• Boeing’s orders in China may rise as Beijing surveys airlines’ needs
• China backs Brazil as looming Trump tariffs escalate trade tensions
• Will CK Hutchison’s plan to tap mainland Chinese firm for Panama ports deal pay off?
• China’s birth crisis subsidies, Shaolin head defrocked: SCMP daily highlights
• US-China study on livestock faeces from around the world triggers superbug alarm
• China’s imports of US goods plunge amid trade war, complicating ‘phase 2’ deal
• WAIC Shanghai: China reveals new great leap forward with 1,509 AI models
• Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific to step up hiring more pilots from mainland China
• China, US begin third round of trade talks in Swedish capital
• Apple shuts Dalian store as Huawei tops mainland China’s smartphone market
• China launches first national childcare subsidies in bid to tackle demographic crisis
• China student, first in family to attend Peking University, receives grand ancestral ceremony
• China faces off against US for domination of the DR Congo’s critical minerals industry
• China’s yuan reshaping global order – but US-backed stablecoins seen as a threat
• DeepSeek’s AI dominance in China challenged by Alibaba’s Qwen and rising rivals
• Hong Kong exports rise 11.9%, with strong showing in mainland China, Asia markets
• China’s Shaolin Temple scandal: disgraced head monk defrocked, firms deregistered
• ‘More important than life’: cancer-stricken China dancer keeps performing in major shows
• Why some Chinese students are skipping elite universities amid job market fears
• GSK signs US$12.5 billion licence deal with Hengrui as China rises in global pharmaceuticals
• How Chinese scientists fought for 74 years to build most powerful dam on Earth – and won
• Shaolin Temple head under investigation, US-China tariff pause: 5 weekend reads you missed
• Mainland Chinese hotel brands poised to reshape Hong Kong’s hospitality scene, analysts say
• China forensic doctor goes viral for her muscular build, handles 600 corpses in 3 years
• China’s tech hub Shenzhen mandates leniency for innovators whose state-funded projects fail
• Who is Yu Zidi, the Chinese 12-year-old making waves at World Aquatics Championships?
• Yuen Yuen Ang on how China can turn ‘polycrisis’ into ‘polytunity’

Boeing’s orders in China may rise as Beijing surveys airlines’ needs

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3319899/boeings-orders-china-may-rise-beijing-surveys-airlines-needs?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s aviation regulator has been surveying the country’s airlines to gauge their need for commercial jets made by Boeing, suggesting a possible area in which trade ties between Beijing and Washington might flourish if a broader deal is hammered out.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has requested carriers to update their fleet purchase and renewal plans for 2025 and beyond, according to a source close to the matter.

The agency specifically asked whether the carriers’ plans would include overdue orders for Boeing and what discussions they may have had with the aircraft manufacturer, the source said.

On Monday, CAAC director Song Zhiyong met with Brendan Nelson, a Boeing senior vice-president, in Beijing. The two had a “deep exchange” on further expanding cooperation between China and Boeing, according to a CAAC readout.

In recent years, when bilateral tensions have simmered, Boeing has often found itself on the receiving end of any collateral damage.

But industry insiders said that the company, still a champion of American aerospace technology and manufacturing, will also be in the most forward position to benefit, when there is a thaw marked by trade talks and the coming meetings between top leaders.

If new orders are in the works from Beijing, a turnaround for Boeing’s business in China could be on the horizon.

Another source said that CAAC’s survey would be “welcome news” for Chinese operators of Boeing-only fleets – including Shandong Airlines, which flies more than 100 of the company’s 737 jets with its fleet quickly ageing – since there had been “tangible, pent-up demand”.

All mainland Chinese carriers normally import airliners and other key equipment made overseas via the state-owned China Aviation Supplies Holding Company, which is supervised by the CAAC.

Any coming turnaround follows a years-long hiatus in China’s purchases amid tacit disapproval from Beijing, the result of strained ties with Washington as well as disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic.

China has over the years turned to buy from Boeing’s European rival, Airbus, and pivoted to launch home-grown models like the C919, made by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, Boeing’s potential rival.

Still, according to the second source, policymakers in Beijing realise that China needs Boeing jets, given the operational need from Boeing-only operators, considerations for diversification of suppliers and that Comac “needs time to beef up C919 production”.

If orders do materialise for Boeing, they will come as the world’s two largest economies try to heal their trade rift.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng are meeting for a third round of trade talks in Stockholm, Sweden. The South China Morning Post has reported that a pause in sky-high tariffs each country has levied against imports from the other could be extended ahead of its expiration scheduled for mid-August.

The Post also reported last week that Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump are poised to meet in person ahead of or during this year’s Apec summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, in October and that Xi, during their telephone conversation in June, invited Trump to visit China.

“All these are good timing for Boeing and its many Chinese customers,” the second source said.

China typically uses large jet purchases to balance trade with the US and European Union or to assuage West’s trade deficit complaints, with deals announced or signed when an American or European leader visits the country.

The last time China splurged billions of dollars on Boeing was during Trump’s visit during his first term, in November 2017.

Since then, Boeing’s business in China has been in a tailspin due to a string of safety issues and incidents in other countries as well as geopolitical turbulence.

It suffered an additional blow in the thick of the tariff war between the US and China in April, when triple-digit levies on each other’s goods saw at least three new 737 Max narrowbody jets turned back to the US after landing in China.

But since June, with trade tensions easing following a truce reached by Bessent and He in May, Boeing has resumed deliveries to China.

On July 13, Bloomberg reported, three new 737 Max jets departed Seattle, Washington, near Boeing’s factory, to be received by Shandong Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Xiamen Airlines.

Boeing’s China delivery centre in Zhoushan near Shanghai has also been a hive of activity since May.

China has several operators with Boeing-only fleets, according to CAAC and individual airlines. Shandong Airlines operates 131 Boeing 737s, with an average age of over 11 years; Shanghai Airlines has 83 Boeing planes in service, including eight 787 Dreamliners; China United Airlines has 59 737s. And 9 Air and Donghai Airlines each have more than 20.

Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg said in April that his company aimed to make 50 deliveries to China in 2025.

Brian Yang Bo, founder of an aviation consultancy in China and an industrial veteran, said that when Bessent and He cut a final deal on tariff issues, Boeing jets may again be featured predominantly.

“The CAAC may be asked to make preparations [about new jets China may buy from Boeing] so the China side can present it to the US or use as a leverage in talks in Stockholm … And we know Trump will visit China by the end of the year so China needs to prepare for ‘gifts’ for him,” Yang said.

Yang added, though, that any deals for Boeing would remain “fluid” unless a long-term agreement could be reached.

The CAAC, Boeing and the US Trade Representative’s office have not responded to requests for comment.

In deals that the Trump administration has cut with other countries, promises have been made by trading partners to buy more jets from Boeing. Japan, for instance, has said it will buy 100 Boeing planes.

China backs Brazil as looming Trump tariffs escalate trade tensions

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3319904/china-backs-brazil-looming-trump-tariffs-escalate-trade-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed

China offered to strengthen economic ties with Brazil on Monday and defend what it called “fairness” in global trade, days before sweeping US tariffs on Brazilian exports are set to take effect.

