74 m. ago ‘Prosperity for generations’: Malaysia urges Hong Kong to tap Asean ‘as a bloc’

Business leaders and governments should think of Asean as a bloc with nearly 700 million people and an emerging middle class instead of individual countries when considering the vast trade potential of the region, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on Tuesday. While Hong Kong was essential to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as an international financial hub that promoted technological innovation with a well-regarded legal system, the bloc could also offer great...

Politics

7 h. ago China Peak becomes Forest Service base as Garnet Fire explodes in size

China Peak becomes Forest Service base as Garnet Fire explodes in size  ABC30 Fresno

Events

7 h. ago China’s new ‘durian express’ to bring prized fruit to northeast consumers faster

To get Southeast Asia’s coveted durians more quickly into the hands of Chinese consumers, a port operator in the relatively far-flung market of northeastern China is building a transit centre to handle seaborne imports of the pungent, spiky and often pricey fruit. Liaoning Port Group, part of which operates the major sea terminal in Dalian, kicked off construction of the Dalian Northeast Asia Fruit Transit Centre in late August, a group representative said this month. That project will...

Politics

7 h. ago Northeastern Chinese want fresher durians. A port operator is making it happen

To get Southeast Asia’s coveted durians more quickly into the hands of Chinese consumers, a port operator in the relatively far-flung market of northeastern China is building a transit centre to handle seaborne imports of the pungent, spiky and often pricey fruit. Liaoning Port Group, part of which operates the major sea terminal in Dalian, kicked off construction of the Dalian Northeast Asia Fruit Transit Centre in late August, a group representative said this month. That project will...

Politics

9 h. ago More factories but less pollution: how China’s green tech revolution works

Over his nearly two-decade career as an environmental researcher, Ma Jun has witnessed arguably the fastest environmental improvement in the world. In 2006, he founded the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) – a non-profit environmental research organisation based in Beijing. At the time, data collected by his organisation showed around 28 per cent of monitored water sources nationwide were severely polluted and rendered unusable, leaving nearly 300 million people without...

Politics

13 h. ago Chinese tanker converted into mobile salmon farm offers alternative model to traditional land

Chinese tanker converted into mobile salmon farm offers alternative model to traditional land-based operations  SeafoodSource

Events

18 h. ago Mars discovery, NBA star writes for Chinese state media: 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. China’s export growth slows in August under shadow of trade war uncertainty China’s exports continued to rise in August, though at a slower pace, with the near-term outlook clouded as global markets watch to see whether the world’s two largest economies can reach a lasting and durable trade deal. 2. Oxford’s Ian Goldin on the biggest challenges for China’s...

Politics

19 h. ago Alibaba Cloud leads US$140 million funding round for AI start

Alibaba Group Holding’s artificial intelligence and cloud computing services unit recently led a 1 billion yuan (US$140 million) Series A+ funding round for X Square Robot, a Shenzhen-based developer of embodied intelligence models. The deal marked Alibaba Cloud’s first investment in the embodied intelligence field, according to a statement on Monday from X Square Robot. The start-up said it expected “multidimensional support” from the Hangzhou-based company. Alibaba owns the South China Morning...

Economics

20 h. ago ‘Serious incident’ probed as HK Express plane hits signs after landing

Hong Kong aviation authorities are investigating a “serious incident” involving an HK Express flight suspected of deviating from its designated runway after landing and hitting some signboards amid a typhoon. The Air Accident Investigation Authority said on Monday that a team was collecting information and identifying areas for further investigation or lines of inquiry to follow up. The authority, which is an independent investigation body under the Transport and Logistics Bureau, said it was...

