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News - South China Morning Post

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Hong Kong visitor arrivals off to strong start in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Hong Kong has begun 2026 with a surge in inbound tourism, welcoming 7.23 million visitors to date, marking a 9.6 per cent increase compared with the previous year. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also said that 1.43 million mainland Chinese visitors were expected during the Lunar New Year holiday, up by 6 per cent from last year. He attributed the expected boost to the mega-events scheduled throughout the holiday. “Hong Kong’s Lunar New Year atmosphere is rich and vibrant, blending...

ByteDance ‘strengthening safeguards’ after Seedance...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

ByteDance is working to strengthen safeguards in its Seedance 2.0 video-generation tool after it received global blowback for alleged intellectual property (IP) violations, the Chinese short-video giant said on Sunday. The controversy focuses on the TikTok owner’s alleged use of copyrighted content to train its artificial intelligence model, as videos of Hollywood celebrities, Disney characters and comic book heroes generated by Seedance have flooded the web in recent days. On Saturday,

China expands oversight of major banks amid property...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

China has expanded its list of domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) – institutions subject to tighter regulatory standards – as authorities step up macroprudential oversight to safeguard financial stability amid high exposure to property sector debt. China Zheshang Bank, a joint-stock lender in east China’s Zhejiang province with total assets of 3.35 trillion yuan (US$485 billion), was added to the list released on Friday by the People’s Bank of China and the National Financial...

From fireworks to racing, how Hong Kong is...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Hong Kong will usher in the Year of the Horse with a string of events starting on February 17 and welcome an estimated 1.43 million mainland Chinese for the festivities. The mainland’s holiday runs from February 15 to 23, while the local one extends from February 17 to 19. From the roar of fireworks over Victoria Harbour to the thunder of hooves at Sha Tin Racecourse, the South China Morning Post unpacks what to expect. 1. What will happen on Lunar New Year Day? The city’s first major...

Hong Kong police arrest man after HK$25,000 in cash...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Hong Kong police have arrested a passenger for allegedly stealing HK$25,000 (US$3,200) in foreign currency from carry-on luggage on an inbound flight from Kuala Lumpur. Airport police said on Sunday that a male passenger had reported the previous day that his money had been stolen from his luggage stored in an overhead compartment. Authorities said a 35-year-old mainland Chinese man was arrested on suspicion of theft following preliminary investigations, and he remained in police...

Cyber Lunar New Year trending among China youth who...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Amid the firecrackers and festive cheer, China’s young generation is redefining the Chinese Spring Festival with a “Cyber Lunar New Year”, blending hi-tech with spiritual pragmatism. From burning digital incense on their smartphones to exchanging electronic New Year’s goods and finding emotional comfort in the arms of artificial intelligence (AI) companions, young people are reshaping traditions in their own virtual way. Cyber worship The Lunar New Year is traditionally a time for visiting...

Coach driver arrested after vehicle crashes on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Hong Kong police have arrested a driver after his coach crashed on the Shenzhen Bay Bridge, leaving 17 people with minor injuries. Police said the bus ran into railings at 1.50pm on Sunday while heading to the city in the slow lane of the cross-border link. Emergency services were immediately dispatched to the scene and confirmed 17 passengers – 10 men and seven women – suffered minor injuries, the force said. They were taken to Tin Shui Wai and Tuen Mun hospitals. After the accident, parts

Hong Kong aims to add facial recognition to public...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Hong Kong’s surveillance cameras are expected to incorporate facial recognition technology as early as this year, pending the resolution of legal and technical issues, according to the city’s police chief. Commissioner of Police Joe Chow Yat-ming also said on Sunday that the force would prioritise linking closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in high-traffic and strategically located shopping centres into the force’s SmartView system, noting that operators had “responded positively” to the...

Beijing warns tech giants to curb ‘involution’ amid...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

China’s top market regulator has summoned the country’s leading tech companies to demand an end to “involutionary” competition, at the time when the companies are pouring billions of yuan into a Lunar New Year promotional blitz to win over users for services including artificial intelligence apps. The companies summoned on Friday were Alibaba Group Holding, ByteDance’s Douyin, Baidu, Tencent Holdings, JD.com, Meituan and Taobao Instant Commerce, Alibaba’s on-demand delivery unit, the State...

Asia-Pacific properties set to steal spotlight as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

As Hong Kong, mainland China and several other Asian markets usher in the Year of the Horse on Tuesday, the region’s commercial real estate sector is expected to draw increased cross-border capital, with certain segments set to outperform as mega-deals make a comeback, analysts said. Asia-Pacific was set to be a focus among global investors, with data cited by global commercial real estate consultancy Colliers showing that capital raised for the region’s property markets had surged by 130 per...

