An American student considering studying in China attended a briefing with a senior FBI official at a Washington think tank last month to address her concerns about whether such an experience could jeopardise her prospects for a career in the federal government. The official’s message: travelling to China would not automatically disqualify her. She welcomed the clarification but said she wasn’t “completely reassured”. “I’m still wondering if it’s a good idea to go,” said the student, who...

Fresh-graduate job postings in Hong Kong fell 22 per cent in the first nine months of this year from the same period in 2025, according to data from one of the city’s biggest job-search platforms, with an industry leader warning that advances in technology will deepen the decline. Its data also showed more graduates chasing fewer jobs: a typical listing for graduates drew 56 per cent more applications than a year earlier. Yet about 85 per cent of the 298 companies Jobsdb surveyed in August and...

Lithium deposits formed by ancient volcanic activity may lie beneath parts of China’s battery manufacturing heartland, particularly along the southeastern coast, according to a new study. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, geologist Duan Zheng said that “potential targets for clay-type lithium deposits in southeastern China overlap with lithium battery industrial clusters in East and South China”. “Local supplies could significantly reduce transport costs and supply-chain risks,”...

Eswatini probably does not register on most people’s mental maps. Its relatively recent name might sound unfamiliar as many people still know it as Swaziland. That it demands attention from pundits like yours truly has much to do with it being the only African country that still formally recognises Taiwan. It is also the continent’s only absolute monarchy. The two facts are closely connected. Recognising Taipei makes little sense when every one of eSwatini’s neighbours recognises Beijing, but it...

Alibaba has won a preliminary court order blocking a US restriction that drove away its Washington lobbyists, after a federal judge found the Chinese technology giant was likely to succeed in challenging the measure on free-speech grounds. US District Judge Eumi K. Lee ruled on Monday that the government had failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify the restriction, which effectively forces lobbying firms to choose between representing Alibaba and clients seeking Pentagon...

The 2027 US defence bill, covering more than US$1 trillion in proposed defence spending, will be one of the most closely watched pieces of legislation when Congress returns after the midterm elections, with efforts to counter China running through nearly every corner of the text. The US House of Representatives passed its version of the bill, known as the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), in July. The bill faces a tougher path in the US Senate, where a July procedural vote to begin...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended Washington’s oil agreement in Venezuela as an alternative to Chinese and Russian involvement, pushing back against criticism from opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Rubio said most of the oilfields controlled by the company partnering with Washington had previously been held or operated by Chinese or Russian firms. He argued that the agreement would help revive production while securing US access to reserves in...

At Texas’ dusty Concordia Cemetery, grass grows over graves in a 140-year-old Chinese burial ground. Some headstones have been stolen or vandalised; others have been marked by flat concrete slabs etched with names in Chinese and English. The slabs were harder to steal than traditional headstones. Still other graves have no visible markers. “I don’t think many people go out there,” says Linda Chew, a retired judge in El Paso, the state’s sixth-largest city. Yet interest in the history of the...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s re-election marks a turning point for Latin America and US-Latin American relations, said Chile’s former top envoy to China, who predicted a slowing of Washington’s regional push. “I do think the re-election of President Lula marks a major turning point in Latin America and in US-Latin American relations, while also having a broader significance for the Global South,” said Jorge Heine, who served as Chile’s ambassador to China from 2014 to 2017 and...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has begun his state visit to China in the eastern province of Anhui, spotlighting a growing trend among visiting foreign leaders to look well beyond Beijing. Steinmeier arrived in the provincial capital Hefei early on Tuesday to begin a five-day state visit, marking his first trip to China in nearly eight years and confirming an exclusive report by the South China Morning Post earlier this month. When foreign dignitaries bypass Beijing for provincial...