Events

20 h. ago COMMENTARY: Why China's national carbon market is unlikely to include aviation in the near term

COMMENTARY: Why China's national carbon market is unlikely to include aviation in the near term  GreenAir News

Politics

21 h. ago ‘A real inconvenience’: chaos as London Underground workers strike

Rush-hour commuters faced chaos on Monday as staff on the London Underground train network staged a five-day strike, shutting stations and forcing people to work from home or use alternative modes of transport. Thousands queued to try and get on crammed buses, while others reluctantly walked or cycled. Transport for London (TfL), which manages the Underground, also known as the Tube, warned there would be little or no service between Monday and Thursday as a result of the first major strike in...

Events

21 h. ago ‘Urgent revisions’ mulled for China’s bankruptcy law, with shortcomings in mind

Chinese lawmakers began their first review of draft amendments to the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law on Monday, seeking to address shortcomings in the market-exit mechanism, state media reported. The amendments, discussed during the ongoing 17th session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, include more than 160 new or modified articles based on the current law that was enacted 18 years ago and features 216 articles, according to Xinhua. Calling it the foundational legal...

Politics

27 h. ago Alibaba releases biggest AI model yet to rival OpenAI and Google DeepMind

Alibaba Group Holding continues to scale up its artificial intelligence efforts with the release of its biggest AI model to date, joining the ranks of OpenAI, Google DeepMind and other major players with trillion-parameter models. Qwen-3-Max-Preview, the company’s first model to have more than 1 trillion parameters, was released on Alibaba’s official cloud-services platform and the large language model marketplace OpenRouter on Friday. The model is the latest in the Hangzhou-based company’s...

Politics

47 h. ago ‘Even if I was shot, I was fine with that’: a North Korean’s journey to freedom

A man whose early life in North Korea was so bleak that he was prepared to be shot in the back while making a break for freedom across the Chinese border has told his story after defecting to Japan in 2017. The man is one of many to have become involved with an Osaka-based charity that addresses North Korean human rights issues. The organisation provides speaking opportunities for North Korean defectors on podcasts and other platforms, allowing them to share information about the realities of...

Politics

50 h. ago Red Sea cable cuts disrupt internet in parts of Asia, Middle East

Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet access on Sunday in parts of Asia and the Middle East, experts said, though it was not immediately clear what caused the incident. There has been concern about the cables being targeted in a Red Sea campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the Houthis have denied attacking the lines in the past. Microsoft announced via a status website that the...

Politics

51 h. ago China Studies Converting Oil, Gas Pipelines for CO Transport

China Studies Converting Oil, Gas Pipelines for CO Transport  Pipeline and Gas Journal

Events

56 h. ago Anthropic’s Claude restrictions put overseas AI tools backed by China in limbo

An abrupt decision by American artificial intelligence firm Anthropic to restrict service to Chinese-owned entities anywhere in the world has cast uncertainty over some Claude-dependent overseas tools backed by China’s tech giants. After Anthropic’s notice on Friday that it would upgrade access restrictions to entities “more than 50 per cent owned by companies headquartered in unsupported regions” such as China, regardless of where they are, Chinese users have fretted over whether they could...

Politics

63 h. ago In Tianjin, Modi again succumbed to Beijing’s preferred terms

In Tianjin, Modi again succumbed to Beijing’s preferred terms  The Caravan

Politics

65 h. ago Dozens arrested at latest UK protest for banned group Palestine Action

British police arrested dozens more people on Saturday under anti-terrorism laws for demonstrating in support of Palestine Action, a pro-Palestinian group banned by the government as a terrorist organisation. Britain banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation in July after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged military planes. The group accuses Britain’s government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Police have arrested...

Events

65 h. ago Hong Kong’s Cathay seeks police help in removing ‘intoxicated’ passenger

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways called for police to help remove a passenger who was reportedly intoxicated and behaving in an unruly manner, resulting in a flight delay of nearly two hours. The carrier said on Saturday that flight CX255 from Hong Kong to London, scheduled to depart at 11.15pm on September 4, was delayed due to a 38-year-old British male passenger. “The captain made the decision to offload the concerned passenger in accordance with the safety guidelines, and the...

Events