The move added another layer of diplomatic complications to a fast-deepening trade rift between Brasília and Washington. The tariffs are scheduled to begin on Friday .

At a news briefing in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said that Beijing was willing to work together with Brazil and other Brics and Latin American nations to uphold a multilateral trading system centred on the World Trade Organization.

Guo also noted China’s interest in expanding cooperation with Brazil in the aviation sector. Embraer, a leading global producer of mid-size commercial aircraft, relies heavily on the US as its main export market.

The potential new tariffs have raised concerns about the company’s financial stability. Talks to announce aircraft sales during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Brasília in 2023 did not move forward despite initial efforts.

“China attaches importance to its result-oriented cooperation with Brazil, including cooperation on aviation. We stand ready to promote relevant cooperation based on market principles and give a boost to respective national development,” Guo said.

Hours later, China’s foreign ministry again defended Brazil, this time reaffirming Beijing’s position through its X social media account (formerly Twitter), noting tariff wars “have no winners”.

The statement came amid heightened diplomatic tension. Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump announced a 50 per cent tariff on all Brazilian imports, citing what he described as political persecution of his ally, the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro who is awaiting trial for participation in an attempted coup in early 2023.

According to CNN Brazil, a representative of the Trump administration informally suggested that the US could negotiate access to Brazilian rare earth minerals in exchange for reduced tariffs.

The proposal was never made public but raised concern in Brasília, where officials saw it as an attempt to leverage economic pressure for strategic concessions.

China dominates the global rare earth market, supplying around 70 per cent of global demand and holding an even larger share of processing capacity. In recent years, Beijing has used that dominance as leverage in trade disputes, prompting the US and its allies to search for alternative suppliers. Brazil, which holds the world’s second-largest known reserves, became an increasingly important option.

A recent report by the China-Brazil Business Council (CBBC) showed that Brazil’s exports of rare earth compounds to China reached US$6.7 million in the first half of 2025, a tripling of exports compared to the same period last year. Analysts said that the surge reflected Beijing’s push to diversify its access to critical minerals and reduce the environmental costs of domestic processing.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva publicly rejected any US attempt to pressure Brazil into ceding control over its mineral wealth. Speaking at an energy event in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, he criticised what he saw as opportunism from Washington.

“These days I read an article saying the US is interested in Brazil’s critical minerals,” he said. “Well, if I don’t even know this mineral and it’s already critical, I’ll keep it for myself. Why would I let someone else take it?”

He added that any company seeking to explore Brazilian soil would need state authorisation and would be prohibited from selling or transferring rights without government approval.

“We have to give authorisation for companies to research, under our control,” Lula said. “The moment we authorise a company, it can’t sell without talking to the government, and much less sell the area that contains the mineral. That belongs to the Brazilian people.”

With the tariff deadline just days away, Brazilian diplomats are making a last-ditch attempt to avert a trade breakdown. Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira arrived in the US on Sunday for meetings at the United Nations in New York. He indicated he would travel to Washington if the Trump administration signalled willingness to reopen negotiations.

And a delegation of eight Brazilian senators remained in Washington for meetings with lawmakers, business leaders and civil society groups. The group planned to stay through Wednesday and seek a meeting with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.

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Will CK Hutchison’s plan to tap mainland Chinese firm for Panama ports deal pay off?

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3319895/will-ck-hutchisons-plan-tap-mainland-chinese-firm-panama-ports-deal-pay?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings may win Beijing’s support through its plan to bring in a mainland Chinese company as a strategic investor in the controversial sale of its global port stakes, but the change in tack has also fuelled uncertainty, experts have said.

Analysts said that the planned US$23 billion deal to sell CK Hutchison’s 43 overseas ports, including two at the Panama Canal, could become a bargaining chip between the US and China as they began their third round of trade talks in Sweden.

Experts weighed in after the Hong Kong conglomerate, controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, revealed on Monday that it planned to invite a mainland firm to join a consortium behind the deal as a “significant member”.

A deadline for exclusive talks between CK Hutchison and the consortium, led by American asset manager BlackRock and the prominent Italian Aponte shipping family’s Terminal Investment Limited, expired at the weekend.

The conglomerate said that changes would need to be made to the membership and the structure of the transaction for the deal “to be capable of being approved by all relevant authorities”.

Lau Siu-kai, a consultant for the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies think tank, said he believed CK Hutchison’s latest move was an attempt to gain the approval of Beijing, which has signalled its anger over the deal.

He said the approval depended on whether the central government thought the addition of a mainland investor could safeguard national security and secure the interests of the Chinese shipping industry and international trade.

“Does China think that its strategic interests are secured? On the other hand, the conglomerate also has to seek approval from Panama and the United States. It is a matter of how to take care of every party’s interest,” Lau said.

He added that the sale of the two ports at the Panama Canal could be “one of the items in US-China trade talks”, as it concerned both parties.

Wilson Chan Wai-shun, director of policy research and co-founder at the Pagoda Institute think tank, echoed Lau’s observation and said both China and the US were placing more emphasis on strategic enterprises.

“Apart from the usual tariff issues, US-China trade talks will also touch upon whether the global and local operations of such enterprises can protect national interests,” Chan said.

“Whether they will reach a consensus or a tacit understanding will affect strategic enterprises’ plans of selling their assets or development paths.”

He said the next steps in the deal and the US’ response were difficult to anticipate as the exclusive talks with the consortium had ended, which meant the details would need to be discussed again.

“The uncertainties are even bigger than before. The deal has now reopened … A new strategic investor may join the deal. There is also a new arrangement for the shareholding structure and a new valuation,” he said.

Chan added that it was important to note whether the potential Chinese investor was only eyeing the two ports at the Panama Canal or CK Hutchison’s entire portfolio, as the latter could attract the attention of even more regulators.

Gary Ng Cheuk-yan, a senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, also highlighted the potential impact of the US-China trade talks on the deal, with the possible participation of a mainland investor potentially ensuring the deal faced less backlash from Beijing.

“On a net basis, it should increase the chance of the [ports] deal going through. However, there is still considerable uncertainty from the US and China regarding control, and it can also be linked to the ongoing trade talks,” he said.

Responding to CK Hutchison’s latest announcement, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun said the central government would “regulate” in accordance with the law.

He said the government would safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, as well as uphold market fairness and justice.

CK Hutchison has been under intense criticism from the pro-Beijing camp and media since revealing the deal in March, two months after US President Donald Trump took office and vowed to take back the Panama Canal he deemed under Chinese influence.

The deal also prompted China’s State Administration for Market Regulation to announce it would launch an antitrust investigation into the transaction.

The market regulator in April urged parties involved not to circumvent its review after media reports said the two Panama Canal ports were set to be carved out of the deal.

CK Hutchison in May said it was “absolutely impossible” to proceed with the transaction under any illegal or non-compliant circumstances.

Media reports in June said that the state-owned China Cosco Shipping and other Chinese firms had held talks about joining the consortium to ease Beijing’s concerns.

Professor Surinder Brrar from Polytechnic University’s logistics and maritime studies department observed that Cosco was a “very acceptable and desirable member in terms of China and potential Chinese acceptance of the deal”.

