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Xi-Trump summit: presidents enter Great Hall of the...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/14

This live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account below.Unrivalled Xi-Trump summit analysis: get real-time updates and exclusive boots-on-the-ground reporting from our Beijing and Washington bureaus. Subscribe now with great savings to stay ahead. US President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping today for a much-anticipated summit that could shape the next stage of rivalry between the world’s two superpowers. It is the first

Centuries ahead of Wall Street: how China’s Song...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/14

At least gold glitters. Long before the first paper banknotes fluttered through the financial houses of Europe, the bustling markets of 11th century China birthed an unprecedented financial “innovation”: the use of paper currency. In the 1020s, burdened by the shortage of bronze coins and a rapidly expanding economy, merchants in the southwestern province of Sichuan began issuing paper promissory notes. This marked the genesis of jiaozi, the world’s earliest paper money. Soon, with the

Jimmy Lai case shows press freedom is not a...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/14

The death of Ted Turner, who founded CNN in 1980 as the world’s first 24-hour television news channel, is a poignant reminder of the glory days of the fourth estate. CNN made day-and-night news coverage, including at the front line of battlefields, an everyday experience for many people. The rise of the internet and ever more channels of news delivery has enabled a global audience of news consumers, attuned to reports delivered from all around the world. This has turned the most successful

‘Basically a Chinese racket’: how China streaked...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/14

Chinese universities have significantly overtaken their American rivals in research output at one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) conferences, according to an analysis of more than 5,000 accepted papers that went viral on social media. Among the top 50 institutions contributing to the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), held in Rio de Janeiro last month, mainland China accounted for about 44 per cent of the total, with Tsinghua University, Shanghai...

China parent brings son, 12, to work, where he plays...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/14

A 12-year-old boy in China who was taken to work by one of his parents literally played with fire and left an office completely destroyed. The parent, whose gender is unknown, took the boy to an office in Ningbo in the eastern province of Zhejiang on April 30 in an effort to enhance their emotional bond, the Red Star News reported. It is not clear what kind of company this parent works for. While busy with work, the parent left the boy alone in the office. The youngster became bored and came

US’ Rubio calls on China to play an ‘active’ role in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/14

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington hopes to convince Beijing to play a “more active role” in resolving the Iran crisis, a clear sign the issue will come into sharp focus when President Donald Trump holds his closely watched summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Speaking to Fox News aboard Air Force One, Rubio said the Iran war was a “huge source of instability” and “threatens to destabilise Asia more than any other part of the world because it’s heavily reliant on the straits

Chinese memory module makers ramp up production as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

Chinese memory module manufacturers are accelerating the release of consumer and enterprise storage products powered by domestic DDR5 chips, as breakthroughs by ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), the nation’s leading memory chipmaker, filter through the supply chain. Powev, one of China’s major memory module vendors, recently said its Sinker-branded DDR5 server memories had entered mass production and delivery. The 64GB DDR5-5600 RDIMM product passed testing by multiple major customers and

Hong Kong tech crimes are dropping. So why is hacking...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

The number of reported technology-based crimes in Hong Kong dipped over the past year, but financial losses from hacking more than doubled to HK$62.6 million (US$8 million), prompting police to urge companies to bolster their cybersecurity checks. Carmen Leung Oi-lam, senior superintendent of the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau, attributed the surge in money lost, despite the overall drop in technology cases, to several high-value cyberattacks on financial institutions and...

Hong Kong’s Central office rents set to reverse...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

Office rents in Hong Kong’s Central district are expected to rise faster in the second quarter of the year, according to analysts, a reversal of a multi-year slump that began in the second half of 2019. The latest forecast was made by US bank Citi, which said premium offices in the city’s main business zone had seen rents rise 1.7 per cent from a trough in October, with room for further increments between the second half this year and 2027. “Lease negotiation dynamics had started to favour...

