A person on a bicycle pauses in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Zheng Yongnian is a political scientist in China and a government adviser. His academic work is mainly about contemporary China, particularly politics, the country’s transformation and its external relations. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here. Many have offered a lukewarm assessment of the Xi-Trump summit in Washington, citing the lack of a breakthrough. What is your take? There are two primary views right now. One is...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Nine young construction competitors from the Construction Industry Council returned from WorldSkills Shanghai with three Medallions for Excellence, the strongest finish the CIC has recorded at the competition. The honours went to Law Chak-sum in painting and decorating, Tse Yu-lok in welding, and the concrete construction work team of Huang To-kong and Wan Tsz-ho. It was Hong Kong’s first WorldSkills honour in concrete...
Hong Kong police officers were attempting to force their way into a flat at a Wong Tai Sin estate on Sunday night after a woman suspected of carrying a knife and wandering in the area was traced to the home during a search. Police received a report at about 6.50pm that a woman in her forties carrying a knife had travelled from Diamond Hill MTR station towards the nearby Plaza Hollywood shopping centre. Officers were deployed to the scene and searched the area. Members of the Counter Terrorism...
More than 1,500 Hong Kong residents toured the revamped Huanggang Port border crossing on Sunday as authorities pushed ahead with preparations for its opening. A Security Bureau spokesman said that participants took franchised buses or cross-boundary coaches from various districts to reach the crossing and were shown the new port building in groups. “The event effectively enhanced participants’ understanding of the public transport arrangements, immigration and customs clearance and...
Losses linked to the abrupt closure of Hotstone Yoga have risen to nearly HK$8 million (US$1 million), with close to 700 reports filed by affected customers in Hong Kong, according to authorities. The Customs and Excise Department said that as of 6pm on Sunday, it had received 694 reports relating to the yoga chain, involving service contracts worth about HK$7.8 million. The Consumer Council said it had received 416 complaints by 5pm the same day, with claimed losses totalling HK$5.42...
Beijing has been urged to do more to protect its overseas interests with a call for diplomatic engagement to reshape international rules and deeper security cooperation with other countries. As China’s expanding global footprint comes under pressure from geopolitics and restrictions from the West, a Chinese analysis posted on the Global Security Research social media account has called for a major shift in strategy. The author was not identified, but the account regularly posts analysis and...
China Eastern Airlines has reported a male passenger to the police for allegedly disturbing order, after a flight attendant was filmed kneeling in a cabin aisle to apologise for bumping his elbow with a service trolley. In its second statement on the incident, the carrier said on Saturday that it believed the actions of the passenger amounted to disturbing order aboard a civil aircraft and had severely infringed upon the employee’s personal dignity. The airline added that it had banned the...
The Hong Kong Observatory issued an amber rainstorm warning on Sunday evening, with the signal remaining in place for more than two hours. The weather forecaster issued the alert – the lowest level in a three-tier warning system – at 8.20pm and cancelled it at 10.30pm. “A few squally thunderstorms are expected to occur over Hong Kong,” a spokesman for the Observatory said in the evening. Showers would be heavy at times. The forecaster also warned that intense gusts reaching 70km/h (43mph) could...
For American and Chinese people interested in the outcome of the latest summit between China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, their conclusions could not be more different if they turn to the media and pundits for guidance. Chinese state media spared no superlative, echoing the official description of the summit as: forging the right way for the major powers to get along and writing a new chapter in ties. It played up the fact that Trump gave Xi the highest-level reception...
Hong Kong health authorities will deploy on-site staff and step up support via a dedicated hotline for patients visiting Kai Tak Hospital amid booking and transport queries as the city’s largest public hospital begins its phased opening. From Monday, Kai Tak Hospital’s family medicine integrated centre will start operations, while specialist outpatient services and automated features in the hospital’s blood-taking services are scheduled to launch in late October. Dr Eric Cheung Fuk-chi, cluster...
A 60-year-old Hong Kong woman has lost more than HK$21 million (US$2.7 million) in a cryptocurrency scam after a fraudster posing as an investment expert she met online duped her. The clerk reported the case to police on Saturday, saying she had befriended an individual claiming to be an investment specialist on “Baby Kingdom”, a popular online parenting forum and community website, on March 15 this year, a source said. The fraudster duped her into investing on a fake cryptocurrency platform...
Authorities in the Chinese capital are releasing more than a billion parasitic wasps and encouraging caterpillar-catching competitions to try to contain the spread of the invasive North American fall webworm. The caterpillars have blanketed trees in Beijing and surrounding areas this summer, spinning clouds of greyish-white webs as they eat their way through foliage. The insects are the fuzzy larval stage of Hyphantria cunea and metamorphose into adult white moths. While not harmful to humans,...