Chinese manufacturers dominate Latin America's bus fleet
Authorities have launched a probe into the building quality of a luxury residential development in one of Hong Kong’s most expensive neighbourhoods in the Southern district after receiving a complaint from an owner that insufficient steel bars were used during construction. The Buildings Department said on Saturday it was “highly concerned about the incident” relating to One Stanley in Stanley, but stressed that its previous inspections did not find any imminent danger. The department said it...
Christie’s auctioneer Rupert Banner leans forward with practised showmanship as bidding stalls on a rare Yongzheng bowl near New York’s iconic Rockefeller Centre. He pauses as if willing offers from thin air, scanning dozens of in-person buyers and phone banks connecting with China, London, Texas. It will be a bad look if the frenzy abates for this delicate peach-decorated bowl highlighted on Christie’s glossy Chinese sale catalogue and online advertising. But bidding soon resumes with a...
The US is set to deploy one of its signature anti-ship missile systems to the Japanese island closest to Taiwan, an unprecedented move that comes as tensions in the region between Beijing and Tokyo continue to simmer. The ground-based US uncrewed missile platform known as the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) will be deployed on Yonaguni Island in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture during biennial joint exercises this month, according to the regional bureau of the Japanese...
Hong Kong public universities will raise undergraduate tuition fees for non-local students studying general courses by up to 26 per cent in the 2027-28 academic year, marking the sharpest increase in recent years as institutions adjust to an expanded quota. Non-local students admitted to the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) medicine and dentistry programmes will face the steepest jump, with annual tuition rising by 137 per cent to HK$590,000 (US$75,187) to recover the high costs of clinical...
Hong Kong police have busted a burglary syndicate that recruited illegal immigrants and is believed to be behind at least 25 break-ins across the city in recent weeks, with stolen cash and valuables exceeding HK$3.6 million (US$458,773). Six people aged 31 to 45 – five mainlanders and a local resident – were arrested in a Friday operation following a review of surveillance footage, police said. Three of the mainland suspects, all men, were illegal immigrants. Another two – a couple – are...
Chinese troops have taken part in a mass multinational exercise in Russia featuring new anti-drone and ground robot systems – drills that Russian state media said “applied lessons” from the Ukraine war. The troops were among more than 47,000 military personnel involved in the Tsentr-2026 – or Centre-2026 – drills in the central western Chelyabinsk region from Monday until Saturday. The Russian Ministry of Defence said the strategic command-and-staff exercise applied combat lessons from the...
Thirty-one years ago, Hongkonger Raymond Lo Shu-yuen was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer and had a quarter of the organ removed. Now 75, Lo said the illness, despite its physical and mental toll, had taught him invaluable lessons about ageing, health and making the most of life. “I can say that the cancer itself saved me,” he said. “Why? If I did not have this illness, I would not have changed my past lifestyle such as working hard like a dog, eating a lot of junk food, doing no exercise...
The botanical societies of the United States and China have signed a plant science cooperation initiative, vowing to strengthen bilateral ties and foster an open scientific community to tackle global issues. The joint initiative was signed during a Sino-American botany conference last month in Taian, in China’s eastern Shandong province, which brought together hundreds of experts from institutions in both countries. The conference, held from September 19 to 23, aimed to “further deepen botanical...
Hong Kong’s stronger economic performance over the past year was the reason for raising the monthly minimum wage for foreign domestic helpers by 2.35 per cent, the labour minister has said, amid disappointment from both unions and employers’ groups. Defending the government’s decision to raise the monthly minimum wage to HK$5,220 (US$665), Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said the government sought to keep the annual adjustment mechanism “balanced and acceptable”. Speaking...
On his 29th birthday, Hong Kong bartender Tang Lung-wai boarded a flight to the Philippines for a holiday that would change his life. He ended up spending 26 years in jail in the country. Now 55, Tang spent years fighting his drug-related charges, insisting that he had been framed. But he told the South China Morning Post that he did not view those lost decades solely through the lens of bitterness. “At first, I felt a lot of resentment about being framed like that. But in the end, it’s no use...
More than 73,000 owners of subdivided flats in Hong Kong have applied for a three-year grace period to meet the government’s minimum standards, a figure the housing chief has described as “better than expected”. Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin said on Saturday that authorities received around 73,800 applications during the “early bird” registration phase under the Basic Housing Units Ordinance, which closed on August 31. The tally represented nearly 70 per cent of the city’s estimated...
Mainland Chinese visitor arrivals in Hong Kong during the first two days of the National Day “golden week” surpassed the pre-pandemic total for the same period in 2018, as a catering sector representative reported a 10 per cent year-on-year increase in restaurant receipts. The tourism chief expressed confidence on Saturday that the city would reach its annual target of 53.8 million visitors earlier than expected. The city recorded 511,311 arrivals from the mainland on Thursday and Friday,...
