Seeing China differently: Ultrarunner Ria Xi's China journey
Two women have been arrested in Hong Kong on suspicion of child abuse after an 11-year-old girl posted videos on social media in a plea for help, capturing moments of emotional distress inside her home. Police arrested a 61-year-old local woman and a 43-year-old foreign woman in Wong Tai Sin on Friday on suspicion of ill-treatment or neglect by those in charge of a child or young person. The girl, found with red and swollen limbs, was sent to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei in a conscious...
The Fire Services Department will bear “ultimate responsibility” for following up on fire safety complaints across Hong Kong, the security chief has said, pledging legal reforms after the deadly Tai Po blaze, as an independent committee’s report is expected to identify the department as among those responsible. Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung made the pledge a day after the judge-led committee submitted its final report to the government. Sources said the report would identify...
We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond 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. Honduras targets Chinese shops, state builder as president sits on Taiwan pledge Honduran migration officials have summoned or placed under review 41 Chinese nationals after inspecting shops in the capital and a hospital being built...
Internet users in China are watching the protests in France with a mix of geopolitical cynicism, domestic pride and sadness at the damage to French landmarks. The protests started in September, when students and teachers in southeastern Paris rallied against deteriorating school conditions. Those specific grievances quickly escalated into nationwide protests at the rising cost of living and declining public services. What began as peaceful marches has since dissolved into violence, with rioters...
The annual Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival later this month promises more booths and longer hours to help attract over 168,000 visitors. The South China Morning Post unpacks what is on offer so you can enjoy the event to the fullest. 1. What is the festival and when is it open? Organised by the Tourism Board under the theme “Taste the World’s Best,” the festival will be held from October 29 to November 1 at the Central Harbourfront, opening at 7.30pm on the first day and 1pm on the following...
Chinese state media has called for a Japanese telecoms firm to apologise to China over a huge wildfire in neighbouring Mongolia, as diplomatic tensions run high between Beijing and Tokyo. The grassland fire broke out on October 8 and burned about 80 per cent of a nature reserve on the Mongolia-China border. According to Japanese media reports, the company, KDDI, has acknowledged that the fire was linked to activities involving its majority-owned subsidiary MobiCom – the largest mobile network...
All efforts need to be focused on search and rescue for survivors and treating the injured, President Xi Jinping instructed on Friday morning, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed 16 and injured 65 in China’s Tibet autonomous region overnight. “The disaster-hit area is located in a high-altitude region with cold weather. It is imperative to closely monitor seismic activities and weather changes and implement rescue operations accordingly, while preventing secondary disasters,” he said,...
Severe haze in Hong Kong over the past two days has prompted a government warning of serious health risks, with experts urging the elderly and vulnerable to stay indoors until sunset. Air quality health risk levels at some of Hong Kong’s roadside monitoring stations rose on Wednesday and Thursday, with experts attributing the surge to elevated ozone levels caused by sunlight and high temperatures and warning that conditions were likely to persist over the next few days. On Wednesday afternoon,...
This year has opened a rare window of relative calm in global commerce. On October 8, the World Trade Organization doubled its forecast for global goods trade growth, from 1.9 to 3.9 per cent. The easing of US-China and Europe-China tensions has given open economies some breathing space. Hong Kong has seized the moment. Its exports rose 42.5 per cent year on year in the first eight months of 2026, with figures from August alone up 53 per cent, driven largely by AI-related equipment and...
In author and computer engineer Liu Cixin’s science fiction hit The Three-Body Problem, three suns throw a doomed world into chaos. Chinese astronomers say they have found a real three-star system that is far better behaved. Using FAST, the world’s biggest single-dish radio telescope in southwestern China, the researchers found two dead stars and a “living” one locked in a steady cosmic dance about 7,000 light years from Earth. One of the dead stars is a pulsar that spins more than 300 times a...
Fresh Hong Kong graduates are increasingly feeling the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) as they enter the workforce, human resources experts have said, after a survey found the starting salaries for degree holders and sub-degree graduates had narrowed. The results of the latest annual survey by Baptist University found the disparity between the starting salaries of bachelor’s degree and sub-degree graduates narrowed by 17 per cent, or HK$500 (US$63.70), from HK$3,000 last year to HK$2,500...