He said the addition of a mainland investor could clear the way for securing approval from Chinese antitrust authorities, but the chances of it appeasing the US were “questionable”.

“You can look at it as a way of resolving one issue at a time. It does not look like this will be enough for the US without changing their position, and some more deal-making is likely to happen before final approval,” he said.

China’s birth crisis subsidies, Shaolin head defrocked: SCMP daily highlights

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3319893/shaolin-head-defrocked-chinas-birth-crisis-subsidies-scmp-daily-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

Top economic officials from China and the United States have begun their third round of trade talks in Stockholm. The delegations – led by Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – arrived at Rosenbad Monday afternoon.

Companies linked to Shi Yongxin, the disgraced head of China’s renowned Shaolin Temple, have been deregistered, and his Buddhist credentials revoked – with authorities citing “severe damage” caused to the image of the order.

The Johns Hopkins professor of political economy says Beijing’s ‘directed improvisation’ remains essential at a time when innovation is king.

Beijing has launched the massive Yarlung Tsangpo hydropower project in southern Tibet after decades of scientific research.

The yuan’s internationalisation remains on an upwards, if uneven, trajectory and is gradually reshaping the global monetary order, according to a new study released at a high-profile economic forum in Beijing – though some participants warned US efforts to dominate digital finance pose risks.

China has announced its most significant central-level effort to reverse a deepening demographic crisis since allowing families to have three children, unveiling a long-awaited national childcare subsidy scheme that will provide up to 10,800 yuan (US$1,505) per child under the age of three.

After underperforming in China’s national college entrance exam in June, Lu Jie was accepted into a computer science and technology programme earlier this month at a lesser-known polytechnic university in central China’s Hunan province.

US-China study on livestock faeces from around the world triggers superbug alarm

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3319840/us-china-study-livestock-faeces-around-world-triggers-superbug-alarm?utm_source=rss_feed

Scientists in China and the US have uncovered antibiotic resistance genes lurking in the manure of chickens, cows and pigs from around the world – genes that present a potential global health risk as drug resistance grows.

Their comprehensive global study, published late last month, highlighted the abundance and diversity of these genes within the livestock resistome – the collection of antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs) in the microbiome.

The team also developed a framework to help identify hotspots for antibiotic resistance genes in livestock, along with their risk level, as these genes can exist in bacteria that can easily transfer to humans, such as E coli.

“This study represents, to our knowledge, the most comprehensive survey of livestock resistome to date, spanning 14 years and covering 26 countries of various income levels and nine major livestock-producing countries,” the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on June 27.

“We developed a risk-assessment framework by integrating mobility potential, clinical significance, and host pathogenic relevance, and prioritised higher risk livestock ARGs, producing a predictive global map of livestock resistome risks that can help guide research and policy.”

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi no longer respond to antimicrobial medicines, such as the antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections.

While this process can occur naturally over time as microbes adapt, the spread of resistance has been accelerated by human activity, particularly due to the overuse or misuse of antimicrobial medicine.

In 2019, antimicrobial resistance was directly responsible for an estimated 1.27 million deaths globally and contributed to 4.95 million deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

Livestock farming consumes more than 70 per cent of global antibiotics each year, making livestock manure an important source of these resistance genes within bacteria that could transmit to humans through food and the environment, according to the team from China’s Northwest A&F University and Purdue University and Michigan State University in the US.

The researchers said that a comprehensive approach to assessing the risk level of ARGs and identifying patterns of prevalence and distribution in livestock microbiomes around the world had been lacking.

They analysed 4,017 livestock manure metagenomes – the total genetic material from an environmental sample – to construct a global catalogue of livestock antibiotic resistance genes.

Their analysis revealed that the livestock resistome was a substantial reservoir of ARGs, with 2,291 known subtypes that could confer resistance to 30 antibiotic classes.

They also identified 3,166 latent ARG subtypes, or genes that cannot be detected by existing methods or databases, but have the potential to confer antibiotic resistance.

The microbiome of chickens had the greatest diversity of these antibiotic resistance genes, followed by pigs and cows.

The average resistome abundance in chicken and pig metagenomes was 2½ times higher than that of sewage. The team found that livestock and human faeces shared more ARGs in common than human faeces and sewage.

Bacteria belonging to the groups Escherichia, Klebsiella and Salmonella served as the most important vectors of ARGs, with the potential to spread hundreds of these genes to other environments.

The team also developed a framework to quantify the risk of these resistomes, which helped them identify 44 high-risk genes that are more likely to transfer to lethal pathogens and affect the efficacy of antibiotic therapy.

There is variation in the abundance and diversity of resistomes across the world, correlating with differences in livestock production, antibiotic use and gross domestic product.

“As the world’s largest pig producer, accounting for more than 50 per cent of the global pig population, China displays higher bacterial abundance, diversity, and [risk scores] in pig manure,” the team said.

Canada, along with leading beef producers Brazil and the US, had the highest resistome abundance and diversity in cows. Chicken manure had the highest resistome abundance in European samples, particularly in Poland, Bulgaria and Spain.

The overall resistome risk was the highest in chicken manure, due to intensive farming practices and higher antibiotic usage in poultry production, according to the researchers.

The team found that restricting antibiotic use on farms has had a positive impact on limiting the spread of resistance, as both China and the US have seen declines in resistome abundance since enacting national policies.

By examining the driving forces behind livestock resistomes along with using machine learning, the team generated a predictive world map of risk levels for chicken and pig manure.

“Our results provide valuable insights into health risks of livestock resistomes, offer important data for monitoring antibiotic resistance in global livestock farming, and serve as a comprehensive reference for formulating rational policies to curb the spread of antibiotic resistance,” the team said.

China’s imports of US goods plunge amid trade war, complicating ‘phase 2’ deal

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3319848/chinas-imports-us-goods-plunge-amid-trade-war-complicating-phase-2-deal?utm_source=rss_feed

Washington is widely expected to push China to commit to “large purchases” of US goods during trade negotiations in Sweden this week, but customs data shows that Chinese imports of a slew of American commodities have plunged or even halted entirely in recent months.

Officials from Beijing and Washington begin a crucial third round of trade talks in Stockholm on Monday, with many analysts predicting the US side will focus on securing Chinese agreements to import more American oil, liquefied natural gas and other goods.

The talks come a day after the US struck a framework trade deal with the European Union that included an EU commitment to ramp up imports of American energy and military equipment, and the US setting a 15 per cent tariff rate on EU goods.

“The Trump administration is pursuing a ‘phase two’ trade deal and will request large purchases of US commodities, including energy, as well as direct investment in US commodity production and export capacity,” said Matt Gertken, chief geopolitical strategist at BCA Research in Canada.

But he added that “US-China national security competition will force China to impose limitations on US dependency”.

China has long been a major buyer of US energy and agricultural products, but its imports of several American commodities have plunged or completely frozen in recent months as tensions between the two sides have intensified over a series of trade and technology issues.

China’s imports of LNG from the US dropped 66 per cent from a year earlier in February to 65,750 tonnes, before totally flatlining between March and June, according to Chinese customs data.