Taiwan’s military has vowed to remain vigilant against mainland Chinese intelligence-gathering activities after Beijing released high-resolution satellite images of the island, raising concerns about its growing surveillance capabilities. “The defence ministry will not lower its vigilance at any time regarding all such satellite imagery and related intelligence collection directed at Taiwan,” Defence Minister Wellington Koo Li-hsiung told reporters on Tuesday. “We will also take appropriate...

Hong Kong lawmakers have raised concerns about the hefty cost of developing a flagship tech hub and a neighbouring wetland park near the city’s border with mainland China, as the government seeks to secure a fresh HK$27 billion for the second round of works. During a Legislative Council development panel meeting on Tuesday, government officials explained the HK$27.2 billion proposal. It covers forming 175 hectares (432 acres) of land at the San Tin Technopole, establishing more than one-third of...

Warning: graphic content follows. Slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung’s dismembered remains were found inside a rural village flat that reeked of disinfectant when police arrived at the scene three days after the model’s alleged murder, a court has heard. A police detective involved in the investigation said on Tuesday that officers cordoned off the 600 square foot rental flat in Tai Po’s Lung Mei village on the evening of February 24, 2023, after he found human remains and an array of...

Open-weight models, China-US tensions, Taiwan – just a few of the more than dozen references to China-related risks cited in Anthropic’s much-anticipated listing prospectus, which was finally released on Monday after months of speculation. Mostly concentrated within the 93-page “risk factors” section of the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the disclosures reveal how the Silicon Valley start-up assesses the commercial threats posed by China and its artificial intelligence...

US-based Delta Air Lines has expressed confidence that the quality of its service will help it win a share of Hong Kong’s fiercely competitive aviation market, saying demand for its recently relaunched route to Los Angeles has exceeded expectations, driven by corporate bookings. Jeff Moomaw, the airline’s vice-president for Asia-Pacific, said on Tuesday that demand for premium travel was helping drive its growth in the region. “Hong Kong is [a] highly competitive market with premium carriers,...

China’s Defence Minister Dong Jun will skip this week’s meeting of Southeast Asian defence chiefs and their dialogue partners in Cebu, with Beijing instead sending its defence attache in the Philippines. Dong has attended the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) for the past two years. This year’s ADMM and ADMM-Plus, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, coincide with a major Communist Party meeting known as the fifth plenum, which is running in Beijing from Monday to...

A Hong Kong beautician has been sentenced to four years in jail for tricking two friends into forced labour and confinement in Myanmar’s notorious “KK Park” scam farm, with a judge slamming her actions as “vicious and inhumane”. District Court Judge Adriana Noelle Tse Ching on Tuesday said the 33-year-old defendant, Poon Sum-yi, had premeditated the fraudulent scheme to lure the two victims into travelling to Thailand, before selling them to the Chinese-run scam compound in neighbouring Myanmar...

US and Japanese forces have rehearsed coordinated anti-ship strikes and mobile missile deployments across Kyushu and Japan’s southwestern islands, testing tactics designed to challenge Beijing’s ability to control surrounding waters in a conflict over Taiwan. Now in its second week, the 11-day Keen Sword 27 exercise has tested how the allies could threaten Chinese warships from multiple directions while keeping their own forces harder to target. They have also practised repairing runways and...

Washington has suspended visa-free entry for Chinese visitors to the Northern Mariana Islands amid allegations of birth tourism and people smuggling in the US territory. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday the suspension of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Economic Vitality and Security Travel Authorisation Programme. US Senator Mike Lee hailed the move on social media, calling the programme a “Biden-era loophole for Chinese birth tourism” and...

A former Deliveroo rider who suffered severe brain injuries in a traffic accident has taken the platform to a Hong Kong court to seek compensation, arguing that resolving the legal question of his employment status at the time of the accident warrants a full trial. In the District Court on Tuesday, Deliveroo’s Hong Kong liquidator applied to strike out the lawsuit, contending that the injured worker, Lok Sze-chun, offered only a “bare assertion” to support his claim of being entitled to...

