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China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, entered into service on Wednesday at a grand ceremony held in Sanya, Hainan, according to state media reports. The Fujian is China’s most advanced warship and its first aircraft carrier to be equipped with electromagnetic catapults. Its inauguration makes China only the second country, after the United States, to operate a carrier with this aircraft launch technology. President Xi Jinping oversaw the ceremony and boarded the Fujian afterwards to hear...

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China’s exports fell in October amid a volatile trade war with the United States – though recent high-level talks between the world’s two largest economies have since eased tensions. Outbound shipments fell 1.1 per cent year on year to US$305.35 billion last month, customs data showed on Friday. The figure was lower than September’s 8.3 per cent increase and fell short of the 2.84 per cent growth forecast by Chinese financial data provider Wind. Imports in October stood at US$215.28 billion,...

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Talks between the Chinese and South Korean leaders have renewed diplomatic momentum, but what happens next could hinge on how Seoul balances its relations with Washington, according to analysts. Chinese President Xi Jinping – on his first visit to South Korea in 11 years – met his counterpart Lee Jae-myung in Gyeongju last Saturday, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. A lighthearted exchange before their state banquet drew media attention. After Xi presented Lee...

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Hong Kong and mainland China will continue to be the growth engine for asset-management companies as both local and international investors are starting to shift from holding cash to investing in equities and bonds in the region, according to the top boss of US fund house Invesco. “There is a trend of redistribution of people’s portfolios, as they are looking for value opportunities, which are showing up in emerging markets, equity, emerging-market debt and global equities,” said Andrew...

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The dream of hosting the 2036 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games is within reach for Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area development zone. But dreams alone do not win the games. They are realised through bold vision, strategic planning and timely action. We now stand at a pivotal moment. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced a temporary halt to the Olympic host bidding process to allow its new president, Kirsty Coventry, time to review and refine the selection framework. This...

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Huaqiangbei, home to the world’s biggest electronics wholesale market, is seeing a dramatic increase in the prices of memory chips and other storage products, which is expected to drive up the cost of consumer electronics goods such as smartphones, tablets and personal computers. The increase, especially for large-capacity models, has been “astounding”, as some memory chips had doubled in price, said Cai Zhaojie, a vendor who sells and builds personal computers for enterprises and professional...

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China’s real estate investment trust (C-Reit) is poised to grow by 30 times to become a US$1 trillion industry in the next 20 years – a transition borne out of several factors, including declining home sales – which is expected to benefit select mainland developers, according to Morgan Stanley. Following 25 years of property growth, primarily focused on the residential segment, mainland developers are increasingly weaning off from building projects that would yield one-time profits, the US...

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Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu is scheduled to speak in a fireside chat on Friday during the third Family Business Summit in Hong Kong, as the city burnishes its role as the offshore fundraising hub and ‘superconnector’ between the Chinese mainland and the rest of the world. The speech is the highlight of the conference, curated by the South China Morning Post and Blue Pool Capital, with UBS as the presenting partner. The attendees – by invitation only – comprise about 150 private business...

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The National Games’ unprecedented tripartite hosting arrangement is a calculated strategy, showcasing the Greater Bay Area’s synergy while mitigating the substantial financial and logistical burdens on any single host city, according to experts. “It is more of a political move to showcase the Greater Bay Area integration and the practicality of utilising each city’s resources,” said Gary Ng Cheuk-yan, senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, suggesting that splitting the...

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This year marks half a century of formal diplomatic relations between China and the European Union as well as the 25th anniversary of the founding of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. Here, Shi Jiangtao looks at how the relationship has been affected by Trump 2.0 and accompanying ups and downs of US-China ties, and global conflicts. In an era defined by intensifying US-China rivalry, the European Union often finds itself pulled in opposite directions by the competing giants,...

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Economist Paul Samuelson famously quipped that stock markets accurately predicted nine of the last five recessions. The same could be said of financial economists. So-called leading indicators like market sentiment swing with the daily news. Optimism is the default option but bull markets die hard. Still, most seasoned financial economists now recognise that stock markets are becoming more fragile. And so does the crowd. The frequency of online searches for “stock market bubble” has surged since...

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China has backed a landmark rainforest protection fund launched by Brazil at the Cop30 climate summit on Thursday but is not expected to announce any financial contribution during the event, Brazil’s finance minister said at a press conference. The launch of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility is one of the main outcomes of this year’s UN climate conference so far. It is a multilateral mechanism designed to reward tropical nations for keeping their forests standing rather than clearing...

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva kicked off the Cop30 climate summit on Thursday, urging leaders to turn promises into action while highlighting his country’s work within the Brics group to reaffirm the importance of climate finance, capacity building and technology transfer in global cooperation. The meeting comes amid the notable absence by the United States. President Donald Trump, who ordered the country’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in January, declined an invitation...

