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Kremlin denies Putin’s isolation from Russia’s woes...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

The Kremlin on Friday denied that ⁠President Vladimir ⁠Putin was insulated from ⁠bad news after a celebrity blogger accused unidentified top officials of not telling Russia’s paramount leader the truth about the country’s problems. Viktoria Bonya, a social media influencer who ‌is well known inside Russia for her appearances on reality TV shows, said this week that she supported Putin and listed five problems which she said officials were not briefing him on honestly. Her video was watched

Arrest of Philippine ex-lawmaker Zaldy Co ‘missing...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

The arrest of fugitive former congressman Zaldy Co has revived a long-stalled Philippine corruption investigation and sharpened political pressure on President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, whom the wanted lawmaker has accused of personally benefiting from a multibillion-peso kickback scheme tied to flood control projects. Observers called Co’s arrest a “notable step towards accountability” in a case that had stalled after the collapse of the commission set up to investigate it. Co resigned from the...

Vietnam and China are now perfectly aligned

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

Even before Donald Trump returned to the White House, Vietnam’s military planners were already busy preparing for a possible second invasion by the United States and its allies. In the “Second US Invasion Plan”, secretly issued in August 2024, the Vietnamese military rejected playing any part in America’s China containment strategy in the Asia-Pacific. Rather, it sees the US promotion of “freedom and democracy” as a cynical ploy to maintain hegemony in the region. The document, released in...

Hong Kong eyes HK$220 million private investment for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

Hong Kong authorities will seek half of the HK$440 million (US$56.2 million) investment for a planned national innovation centre in Yuen Long from the private sector, while setting performance benchmarks that an analyst has called ambitious. The target was announced after Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po revealed the plan in his latest budget in February, which earmarked funds to establish the first national manufacturing innovation centre outside mainland China as part of efforts to...

Smoother waters? China and Vietnam vow to ‘better’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

Beijing and Hanoi have bolstered their commitment to demarcation talks over a contested stretch of water in the South China Sea, pledging to “better” navigate bilateral frictions in the area, according to a joint communique. The document also said the countries’ ruling communist parties had agreed to shore up each other’s leadership at home with the adoption of a new five-year action plan. Published on Friday as To Lam, Vietnam’s top leader, wrapped up his four-day visit to China, the

Cathay Pacific, HK Express up passenger counts...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways and its budget arm had more passengers in March than a year ago, despite the impact of the United States-Israel attack on Iran. In a statement issued on Friday, Cathay Group also said it aimed to restore all flights after June. The company earlier announced it was cutting the number of Cathay Pacific flights by 2 per cent and HK Express services by 6 per cent between mid-May and the end of June. The group attributed the growth to a spate of...

China complains of ‘harassment’ from New Zealand...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

China has lodged a protest with New Zealand about the activities of a military aircraft near its coast, suggesting it had put commercial airlines at risk. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Friday that a P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft had “conducted continuous close-in reconnaissance and harassment in the airspace and waters of the Yellow Sea and East China Sea”. He said such actions undermined China’s security interests, heightened the risks of misunderstandings and...

UN reforms can’t wait any longer, Kazakhstan’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Friday that the war in Iran had laid bare the urgency of long-delayed UN reforms, arguing that the world body must be strengthened if multilateral diplomacy is to help restore global peace and security. “We have been talking about that for a long time, but only talking happens,” Tokayev told the fifth Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey. “Everybody is feeling the impact of the Iran war and everybody is suffering.” At the three-day summit

Malaysia’s Anwar chats with US Muslim streamer – is...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is usually seen in carefully choreographed meetings with presidents, kings and regional leaders in Putrajaya. So it was striking to see him instead riding through the city on a casual live stream with Sneako, the controversial 27-year-old American streamer and Muslim convert whose appeal to mainly young male audiences has made him an unlikely cultural figure. For more than an hour on Friday, the live stream gave Anwar a rare chance to sell Malaysia, his...

China slams Japan for sending warship through Taiwan...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

China criticised Japan for sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait on Friday, just days after Tokyo announced its troops would join a major US-Philippine military drill for the first time. Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the entry of a Japanese Self-Defence Force vessel into the strait was a “deliberate provocation.” He added that Beijing had lodged a “strong protest” with Tokyo. “The Chinese military has dealt with this incident in accordance with regulations,” Guo said. “[The...

