Venezuela will ensure Chinas energy, trade and investment interests in the country are secure, Caracas envoy to Beijing said, amid growing concern in Beijing that the US unprecedented assault on Venezuela may complicate its ties with the resource-rich country and the wider region. China and Venezuela are trusted partners who share mutual trust. Both nations ...

Hong Kongs annual fundraiser, Operation Santa Claus (OSC), has wrapped up its campaign this year, raising more than HK$19 million (US$2.4 million) for charitable projects and victims of the Tai Po fire nearly double its target. The campaign, launched on November 4, had aimed to raise at least HK$11 million for 13 charitable projects. However, fundraising ...

South Korea has emerged as one of the countries experiencing the worlds largest outflow of wealthy individuals, in part due to its rigid inheritance tax system. A recent analysis by British consultancy Henley & Partners showed on Tuesday that the net outflow of Korean millionaires last year was estimated at 2,400, double the 1,200 recorded in 2024. The ...

At this turbulent crossroads of 2026, the global order is undergoing a major paradigm shift. This is signalled most vividly by a wave of Western leaders visiting Beijing. From British Prime Minister Keir Starmers historic mission last week the first visit by a UK prime minister in eight years to the high-profile arrivals of Canadian Prime Minister Mark ...

Hong Kongs banking regulator has unveiled four flagship projects, including a quantum computing readiness index, to help the citys lenders stay competitive and secure in the artificial intelligence era. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said the initiatives formed part of its new Fintech Promotion Blueprint, aimed at guiding responsible innovation and ...

A Hong Kong taxi driver has been fined HK$1,000 (US$128) for rude behaviour, having allegedly thrown a passengers change out of the window after she had asked him to slow down. Magistrate Winnie Lau Yee-wan at West Kowloon Court convicted taxi driver Lam Ching-fung of behaving rudely towards a female passenger who had booked his cab from Hong Kong ...

Chinese robotics firms continue to secure fresh financing, including from state-backed funds, as investors shift focus from hardware to the brains of humanoids the software and operating systems that underpin their intelligence. Alongside hardware-centric companies like Unitree Robotics, a new wave of firms is emerging with capital directed towards robotic ...

Chinas 4.5-generation fighter the J-10C appeared at the Singapore Air Show this week amid a drive by Beijing to boost arms sales to Southeast Asia. Last year, the model gained increasing global prominence following reports that it had been used by the Pakistan Air Force to shoot down at least one French-made Rafale fighter operated by India during the two ...

Following the sudden demise of a major gold trading platform in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, another retail-focused operator has suffered a run, stoking fears of contagion in Chinas private market for the precious metal. The platform, Ydd007, is the latest to face trouble. On Sunday, it told investors that it had experienced three severe runs in ...

French police raided the Paris offices of social media platform X on Tuesday as prosecutors summoned its owner Elon Musk for questioning over a widening investigation into alleged offences, including the spread of child pornography and deepfakes. The Paris prosecutors office confirmed the search was part of a probe opened in January last year by its ...

A Chinese research vessel has been operating in Middle Eastern waters close to a US aircraft carrier, according to ship-tracking data, at a time of heightened American military presence near Iran. Chinas Dayang Yihao (or Ocean No 1) has been surveying the Arabian Sea west of India since December 19, according to SeaLight, a maritime analysis group ...

The European Commission has launched an in-depth investigation into Chinese wind turbine maker Goldwind Science & Technology under the foreign subsidies regulation, a tool that has previously irked Beijing. The investigation will assess whether subsidies from the Chinese state illegally boosted the companys position in the European market. The commission ...

Hong Kongs property transactions slipped in January, official data showed, but agents are betting on a Lunar New Year mini-boom after several new-home launches sold out in recent weeks. Deals covering new and existing homes, offices, shops, car parking spaces and industrial units fell 15.2 per cent month on month to 7,631, while transaction value declined ...

The son of Norways crown princess pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to four counts of rape at the opening of a trial that has embarrassed the royal family. Marius Borg Hoiby, Crown Princess Mette-Marits 29-year-old son from a relationship before her marriage to Crown Prince Haakon, stood and muttered a negative response when asked to enter a plea to the four ...

A secondary school in Hong Kong has apologised after a teacher was criticised for citing the deadly Wang Fuk Court blaze as an example to urge students to take a fire drill seriously. The MKMCF Ma Chan Duen Hey Memorial College in Tseung Kwan O on Tuesday said it was aware of the incident that took place last Friday and had initiated a crisis response plan. ...

A feng shui-obsessed Chinese woman who kept repositioning a traffic mirror caused multiple accidents in her residential compound. Residents of a Shanghai community were troubled by frequent road accidents at a sharp turn for the past two months. People believed that a traffic mirror positioned since the compound opened for use in 2012 was being constantly ...

Chinas civil aviation authority has floated a regulatory change that would allow its home-grown passenger jet, the C919, to use narrow runways typically found in smaller airports, a move that could help the plane expand its presence at home and break into the Southeast Asian market. The Civil Aviation Administration of China announced on Friday that it had ...

Russia launched its largest drone and missile attack this year on Ukraine overnight, leaving hundreds of thousands without heating in freezing temperatures on Tuesday, just one day ahead of fresh talks aiming to find an end to the four-year war. The strikes hit as Ukraine was experiencing the coldest temperatures during the Russian invasion and damaged an ...

A veteran Chinese investigative journalist has been detained by police in Sichuan province after publishing an article critical of local officials, raising fresh concerns about the abuse of power. On Monday evening, police in Jinjiang district in the southwestern city of Chengdu issued a notice on social media stating that a person surnamed Liu, 50, and a ...

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up StepFun has unveiled a lightweight AI model that it says punches above its weight, rivalling larger systems from domestic competitors including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI as competition intensifies in the countrys AI sector. The Shanghai-based AI lab said on Monday its latest Step 3.5 Flash model was designed to ...

Hong Kongs retail sales rose 1 per cent last year after recording a 6.6 per cent yearonyear increase in December, with authorities saying that improving consumer sentiment and growth in visitor arrivals would continue to support the sector. Figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Tuesday estimated that the value of Decembers retail sales ...

Chinas economic locomotive Shanghai is aiming for a growth rate of around 5 per cent this year, after gradually rebounding since 2023 and reaching a better-than-expected 5.4 per cent growth last year. The megacity, whose economic size is comparable to that of Belgium with last years GDP totalling 5.67 trillion yuan (US$816.2 billion), is upgrading its role ...

Around 85 per cent of insurance claims for damages caused by Hong Kongs deadliest fire in decades have been settled, with the amount paid out totalling almost HK$510 million (US$65.3 million). The citys Insurance Authority said on Tuesday that insurers had settled 1,032 claims related to the Tai Po fire that broke out last November, accounting for around 85 ...

Two men are set to be charged with murder in Malaysia following the discovery of the charred skeletal remains of six people including three young children in a remote, abandoned house in Johor state. Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad confirmed on Tuesday that the grisly findings were made on January 9 in Kangkar Pulai. The remains were discovered by a ...

I pay far less attention to Chinas growth numbers today. What matters more is where fiscal capacity is flowing. China has entered a phase where population ageing, security needs and industrial upgrading all draw on the same budget. This shift follows a structural adjustment in property. Income from land sales once a pillar of local government finance has ...