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News - South China Morning Post

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Secure Arctic shipping route essential for China,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

The Arctic shipping route is essential to safeguard China’s development over the next decade, a senior Chinese official said in Beijing, calling for greater efforts to expand its practical use. With proposals for the next five-year plan incorporating security and development, China must ensure its international transport channels remain unimpeded, Ma Jiantang, deputy director of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference’s economic committee, said. China’s traditional trade lanes...

Singapore cracks down on scammers with mandatory...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Singapore’s government said on Friday that scammers will face mandatory caning of up to 24 strokes from December 30, under changes to criminal law to deter surging fraud cases. The changes, passed by parliament last month, strengthen penalties that already include imprisonment and fines. The Home Affairs Ministry said the enhanced punishment “ensure that our criminal laws remain effective, fair, and responsive to emerging challenges”. Under the changes, scammers, including recruiters and

China eyes mastery of EUV lithography, bolstering AI...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

China’s reported development of its own extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine to make advanced semiconductors for artificial intelligence and high-performance computer systems could provide a “massive” boost to the country in its tech rivalry with the United States, according to analysts. Scientists at a high-security Shenzhen laboratory earlier this year built “what Washington has spent years trying to prevent”: a prototype EUV lithography machine, according to a Reuters report on...

Landmark in-air refuelling test extends China’s drone...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Northwestern Polytechnical University has conducted what could be China’s first openly reported autonomous aerial refuelling flight test, according to scientists involved in the project. Two unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) were used in the refuelling tests. One served as the tanker with a refuelling pod and the other as the receiver. In high-speed formation flights, the receiver autonomously located, tracked and docked with the tanker under extreme conditions using a highly robust...

Taiwan’s opposition lawmakers vow to impeach leader...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) announced on Friday they would try to impeach the island’s leader, William Lai Ching-te, according to reports from Taiwanese media. Fu Kun-chi, the convenor of the KMT caucus in Taiwan’s parliament, accused Lai of undermining constitutional norms and behaving in an authoritarian manner. “Lai must step down and Taiwan must not allow the emergence of figures like Yuan Shikai or Cao Kun,” Fu said, according

China discovers Asia’s largest undersea gold deposit...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

China has discovered its first undersea gold deposit – the largest in Asia – marking a breakthrough as Beijing steps up nationwide exploration for the precious metal. The discovery, off the coast of Laizhou, in Yantai, Shandong province, lifted Laizhou’s total proven gold reserves to more than 3,900 tonnes (137.57 million ounces) – about 26 per cent of the national total – ranking it top in both gold reserves and output in China, Yantai’s city government disclosed this week at a conference on...

Putin warns West as Russia eyes more Ukrainian...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Friday said the ball was in the court of the West and Kyiv in talks to end the war in Ukraine, while hailing Moscow’s recent battlefield gains and threatening more. Putin spoke during his annual end-of-year press conference – a staple of his 25-year rule – in which he told Russians Moscow was intent on pressing on in Ukraine, striking a confident tone. The 73-year-old has repeatedly said in recent weeks that Moscow will seize the rest of Ukrainian land he has...

BeOne Medicines names R&D chief Wang Lai as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

BeOne Medicines, a global drug company that originated as a research and development (R&D) firm in Beijing, promoted Wang Lai to the newly created role of co-president, marking a leadership expansion as the company advances its late-stage pipeline and globalisation efforts. The 48-year-old has served as the company’s global head of R&D since April 2021. Effective January, Wang would take the helm of an expanded portfolio, retaining his R&D responsibilities while also overseeing business...

Trump leaves war with Venezuela on the table,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

US President Donald Trump said he was leaving the possibility of war with Venezuela on the table, according to an interview with NBC News published on Friday. “I don’t ⁠rule it out, no,” he told NBC News in a phone interview. Trump also said there would be additional seizures of oil tankers near Venezuelan waters, according to the interview. The US seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week. “If ‍they’re foolish enough to be sailing along, they’ll be sailing along

Labour MPs urge UK to protect Hong Kong BN(O)...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

A group of Labour Party MPs have urged the British government to ensure changes to permanent residency requirements do not undermine support for Hongkongers on a bespoke visa pathway or others admitted on humanitarian grounds. They have asked the Home Office to consider exempting the BN(O) routes from the government’s proposed overhaul of the wider settlement system as part of four requests to extend support for Hongkongers under the scheme. James Naish and 33 of his Labour colleagues sent a...