The country’s imports of US crude oil during the first five months of the year reached just 136,400 tonnes, a decline of 68 per cent year on year, while imports of US coking coal up to April were down 87 per cent year on year at 76,200 tonnes, official figures showed. China’s imports of both commodities from America effectively ground to a halt from May and April, respectively, according to the data.

Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said that US-China energy deals had halted as buyers and sellers wanted to “avoid hassle” amid violent swings in US and Chinese tariffs and exchange rates.

“Trade transactions involving energy and commodity products are huge in scale and require a lot of planning in advance,” he said.

“In order to avoid making unnecessary efforts, both sides just keep the wait-and-see approach and stop trading – that’s why some [of China’s] import figures were zero.”

In the agricultural sector, China’s imports of corn from the US plummeted 92.84 per cent year on year to 785,143 tonnes in the first half of the year, official figures showed. Its imports of American beef fell to 1.3 million tonnes, down 9.47 per cent from a year earlier.

Lynn Song, chief Greater China economist at Dutch bank ING, said that energy and agricultural products could be the main focus of a potential purchase agreement between China and the US.

“These categories are the most standardised and consequently the products which can have the most flexible import source,” he said. “Other than hi-tech exports, other US manufactured products generally would not be competitive in the Chinese market, making it difficult to ramp up those imports.”

Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics, said that energy was likely to be a key focus of any trade deal because China’s purchases had dried up recently, and oil, coal and natural gas from different suppliers could be “relatively easily substituted”.

“I think there’s a good chance that China would stick with any future commitments to buy US energy,” he added. “Where a ‘phase two’ deal might fall apart is in more complex goods and services, where there might be a gap between what President Trump hopes to sell and what China’s economy needs.”

China and the US signed a ‘phase one’ trade deal in early 2020, towards the end of US President Donald Trump’s first term in office, which included a commitment by China to buy an additional US$200 billion worth of American goods and services over the following years, compared with 2017 levels.

But a report by the Peterson Institute for International Economics said that China only bought 57 per cent of the US exports it had committed to purchase under the deal.

WAIC Shanghai: China reveals new great leap forward with 1,509 AI models

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3319878/waic-shanghai-china-reveals-new-great-leap-forward-1509-ai-models?utm_source=rss_feed

China is now home to 1,509 AI models, which accounts for more than 40 per cent of the world’s total, according to data from the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, showing the country’s great leap forward in the fast-growing technology.

There are 3,755 total AI models known worldwide, according to a Xinhua report on Monday, citing WAIC data.

Tencent Holdings and SenseTime on Sunday launched new AI models at the conference. Tencent’s Hunyuan 3D World Model 1.0 showed its prowess in generating detailed three-dimensional environments, while SenseTime touted improvements in reinforced learning efficiency delivered by SenseNova V6.5.

“We see AI enabling scalable and cost-efficient production of multimodal content across text, images, audio and video,” said UBS Securities analyst Wei Xiong, who pointed out that Chinese models were “showing early success in AI video generation”.

The number of AI models reflects the country’s big strides in transforming into an AI powerhouse through various private and publicly backed open-source development initiatives, narrowing the gap with the US.

The open-source approach gives the public access to a programme’s source code, allowing third-party software developers to modify or share its design, fix broken links or scale up its capabilities.

According to the American benchmarking platform LMArena, created by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, China has become home to the world’s top open-source AI models.

While American AI giants such as OpenAI and Meta Platforms did not take part in this year’s WAIC, which concluded on Monday, mainland Big Tech firms from Alibaba Group Holding to Huawei Technologies showcased their latest AI-related developments. Alibaba owns the Post.

Hangzhou-based Alibaba unveiled its latest large multimodal model, powered by its Qwen AI model family, which was specifically designed for intelligent automotive cockpits.

This was jointly developed with US mobile chip firm Qualcomm and Banma, Alibaba’s intelligent cockpit solution provider.

On the AI hardware side, domestic semiconductor enterprises – including Huawei and start-ups such as Moore Threads and Tencent-backed Enflame – displayed their latest AI processor technologies.

Huawei, which occupied a central space at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre, showed to the public for the first time its Supernode 384 system – which is a cluster of 384 Ascend AI processors – spread across 12 computing cabinets and four bus cabinets.

That system delivers 300 petaflops of computing power and 48 terabytes of high-bandwidth memory, gaining attention in China as an alternative to Nvidia’s NVL72 system. A petaflop is 1,000 trillion calculations per second.

WAIC also showed a rising trend among domestic AI infrastructure suppliers to join forces in building commercial computing resources amid the strong demand for advanced computing power in China’s AI sector.

SenseTime on Sunday unveiled a “compute mall” initiative with more than 10 domestic partners – including chip design firms Huawei, Hygon Information Technology, Cambricon Technologies, Biren Technology and Moore Threads – that would allow AI developers to freely combine and allocate a variety of computing resources, platform tools and AI model services just like “purchasing goods” at a supermarket.

“The overall share of domestically produced computing power remains very low, likely even below 10 per cent,” said Chen Daliang, CEO of Suanova – a Shanghai-based AI computing resources provider and a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Yeebo Technology.

“The primary reasons are the market’s lack of confidence in new domestic products and the absence in China of a company comparable to Nvidia that can offer comprehensive, full-stack solutions,” Chen told the Post in an interview on Sunday.

“What China needs most now is unity – and that’s what we are good at.”

Suanova was involved in the Shanghai Cube project, a high-density computing initiative involving several domestic firms and institutions, including AI chip firms MetaX, computing infrastructure provider Infinigence AI, Fudan University and Apple supplier Luxshare Precision Industry.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang kicked off WAIC on Saturday, calling for the establishment of an international centre to coordinate global AI cooperation.

While the WAIC organiser has yet to disclose the number of visitors at this year’s event, this figure was expected to be higher than the 2024 event’s 300,000 visitors, which was a record high since the conference started in 2018.

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Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific to step up hiring more pilots from mainland China

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/transport/article/3319881/hong-kongs-cathay-pacific-step-hiring-more-pilots-mainland-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways will recruit more pilots from mainland China to diversify its workforce after the first batch of 30 cadets from across the border finished training and started flying.

Chris Kempis, the airline’s director of flight operations, said on Monday that 60 mainland cadets from a pool of more than 750 applicants had entered its pilot programme since its expansion in 2023.

Among the first group of mainland recruits, 30 have already qualified as second officers after completing training in Australia. Other cadets are currently undergoing training in the United States.

“We are open to many more [cadets] in the future, and we look forward to that,” Kempis said, highlighting the cadet scheme’s ongoing role as a key source of pilots.

He said that the programme had trained more than 1,100 pilots since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cathay currently employs 3,200 pilots, a 23 per cent jump from 2,600 in February, which is more than what it immediately needed, Kempis said. He said the group had more than 500 pilots with its budget carrier HK Express.

“Within China, Hong Kong is where we look primarily for our talent source ... we have absolutely no particular quota limit or anything like that. We work purely on what talent is available for us to start the course,” he said.

Among the new second officers is Robert Sun, 30, who started flying in April.

Sun, from northern China, was a 2017 electrical and computer engineering graduate from Virginia Tech in the US.

The father of two had previously worked as a mechanic at Cathay’s Beijing office for five years.

