9 h. ago Japan probes Chinese student’s role in exam fraud amid rising cheating scandals

A Chinese student at one of Japan’s top universities has been charged for the third time with helping others cheat in English proficiency tests, a case that observers say may be part of a broader and more sophisticated cheating network involving overseas university admissions. Wang Likun, a 27-year-old studying artificial intelligence at Kyoto University, was first arrested in May when he attempted to enter a TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) venue while impersonating...

Society

68 h. ago Trailblazing mathematician Yitang Zhang leaves US for job at Chinese university

Chinese-American mathematician Yitang Zhang has left the United States to join Sun Yat-sen University in southern China as a full-time professor. The 70-year-old number theorist has been appointed to the university’s newly established Institute of Advanced Study Hong Kong and will live and work in the Greater Bay Area, the university announced at a ceremony on Friday afternoon. While the university did not give further details about his appointment, it noted that Zhang had relocated to China...

Politics

2 d. ago Chinese sprinter gets leading gaokao marks, earning shot at top universities

A Chinese track and field sprinter has scored a staggering 462 in the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, earning her a place in the country’s top universities. Liu Xiajun, 19, took the gaokao for the second time earlier this month after her score last summer fell short of admission to the country’s best school, Tsinghua University in Beijing. Liu, who is from the city of Ziyang in southwest China’s Sichuan province, rejected an offer from the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai in...

Politics

5 d. ago China’s Feitian 2 hypersonic vehicle shows critical capabilities in test flight

A Chinese university has successfully flown its Feitian 2 hypersonic vehicle at a site in northwestern China, according to an announcement on the Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) website on Monday. The research team said the test represented the first successful acquisition of real-flight data for a rocket-based combined cycle (RBCC) engine using a kerosene-hydrogen peroxide propellant. The university’s statement said the test flight proved key capabilities, including...

Politics

5 d. ago Maths star Joshua Zahl leaves Canada for China after solving century

China has secured a major academic coup with the recruitment of mathematics luminary Joshua Zahl, recently celebrated for solving the more than 100-year-old three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture. Zahl is leaving Canada’s University of British Columbia (UBC) to take up a full-time position as a chair professor at Nankai University’s Chern Institute of Mathematics (CIM), according to the Chinese educational institution’s website. Zahl and his collaborator Wang Hong from New York University posted...

Politics

9 d. ago Chinese university graduate pickpockets to satisfy lust for worldwide travel

A 25-year-old man has been arrested by police in China for stealing multiple wallets full of cash and credit cards to fund his travels around the world. The man, who has been identified only as An, graduated from a top university in Shanghai and works in human resources at a major company in the city. Over the past three years, he has made more than 120 domestic and foreign trips, Shanghai TV reported. The suspicions of police were raised because he earns just 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) a month,...

Politics

2 w. ago China’s orchard of AI, chip grads now ripe for the pickin’ as tech trade sours

When Jack Wang enrolled as an undergraduate in microelectronics at a prestigious Chinese university, the year was 2019, and China was in the early days of its trade war with the United States. Looking back, his decision to focus on the field revolving around the design and manufacture of hi-tech microchips has proved prescient. Today, it complements Beijing’s aspirations to make world-leading semiconductors amid Washington’s amped-up efforts to curtail China’s technological progress. Indeed, the...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump touts 'done' deal with Beijing on rare earths, allowing Chinese students in US universities

Trump touts 'done' deal with Beijing on rare earths, allowing Chinese students in US universities  CNAUS and China agree to a trade truce, but Beijing seems to be gaining the upper hand  The Indian ExpressTrump announces breakthrough trade deal with China; Beijing to supply ‘magnets, rare earths’  Mint

Politics

2 w. ago Hong Kong student spared jail for faking exam results via beauty app Meitu

A Hong Kong student has been spared prison time over her attempt to secure a university placement with bogus entrance exam results edited by Chinese beauty filter app Meitu, with the presiding magistrate accepting the crime was a lapse in judgment. Ng Tsz-ying, 22, was sentenced to a 12-month probation order at Fanling Court on Wednesday for submitting a fake copy of her certificate in the Diploma of Secondary Education examination to the Education University of Hong Kong last year. Last month,...