The abrupt suspension of Hong Kong’s first waste-to-energy incinerator after a fire is a stark warning against relying too heavily on the HK$31.3 billion (US$4 billion) plant, environmentalists have said, while a former lawmaker has urged the government to keep its landfill-free timetable on track. Monday’s blaze broke out on the roof of the third incineration module at the Integrated Waste Management Facilities Phase 1, or I·PARK1, on an artificial island off Shek Kwu Chau. More than 900 people...

A fragile rapprochement between China and India is facing a renewed test following reports of military face-offs along their hotly contested border. Shatrujeet Kapur, director general of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), said last week that confrontations with Chinese troops were “continuing at multiple locations along the Arunachal Pradesh border”. “In the past few days, a situation arose where face-off[s] happened at several locations in Arunachal and it still continues,” Kapur said at a...

Earlier this month, simmering trade tensions between the EU and China ease as the two sides reached an agreement in Beijing limiting hybrid car exports from China to an annual quota of 350,000 units. After the European Union imposed tariffs on fully electric cars from China in 2024, hybrid imports surged. The quota would result in more than a halving of the 800,000 hybrid cars expected to be sold this year, a figure which may soon exceed a million if unchecked. The quota would likely shift...

A Chinese H-6K strategic bomber has been sighted with two new electronic warfare pods used for jamming, according to images circulating on social media, potentially indicating an expansion of the aircraft’s capabilities. The photos – which have not been independently verified – emerged on Saturday and show an H6-K in flight with the pods on two of its six pylons. They appear to be similar to the RKZ930 pods carried by China’s J-16D electronic warfare aircraft. The location and date of the photos...

Two service disruptions at Lam Tin station within 15 hours earlier this month were linked, with a failed rubber insulating component causing an overloaded cable connection, the MTR Corporation has said. In a paper submitted to the Legislative Council’s transport panel on Tuesday, the rail operator said its preliminary investigation found that the component’s failure caused a short circuit and fire in the first incident. This in turn led to an overloaded cable connection, which overheated and...

Hong Kong’s planned university towns in the Northern Metropolis megaproject are being designed to attract the world’s finest students and scholars, the city’s leader has said at a global education summit, as overseas institutions expressed interest but called for partnership incentives. Lawmakers have urged the government to increase the loan quota to help institutions meet their urgent funding needs for campus construction. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu told the Global University Presidents...

More than 10,000 households in Hong Kong’s Eastern district were left without running water on Tuesday after a pipe burst in Shau Kei Wan – marking the area’s second major outage since July – forcing restaurants to close and sending residents queuing into the streets for emergency supplies. Tap water supplies began to be gradually restored from 9.30pm following emergency repairs to the burst main on Shau Kei Wan Road, which was accidentally damaged by a contractor during road maintenance,...

A randomised phase one clinical trial conducted by scientists and doctors from Shanghai and Guangzhou has achieved encouraging results in the treatment of Type 1 diabetes using stem cells extracted from gum tissue. More than half of those who received the treatment showed varying degrees of improvement, while one subject was able to discontinue exogenous insulin therapy completely, the researchers said. Results of the study, which tested a therapy based on gingival mesenchymal stem cells (GMSC),...

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Moonshot AI, developer of the popular Kimi series, apologised on Monday for limiting customers’ use of its latest model in a botched roll-out that has also invited scrutiny over its promotional practices and cybersecurity measures. “We’re sorry for the rate limits and unnecessary quota consumption on the K3.1 Pro subscription plan,” Moonshot said in a post on social media. In a separate Chinese-language notice, it said it took responsibility for the...

More than 1,600 customers of Hong Kong Airlines and two electrical appliance retailers received suspected scam calls following personal data leaks, the city’s privacy watchdog has found. In one airline-related scam, a retiree was cheated out of HK$1.2 million (US$153,850), the Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) said on Tuesday, citing police information. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) said it had received 34 complaints and 30 inquiries...