Asian airlines face ‘major headwind’ from jet fuel...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

Asian airlines are cutting flights, raising fares and reshuffling networks as the Iran war sends jet fuel prices soaring, leaving carriers across the region scrambling to protect their margins and preserve key routes. The shock has hit Asia especially hard because many economies depend heavily on fuel flows from the Middle East, according to aviation analysts, and some regional carriers are less protected from sudden price spikes than their counterparts in Europe or the US. “The impact has

Tai Po fire: owners’ group repeatedly protested...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

The owners’ corporation of a Hong Kong housing complex devastated in the city’s deadliest fire in decades failed to convince renovation workers to use fire-resistant materials due to the absence of statutory requirements, a public inquiry heard. Tony Tsui Moon-come, chairman of the management committee of the incorporated owners of Wang Fuk Court at the time of the fire, said on Friday he and other residents were “helpless” when trying to compel contractor Prestige Construction and

Chinese ministry focuses on car standards to put...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

To sharpen its competitive edge in the world’s next-generation vehicle market, China has pledged to fast track automotive technical standards to build its status as a global rule-setter. The carmaking powerhouse would drive high-quality development of the auto sector through the formulation and enhancement of core standards during the next five years, officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) told state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing on...

Hong Kong authorities use drones to help raid illegal...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

Hong Kong’s food hygiene authorities have deployed drones to help dismantle an illegal slaughterhouse in Yuen Long, arresting its 67-year-old operator and seizing 7.4kg of goat meat and offal with an estimated market value of HK$3,000 (US$380). Acting on a tip-off earlier this week, officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department identified a suspicious farm in Kam Tin, Yuen Long. The unlicensed premises were allegedly used to keep and slaughter goats, with the meat to be sold in

China’s space station crew to ‘maximise...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

The three astronauts stationed on China’s Tiangong space station will extend their stay by around a month, state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday. The crew lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on October 31 on board the Shenzhou-21 vessel and were expected to return to Earth at the end of this month after a standard six-month mission. In November, a crack was discovered in a window of the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, forcing the space station’s previous crew to extend their stay for

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang warns Huawei chips for DeepSeek...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on a recent podcast that if Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek optimised its new models on chips from Huawei Technologies, it would be “a horrible outcome” for the US. If “future AI models are optimised in a very different way than the American tech stack”, and as “AI diffuses out into the rest of the world” with Chinese standards and technology, China “will become superior to” the US, Huang said on the Dwarkesh Podcast on Wednesday. The

‘Fire Roses’: China only all-female cremation team...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

At Beijing’s Babaoshan Funeral Home, China’s only all-female cremation team works in searing heat, defying gender stereotypes while gaining a deeper understanding of life and death. The five women, whose average age is 28, carry out their duties with precision and composure, guiding the dead through their final farewell. Known as the Fire Roses, the team formed in 2022, with Yun Xiaolin as its first member. Yun had originally enrolled in a cabin crew programme at her parents’ urging, but

Tycoon Pan Shiyi slams China property ‘Ponzi’ as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

Property tycoon Pan Shiyi issued a rare critique of China’s real estate sector, describing its development model as a “Ponzi scheme” and urging the industry to restore integrity and better protect homebuyers, just days after a fraud trial saw a guilty plea from the founder of China Evergrande – the US$300 billion debt juggernaut whose 2021 collapse triggered a systemic property meltdown. Writing from the United States on Thursday via his personal WeChat account, Pan reflected on the

US-China tensions simmer, economy outperforms, Auto...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

The China-US trade war bubbled away this week, even as the Strait of Hormuz shutdown dominated global headlines. The US is finalising a multinational agreement on trade and critical minerals to break China’s grip on vital resources, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told lawmakers on Thursday. He also sought a higher budget to support more trade investigations, and suggested potential action to pare US farmers’ reliance on Chinese orders. “We’re not just going to lay down and let the...

Will South Korea’s ‘Goldilocks’ missile dent China’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/17

South Korea’s combat-proven, interoperable and geopolitically accessible surface-to-air missiles could hinder China’s efforts to sell its own defence systems to the Middle East, analysts have suggested. The US-Israel war on Iran has been marked by tit-for-tat missile and drone attacks across the Persian Gulf states, driving a surge in demand for surface-to-air missiles to defend against incoming Iranian aerial threats. According to a study by the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a...

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