4 h. ago Philippines to view maritime rows with China as ‘one theatre’, partner Japan

The Philippines is adopting a Japan-led strategy to treat the East and South China seas as a unified theatre of operations – a shift analysts say reflects growing alignment among regional allies in the face of China’s expanding maritime footprint. Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the “one-theatre” concept would promote operational synergy, intelligence-sharing and mutual reinforcement among members of the minilateral “Squad” – comprising the Philippines, Japan, the United States, South...

Politics

26 h. ago Alibaba Cloud expands AI footprint with data centres in Malaysia, Philippines

Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing services and artificial intelligence (AI) arm of Alibaba Group Holding, unveiled plans to launch new data centres in Malaysia and the Philippines, as it expands infrastructure investments to meet the growing demand for AI in the region. In a statement on Tuesday marking a decade of operations in Singapore, Alibaba Cloud said it had launched its third data centre in Malaysia, and planned to open a second one in the Philippines in October this year. The latest...

Politics

41 h. ago Charm and Coercion Shape China’s Expanding Security Footprint in Southeast Asia

Charm and Coercion Shape China’s Expanding Security Footprint in Southeast Asia  The Diplomat – Asia-Pacific Current Affairs Magazine

Events

58 h. ago Trump’s Golden Dome: will the numbers add up to deter China in the Indo

America’s view of China as a “pacing threat” has shaped its defence priorities as the military seeks to maintain an edge over a rapidly modernising PLA. In the first of a three-part series on how US budget tensions will affect efforts to deter China, we look at the Golden Dome missile defence system. China’s expanding military footprint in the Indo-Pacific is now a focus of America’s defence strategy, with a renewed emphasis on space-based capabilities since Donald Trump returned to the White...

Politics

4 d. ago Will New Zealand’s ‘patronising’ aid freeze push Cook Islands closer to China?

What began as a quiet series of infrastructure deals between the Cook Islands and China has erupted into a diplomatic stand-off, with New Zealand halting millions in aid and Pacific leaders accusing Wellington of “patronising” behaviour. New Zealand’s abrupt suspension of aid has cast a harsh spotlight on the country’s growing unease over China’s expanding Pacific footprint, drawing warnings from regional observers that the move risks appearing “coercive rather than constructive”. Wellington...

Politics

8 d. ago Alibaba Cloud to bring AI capabilities to global data centres this year

Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud computing unit is set to extend its artificial intelligence (AI) services, including its Qwen family of models, to its overseas data centres this year, according to an executive, as the company seeks to enhance its infrastructure to meet growing demand from foreign companies and domestic clients looking for global opportunities. The company, owner of the South China Morning Post, planned to offer its flagship Qwen large language models, as well as Model Studio –...

Politics

9 d. ago Xiaomi expands EV manufacturing footprint with new Beijing land acquisition

Xiaomi expands EV manufacturing footprint with new Beijing land acquisition  electrive.com

Politics

9 d. ago In light of US sanctions, China unveils first parallel optical chip, ‘Meteor

Chinese researchers have developed the first highly parallel optical computing integrated chip, named “Meteor-1”, setting a milestone for using light to perform an enormous number of operations at the same time, the scientists say. The advance promises hardware acceleration for AI and data centres struggling with soaring computational demands. The chip achieves a theoretical peak computing power of 2,560 TOPS (tera-operations per second) at 50GHz optical frequency – performance comparable to...

Politics

9 d. ago China can’t buy Nvidia’s RTX 4090. Now its optical chip is twice as fast

Chinese researchers have developed the first highly parallel optical computing integrated chip, named “Meteor-1”, setting a milestone for using light to perform an enormous number of operations at the same time, the scientists say. The advance promises hardware acceleration for AI and data centres struggling with soaring computational demands. The chip achieves a theoretical peak computing power of 2,560 TOPS (tera-operations per second) at 50GHz optical frequency – performance comparable to...

Politics

1 week ago How Huawei’s AI chips outperform Nvidia’s in running DeepSeek’s R1 model

Huawei Technologies’ advanced data centre architecture, CloudMatrix 384, has enabled the company’s Ascend chips to surpass the performance of Nvidia’s H800 graphics processing units (GPUs) in running DeepSeek’s R1 artificial intelligence (AI) model, according to a technical paper. Jointly written by researchers from Huawei and Chinese AI infrastructure start-up SiliconFlow, the paper described CloudMatrix 384 as a specialised “AI supernode” that is purpose-built for handling extensive AI...

Politics

1 week ago Alibaba Cloud expands in South Korea with second data centre

Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) unit of Alibaba Group Holding, is set to launch its second data centre in South Korea to address growing demand driven by the rapid development of generative AI. The company said on Thursday that the new centre would be operational by the end of June, representing a significant step in its international expansion. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. “In line with the rapid advancement of AI-based technologies and...

Politics

2 w. ago Malaysia ‘stands firm’ on US chip curbs after alleged breach by Chinese company

Trade authorities in Malaysia have launched an investigation into claims that Chinese engineers bypassed US chip curbs by renting data centres packed with high-end Nvidia chips to train their artificial intelligence (AI) model in the country. The allegation, made in a report by The Wall Street Journal last Thursday, poses a potential stumbling block to Malaysia’s tariff negotiations with the US, which has curbed China’s access to high-end chips, including through third nations. Malaysia’s trade...

Politics

2 w. ago Hong Kong can lead world in AI healthcare by tapping trove of patient data: expert

Hong Kong has the potential to develop the world’s most sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) system for healthcare, thanks to the data of millions of residents stored in the city’s public hospitals, according to a leading expert in the field from mainland China. Professor Wang Haibo, director of the Research Centre of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in Medicine under the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, told the Post that the health data system in the...

Science

3 w. ago China’s increased training of African military, arms sales and aid ‘concerns’ US

An increasing number of African military officers receiving training in China has concerned the Pentagon, with a top US military chief saying the PLA was replicating its training programmes for African personnel. Meanwhile, Beijing is expanding its footprint in Africa with a combination of military aid, training and arms sales in ways that experts warn could erode US influence. General Michael Langley, who leads the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), warned that China was replicating its training...

Events

3 w. ago China will drop the Great Firewall for some users, but only in southern Hainan

China’s southernmost province of Hainan is piloting a programme to grant select corporate users broad access to the global internet, a rare move in a country known for having some of the world’s most restrictive online censorship, as the island seeks to transform itself into a global free-trade port. Employees of companies registered and operating in Hainan can apply for the “Global Connect” mobile service through the Hainan International Data Comprehensive Service Centre (HIDCSC), according to...

Events

3 w. ago China hopes to power AI boom with green energy in new data centre strategy

To fuel its growing AI sector and computing prowess, China is integrating the development of power-hungry data centres into its national energy strategy. Under a new action plan released on Wednesday, Beijing would coordinate data centre planning with energy infrastructure in areas and regions rich in new energy resources, to meet the surging electricity demands of high-performance computing facilities. “We will focus on national hub nodes and resource-abundant non-hub regions such as Qinghai,...

Politics