Chinese-American found guilty in New York ‘secret...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

A Chinese-American was found guilty on Wednesday of acting as a Chinese agent in a case involving a Chinese police station set up in New York’s Chinatown. The week-long trial of Lu “Harry” Jianwang, 64, was seen as a test of Washington’s ability to counter what prosecutors said were efforts by Beijing to expand its influence and intimidate Chinese communities well beyond its shores. On the three charges Lu faced in the US Eastern District Court of New York, he was found guilty of acting as an...

‘Transactional’ but pivotal: how Xi-Trump talks could...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

US President Donald Trump’s landmark visit to China comes as the US-Iran war disrupts global energy supplies, fuels economic uncertainty and adds fresh strain to Washington-Beijing ties. In the latest instalment of a series examining how rivalry, interdependence and geopolitical crises are reshaping the relationship between the two powers, we look at the likely outcomes from Trump’s trip. As Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday night for the first US presidential visit in nearly a...

US Senate warns of China’s nuclear capabilities hours...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

A US Senate hearing on nuclear capabilities issued a warning about China on Wednesday, hours before US President Donald Trump was due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. Senator Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in his opening statement that China has been engaged in an “unprecedented nuclear expansion” in recent years. China, Wicker said, had “rapidly constructed hundreds of new missile silos, expanded mobile missile and ballistic...

US woman who wrote book on husband’s death gets life...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

A Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole for his murder, a judge ruled Wednesday. Kouri Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing her husband Eric Richins’ cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying

US renews US$100 million Cuba aid offer as Trump...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

The Trump administration on Wednesday publicly renewed an offer of US$100 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, stepping up pressure on Havana despite Beijing’s continued political and economic backing for the island. The announcement came as US President Donald Trump travelled to China this week for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with Trump saying before departure that Cuba would be among the issues discussed during the visit. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the State Department...

Warsh confirmed as Federal Reserve chair, as US...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Kevin Warsh as the new Federal Reserve chairman to lead a central bank whose independence is under attack and with inflation at a three-year high. The Senate voted 54 to 45 to in favour of Warsh, with Republicans holding a slim majority and ensuring US President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Jerome Powell was confirmed. Once known as a monetary “hawk” against inflation, Warsh has shifted in line with Trump’s push for lower interest rates that has posed

Israel’s Netanyahu made ‘secret’ visit to UAE during...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that he secretly visited the United Arab Emirates during the Iran war and spoke to the Emirati president, in what would be their first confirmed meeting.According to the statement, the meeting resulted in a “historic breakthrough” in relations between ‌Israel and the UAE. A source familiar with the meeting said Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) met in Al-Ain, an oasis city by the Oman border, on March 26 and

Paediatrician in Germany charged with sex offences in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

A paediatrician at a hospital near Berlin has been charged with sex offences in 130 cases, many of which are said to have taken place at the hospital, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The extent of the offences, which include serious sexual abuse of children and rape, had previously been unknown. The paediatrician has been in pre-trial custody since November, with prosecutors citing a risk of reoffending as a reason for the man’s continued detention. In January, it became known that the doctor

Wary mood to mark Xi-Trump summit with irritants...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

Washington and Beijing have piled on irritants in advance of this week’s summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, suggesting that neither side wants to be seen as a deal killer – even as they try to build potential leverage to bargain away, analysts and former US government officials said. Scott Kennedy, senior adviser with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said that both sides had been “picking up some chits which they might be...

French prosecutors seek 7-year sentence for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

French prosecutors on Wednesday requested a seven-year prison sentence for former president Nicolas Sarkozy in an appeal trial on charges that he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election. Sarkozy, France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012, has always denied any wrongdoing but last year became modern France’s first former president to have gone to jail over the case, before he was released after 20 days pending his appeal trial. Prosecutors had also requested seven years in the first...

Bodies of 3 women recovered from the sea off UK’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/13

The bodies of three women have been recovered from the sea off Brighton. Sussex Police said emergency services were called after concerns were raised for the women’s welfare at around 5.45am on Wednesday, and their bodies were pulled from the water near Madeira Drive. Chief Superintendent Adam Hays said the coastguard is completing an “extensive search of the water”, but the force is not searching for anyone else. The officer said CCTV inquiries are being carried out. Following the incident,...

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