PODCAST

News - South China Morning Post

All the latest breaking news from Hong Kong, China and around the world

All Episodes

3 serving lawmakers make urgent appeals in Hong Kong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

Three incumbent lawmakers seeking another term by running in Hong Kong Island West made desperate appeals just hours into Sunday’s Legislative Council election, with the race for directly elected seats heating up compared with four years ago.Hong Kong Island West is the only geographical constituency among the 10 where three serving legislators – Judy Chan Kapui, Chan Hok-fung and Kwok Wai-keung – are competing with two newcomers for two seats, essentially meaning at least one of them will

Constituency home to deadly blaze records lowest...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

The constituency encompassing the housing complex destroyed in one of Hong Kong’s deadliest fires recorded the lowest turnout rate across the city in the Legislative Council election according to an estimate just hours before polls closed, but those who showed up vowed to vote for a representative who would truly help the displaced residents. Several voters also directed their anger at the city’s largest party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), after

Hong Kong property tycoons turn heads at poll, urge...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

Hong Kong’s property tycoons made high-profile appearances to cast their ballots during Sunday’s Legislative Council election and urged the public to fulfil their civic duty. Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) chairman and managing director Raymond Kwok Ping-luen voted at the Wong Chuk Hang Sports Centre in Aberdeen on Sunday morning. SHKP said it had introduced several measures to encourage its staff and the public to fulfil their civic duty by voting to elect capable candidates. The Legco poll,...

With one small step for AI, Chinese scientists make...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

Imagine a robot that could tie your shoelaces to the perfect degree of tightness, or a robotic hand capable of performing abdominal surgery and then suturing the wound with impeccable precision. You might assume these feats would rely on complex electronic sensors, and yet a breakthrough by Chinese scientists has made it possible for robots to rival the skill of experienced surgeons – even with their “eyes closed” – using just a simple knot. The achievement, by an interdisciplinary team from...

Benin thwarts coup amid economic growth, rising...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

Benin’s government on Sunday said that it had thwarted an attempted coup after a group of soldiers announced on state television that they had ousted President Patrice Talon. West Africa has experienced a number of coups in recent years, including in Benin’s northern neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso, as well as Mali, Guinea and most recently, Guinea-Bissau. Talon, a 67-year-old former businessman dubbed the “cotton king of Cotonou”, is due to hand over power in April next year after 10 years

Chinese firms gear up for Russia’s reopening amid...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

Chinese cross-border e-commerce entrepreneur Andy Guo has just opened two warehouses covering a total of 5,000 square metres (53,820 sq ft) on the outskirts of Moscow. He said the move was not about addressing logistical bottlenecks, but preparing his business for a potential geopolitical shift that could reshape his fastest-growing yet most uncertain overseas market if Russia and Ukraine reach a peace deal. US President Donald Trump has continued to push for the end of hostilities between...

New Hong Kong polling stations praised but few ethnic...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

More than 20,000 Hongkongers – mostly civil servants – signed up to cast their ballots at new designated polling stations set up to facilitate voting in the Legislative Council election, while fewer than 20 individuals from ethnic minority communities made use of the new arrangement. Electoral Affairs Commission chairman Justice David Lok Kai-hong said on Sunday that the watchdog would review the arrangement of designated polling stations after the election, stressing that no benchmarks were

Civic duty drives some Hongkongers to vote, while...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

Some Hongkongers have said they took part in the Legislative Council election out of a sense of civic duty, while others were drawn by company benefits, retail discounts and souvenirs offered to holders of voting thank-you cards arranged by the government to boost turnout. According to the Post’s observation at more than 10 polling stations across the city on Sunday, a majority of the voters were elderly. One 85-year-old woman made her way to a polling station in Wan Chai with a walking stick...

Indonesian helper’s terrifying 3-hour ordeal as fire...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

An Indonesian domestic helper has recalled how she and her employer’s elderly parents huddled together in a smoke-filled bedroom for an agonising three hours, covering their noses with wet towels as they lay trapped while a deadly inferno engulfed a Hong Kong estate last month. The helper, who gave her name as Olive, recalled to the Post the ordeal the trio went through on November 26, as the devastating fire swept through seven of the eight residential high-rise blocks at Wang Fuk Court in

‘Virginity battle’: Chinese women caught between old...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

A research project about changes in family life over three generations has found that traditional values still play a key role in sexual relations in China, and women often struggle amid tensions between old and new. One of the areas of conflict is what researcher Liu Jieyu has called a “virginity battle”. Influenced by Western liberal attitudes, many younger Chinese men are open to premarital sex, and they often pressure their girlfriends to have sex while dating, according to Liu’s new

Why top German diplomat’s China trip aims to manage...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul’s trip to China this week signals a mutual desire to resume high-level dialogue amid mounting economic and geopolitical tensions, according to analysts. But they cautioned that the visit, which could lay the groundwork for a trip by Chancellor Friedrich Merz early next year, should be viewed as pragmatic management of a complex “systemic rivalry”, rather than a major reset in Beijing’s relations with Berlin or Brussels. For Germany, securing access to...