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After China and the US reached an agreement on soybeans, Beijing has signalled its intent to seek favourable terms, with the scale of future imports dependent on the competitiveness of American crops, a commerce official said. “With the adjusted tariffs, China will encourage companies to import agricultural products from the US in line with market principles,” said Chen Chao, director general of the Department of American and Oceanian Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce, in a speech at the China...

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The United States must take urgent action if it is to avoid a “logistical catastrophe” in any possible conflict with China, military strategists have suggested, describing supply lines as its biggest weakness. Decades of neglect, cost cutting and personnel shortages – as well as poor maintenance and systemic decline – have directly undermined the US deterrence strategy in the Pacific, according to an analysis published on the military website Breaking Defence. While most public discussion...

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Chinese scientists and engineers have pushed far beyond a string of US military bases known as the second island chain, reaching a seamount in the western Pacific Ocean 2,000 metres (6,561 feet) below the surface to test a smart mining vehicle designed to harvest cobalt-rich deposits, gathering critical performance data. The robotic miner showed its ability to traverse rugged seabeds littered with cobalt crusts, autonomously adjusting its posture to avoid overturning or being...

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The ripple effects of the record-breaking US government shutdown have spread beyond Washington, denying US agricultural officials an opportunity to deepen cooperation with Chinese companies at a high-profile trade fair even as bilateral tensions show signs of easing. The Post learned on Thursday that, because of the shutdown, representatives from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) did not attend this year’s China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai. This marks the first absence of...

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TikTok owner ByteDance has launched a recruitment drive for senior specialists in embodied intelligence, signalling its growing ambition in the development of humanoid robots. Volcano Engine, the Beijing-based tech unicorn’s cloud computing division, was offering a monthly salary of 95,000 yuan (US$13,328) to 120,000 yuan, according to a job posting. It marked the company’s clearest move into humanoid robotics as it specifically sought humanoid specialists rather than general robotics...

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1. Chinese student boom helps create more university spots for Americans: study China’s university boom has helped boost US postgraduate education and local economies in college towns, according to a new study.
2. Chinese trade negotiator urges US to boost agricultural cooperation China’s key trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, has called on the US to create “a...

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In recent months, the European Union has been more Trumpian on China, renouncing part of its free-trade DNA in favour of increasingly protectionist policies. Just like its role model in Washington, the EU has tried to exact geopolitical and economic concessions from Beijing by escalating to de-escalate – a brinkmanship approach that seems to come straight from US President Donald Trump’s playbook in his trade war against China. But the recent trade detente reached by Trump and Chinese President...

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Multinational corporations including French beauty giant L’Oréal and Canadian sportswear brand Lululemon have pledged continued investment in China at the world’s largest trade fair in Shanghai, signalling confidence in the world’s second-largest economy amid signs of a consumer recovery. Speaking on the sidelines of the China International Import Expo (CIIE), L’Oréal chief executive Nicolas Hieronimus said “investing in China is investing in the future”, citing the country’s recovering luxury...

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With nearly one month before Hainan, China’s southern island province, launches a separate customs regime, President Xi Jinping has urged officials to ensure the process goes smoothly so the region can spearhead the country’s opening up. “The strategic goal of building the Hainan Free Trade Port is to establish it as a significant gateway leading China’s opening up in the new era,” Xi said on Thursday in Sanya, a city in southern Hainan, during his tour of the tropical island. “This is an...

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China recorded a year-on-year uptick of 8.5 per cent in marriage registrations over the first three quarters of 2025, a rare piece of positive demographic news as the country’s population continues to shrink and rise in average age. The increase suggests that a host of recently introduced pro-marriage policies are starting to pay off, but experts cautioned the number of marriages would still decline over the long term as the pool of younger adults dwindles. A total of 5.15 million couples...

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With Beijing signalling a restart of Nexperia’s chip exports to safeguard the global semiconductor industry, uncertainties continue to swirl around the resumption of deliveries from China, said a major German automobile supplier amid plans to reduce its production and slash working hours at individual locations. “Our task force is working intensively to secure our chip supply. The situation remains very tense across the industry,” a spokesman with German car-part supplier ZF Friedrichshafen told...

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The quest to understand the “God particle” may have just hit a wall in China. An ambitious multibillion-dollar plan to build the world’s largest particle collider – a machine that could have placed the country at the pinnacle of global basic research and scientific talent – may be abandoned, according to its lead scientist. The Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC), designed to smash electrons and their antimatter counterparts to study Higgs bosons with unprecedented precision, was not put...

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