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China poised to earn vast profits from global energy...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

Chinese companies are primed to capitalise on a vast global wave of investment in clean energy infrastructure in the coming decades, as they are able to deploy solutions at a scale and cost that few can match, analysts said. With China already rolling out green technologies – from wind and solar power to electric cars and batteries – at a massive scale domestically, its firms have the resources and know-how that other countries need to reduce their reliance on coal-fired power plants and...

Death of Iran’s Khamenei sparks outrage and calls for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

The killing of Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli air strikes has prompted governments across Muslim-majority South and Southeast Asia to reiterate calls for restraint as protests flared in several cities, with some religious and political movements hailing the cleric as a “martyr”. Iranian state media confirmed Khamenei’s death on Sunday and declared a 40-day mourning period, casting the assassination as a pivotal moment for the Islamic Republic he had led since...

Chairman of China’s second-largest liquor producer...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

The top executive of Wuliangye Yibin – China’s second-largest liquor producer – has come under investigation for suspected corruption. Zeng Congqin, 57, chairman and party secretary of the state-owned liquor giant, is suspected of serious violations of party discipline and law – a typical reference to corruption – the provincial anti-corruption body, Sichuan Discipline Inspection Commission, announced on Saturday night. Zeng is being investigated by authorities in Yibin, a major city in the...

Why Chinese team’s flexible organic battery could...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

Chinese scientists have developed a flexible and safe organic lithium-ion battery that could be suitable for use in wearable electronics and in extreme conditions. The breakthrough stems from an innovative organic cathode material that enables efficient and stable performance across an extreme temperature range, from far below freezing to as hot as 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit). Conventional lithium-ion batteries typically use inorganic minerals such as lithium cobalt oxide or...

Malaysia has the music. Zamaera wants the world to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

When Malaysian rapper Zamaera hit send on an email to South by Southwest’s (SXSW) music team in mid-December, she had already been told she was returning to Austin as a showcasing artist. What she wanted was bigger: a stage for Malaysia, the kind Japan, Taiwan and Britain already had at the US music festival. “They have a stage … for Japan. Taiwan already has a stage … even the UK and Germany,” the 31-year-old rapper, born Sharifah Zamaera, told This Week in Asia in an exclusive

China worker wins surprise 10-day paid leave on first...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

A Chinese employee became the envy of social media after she won a surprise prize of 10 days’ paid leave on the first day she returned to work from the Spring Festival holiday. On February 24, the first workday following the nine-day holiday during the Chinese New Year, a video showing the employees’ lucky draw went viral, attracting 120,000 likes and 9,000 comments. The video was taken in the renowned spicy gluten latiao company Mala Prince in central China’s Hunan province and was posted

Iran ‘internationalises battlefield’ as retaliatory...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

Thunderous blasts ⁠and towering fireballs from Iranian missiles streaking across Gulf states vindicated their ⁠leaders’ long-held fears that Tehran can bring war to their doorstep, likely to harden Arab rulers’ support for US-Israeli strikes. Even in The Palm, Dubai’s swankiest resort, explosions rattled buildings and hit a luxury hotel, sending panicked residents running for cover as missiles and interceptors tore across the sky. Dubai’s landmark ⁠Burj Al Arab hotel and the airport, which...

35 Hong Kong to Mideast flights disrupted, with more...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

At least 35 flights from Hong Kong to the Middle East originally scheduled for Sunday and Monday have been disrupted following the joint United States-Israeli attack on Iran, with further cancellations and delays likely to follow. Sunday morning also saw hundreds of passengers pack Hong Kong International Airport to inquire about the suspended departures of flights initially scheduled for the previous day. The flights were primarily to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Doha in Qatar and Dubai in the...

Hong Kong universities back AI-themed study tours to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

At least five Hong Kong universities have backed the government’s proposal to launch study tours aimed at attracting non-local secondary students to pursue higher education in the city, with programmes featuring topics such as AI. The University of Hong Kong (HKU), the city’s oldest tertiary institution, said it would offer up to 35 programmes this summer, giving outstanding non-local students a chance to earn full scholarships. In this year’s government budget, education authorities said

Hong Kong-listed Chinese drug firms set to turn...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

Hong Kong-listed mainland Chinese pharmaceutical companies are on track to deliver full-year profits, as surging drug sales and lucrative out-licensing deals with global partners start to pay off after years of research and development outlay. “Despite domestic challenges, particularly drug pricing pressure, the earnings performance of innovative drugs should still fare well in China in 2025,” said Tony Ren, head of Asia Healthcare Research at Macquarie Capital. Innovent Biologics, the first...