Rubio, Wang Yi manage US-China great power rivalry in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/14

The US and China sought to manage their great power competition at Europe’s premier defence summit on Saturday, even as their top diplomats traded thinly veiled barbs at their respective roles in the current global tumult.In back-to-back speeches at the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke of the need to carefully manage the superpowers’ differences, continuing a relative thaw that is expected to see US President Donald

Trump-style diplomacy could win friends for China but...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/14

Last week, US ambassador to Poland Tom Rose cut off contact with his host country’s parliamentary speaker over what he described as “outrageous and unprovoked insults” against President Donald Trump. Washington would “not permit anyone to harm US-Polish relations nor disrespect” the president, Rose warned, without specifying the insults. However, lower house speaker Wlodzimierz Czarzasty, a left-wing Polish politician, had earlier criticised Trump’s policies and said he would not support an...

UAE-Saudi rift over security threats push Arab...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/14

Bahrain and Egypt are attempting to mend ties between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, two sources said, weeks into a diplomatic rift between the Arab world’s most powerful countries. Saudi Arabia and the UAE had a public falling out in December, when the kingdom accused its neighbour of threatening its national security by supporting Yemeni separatists who orchestrated a brief land grab. A source close to the Saudi government insisted there was “no need for mediation” because

Hong Kong users warned of heavier mega bridge traffic...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/14

Transport authorities have warned of heavier traffic on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge from Sunday because of the combined effect of a key link’s suspension in Zhuhai and increased travel over Lunar New Year. A temporary link between the mega bridge’s Zhuhai Port and Qinglu South Road will be closed for repairs from Sunday until further notice, with Hong Kong’s Transport Department urging users to plan ahead and use public transport as far as possible. Drivers could access the Zhuhai Port

Beijing slams US, UK, Australia and EU over Jimmy Lai...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/14

The Chinese foreign ministry’s arm in Hong Kong has lodged “solemn representations” with local envoys for Britain, the US, Australia and the EU over remarks made by their officials and politicians about the sentencing of former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying. The Commissioner’s Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong issued a statement on Saturday, saying it had summoned representatives from the countries and the bloc on Wednesday and Thursday. “The commissioner’s office lodged solemn...

Tokyo releases captain of Chinese fishing boat found...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/14

Japan has released the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that Tokyo says tried to flee an inspection while in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Japan’s fisheries agency said the captain was released before 8pm on Friday after China submitted documents guaranteeing payment of bail, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday. The agency said the boat, the Qiong Dong Yu, was seized inside Japan’s EEZ off its southwestern Nagasaki prefecture on Thursday. It was ordered to stop for an

China’s gold rush: why families are doubling down on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/14

People across China are buying up gold in large volumes ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, as surging prices for the precious metal fuel its popularity as both a festive gift and an investment. From migrant workers splashing out on gold-coated jewellery, to white-collar workers pouring their savings into gold-linked investment funds, the metal is widely seen not only as a marker of social respectability, but also as a safety net amid an uncertain world. The rising demand comes amid an...

Taiwanese visits to mainland China topped 3 million...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/14

More Taiwanese are visiting mainland China but the numbers have yet to cross pre-Covid levels, data from the island’s tourism body shows. Taiwanese media attributed the slow recovery to continued cross-strait tensions and partial travel restrictions. According to Taiwan’s Tourism Administration, around 3.24 million Taiwanese visited the mainland last year, nearly 17 per cent more than in 2024. But this was still 20 per cent lower than the figure for 2019, the year before the coronavirus...

Bangladesh PM-to-be celebrates landslide win, thanks...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/14

Bangladesh’s prime minister-in-waiting Tarique Rahman on Saturday dedicated his landslide election win to those who “sacrificed for democracy”, calling for unity after the first polls since a deadly 2024 uprising. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Rahman, 60, the scion of one of the most powerful political dynasties, is set to lead the South Asian nation of 170 million people after sweeping elections on Thursday. “This victory belongs to Bangladesh, belongs to democracy,” he said, in

Protecting national security seen as key to Hong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/14

Safeguarding national security is crucial for Hong Kong to fully implement the “one country, two systems” governing principle and ensure the city’s stability, which will aid its development and attract foreign investors. That was the key takeaway from a high-level meeting hosted by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Saturday to discuss a white paper issued by Beijing earlier this week, only the third such report released by the State Council on local affairs since 2014. The document focused

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