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Reclusive Chinese billionaire strikes US$33m deal to take over Shanghai hotel

Online gaming billionaire Chen Tianqiao acquired the Mia Hotel at a discount, as investors bet on a recovery in China’s prime real estate market.

Tech billionaire Chen Tianqiao. Photo: Handout

Diplomacy

China blasts Japanese officials’ visit to Yasukuni Shrine on WWII anniversary

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Diplomacy

From TikTok to war weariness, a new generation of Americans’ view of China

12
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Society

Contractors suspended over ‘extremely serious’ Queen Mary Hospital lift defects

Authorities say 24 of 28 lifts in the new clinical block were affected, delaying the launch of clinical services until repairs are completed.

Damaged electronic components, faulty wiring connections and poor installation workmanship were among the problems affecting 24 of the 28 newly installed lifts in Clinical Block 1. Photo: Karma Lo
Faulty lifts in Clinical Block 1 at Queen Mary Hospital have delayed the launch of all clinical services at the building. Photo: Karma Lo
The faults caused lifts to start or stop unevenly, halt at positions that were not level with the floor, or fail to open their doors. Photo: Karma Lo

Science

Chinese sensor feat may help smart watch detect submarine 500 metres deep

Compact chip containing Hall-effect sensor can pick up faint magnetic fields by generating a tiny voltage without increasing noise output.

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Chinese scientists have created a Hall‑effect magnetic sensor so sensitive that it could detect a submarine from 500 metres away. Photo: Shutterstock

Tech Trends

Chinese AI models gain foothold in Europe despite Brussels’ trepidation

Chinese models will be ‘significant’ for European firms, as their ‘performance and efficiency are increasingly competitive’, analyst says.

European Union flags fly in front of the Berlaymont building, the EU Commission headquarters, in Brussels on June 9, 2026. Photo: TNS

Politics

Russia’s role in Middle East politics endures, shifts to being ‘secondary power’

Two Russian military bases will remain in Syria as the region continues to recalibrate its relations with major powers amid the Iran war.

A Syrian rebel fighter stands at an inspection checkpoint for incoming vehicles before a Russian flag and Russian soldiers behind manning the entrance of the Russian-leased Syrian military base of Hmeimim in Latakia province in Syria in 2024. Photo: TNS
A view of Berth No 4, which was handed over by Russian forces to the Syrian government at the port of Tartus in Syria on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
The entrance to the Port of Tartus in Tartous, Syria. Photo: Reuters

Business

Why Hong Kong’s strategic advantages attract global talent

In partnership with:Hong Kong Talent Engage
Married couple Robert Lay and Emma Li, who are both finance industry veterans, moved to Hong Kong from New Zealand with their children in 2023.

China EVs

Karaoke in the car? China’s new wave of gadget-laden electric vehicles

China’s carmakers are competing to turn their vehicles into digital entertainment hubs, offering everything from film projectors to VR features.

BYD, China’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer, is integrating karaoke systems into its new premium models. Photo: Xinhua

Society

Extreme caution urged as data privacy complaints jump 62% in AI era

Commissioner says the public should think twice before sharing details during online shopping and membership sign-ups, adding that personal data is highly sought after.

Data privacy complaints jumped more than 60 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026. Photo: Getty Images
Doxxing-related complaints in the first half of the year stood at 144, a sharp drop from several thousand cases in 2021. Photo: Getty Images
The public are urged to think twice before handing over their own or their families’ personal information. Photo: Getty Images

China Economy

South China tech hub’s wet summer puts damper on small business profits

Shenzhen’s wettest July in more than three decades saw foot traffic plummet and also caused severe disruption to airline schedules.

A screen grab from a social media video shows a partially submerged car being carried away by floodwaters after Typhoon Noul brought torrential rain to Puning, Guangdong province, late last month. Photo: Reuters

Banking & Finance

How China’s young fund managers endured bitter lessons from AI-fuelled sell-off

New portfolio managers were thrust into the spotlight as tech bets soured and client scrutiny intensified during 50-day market turmoil.

Portfolios reeled from AI-driven shocks in June and July. Photo: Getty Images
SERIES: Hong Kong’s 5-year plan

In Focus | ‘Enjoying two worlds at once’: work in Hong Kong, live and play in Greater Bay Area

The bay area is gradually removing traditional space constraints for Hongkongers by giving them access to cross-border networks and services.

Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen
The Greater Bay Area, which includes cities like Shenzhen (pictured), covers about 56,000 sq km with a total of more than 86 million people. Photo: Xinhua
On weekends, Tai Po resident Polly Chan travels via the East Rail line and Shenzhen North railway station to Guangzhou, where she rents a 1,000 sq ft flat for HK$1,000 a month. Photo: Jelly Tse

Lifestyle & Culture

Bling gamble: how Southeast Asia’s middle class is redefining luxury

Instalments and resales are helping customers from Bangkok to Jakarta bridge the gap between aspiration and affordability.

Illustration: Kevin Wong
The Dior “Gold House” in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Aidan Jones
A Louis Vuitton store in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Aidan Jones
A woman walks past the entrance to the Chanel store at EmQuartier shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, in June 2024. Photo: Getty Images

Health & Environment

Hong Kong’s biodiversity ‘richer than we know’ but many species lack protection

Conservationists flagged new species uncovered in city while urging authorities to formulate ‘red list’ to protect existing vulnerable ones.