“The first time I was in the cockpit alone while the other pilots [were] going to the lavatory, that was really stressful for me for the first few minutes,” Sun said.

“We have really robust training ... I started to get used to the situation and actually focused on monitoring the aircraft to make sure everything goes smoothly.”

Sun said he had yet to experience culture shock at his workplace.

“Crew members come from all over the world, and everyone is accustomed to working with people from different regions. Through conversations, I’ve realised that we are not so different,” he said.

Luo Lian, 30, from Heilongjiang, developed a strong interest in aviation while studying international journalism at Baptist University between 2012 and 2016.

She gave up postgraduate studies in the US to join a Middle East airline as a cabin crew member before becoming a Cathay pilot.

“I officially began operating flights in May this year. My first flight was to Toronto,” she said.

“I still vividly remember the moment I fastened my seat belt as the aircraft turned onto the runway and began accelerating. At that very moment, I felt an overwhelming joy and fulfilment because my dream came true.”

Joe Fung, Cathay’s flying training manager, said newly graduated second officers were primarily assigned to long-haul routes to help monitor aircraft systems and communication.

He added that pilots do not struggle with communication issues as they primarily spoke in English.

Kempis also highlighted that the carrier maintained standardised pay for all pilots regardless of origin.

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China, US begin third round of trade talks in Swedish capital

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3319884/china-us-begin-third-round-trade-talks-swedish-capital?utm_source=rss_feed

Top economic officials from China and the United States have begun their third round of trade talks in Stockholm.

The Chinese and American delegations – led by Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – arrived at Rosenbad early Monday evening. The historic building also serves as the Swedish government headquarters and the office of the country’s prime minister.

Media from both countries – as well as Japan’s Kyodo News, France’s AFP and several Swedish outlets – began gathering in front of the building early Monday morning, where the Chinese and American flags had been raised.

While the Chinese delegation arrived on Sunday afternoon, their American counterparts landed in the Swedish capital on Monday.

Swedish authorities had blocked off the area surrounding the building for security reasons and swept the area for explosives, prompting questions about the commotion from passersby to the assembled police officers and journalists.

As with past rounds in Geneva and London, the negotiations are expected to run multiple days.

Beijing called on Washington to build consensus and reduce misunderstandings “on the basis of equality, respect and reciprocity” during a government press conference held hours before the meeting.

“China’s position has always been consistent and clear: it hopes the US side will work together with China to implement the important consensus reached during the two presidents’ phone call, and to make full use of the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Monday.

These efforts would be essential to ensuring that China-US relations remain stable, healthy and sustainable over the long term, Guo said.

The Financial Times reported on Monday that US President Donald Trump has discouraged his Commerce Department from taking tough action against China in recent months, as Trump seeks to avoid sabotaging the Stockholm talks and improve the chances of a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.

Addressing these assertions, Guo reiterated that China-US economic ties are “fundamentally mutually beneficial”.

According to sources close to the matter on both sides, Beijing and Washington are likely to extend their tariff truce by another three months.

China and the United States agreed in May to remove most of the heavy tariffs levied on each other’s goods for 90 days while continuing discussions. That suspension is set to expire on August 12.

One source said that, during the anticipated extension, the two will commit to not imposing additional tariffs on each other, nor escalating the trade war by other means.

According to three people familiar with Beijing’s position, while the earlier discussions in Geneva and London focused on “de-escalation”, in this meeting the Chinese delegation will also press Trump’s trade team on tariffs related to the drug fentanyl.

Trump imposed a 20 per cent levy on Chinese imports in the first quarter of this year, claiming that Beijing had not done enough to stop the flow of chemical precursors used to make the drug into the US.

Washington has not indicated what it considers sufficient progress on the issue to justify easing the tariffs. The Chinese side could seek greater clarity on the matter during this round, the sources said.

One person familiar with the matter said that Beijing considered the 20 per cent fentanyl tariffs “unfair”, but might still accept a 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports if the additional duties were lifted.

This has been the third round of trade negotiations between Beijing and Washington since US President Donald Trump began his second term with an unprecedented tariff blitz against China and most other trading partners, with the world’s two largest economies raising duties on each other’s goods by over 100 per cent at their peak in April.

At the first round in Geneva in May, China and the US agreed to suspend most of the tariffs for 90 days. After a second round in London last month, both sides agreed to lift some controls on the export of certain technological items and rare earth elements.

On Sunday, the US and European Union announced they have agreed to a trade deal framework which includes a 15 per cent tariff on most goods entering the US from members of the bloc, as well as significant EU purchases of American energy and military equipment.

Apple shuts Dalian store as Huawei tops mainland China’s smartphone market

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3319861/apple-shuts-dalian-store-huawei-tops-mainland-chinas-smartphone-market?utm_source=rss_feed

Apple is closing a retail store in Dalian, marking the US firm’s first shutdown of a directly managed outlet on the mainland amid struggling iPhone sales.

Meanwhile, Huawei Technologies returned to the top of China’s smartphone market in the second quarter.

The store, located in the northeastern city’s landmark Parkland shopping centre, will cease operations on August 9, according to Apple’s website, leaving the city of 7.5 million residents with just one remaining Apple-owned outlet.

The closure follows the rebranding of Parkland into Intime City after a change in the company managing the mall’s operations. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reason for the closure.

Apple had 57 stores last year in the Greater China region, which comprises the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Meanwhile, Apple will open its third store in Shenzhen on August 16.

Apple faces fierce competition from local brands in China. Huawei returned to the top spot in the mainland’s smartphone market in the second quarter, bucking an overall decline in sales, according to a report from Canalys on Monday.

Huawei accounted for 18 per cent of the market in the April to June quarter, according to data from the consultancy. The company shipped 12.2 million smartphones, up from 10.6 million units a year earlier.

The Canalys data was in line with numbers released by rival consultancy IDC earlier this month.

Vivo, the market leader in the second quarter last year, was pushed to second place. The company’s shipment of 11.8 million units gave it a market share of 17 per cent, according to Canalys.

Shenzhen-based Oppo was placed third. Its shipment of 10.7 million units gave it a market share of 16 per cent.

Beijing-based Xiaomi came in fourth with a market share of 15 per cent or 10.4 million units, its eighth consecutive quarter of growth.

Apple rounded off the top five, with shipments of 10.1 million units, giving it a market share of just around 15 per cent.

“The [second quarter] correction is mainly a result of reshaped seasonality driven by the national subsidy programme in early 2025,” said Amber Liu, practice leader at Canalys. “Despite the slowdown, underlying consumer demand remained resilient, with first-half shipments slightly increasing year on year.”

Despite the drop in sales, Liu said the market was likely to bounce back.

“Mainland China’s smartphone market is on track for modest full-year growth and is set to outperform the global market in 2025,” Liu said. “In the second half, consumer sentiment is expected to continue recovering amid signs of economic resilience.”

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China launches first national childcare subsidies in bid to tackle demographic crisis

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3319872/china-launches-first-national-childcare-subsidies-bid-tackle-demographic-crisis?utm_source=rss_feed

China has announced its most significant central-level effort to reverse a deepening demographic crisis since allowing families to have three children, unveiling a long-awaited national childcare subsidy scheme that will provide up to 10,800 (US$1,505) yuan per child under the age of three.