With Khamenei dead, who will be Iran’s next supreme...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

The death of Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after almost 37 years in power raises paramount questions about the country’s future. The contours of a complex succession process began to take shape the morning after Khamenei’s assassination. Here is what to know: A temporary leadership council assumes duties As outlined in its constitution, Iran on Sunday formed a council to assume leadership duties and govern the country. The council is made up of Iran’s sitting president, the

How China could narrow a tech hub’s income gap – and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

Ahead of China’s annual legislative meetings – typically a window into Beijing’s top-level policy agenda – this is the third entry in a series examining the complex economic recalibration driving China’s growth philosophy and its wide-ranging implications for local governments, financial investors and private enterprises. In China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, a sprawling laboratory for Beijing’s “common prosperity” campaign to reduce income inequality, statistics suggest success: between

Trump was once not keen on regime change in Iran –...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

With Saturday’s military operation against Iran, US President Donald Trump showed a dramatic evolution in risk tolerance, adjusting in just a matter of months how far he was willing to go in using American military might to confront Tehran’s clerical rule. Guardrails were tossed aside, as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered up a battle plan that included targeted strikes on Iran’s leadership, including the 86-year-old Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose death...

The high price of Hong Kong’s slow switch to electric...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

Hong Kong sees itself as a modern, well-governed, global city that moves with the times. On finance, education, legal services and logistics, that self-image holds. But when considering the green transition, particularly transport electrification, the gap between rhetoric and reality is increasingly hard to ignore. Nowhere is this more evident than in electrifying the taxi fleet, where the quarter-century timeline floated bears little resemblance to what is standard practice in neighbouring...

Chinese social media bans female Uygur comic over...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

A social media ban on a stand-up comic for joking about marriage has triggered an online backlash in China. Authorities said the Weibo account of Uygur stand-up comedian Xiao Pa was suspended as part of a cyberspace clean-up campaign during the Chinese New Year. Xiao Pa, whose real name is Paziliyaer Paerhati, was banned from posting online, a verified Weibo community manager posted on Friday. “Xiao Pa had posted information that stirred up gender conflicts and created anxiety over marriage

China entrepreneur, abandoned as child, owns fashion...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

A businesswoman from central China who was raised in a family that prized sons over daughters has built her own e-commerce fashion empire. Huang Xuanni, 44, grew up in a rural family in Binzhou, Hunan province, where she was the overlooked sixth daughter among seven children. Her parents, who lavished attention on their only son, left Huang to eat alone on the doorstep and rarely remembered her name. Mainland reports recount a heartbreaking moment in her childhood when her parents abandoned

Are new Hong Kong subdivided flat standards...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/01

Hongkonger Chan Sai-chiu considers the 60 sq ft subdivided flat he rents to be home, going out of his way to make the cramped space in Sham Shui Po’s ageing Yee Wa Building more liveable by repainting the walls and setting up his own kitchen. The 72-year-old considers the flat’s HK$3,000 (US$383) rent to be a perfect fit for his tight budget, as he lives off about HK$5,000 from social security payments and receives a rental subsidy of HK$2,500. The building also suits the retiree, who is...

What to know about Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

When targeted by nationwide protests early this year, Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of his nearly four decades in power. But now a US or Israeli military strike has ended his rule. Iran’s state TV confirmed Khamenei’s death on Sunday, a day after after US President Donald Trump said the 86-year-old was dead. Israeli officials also told reporters earlier that he was killed in a major new attack by US and Israeli forces. Khamenei tried to avert

As US-Iran conflict flares, thousands of Middle East...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Flights across the Middle East were being cancelled on Saturday as several countries slammed their airspace shut after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates all announced at least partial closures of their skies in the hours after smoke began rising over Tehran and Iran began retaliatory attacks in the region. Iranian missiles hit capital cities around the wealthy Gulf region, killing at least one, as witnesses...

Hi-tech aids proposed to help elderly climb stairs to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Some anxious residents of fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court have urged Hong Kong authorities to help them climb stairs using makeshift aids when they return to their high-rise homes to collect personal belongings next month. Some lawmakers also proposed on Saturday that the government deploy wearable walking robots, stair-climbing trolleys or wheelchairs to assist elderly residents of the Tai Po estate devastated by the inferno that claimed 168 lives and displaced nearly 5,000 people in

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