Events

2 w. ago Hong Kong must ‘seize opportunities’ to attract talent amid US student visa woes

Hong Kong should capitalise on the opportunities arising from US-China tensions to attract more talent to its academic and tech sectors, heads of the city’s top medical schools have said, ahead of a visit to the world’s largest biotechnology event in Boston. Representatives from the medical faculties of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) will join the delegation of the government-funded Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP)...

Politics

2 w. ago Chinese academy launches automated system to speed up chip design

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the nation’s premier science institution, has unveiled a chip design system driven by artificial intelligence (AI) that has the potential to significantly accelerate semiconductor development and replace human programmers. Developed by the State Key Laboratory of Processor and the Intelligent Software Research Centre, both under CAS, and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the fully automated integrated circuit design system is called QiMeng,...

Politics

3 w. ago AI content detector: why does China dismiss it as ‘superstition tech’?

With the graduation season approaching, many Chinese universities have introduced regulations setting clear requirements for the proportion of artificial intelligence-generated content – or the “AI rate”, as it is called – in theses. Some universities have used the AI rate as a deciding factor in whether a thesis is approved. The rule is intended to prevent academic misconduct, as educators have become increasingly concerned about the unregulated use of AI in producing scholarly literature,...

Politics

3 w. ago New PLA force university to offer training in AI, unmanned operations

A new university under the Chinese military’s mysterious Information Support Force plans to offer training in artificial intelligence (AI), unmanned operations and other key technology, according to its first public enrolment notice. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Information Support Force Engineering University in the central city of Wuhan will offer 10 undergraduate majors in information and intelligent technology, according to a Thursday report by state broadcaster CCTV. It added that...

Culture

3 w. ago Chinese student’s Harvard speech, Hokkaido tremors spark worry: 7 highlights

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Harvard speech sparks China debate on elite education access, privilege Emotional remarks by a Chinese student who delivered this year’s Harvard University commencement speech have sparked a debate in China about barriers to elite education. 2. Military mishap risks rise with...

Politics

3 w. ago Singapore’s 1880 shuts in Hong Kong, Japanese men on staying young: 7 highlights

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Harvard speech sparks China debate on elite education access, privilege Emotional remarks by a Chinese student who delivered this year’s Harvard University commencement speech have sparked a debate in China about barriers to elite education. 2. Military mishap risks rise with...

Politics

3 w. ago Harvard speech by Chinese graduate exposes class disillusionment at home

Controversy surrounding a speech given by a Chinese Harvard graduate reflects the Chinese public’s “disillusionment” with elite education and “anger at class rigidity”, according to a Chinese academic. Last week, Yurong “Luanna” Jiang, a Chinese Harvard University graduate, delivered a controversial speech amid the ongoing clash between the university and the White House, and uncertainty over United States–China relations. Jiang was the first Chinese woman selected as the student speaker at a...

Politics

3 w. ago Harvard speech sparks debate, China GDP growth outlook: SCMP daily highlights

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Privilege or merit? Harvard speech ignites China debate on elite education access Emotional remarks by a Chinese student who delivered this year’s Harvard University commencement speech have sparked a debate in China about barriers to elite education. 2. China’s GDP growth expected to slow next year amid trade strife: OECD China’s economy is projected to...

Politics

3 w. ago Two Chinese researchers charged with smuggling biological pathogen to study at University of Michigan lab

Two Chinese researchers charged with smuggling biological pathogen to study at University of Michigan lab  CNN

Politics

3 w. ago 2 Chinese researchers charged with smuggling biological pathogen to study at University of Michigan lab

2 Chinese researchers charged with smuggling biological pathogen to study at University of Michigan lab  CNN

Politics

3 w. ago Harvard speech sparks China debate on elite education access, privilege

Emotional remarks by a Chinese student who delivered this year’s Harvard University commencement speech have sparked a debate in China about barriers to elite education. The speech by Yurong “Luanna” Jiang, the first Chinese woman chosen as Harvard’s student commencement speaker, called for global unity amid US President Donald Trump’s plan to “aggressively” revoke Chinese student visas. Internet users have since raised questions about a lack of access for many ordinary students who have...

Politics