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UK’s Reeves unveils tax plan amid embarrassing budget...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

Britain’s unpopular centre-left Labour government sought to seize the political narrative on Wednesday with a tax-raising budget that it hopes will boost economic growth by fostering a stable debt outlook, reduce child poverty and ease cost-of-living pressures. But the entire contents of the budget were leaked half an hour before Treasury chief Rachel Reeves delivered the budget statement in the House of Commons, in a sign of the chaos that has engulfed the government during weeks of mixed...

How some Chinese exporters benefit from US...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

The growing influence of stablecoins is beginning to reshape how some Chinese firms conduct cross-border settlements. In this explainer, the Post outlines four roles that US dollar-backed stablecoins play in China’s overseas trade, based on a recent analysis by Zou Chuanwei, the president of the Jiangsu Jinke Research Institute on Digital and Technology Finance, published in Tsinghua Financial Review. How are Chinese traders using US dollar-backed stablecoins? First, some overseas importers

China’s private defence firms; Beijing sets yuan fix:...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s private defence companies see opportunities amid growing conflicts Escalating global conflicts could create opportunities for China’s private defence companies as customers, both at home and abroad, seek affordable and reliable military equipment, according to industry insiders. 2. Why China’s space sector is grabbing attention – including from

Beijing demands clarity from Japan on one-China...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

Beijing intensified its pressure on Tokyo and demanded a clear declaration of its stance on the one-China principle as the two countries continued to clash on Wednesday over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan. On Tuesday, the Japanese cabinet adopted a written response to a lawmaker’s question about Takaichi’s remarks, noting that they “do not change the government’s consistent position”. Such statements were “far from enough”, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao...

Average waiting time for a public rental flat in Hong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

Hong Kong’s average waiting time for public rental housing rose to 5.5 years as of September, despite more flats being allocated, with authorities attributing the marginal rise to longer waits for homes in urban districts. The Housing Bureau said on Wednesday that the latest waiting time for general applicants – family or elderly households – in the past 12 months was slightly higher than the 5.4 years recorded at the end of June. Between July and September, 5,600 general applicants were...

AI scaling hasn’t reached a dead end yet, Chinese...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

There remains considerable potential to enhance artificial intelligence models by scaling up computing power and data, according to Yao Shunyu, a senior research scientist at Google DeepMind and former researcher at US AI start-up Anthropic. Amid heated discussions in the AI community about the future of scaling – the process of increasing computational resources and training data to develop better AI models – Yao said the method was still expected to yield results for at least a year “until

How AI, quantum and space technologies will define...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

History rarely announces its turning points. More often, we wake up to find that the world we assumed was fixed has begun to shift beneath our feet. That is happening now. Artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and space infrastructure are advancing at a pace that stretches our political instincts – even our imagination. Each is transformative on its own. Together, they are becoming the new architecture of global power, an engine that will determine which nations shape the century

China challenges US containment with global action...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

China’s space agency has released an action plan to take its commercial space sector worldwide, pledging to help integrate commercial projects into its international cooperation agenda. The ambitious plan could challenge a number of US laws and government regulations aiming to curb the expansion of China’s space industry on the global stage. On Tuesday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) posted guidelines for the promotion of commercial space flight and enterprises through to

Tesla affirms confidence in Chinese partners,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

Tesla does not exclude suppliers based on their country of origin as the US electric-vehicle (EV) maker applies unified and rigorous standards in selecting vendors from around the globe, according to a senior official. Grace Tao, vice-president of the US company, offered a vote of confidence to the more than 400 Chinese manufacturers that supply car components from batteries to heat-control systems to Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory. She made the remarks on Wednesday, in what appeared to be an...