The move came amid mounting urgency among policymakers to stem the population decline and blunt its long-term drag on economic growth and social stability, after years of piecemeal local incentives that failed to reverse the downward trend.

China will provide an annual childcare subsidy of 3,600 yuan for every child born on or after January 1, 2025, until they turn three – regardless of whether they are the first, second or third child, according to a government announcement on Monday.

Children born before that date but still under three will also be eligible for a prorated subsidy based on the remaining months.

More than 20 provinces across China have already experimented with childcare subsidies at various local levels. But this marks the first nationwide scheme introduced by the central government.

“The policy does mark a major milestone in terms of direct handouts to households and could lay the groundwork for more fiscal transfers in future,” said Huang Zichun, China economist at Capital Economics, in a report published on Monday.

But he also pointed out that the sums involved were too small to have a near-term impact on the birth rate or household consumption.

China’s population fell for a third consecutive year in 2024, with the total dropping by 1.39 million to 1.4083 billion.

Decades of strict one-child policy enforcement not only curbed births but deeply affected social attitudes and the confidence to have children.

But last year, births in China rose for the first time since 2017, reaching 9.54 million, an increase from the record low of 9.02 million newborns in 2023 – the lowest since record-keeping started in 1949.

The uptick was partly attributed to the auspicious Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, with some parents waiting to conceive in the hope of giving birth to a “dragon baby”, as well as the delayed effects of past pro-birth policies. Still, it did not reverse China’s broader demographic decline, with deaths still outnumbering births.

Experts warn the rebound will likely be limited and uneven, as sluggish economic momentum, rising uncertainty, sky-high parenting costs, cutthroat competition and entrenched gender inequality continue to weigh heavily on couples’ willingness to have children.

“The nationwide roll-out of the childcare subsidy system offers broader coverage, stronger support and greater policy sustainability – particularly crucial for low-income families,” according to a Xinhua article published Monday.

Governments at all levels – and some of the country’s largest companies – have introduced a number of policies to incentivise families to have children or to motivate those with children to have more, including cash rewards, extended parental leave, tax breaks and housing subsidies.

Experts have warned that China should brace for another decline in births this year, as the number of marriage registrations – a key indicator of future birth trends – fell sharply. In 2024, only 6.11 million couples registered to marry, a 20 per cent drop from 2023, reversing the brief rebound seen that year and signalling renewed demographic headwinds.

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China student, first in family to attend Peking University, receives grand ancestral ceremony

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/article/3319236/china-student-first-family-attend-peking-university-receives-grand-ancestral-ceremony?utm_source=rss_feed

A Chinese student has captivated the nation after being admitted to the prestigious Peking University, where his ancestral clan held a grand celebration to honour him as the family’s first such student in a century.

Li Guoyao, from Wenzhou, Zhejiang province in southeastern China, was admitted to the university’s Strengthening Basic Disciplines programme, where he will major in biology and basic psychology.

He is reportedly the first person in his clan in a century to attend a top-tier university.

He scored 691 in China’s national college entrance exam, or “gaokao”, and has become a beacon of hope and pride for his village, especially given his modest background.

“His father was laying bricks on construction sites to pay for his education, and his mother earned just 2,800 yuan (US$400) a month stocking shelves at a supermarket. This kid truly earned it through his own hard work!” one emotional neighbour said.

Another villager told of Li’s discipline.

He always used an old phone passed down from his father to complete practice questions, spent weekends in the village library hand-copying exam papers, and never attended a single private tutoring session throughout secondary school.

Li’s achievement led them to host an elaborate celebration at the Clan Ancestral Hall on July 14, to honour him.

In a symbolic break from centuries of tradition, the central gate of the clan’s ancestral hall was opened to symbolise a distinguished honour.

A red carpet was also laid out, and the hall was decorated with congratulatory banners.

A prominent archway proudly proclaimed: “Warmly congratulate Li Guoyao on being admitted to Peking University.”

The clan elder used a vermilion brush to highlight Li Guoyao’s name on the Honour Roll page of the family genealogy, a traditional act symbolising the bringing of glory to one’s ancestors.

“This column has been blank for 30 years. Today, it is finally filled!” the elder exclaimed.

The festivities also featured a convoy of luxury cars parading through the village and a grand banquet with more than 30 tables.

One villager said that the clan also presented Li Guoyao with a traditional “red envelope” as a gesture of good fortune.

In traditional Chinese society, education was considered a pathway to social advancement, and having well-educated descendants was highly valued as a means of upholding family honour and prosperity.

The celebration sparked a discussion on mainland social media.

One online observer said: “691 points to get into Peking University. That is incredible. This truly brings glory to the entire family!”

“It is amazing how much this clan values education! This is the ultimate example of an admission banquet!” said another.

However, some worried about the extravagance of the celebration.

“Is this not a bit too much? It is too grand and might place too much pressure on the child. After graduation, will the clan expect too much in return?”

China faces off against US for domination of the DR Congo’s critical minerals industry

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3319571/china-faces-against-us-domination-dr-congos-critical-minerals-industry?utm_source=rss_feed

After years of largely unchallenged control over the DR Congo’s critical minerals, China now faces growing US competition – a battle that Beijing is determined to win.

The US reportedly pressured the Democratic Republic of Congo last year to block a Chinese firm from acquiring Chemaf Resources.

Now, a US consortium – including firms led by ex-military executives – has bid for the operator of the Etoile copper-cobalt mine. Meanwhile, KoBold Metals, backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, secured a deal with the DR Congo to explore the Manono lithium deposit, despite an ongoing legal dispute with Australia’s AVZ Minerals.

The deals come shortly after a US-brokered “minerals-for-security” agreement between the DR Congo and Rwanda, signed last month to help end the decades-long conflict in the eastern Congo. It aims to secure peace and stability, and in return the United States and its companies will gain access to critical minerals essential for the green energy transition and advanced technologies.

However, Joseph Cihunda, who teaches law at the University of Kinshasa, said the Congolese government was trying to balance relations to avoid becoming a battleground between China and the US, even if Washington sought to escalate competition.

“Even in Congolese public opinion, they do not want such a confrontation,” Cihunda said.

Despite Congo’s ongoing discussions with the US, Cihunda said President Félix Tshisekedi received Chinese officials about two weeks ago specifically to reassure them.

“Minerals are abundant in the DR Congo and there is room for everyone, American, European and Chinese,” Cihunda said, adding that the Congolese government maintained its right to resize a research permit granted to any holder.

China, deeply entrenched in Congo’s mining sector, is pushing back, with its ambassador reaffirming Beijing’s non-interference policy and commitment to supporting the central African country.

In response to the growing US competition and the recent US-brokered Congo-Rwanda peace agreement, Beijing has sought to highlight its consistent approach to international conflicts and politics.

Speaking at Kinshasa University earlier this month, Chinese ambassador Zhao Bin addressed what he described as “discordant voices” in the public sphere that suggested China had ignored Congo while the US acted as its “true friend”.

Refuting such claims, Zhao said: “We have neither treated the DR Congo as a bargaining chip nor imposed any discriminatory measures against it.”