Hong Kong fire: authorities seek to dissolve Wang Fuk...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Hong Kong authorities are seeking to dissolve the management committee of the Wang Fuk Court owners’ corporation and appoint a new administrator for the residential estate, in an unprecedented move following the city’s deadliest fire in decades. Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak Mei-kuen said on Friday that the government was intervening for the first time on record in an estate’s affairs by applying to the Lands Tribunal to dissolve the management committee of the owners’...

Chinese military tightens review of equipment and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

The Chinese military is pushing for stricter rules on equipment purchases, including its pricing system, to stem corruption. According to a set of “professional ethics” released on Friday, the Central Military Commission’s (CMC) Equipment Development Department should foster “professional values in the new era”, with quality the top priority in equipment procurement. The department should serve the People’s Liberation Army with “integrity and clean practice”, the official PLA Daily quoted the...

Why Chinese ‘ask rice’ divination ritual involves...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

A mysterious and ancient tradition in China involves practitioners who try to predict the future and communicate with the spirit world via a ritual known as rice divination, or mun mai, in the south of the country. Its origins can be traced back to the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) and a belief that all things in nature followed patterns and cycles, which are closely connected to human fortune and misfortune. The term “rice divination” comes from the main component used in the practice, 1,080...

China’s military build-up could ‘seriously’ affect...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

China’s military build-up “could have a serious impact” on Japan’s security, Tokyo’s defence ministry has warned as tensions with Beijing spiral.Japan has closely monitored People’s Liberation Army (PLA) activities stretching across the first island chain, the ministry said in a report released on Thursday. “[China] is broadly and rapidly strengthening its military capabilities, centred on its maritime and air forces as well as its nuclear and missile forces ... Its active military

Hong Kong to exempt 90% of households from...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

The Hong Kong government will exempt 90 per cent of households from the year-long population census in 2026, opting instead for a “re-engineered” model that uses existing data to track the city’s demographics – a major break from decades of statistical tradition. Leo Yu Chun-keung, commissioner for census and statistics, said on Friday that the 2026 population census had been revamped to improve workflow. “To modernise the mode of Hong Kong’s population census, we will implement several...

Bank of Japan raises rates to levels unseen since 1995

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) raised interest rates on Friday to levels unseen in three decades and signalled its readiness for further hikes, taking another landmark step in ending decades of huge monetary support and near-zero borrowing costs. It also removed language that growth and inflation will stagnate due to the impact of higher US tariffs, underscoring the central bank’s conviction that Japan was on course to stably hit its 2 per cent inflation target backed by wage gains, and ready for a...

Hulk smash? Malaysian officer rips car door off...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

A Malaysian police officer’s superhero moment has gone viral after dashcam footage showed him wrenching open a suspect’s car door with his bare hands during a chase. The two-minute clip, widely shared on social media, shows a car being driven against the flow of traffic on a busy road in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah on Malaysian Borneo, before it is intercepted by police. In the video, the suspect’s vehicle screeches to a halt as an officer repeatedly orders the driver to step out.

Six years on, are we better prepared for the next...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

This week, exactly six years ago, as we were gliding cheerfully into the 2019 festive Christmas season, the Covid-19 virus was spreading in Wuhan, China. I was preparing for an important meeting in Australia in February (the last overseas trip I would make for three years), oblivious to the looming pandemic. The world in general had no inkling of the terrible three years that would follow, with death estimates ranging from 7 million to 36 million, over 700 million infections reported, an...

Tech pivot: Chinese AI, chip start-ups court global...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

More Chinese artificial intelligence firms and chipmakers are turning to Hong Kong for fundraising, testing the appetite of global investors following stellar onshore debuts of graphics processing unit (GPU) developers Moore Threads Technology and MetaX Integrated Circuits. GigaDevice Semiconductor is a step closer to its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) after passing a listing hearing, according to bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX). The company is expected to...

Market rates set Hong Kong’s HK$150,000 subsidy for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Hong Kong authorities took market rates into account before setting a two-year annual subsidy of HK$150,000 (US$19,278) for flat owners displaced by the Tai Po fire, the city’s home affairs minister has said, amid calls for the government to monitor whether the new measure will further drive up rents in the area. Under the new measure, homeowners of the fire-damaged Wang Fuk Court will each receive the subsidy to rent homes in the private market, at a total cost of HK$1.2 billion. Both flat...

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