Alibaba to lead AI capital spending among Chinese...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding expects to stay ahead of its Chinese Big Tech peers in artificial intelligence-related capital expenditure, as the firm’s AI and cloud computing unit posted its fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth. Alibaba Cloud on Tuesday reported a 34 per cent year-on-year revenue growth to 39.8 billion yuan (US$5.6 billion) in the three months ended September 30, as the Hangzhou-based parent’s overall revenue in its financial second quarter

Bangladesh authorities uncover fugitive ex-PM...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

Anti-corruption authorities in Bangladesh have seized about 10kg (22 pounds) of gold worth about US$1.3 million from bank lockers belonging to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, officials said on Wednesday. Officials from the Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) of the National Board of Revenue said the discovery was made after opening lockers that had been seized in September. “Following a court order, we opened the lockers and found about 9.7 kilograms of gold belonging to the former prime...

Taiwanese leader Lai pledges US$40 billion rise in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te has set out plans for an unprecedented rise in defence spending worth US$40 billion over the next eight years, describing it as a historic investment to safeguard the island’s democracy and deter an increasingly assertive Beijing. In an article for The Washington Post published on Wednesday, Lai said his government had committed to “significantly increase” military expenditure to 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product next year, then raise it further to 5...

China’s mega dredger joins ranks of the world’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

China has boosted its strategic capacity from land reclamation to deep-sea mining and pipelines, with the successful completion of sea trials for Asia’s largest trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD). The Tongjun – China’s first domestically designed super dredger – completed its five days of testing in the Yellow Sea off the northeastern Chinese coast on Tuesday, three months after its launch, according to state news agency Xinhua. With a hopper capacity of more than 38,000 cubic metres (1.3...

Japan man defies family, rejects traditional career...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

A man in Japan has defied his family’s expectations by rejecting a civil service examination, wearing women’s clothing and living in a flat filled with rubbish. His 2022 story has recently gained attention in China amid rising reports of extreme parenting. Mizuki, 26, is a graduate of the prestigious University of Tokyo and was raised in a strict, success-driven household, according to Fuji TV. His father, a scholar, kept his distance, while his mother pushed him relentlessly to excel...

Hong Kong retail funds hit record pace, surpass 2024...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

Hong Kong retail funds booked gross sales of US$82.6 billion in the first three quarters of this year – surpassing the full-year total for 2024 – as inflows into fixed-income products surged, according to data from the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association (HKIFA). Gross sales jumped 35 per cent year on year. Net sales reached US$15.7 billion year to date, the highest level in the past decade and 44 per cent higher than a year earlier, exceeding the US$12.3 billion of net inflows recorded

Hiking in China made easy with rental exoskeletons

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

In China’s tech hub Hangzhou, visitors to a country park can rent an exoskeleton to aid their climb for as little as 1 yuan (14 US cents). The exoskeleton is said to make the hiking process almost “effortless”, according to Chinese social media users.

36 dead, 279 missing in Hong Kong housing estate blaze

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. What we know so far: 36 people, including a firefighter, have died. Some 279 are still missing 29 have been hospitalised, seven in a critical condition The eight residential blocks in the estate had been undergoing renovations since July 2024, sheathed in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh Authorities say the rapid spread of fire was “unusual”, with...

Why this is not just another retail downturn for Hong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

There was a time when Hong Kong’s retail landlords looked untouchable. If you wanted a dependable income, you would buy shares in the city’s leading real estate investment trusts (Reits), the steady dividend machines of a service economy built on foot traffic, routine and the long-held assumption that Hongkongers would always shop. These companies were the unshakeable pillars of everyday commerce. They prospered not because the economy was roaring, but because consumers kept showing up. That

Major fire in Hong Kong’s Tai Po leaves 2 severely...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

A major fire has broken out in Hong Kong’s Tai Po neighbourhood, with fierce flames tearing through bamboo scaffolding at a housing estate, leaving two people unconscious with severe burns and trapping several residents. Photos circulating online showed dark smoke billowing high into the sky from the scene on Wednesday afternoon. The Fire Services Department received a call at 2.51pm reporting a fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po. Police said they received multiple reports of people trapped in

Chinese carmakers boost robotics efforts, Xpeng posts...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/26

We have put together stories from our coverage on electric and new energy vehicles from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s Xpeng posts record revenue as robotaxi and humanoid ambitions take shape Leading Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Xpeng reported record quarterly revenue and sharply narrowed losses in the third quarter, even as its Hong Kong-listed shares fell on Monday after investors...

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