Outlining China’s commitment to its diplomatic principle of non-interference in internal affairs, Zhao said that Beijing had leveraged its strengths to provide Congo with practical and effective support, including military aid, economic assistance and trade cooperation. This, he said, offered strong guarantees for the Congolese side to effectively address its crises.

Sun Yun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Centre think tank in Washington, said any US-China competition over natural resources in the DR Congo was a fair one.

“The US is catching up on its critical mineral vulnerability and it will have to vigorously push for more assets and security in its supply chain,” Sun said.

The US had tremendous leverage in the region, as shown in the recent Congo-Rwanda peace deal, he added.

Last year, US officials reportedly lobbied state-owned miner Gecamines to review the sale of Chemaf to Norin Mining – a subsidiary of China’s state-owned defence company Norinco.

Chemaf is also developing Mutoshi, one of Congo’s largest pipeline copper-cobalt projects. The US consortium’s bid for Chemaf aims to bring Mutoshi under American influence, given its strategic importance for global supply chains.

These deals underscore the intensifying US-China competition for critical minerals in the DR Congo, the world’s second-biggest copper producer and largest source of cobalt, as Washington seeks to secure critical minerals for its green transition. Copper and cobalt are critical minerals used in electric-vehicle batteries and military equipment.

Congo is by far the world’s largest source of cobalt, accounting for about 70 per cent of global production, and a key source of copper and other critical metals such as tin, gold, lithium and tantalum.

Chinese companies are heavily embedded in the DR Congo’s mining sector, having secured several of the country’s key assets in the past decade as Western countries ceded many of these interests to China.

Among their acquisitions was the sale by US-based Freeport-McMoran of two of the world’s largest cobalt assets – the Tenke Fungurume mine and Kisanfu project – to CMOC, formerly China Molybdenum Co, in 2016 and 2020, respectively.

Chris Berry, head of US-based commodities advisory firm House Mountain Partners, said the view on critical minerals in Washington had significantly shifted under the Trump administration.

“Rather than a focus on ESG or ‘green growth’ the focus is now on national defence and self-sufficiency in critical mineral access,” Berry said, using the acronym for “environmental, social and governance” factors.

He noted that while onshoring as much of this as possible would obviously be ideal, the private sector was clearly now encouraged to acquire assets offshore, as evidenced by the proposed Chemaf deal.

“China has a strong presence in the DR Congo and I don’t see that abating any time soon, so the US and other Western players who want to establish a presence here will be getting much more aggressive in deal making,” Berry said.

On Congo’s dispute with Australia’s AVZ, he said all stakeholders needed to come to the table and work together on some sort of agreement.

“Manono has been a controversial asset for quite some time and clearly this disagreement only deepens that view.”

China’s yuan reshaping global order – but US-backed stablecoins seen as a threat

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3319844/chinas-yuan-reshaping-global-order-us-backed-stablecoins-seen-threat?utm_source=rss_feed

The yuan’s internationalisation remains on an upwards, if uneven, trajectory and is gradually reshaping the global monetary order, according to a new study released at a high-profile economic forum in Beijing – though some participants warned US efforts to dominate digital finance pose risks.

The yuan internationalisation index, which tracks the currency’s global use, rose by about 11 per cent in 2024 to 6.06, according to the Renmin University report released at this year’s International Monetary Forum, co-hosted with Nankai University on Sunday.

By comparison, the US dollar scored 51.13 in 2024, down from 51.52 the previous year, while the euro slipped 3.8 per cent to 24.07 on the index.

Meanwhile, the yuan ranked ahead of the British pound and Japanese yen, which scored 4.47 and 3.69 respectively. The report predicted the Chinese currency would strengthen further and widen the gap with both.

Beijing has worked to steadily increase the yuan’s global use – especially as it doubles down on efforts to manage risks in cross-border capital flows.

“The spillover effects of geoeconomic shocks have not only weighed on China’s real economy and financial markets, but also disrupted global trade and investment systems, supply chains and international financial markets,” the report’s authors wrote.

“Promoting the yuan’s internationalisation and leveraging it to push for reform of the global monetary system is a key strategy to mitigate geoeconomic risks.”

The report added that the upwards trend remains unchanged and is “driving a gradual adjustment in the international monetary landscape”.

But forum participants raised concerns that the growing influence of US-backed stablecoins could consolidate the dollar’s dominance and introduce new systemic risks.

“In the past two years, certain countries have sought to push forward premature regulatory frameworks for stablecoins through legislation and long-arm jurisdiction, while also suppressing and excluding the development space for other nations’ digital currencies,” said Chen Yulu, former vice-governor of the People’s Bank of China, at the forum.

“If this trend is allowed to spread unchecked, it could pose significant systemic risks to the global economic and financial system.”

Chen, now president of Nankai University, warned the trend could “expose the global financial system to major risks from single-asset volatility” – with shocks to the US dollar and Treasury bonds potentially spreading from stablecoins to the broader crypto ecosystem and even global financial markets.

While stablecoins can be pegged to any fiat currency, more than 99 per cent are currently backed by the US dollar or dollar-denominated assets – far outstripping the greenback’s roughly 50 per cent share in global payments and 58 per cent share in global foreign exchange reserves.

Earlier this month, the US House of Representatives passed landmark stablecoin legislation that was signed into law by President Donald Trump. For the first time, it established federal oversight for dollar-pegged stablecoins.

At the forum, Li Lihui, former president of the Bank of China, said Washington’s moves aimed to anchor stablecoins to the dollar to “secure global monetary and financial hegemony in the digital era” and expand demand for US Treasury bonds.

This would effectively tie the risks of the crypto asset market to those of the traditional financial system, he added.

“If the US fails to address its twin deficits, it could trigger a financial crisis. An unstable US economy and dollar would inevitably undermine the stability of dollar-backed stablecoins.”

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DeepSeek’s AI dominance in China challenged by Alibaba’s Qwen and rising rivals

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3319831/deepseeks-ai-dominance-china-challenged-alibabas-qwen-and-rising-rivals?utm_source=rss_feed

DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence models are the most commonly used products of its kind in China, but the company is quickly losing market share to rivals in the highly competitive AI market, according to a cloud computing service provider.

DeepSeek, which commanded over 99 per cent of open-source AI model usage on Chinese cloud computing platform PPIO in the first quarter, saw its share decline to about 80 per cent in June, according to data released by the service provider late last week.

Meanwhile, the Qwen models from Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post, had gained significant traction, PPIO said. At its peak in late May, use of Qwen models on the platform surpassed that of DeepSeek products, reaching 56 per cent.

In January, PPIO became one of the first cloud computing platforms to offer DeepSeek’s V3 and R1 models to third-party clients, driving a surge in AI adoption in China. On July 12, PPIO added Kimi-K2-Instruct, an open-source model developed by Alibaba-backed start-up MoonShot AI, which is drawing rapid uptake worldwide.

China’s AI competition remains intense: the country now boasts over 1,500 AI models, with many start-ups striving to enhance the efficiency and user-friendliness of their open-source offerings. In contrast, DeepSeek has remained silent about its highly anticipated next-generation models.

“Since May, DeepSeek’s share [on our platform] has decreased because of the influx of excellent models that has provided users with more choices,” PPIO said.

