Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings is using Southeast Asia as a launch pad to take its “cost-effective” artificial intelligence tools global, fronted by its workplace assistant WorkBuddy, amid cutthroat competition at home. The company was targeting existing regional customers of its cloud computing and big data services, particularly in markets such as Indonesia, according to Dowson Tong, CEO of Tencent’s Cloud and Smart Industries Group. The international push coincided with triple-digit...
A police officer has denied failing to properly label DNA samples taken from slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung’s ex-husband after his arrest more than three years ago. Testifying in the High Court on Thursday, Sergeant Lam Chun also denied using excessive force to subdue Alex Kwong Kong-chi as he was about to flee Hong Kong from Tung Chung Development Ferry Pier on February 25, 2023. Lam, who was a detective constable at the time, said Kwong sustained a 2cm-by-2cm abrasion on his...
This live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account. The Hong Kong government is set to release what is expected to be a deeply scathing report by an independent committee probing the city’s deadliest blaze in decades, with Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu holding a press conference alongside top officials to outline the administration’s consequent actions and systemic reforms. Sources said that at least one senior official would take the rap for the...
At least one senior official will take the rap for the deadly Tai Po fire as part of a set of “bold, comprehensive and far-reaching reforms” the Hong Kong government will announce on Thursday afternoon, sources have told the South China Morning Post. The official’s expected resignation would be part of the political accountability that the government hoped to underscore along with major reforms on administrative accountability that will go right to the top, one source said. The shake-up is...
A Hong Kong court has sentenced a teenager with triad links to eight years in prison for splashing corrosive liquid on a Singaporean tourist last year in return for a promised payment of HK$10,000 (US$1,280). Mr Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai of the High Court said on Thursday that defendant Anson Kew, 19, had caused a “lifelong impact” on Jiang Wen, 36, who suffered second-degree burns in the attack on June 9, 2025. Kew, who was aged 17 at the time, threw a corrosive solution on the victim as she...
Samsung Electronics is reportedly ending home appliance sales in Hong Kong, months after withdrawing from the mainland Chinese market. Samsung’s Hong Kong office told the South China Morning Post on Thursday that it would focus on televisions, monitors, audio products, business-to-business display solutions and mobile devices in the city. It did not explicitly confirm that it was ending sales of major home appliances. However, a check by the SCMP on Thursday morning found that major home...
European industry has bristled at EU plans to force businesses to diversify their supply chains away from China, as the bloc gears up for a new package of de-risking measures later this year. In December, the European Commission will present a trio of new instruments, none of which will name China, but the overall aim is to wind down dependencies on Beijing and allow the EU to punch back in a trade war scenario. One tool – DiversifyEU – could compel businesses in key sectors to expand their...
Shen Jiaoqi, a banker living in southern China’s Guangdong province, cannot stop watching microdramas. The shows are so addictive that she sometimes spends entire days gazing at her phone. One time, she even kept watching while she showered. “Honestly, I was watching for the eye candy rather than the plots,” she said. “The AI has really made the characters look stunning.” Shen is far from alone. Microdramas have exploded in popularity in China over the past few years, offering viewers a quick...
Immigration rules are discouraging a growing number of air travellers from visiting certain destinations, a global aviation survey has found, while geopolitical tensions are also influencing travel decisions, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), an airline industry body, said its annual Global Passenger Survey found that 43 per cent of respondents had been put off from visiting certain destinations by immigration requirements, up from 33...
Australia has returned two stone sculptures to China after more than 30 years abroad. The statues, showing the heads of a military official and civil servant, had been given to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra by a private collector and date back to the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration received the heads on Wednesday, according to the state broadcaster CCTV. They are thought to have been removed from two imperial mausoleums in Henan...
On a hillside in Anji, in Zhejiang province, a cluster of umbrella-like canopies steps gently down the slope, following the rows of tea bushes. There is no grand entrance, no plinth, no monumental block of stone. On October 22, at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, this project, Anji Hood by RoarcRenew Architects, was named Cultural Space of the Year at the Frame Awards 2026, chosen from more than 1,000 submissions by 100 jurors across 10 panels. I served on the Frame Awards 2026 grand jury for the...
