A flight-tested attack drone similar to Iran’s Shahed model that its Taiwanese maker says could reach military targets in mainland China is meant to swamp PLA air defences, analysts said. Drawing on battlefield lessons from Ukraine and the Middle East, military experts broadly agree on the utility of such low-cost systems, but differ on how the drone could be deployed in a conflict with Beijing should it enter service. While some see greater value in targeting People’s Liberation Army forces in...

Hong Kong police are investigating after two local media outlets received suspicious letters containing white powder – believed to be crushed oatmeal – sent from the United Kingdom. Police said that at around 3pm on Wednesday, online media outlet HK01 received an airmail letter delivered from the UK at its Kwai Chung office. Staff at the office in Tower 1 of Ever Gain Plaza opened the letter and found suspicious white powder inside. They subsequently called police. The police force deployed...

About 20 more non-local students have been admitted to Hong Kong semi-private schools under a government scheme to boost the city’s status as an international education hub, with a principal urging authorities to do more to promote the initiative to prospective pupils. Education authorities said on Wednesday that the non-local students holding student visas this year came from countries including Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, the United States and several European nations. Ida Lee Bik-sai,...

Europe should work with Beijing to develop shipping through the Arctic rather than trying to advance its transatlantic security alliance by framing China as a threat linked to Russia. That was the assessment of Chinese analysts following the release of the European Union’s Arctic policy on Tuesday. In addition to identifying Russia as its main threat, the policy warns of Beijing’s growing strategic ambitions in the European Arctic through its deepening alignment with Moscow. “With our new...

Hong Kong lawmakers and the media industry have raised concerns about the authorities’ plan to tighten arrangements for journalists searching land records, with some legislators urging the government to explain operational details and streamline the application to support investigative reporting. The Hong Kong Journalists Association voiced objections on Wednesday, after the government tabled eight pieces of subsidiary legislation, including the Land Titles Regulation that covers land record...

From October 22, China’s grace period for the disclosure and settlement of certain offshore-trust tax liabilities ends. For the Chinese government, this deadline highlights its desire to affirm control over capital outflows, while for Chinese high-net-worth families, it serves as a reminder that it is now harder to keep international assets beyond the reach of the government. The deadline sits against the backdrop of China tightening scrutiny around cryptocurrency, stablecoins and real-world...

In an age of AI-induced answers to complex mathematical problems, Chinese mathematician Sun Zhiwei maintains that curiosity and asking good questions are more important then ever. Over a career spent probing the edges of number theory, Sun, a 61-year-old professor at Nanjing University’s department of mathematics, has built a vast landscape of problems – more than 1,000 and counting – for the global research community to tackle. While traditional mathematical training emphasises mastering...

Star Ferry fares are set to rise by as much as HK$1.80 (23 US cents) from January after Hong Kong authorities endorsed the operator’s application for an increase, taking the cost of a weekend cross-harbour trip to up to HK$8.30. The operator, which last raised its fares in 2023, applied in March to increase charges on its two franchised routes by between 80 HK cents and HK$2 per journey. Under a proposal approved by the Executive Council last Tuesday and announced on Wednesday, fares for the...

The director of Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), Song Tao, has held a rare meeting with a delegation of US scholars, pledging to push for the peaceful development of cross-strait ties. During the meeting in Beijing on Tuesday with a delegation from the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) led by its president and CEO, Susan Elliott, Song spoke of a broader diplomatic context following summit meetings between Chinese and US leadership. “President Xi Jinping elaborated on...

Tour operators have changed itineraries and pulled Hong Kong travellers away from protest hotspots in France, while some school groups have cancelled planned trips to the country following the issuance of an official travel warning. EGL Tours chairman and executive director Steve Huen Kwok-chuen said one of the company’s tour groups had encountered protests at the Louvre in Paris on Saturday, with police helping clear a route for their coach to return to the hotel. “Our tour group happened to be...

Nominations have closed for Hong Kong’s Election Committee election, setting the stage for the November 22 poll. The poll, the second since Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral system to ensure patriots rule Hong Kong, will return 1,500 members who will nominate and vote in next year’s chief executive election. Here’s all you need to know about the 2026 Election Committee Subsector Ordinary Elections, now that nominations have closed: from the hopefuls’ line-up and the heavyweights in the...

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), one of Hong Kong’s largest developers, has sold out the latest batch of flats at its Sierra Sea project in the New Territories, where units were offered at discounted prices ahead of a possible US Federal Reserve interest-rate increase by year-end. By 5.40pm on Wednesday, SHKP had found buyers for all 128 flats offered at listed prices in Phase 2C(2) of the development in Shap Sze Heung, between Sai Kung and Ma On Shan, according to agents. Sales began at...

China’s Type 051C destroyer Shenyang has been spotted undergoing sea trials after a reported refit, as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) begins phasing out legacy warships following the commissioning of a massive wave of new vessels. Witness photographs circulating on social media appear to show the Shenyang, hull number 115 and lead ship of the Type 051C class, with its Russian-made hardware replaced by domestic air defence systems. While precise details have yet to be independently confirmed,...

Hong Kong has reaped the benefits of the Apec Finance Ministers’ Meeting, with foreign political and business leaders expressing renewed confidence in the city and supporting cross-border digital finance infrastructure development, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has said. Following the conclusion of the two-day milestone meeting on Wednesday, Chan said senior officials and representatives had discussed macroeconomic, fiscal and financial policy, as well as young talent, in a sincere and...

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) nations agreed to boost economic coordination amid mounting challenges after a meeting of finance ministers in Hong Kong. “We note that global imbalances have persisted, creating risks to growth and stability,” the finance ministers said in a joint statement following two days of talks. “We recognise that global rebalancing is in our common interest and agree to strengthen communication and cooperation in this regard.” The group also released a policy...

