A US Navy sailor has been convicted of espionage for selling military secrets to China for US$12,000, the US Justice Department said on Thursday. Jinchao Wei was found guilty by a federal jury in California on Wednesday after a five-day trial, the department said in a statement. Wei, a machinists mate on the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, and another ...

The US Justice Department signalled possible plans to investigate Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, with a top official informing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell of the probe and encouraging him to remove her from the board in a letter sent on Thursday. Ed Martin, a Justice Department official who has led similar investigations into Senator Adam ...

As US destroyers closed in on Venezuelas coast on Thursday, China condemned Washingtons military build-up and warned against foreign interference, backing Nicolas Maduro in a showdown that is drawing in powers far beyond the Caribbean. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that China opposed any move that violates the purposes and principles of the UN ...

Newly published details of the recent EU-US trade deal show the bloc cleaving closer to Washington on technology, security and commerce, potentially driving a new wedge into Europes relationship with China. A joint statement released on Thursday confirmed that the European Union will accept tariffs of 15 per cent on 70 per cent of its exports to the US, as ...

Resource constraints and precedent mean China is unlikely to become one of Ukraines security guarantors despite Russias suggestion that it could, according to analysts. With rising expectations for a face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, security guarantees for Kyiv have taken centre ...

Kuaishou Technology on Thursday declared a special dividend totalling HK$2 billion (US$256 million), marking the first time Chinas No 2 short video app operator will make such payment since its US$5.4 billion Hong Kong listing in 2021. The Beijing-based company said it would pay a special dividend of HK$0.46 per share after reporting better-than-expected ...

The shooting deaths of two Japanese men in central Manila last week were part of a 9 million Philippine pesos (US$157,000) contract killing allegedly ordered by a boss based in Japan, according to the capitals police. Two suspects arrested over the attack claimed the order had come from overseas, Police Lieutenant Colonel Alfonso Saligumba III told ...

Hong Kong customs seized 278 million illicit cigarettes with an estimated market value of HK$1.25 billion (US$160.3 million) in more than 80 cases in the first half of the year as part of a cross-regional tobacco smuggling crackdown. The Customs and Excise Department said on Thursday that it had strengthened cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region to curb ...

Hong Kong police have appealed for the publics help to find a father and his 12-year-old son, who went missing in Hung Hom 10 days ago. The force said on Thursday that Tong Kin, 49, and Theo Tong Mang-shun were last seen on Po Loi Street on Monday last week. Their family filed a report this Tuesday. According to a police description, the father is 1.73 ...

Catch up on some of SCMPs biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Planting trees could lead to droughts in parts of US and Asia: Chinese-led study Planting trees in some parts of the world could cause droughts, according to a Chinese-led study that suggested greening efforts should ...

Hong Kong should immediately introduce a residency period for subsidised university degree places instead of gradually implementing it over two years, to prevent the dependants of non-local talent from exploiting the transition, a concern group has said. The call was issued in a petition from the Hong Kong Local Students Rights Concern Group, but was ...

Chinas exports of diesel generator sets are on the rise as the global boom in artificial intelligence (AI) drives investment in data centres, which in turn is fuelling demand for reliable backup power systems an area where diesel units remain critical. Analysts said diesel generator sets sell for higher prices overseas, opening up vast opportunities for ...

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek said that China will soon have home-grown next generation chips for AI stacking, fanning speculation over breakthroughs China may have achieved. In a one-line note on its official WeChat account explaining the UE8M0 FP8 scale of its newly released model V3.1, the Hangzhou-based firm said that the model was ...

Lawyers for former Hong Kong media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying have argued that his armchair punditry did not support prosecutors contention that he masterminded a conspiracy to instigate Western sanctions, prompting a judge to note that his comments could be interpreted as disguised requests. Lais lawyers and the three presiding judges hearing his national ...

The recent back-to-back meetings in Alaska and Washington offer a troubling portrait of todays security order. Rather than demonstrating a collective search for peace, these spectacles highlight a drift towards unilateralism, great-power deals and a hollowing out of multilateral security frameworks. The meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, between US President ...

Hong Kong police have arrested 10 people for allegedly operating a social media group selling upskirt photos of women, with suspected criminal proceeds reaching about HK$4 million (US$512,100). Senior Superintendent Frances Lee King-hei of the forces cybersecurity and technology crime bureau said on Wednesday that the force had found more than 15,000 ...

Indias parliament on Thursday passed a bill to ban online games played with money in a move that threatens the survival of the popular fantasy gaming sector, after Prime Minister Narendra Modis government flagged the high risk of financial harm. The sudden ban has shocked an industry backed by venture capital firms like Tiger Global and Peak XV Partners and ...

China has called for greater counterterrorism cooperation with Afghanistan, including joint patrols along the narrow strip of land that forms their only shared border. China supports the prompt resumption of bilateral patrols in the Wakhan Corridor to maintain peace and stability in the border region, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a meeting with the ...

Huawei Technologies has opened an account on Douyin, Chinas version of TikTok, to promote the custom design services of its HiSilicon chip unit, even as the company continues to maintain a cloak of secrecy around its Kirin smartphone and Ascend AI chips. The Douyin account, set up by HiSilicon (Shanghai), said the company aimed to enable smart devices for a ...

A Ukrainian citizen suspected to be one of the coordinators of the undersea explosions in 2022 that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany has been arrested, German prosecutors said on Thursday. The suspect, identified only as Serhii K. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested overnight by officers from a police station near ...

China Communication Services, the countrys leading telecommunications infrastructure contractor, said a wave of artificial intelligence projects is now driving digital transformation in thousands of industries and providing a boost to the companys three major business segments. Beijing-based China Comservice, a subsidiary of China Telecom, made that ...

China has released a breakdown of the subsidy settlements for new-energy vehicle (NEV) companies from 2016 to 2020, along with the allocation plan for 2021 to 2022, and the data helps illustrate how the industry landscape shifted during those years. According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) earlier this month, ...

The first batch of about 600 Hongkongers have been granted settlement in the United Kingdom as of June after the British government introduced a bespoke pathway for residents in 2021, the countrys authorities have said. The Home Office, which handles UK immigration, revealed on Thursday the figures under the British National (Overseas), or BN(O), visa ...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but only after his allies agreed on security guarantees for Ukraine that would deter future Russian attacks once the fighting stops. In comments released on Thursday, he also warned both sides were preparing for further fighting, with Russia building up troops ...

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese law enforcement agencies have arrested 42 people in a crackdown on a cross-border people-smuggling syndicate that allegedly sold workers forged identity cards, housed them in subdivided flats and placed them in low-paid jobs. Chief Inspector Lau Ho-Tak of the organised crime and triad bureau said on Thursday that the ...