rather than a part of the United States. Trump posted on social media following a campai...

Middle powers should become “indispensable” chokepoints to safeguard strategic autonomy and survive the power rivalry between the US and China, former leaders and top diplomats said at a forum in India on Wednesday. The assessment comes as smaller and middle-tier countries seek to protect themselves from mounting geopolitical uncertainties arising from the tariff war launched by US President Donal...

Philippine officials want a new anti-foreign interference law ahead of the 2028 presidential election, as a raid on a suspected online scam centre near the country’s military headquarters and reports of Chinese-linked money transfers to a company tied to Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio’s family fuel national security concerns. On Monday, immigration and military operatives arrested 76 foreigner...

As the US Treasury imposed historic fines on Bank of America over compliance failures involving Chinese money-laundering networks, analysts see the action as a signal that could prompt Western banks to tighten scrutiny of Chinese clients and cross-border transactions. The penalties, announced on Tuesday and totalling more than US$1.21 billion, included what the US Treasury described as its third-l...

For a decade, former Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan stood out as a political survivor while colleague after close colleague fell in China’s far-reaching anti-corruption campaign. Throughout that time, including his seven years as the megacity’s mayor from 2009 to 2016, Huang was seen as a “tumbler” in Chinese politics – a weighted doll that wobbles but never falls over. The nickname was well-deserved...

Hesai Group, the world’s largest maker of lidar sensors for vehicles, has launched a 3D spatial camera as it expands into physical artificial intelligence in search of new growth opportunities. The handheld device, called Kosmo, is described by Hesai as a “physical AI eye” and converts real-world environments into detailed, editable 3D models. The company said it was designed to standardise the di...

Beijing has warned Taiwanese people against acting “two-faced” on the issue of Taiwan independence after television host Kevin Tsai Kang-yong attended a campaign rally for a Taipei mayoral candidate who has been labelled a separatist by Beijing. The episode underscores the political risks facing Taiwanese entertainers working on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, who can face backlash over any actio...

A new exhibition about a pioneering school that nurtured talent for the country has opened at a Hong Kong history museum as part of the government’s efforts to promote national education, with many exhibits shown in the city for the first time. “National Development and Achievements Series: Cultivation and Renewal – The Education Legacy of Hong Kong’s Ta Teh Institute”, a free exhibition presented...

Taiwan’s coastguard is buying US-designed uncrewed surface vessels for its first dedicated drone-boat programme to strengthen its ability to detect and track the growing presence of mainland Chinese vessels operating around the island. Florida-based Maritime Tactical Systems (Martac) announced on Tuesday that the deal covered an undisclosed number of its Devil Ray T24 autonomous boats, with produc...