As turbulence grows in many countries, it is tempting to ask if there is a global hegemon that can sort everything out fairly. US President Donald Trump has threatened that his country would not defend Nato allies if they failed to spend enough on their defence. Together with new trade barriers, his words suggest that the US is scaling back its ambitions for global leadership and concentrating more on its own region. Our latest projections of national strength for 2027 take into account...

As Super Typhoon Champi – now the strongest storm of the year worldwide – barrels towards eastern China, authorities are planning evacuations and urging those in its path to prepare. Airports in major Chinese cities could be affected by the storm, including Wenzhou Longwan, Fuzhou Changle, Ningbo Lishe, Hangzhou Xiaoshan, Shanghai Hongqiao, Shanghai Pudong and Xiamen Gaoqi, according to aviation data platform VariFlight. Travellers are bracing for potential disruptions, though there have been no...

A controversial lighting project along a walking trail on The Peak “is not set in stone yet”, authorities have said, with the South China Morning Post learning that related works have been suspended amid mounting complaints that the installations are damaging the environment. The project’s future remains uncertain after residents accused the Tourism Board of removing trees and flowers to make way for the installations, while a lawmaker said a district councillor from the city’s largest political...

This article was first published on October 22, 1986. ‘Our thoughts will always be with you’: Queen confident on HK future Hongkong gave Queen Elizabeth a warm and enthusiastic reception yesterday (October 21, 1986) when she arrived for her long-awaited visit. And in return she gave the people a message of confidence in the future. Fresh from her triumphant tour of the mainland, the Queen told a welcoming ceremony in City Hall that the Sino-British agreement over Hongkong’s future had made...

We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China breakthrough unlocks low-cost, high-margin sustainable aviation fuel Chinese researchers have developed a catalyst that converts synthesis gas into sustainable jet fuel – an advance that could boost production, help meet net-zero carbon goals and yield a gross profit margin above 50 per cent. 2. Landmark...

The former father-in-law of slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung received a cash rebate of nearly HK$7 million (US$891,900) after buying a HK$72 million flat using the model’s money, a court has heard. Property agent Marco Wong Tak-sing told the High Court on Wednesday that Kwong Kau had requested a share of the agency’s profit from the 2019 sale of the luxury flat at the Kadooria development in Ho Man Tin. The court previously heard that Choi issued two cheques and bought two cashier’s...

A high-profile disciplinary hearing for a doctor accused of leaving a girl in a vegetative state six years ago has been adjourned pending a coroner’s inquest, a decision the girl’s father learned of just a week before proceedings were due to begin. The Medical Council informed Eddie Chau, father of Chau Tin-yu, on Tuesday night that the hearing, originally scheduled to start on October 27, would be postponed until after the inquest. The decision leaves both proceedings in limbo. Just last month,...

Some 5 metres (16.4 feet) underground near one of China’s oldest cities lies the life-size army of thousands of terracotta warriors. The purpose of the army, located 35km (22 miles) northeast of historic Xian, was to protect China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in the afterlife. The Terracotta Army was buried with him after his death in 210BC. Now, a new study shows that a portion of the terracotta warriors was largely made by adult women and minors, not solely by men as previously...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is set to take the stage in Berlin on Wednesday, as the world’s most valuable company faces heightened investor scrutiny over whether the massive artificial intelligence spending boom – the engine behind the chipmaker’s meteoric growth – can deliver long-term returns. The conference agenda focuses on sovereign AI, industrial automation and operational infrastructure – key sectors where Nvidia hopes to drive demand beyond the handful of US tech giants currently dominating...

Hong Kong police have arrested four boys on suspicion of inciting another person to become a member of an unlawful society and assault causing bodily harm, after a clip of a back-alley dispute in the early hours on Monday went viral. A police spokesman said on Wednesday that officers arrested four local boys aged 13 to 17 the day before, following an investigation based on a clip of a suspected attack in a back alley in Sai Wan Ho that had circulated online. “All arrestees are under custody for...

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has fully open-sourced an internally developed framework designed to run AI models efficiently, as a senior researcher at the company described the growing divide between open-source and closed-source AI as a battle between “light and darkness”. The company on Tuesday released DeepInfer, an inference framework tailored to support its DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash model on both Nvidia’s SM100 Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) and Huawei...

Hong Kong’s exceptionally warm October weather is being driven by a combination of a super typhoon, El Nino and global warming, a climate expert has said, warning that higher-than-usual temperatures are likely to persist through the winter. The warning came as autumn temperatures across the city topped 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) over the past few weeks. Professor Amos Tai Pui-kuen, of the earth and environmental sciences department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, explained on...

Chinese scientists have developed what they say is the world’s smallest wearable mini brain monitor that can track the activity of thousands of neurons at the same time. Weighing in at one gram (0.35 oz), the wireless “Airscope” is the lightest device of its kind and enables researchers to track a wider range of brain activity in untethered laboratory animals. The device was jointly developed by scientists from Tsinghua University and the Chinese PLA Medical School, and detailed in a paper...

Only 3 per cent of Hong Kong companies have fully integrated AI into their workflows, with many facing hurdles including resistance to organisational change and outdated digital infrastructure, a survey has found. Consultancy Accenture, which polled 150 companies and released the results on Wednesday, said the survey suggested businesses had a strong desire to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) in their work but many struggled to put it into practice. “Hong Kong really has strong AI ambitions...

Taiwan’s defence ministry has confirmed for the first time that it has allocated funding for the US Indo-Pacific Command to send a retired general and other personnel to observe the island’s largest annual war games. The disclosure sheds rare official light on military exchanges that Taipei and Washington have traditionally kept out of public view, as security cooperation between the two sides deepens amid growing pressure from Beijing. According to a defence ministry report submitted to the...