China boy in blackboard plea for used bottle...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

A Chinese secondary school pupil who asked his classmates to save their used water bottles so he could sell them to help ease his family’s financial position has been praised online. The plea in the form of a blackboard message was written by a Grade Two pupil at No 5 Middle School in Huainan, in eastern Anhui province. His request went viral on social media at the end of November after fellow pupils shared it online, the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reported. “My fellow students in Grade Three,...

Deaths among 13 households still missing in Tai Po...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

Members of 13 households at the Hong Kong estate destroyed in an inferno remain uncontactable more than 10 days after the blaze, with the city’s labour and welfare chief not ruling out that all may have died. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said the blaze at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po had prompted the government to consider expediting legal amendments to ban smoking at construction sites within about two months and to introduce a fixed penalty ticket system for the offence,...

Hong Kong blaze may have started on scaffolding...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

The fire that tore through the Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po and killed at least 159 may have started on scaffolding between the first and second floors of one of the blocks, according to preliminary investigations by Hong Kong fire services. The city’s fire services director also said a life-size replica of the floors in question might be built to help determine the exact ignition point. Andy Yeung Yan-kin revealed the preliminary findings in a group interview with mainland Chinese...

Hong Kong scaffolding net sample ignites in test...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

A scaffolding net sample from a large Hong Kong housing estate produced flaming droplets and ignited a fire in a lab experiment despite passing the authorities’ safety standards, a test commissioned by the Post has found. The findings have prompted calls from experts to review the standards set for the nets and improve the existing safety regulations targeting scaffolding on renovation sites. Soon after the inferno at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po on November 26, the Post collected net samples

How China can ensure Tazara rail deal in Africa is a...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

Ground has quite literally been broken on a Chinese-funded project to modernise the Tanzania-Zambia railway after years of negotiations, amid intensifying “corridor wars” as major powers compete to shape transport and trade networks across not just Africa but also Eurasia and beyond. The US$1.4 billion upgrade will restore the 1,860km railway, known as Tazara, a vital corridor linking Zambia’s Copperbelt to the Indian Ocean via Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam port, connecting southern and eastern...

China promised zero tariffs for Africa. Why is South...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

South Africa, China’s largest trade partner in the continent, and other Southern African Customs Union (SACU) members are suffering from an unforeseen barrier to enjoying Beijing’s zero-tariff policy. The hurdle is eSwatini’s continued diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and hence exclusion from the favourable policy. SACU customs deals are negotiated collectively among the five member states, which means none can unilaterally benefit from the preferential tariff exemption. Beijing sees Taiwan

Operation Santa Claus backs expansion of Hong Kong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

A project offering counselling to teenagers with depression and anxiety in Hong Kong will be expanded next year to reach more students, after about half of those it has helped showed no further signs of mental health issues, according to a local charity. Mind HK, the charity running the three-year initiative, also offers psychological support to people affected by the inferno at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, where at least 159 people were killed and 79 others injured after a blaze swept through...

Outrage as Korean saleswoman kneels after abuse by...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

A woman worker at a discount chain outlet in South Korea who reminded a youngster not to run around for safety reasons sparked an angry and humiliating outburst from the child’s mother. The mother became aggressive, verbally abused the member of staff and even forced her to kneel in apology. The November 21 incident, which has ignited a wave of outrage online, took place in Daiso, a popular Japanese budget retail chain in Suncheon, South Jeolla province, South Korea. A child was seen running...

Hegseth defends killing boat survivors, likens drug...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/07

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on deadly US air strikes against alleged drug-running boats off the Venezuelan coast, saying he would have made the same call as the admiral who ordered survivors to be killed. The nearly two dozen strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific have come under bipartisan scrutiny, but recent reports that a September strike included a second one to kill two survivors clinging to wreckage at sea have prompted accusations of possible war crimes. “From

16,129 results