The brown wood owl is among birds found in Hong Kong’s forests. Photo: KFBG
The Hong Kong tree gecko was discovered in 2018. Photo: HKBU

People

How Southeast Asia’s monarchies stay relevant in a volatile region

The kings in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Brunei have to be attuned to societal or economic changes to survive, analysts say.

World’s longest-reigning living monarch, Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, returns a salute during his 80th birthday celebrations at Taman Haji Sir Muda Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei July 15. Photo: Reuters
The Malaysian king, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar (centre), attends his coronation at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur in 2024. Photo: Reuters
Then Thai prime minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha (middle left) prostrates himself in front of newly appointed Thai King Vajiralongkorn in 2016. Photo: AFP
Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni arrives for the first meeting of the Senate in Phnom Penh in 2024. Photo: AFP

Trending in China

Evidence of earliest silkworm farming outside China found, upending Silk Road timeline

4,000-year-old cocoons found in Uzbekistan likely made their way to the region 2,000 years before the Silk Road even existed.

Archaeological discoveries reveal the earliest evidence of silkworm cultivation outside China, challenging long-held beliefs that silkworms were solely disseminated via the Silk Road. Photo: SCMP composite/archaeology.org/Shutterstock

Lifestyle & Culture

Meet the Singaporean DJ taking local sounds to the global stage

Likie Low’s playlist at Tomorrowland wove Singapore train announcements and bird calls together with electronic dance music.

Likie Low, whose stage name is Likki, at the DJ table. Photo: Likki
Singaporean DJ Likie Low in her studio. Photo: Jean Iau

Motoring

In China, self-driving cars can park, change lanes and drive like humans

Autonomous cars in China can navigate chaotic city traffic with human-like precision, even parking themselves when the occupants have gone.

Self-driving cars can do ever more, as a trip in a Mercedes CLA on the streets of Beijing, in China, showed recently. Photo: Mercedes-Benz AG/dpa
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Exclusive

Chinese officials rattled by White House chaos weeks ahead of Xi-Trump summit

Sources say little progress has been made on deliverables for Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the US since 2015.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping arrive during a state dinner at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14. File photo: AP
Opinion
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World Opinion

Macroscope | Global leaders must wake up to threat of unbridled AI adoption

South Asia

India’s Modi woos youth with free coaching, AI training

East Asia

In South Korea, some savour last season of legal dog meat

Motoring

In China, self-driving cars can park, change lanes and drive like humans

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Evidence of earliest silkworm farming outside China found, upending Silk Road timeline

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Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen
SCMP SeriesUS at 250

How America’s 250-year China dream became its greatest strategic challenge

Historians trace how US hopes of trade, reform and friendship gave way to rivalry with the power it once sought to transform.

48

Did Trump’s tariffs paint the US into an economic corner?

24

Politics over progress: how US-China tensions slow scientific advancements

10
Open Questions series-
Global experts discuss US-China ties, the Chinese economy and more.

Open Questions | Historian Wang Gungwu on why Xi thinks ‘only the party can save China’

The 95-year-old sinologist gives his take on the superpower rivalry, the US advantage and Taiwan, and explains why the past is so important.

33
Illustration: Henry Wong

Open Questions | ‘Surprising’ how fast China’s military is closing US gap: analyst Lyle Goldstein

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Open Questions | China’s military goal is to stand neck and neck with US: ex-PLA colonel Zhou Bo

75

Open Questions | Nobel laureate Simon Johnson on the AI race and China’s ‘over-automation’ risks

19
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Tech Trends

China’s YMTC breaks into top 3 flash-memory suppliers with 14% market share

The chipmaker captured a larger proportion of bit shipments, but still ranks fifth by revenue due to heavier exposure to lower-value products.

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The Wuhan-based chipmaker captured 14 per cent of global NAND bit shipments in the second quarter. Photo: Shutterstock

China EVs

Karaoke in the car? China’s new wave of gadget-laden electric vehicles

Global Economy

US-China AI trade decoupling ‘manageable’ – but tech curbs a ‘wild card’: Citi

4

Business

Patience needed before human gene therapy trials, Stanford expert says

SCMP Shorts
Deadly magnitude 7.7 earthquake hits eastern Indonesia, prompting evacuation and rescue
Deadly magnitude 7.7 earthquake hits eastern Indonesia, prompting evacuation and rescue
Japan protests against Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s visit to disputed Kuril Islands
Japan protests against Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s visit to disputed Kuril Islands
Record rainfall in Japan leaves 8 dead and thousands stranded at airport
Record rainfall in Japan leaves 8 dead and thousands stranded at airport
Millions witness Europe’s first solar eclipse in 27 years
Millions witness Europe’s first solar eclipse in 27 years
Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji dies at age 97
Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji dies at age 97
SCMP Spotlight

Hong Kong Economy

In Focus | What comes next for Hong Kong as a global financial hub?

Hong Kong needs more yuan products, commodity trading infrastructure and fintech innovation, market participants say.

Illustration: Henry Wong

China Economy

In Focus | Why foreign workers are still climbing mountains of paperwork for a job in China

4

China Economy

In Focus | ‘Quiet luxury’: why premium Chinese consumers are embracing home-grown brands

13

Military

In Focus | Why China’s military is laser-focused on ‘disruptive’ technologies

23
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