Alibaba, which recently launched major updates to its Qwen3 model family that debuted in April, saw the share of its products on PPIO increase to over 10 per cent from below 1 per cent between January and June, according to the platform.

Open-source models from other firms, such as Beijing-based Zhipu AI, also captured a larger market share on PPIO in the first half of the year.

PPIO’s findings align with those from US AI marketplace OpenRouter, which ranked DeepSeek and Qwen among the world’s top 10 model providers, each accounting for 20 per cent and 10.5 per cent of usage on the platform as of mid-July, trailing only Google and Amazon.com-backed Anthropic.

DeepSeek also emerged as the most favoured open-source model in a recent survey by consultancy Artificial Analysis, with more than half of global respondents – including those from China – expressing a willingness to adopt the system, highlighting its worldwide appeal.

Hong Kong exports rise 11.9%, with strong showing in mainland China, Asia markets

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3319843/hong-kong-exports-rise-119-strong-showing-mainland-china-asia-markets?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong’s exports jumped by 11.9 per cent in June from a year ago, with the government attributing the sustained performance to the continued expansion of sales to mainland China and other Asian markets while trade with the West fell.

Growth tapered off from a 15.5 per cent year-on-year increase in May, as exports to the United States and European Union declined in June amid the ongoing US-China trade war.

The value of total exports reached HK$$417.8 billion (US$53.5 billion) in June, the Census and Statistics Department said on Monday.

A government spokesman said exports to the mainland and other Asian markets continued to “expand visibly”, while those to the US and EU fell.

“Looking ahead, the sustained steady growth in various Asian economies, in particular, the mainland economy, as well as Hong Kong’s enhanced economic and trade ties with different markets, should continue to support merchandise trade performance,” the spokesman said.

“Nonetheless, the outlook of global trade policy is still uncertain. The government will continue to monitor the situation closely and stay vigilant.”

The June trade figures came just ahead of the initial July deadline of a tariff truce between China and the United States. The deadline has since been extended to August with the Post reporting earlier in an exclusive that the two sides are expected to further extend the truce by another three months.

The Post has reported that a high-level American business delegation organised by the US-China Business Council and led by FedEx chief executive Rajesh Subramaniam, the council’s board chair, is expected to visit Beijing for trade talks this week.

For the first six months of 2025, total exports rose by 12.5 per cent compared with the same period last year. Imports in June grew by 11.1 per cent to HK$476.7 billion, leaving a trade deficit of HK$58.9 billion.

Export growth continued to be driven by a surge in shipments to Asia, climbing 17.2 per cent, while sales to Western markets fell for another month. Notable decreases were registered in the Netherlands, down 35.5 per cent, and the US, down 12.1 per cent.

In contrast, shipments to Malaysia were up by 52.6 per cent, with large growth also registered in the Philippines, rising by 48.3 per cent, and Vietnam, with an increase of 37.6 per cent.

On Sunday, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the city’s economy was set for continued growth in the second quarter on the back of strong exports, a rebound in private consumption, and a series of mega-events held in the city.

The gross domestic product (GDP) figure is due to be revealed on Thursday.

The economy in the first quarter of 2025 grew 3.1 per cent compared with the same period last year, following a 2.5 per cent year-on-year expansion in the fourth quarter of 2024.

GDP growth is estimated to reach between 2 and 3 per cent this year, according to the financial secretary’s predictions earlier this year.

China’s Shaolin Temple scandal: disgraced head monk defrocked, firms deregistered

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3319829/chinas-shaolin-temple-scandal-disgraced-head-monk-defrocked-firms-deregistered?utm_source=rss_feed

Companies linked to Shi Yongxin, the disgraced head of China’s renowned Shaolin Temple, have been deregistered, and his Buddhist credentials revoked – with authorities citing “severe damage” caused to the image of the order.

The swift move to erase the institutional footprint of the abbot of China’s most famous Buddhist sanctuary came a day after temple authorities said Shi was under investigation for criminal charges, including embezzling funds and temple assets.

The Buddhist Association of China, the national governing body overseeing Buddhist affairs, expressed its strong support for the investigation and the subsequent actions taken.

In an official announcement on Monday, the association condemned Shi’s misconduct as “severely damaging to the reputation of Buddhism and the image of monks”.

The association said it had formally cancelled Shi’s ordination certificate, effectively stripping him of his monastic status.

No individual was above the law or the moral standards of their faith, the association added, emphasising its commitment to uphold the discipline and integrity of the Buddhist community.

Meanwhile, corporate records reveal the scale of the business empire led by Shi.

According to public business registration data on the business information inquiry website Qichacha, Shi was associated with eight companies, the licences of five of which have been either cancelled or revoked.

The three that are still active are the prominent Zhengzhou Buddhist Association, the Henan Provincial Buddhist Association and the China Songshan Shaolin Temple – a company backed by the monastery and set up in 1995.

A web of 17 further subsidiaries controlled by Shi, ranging from kung fu academies to traditional medicine firms, is also being audited.

The purge follows a public notice that stunned millions of Buddhists and martial arts fans worldwide.

Established over 1,500 years ago in Henan province, Shaolin Temple is the birthplace of Zen Buddhism and an Unesco World Heritage site, famed as the cradle of Shaolin kung fu.

Shi, born Liu Yingcheng in 1965, is suspected of serious violations of Buddhist precepts and is being jointly investigated by multiple agencies, the temple said in announcing the investigation on Sunday.

It said Shi was also accused of maintaining long-term improper relationships with several women and fathering illegitimate children – behaviour considered deeply unacceptable within the monastic discipline and reviving memories of similar allegations against him a decade ago. The temple pledged to provide more details soon.

The downfall of the man once dubbed the “CEO monk” marks the end of a controversial era.

Ordained in 1981, Shi took full control of the Shaolin Temple in 1999 and transformed it from a crumbling monastic compound into a multibillion dollar global brand.

Alongside nightly kung fu spectaculars and a blockbuster 1982 film, he monetised the Shaolin trademark in over 80 countries, licensing everything from video games to bottled water.

This is not Shi’s first brush with scandal, as the monk was also accused of fraud and sexual scandal 10 years ago.

In March 2015, he and the temple were criticised for their plan to build a US$297 million hotel complex in Australia, which would include a temple, a live-in kung fu academy and a golf course.

In July that year, a whistle-blower monk accused him of maintaining mistresses and owning luxury cars, but a subsequent probe by Henan provincial religious authorities confirmed only that he held duplicate household registrations. All charges were dropped in 2017.

Shi has also served as president of the Henan Provincial Buddhist Association since 1998 and was a deputy to the National People’s Congress from 1998 to 2018.

Chinese newspaper Economic Observer reported over the weekend that Shi had been taken away on Friday by police in Xinxiang, an industrial city in northern Henan.

According to a July 8 post on the Shaolin Temple’s official website, Shi’s last public appearance was when he attended a meeting of monks the previous day.

The case has sparked heated debate across China’s social media platforms.

Many have condemned him as a “fallen monk” who exploited religious influence for personal gain, arguing that his commercialisation efforts had compromised the sacred nature of the temple.

Others claimed that Shi epitomised China’s “political Buddhism”, where state-affiliated monks prioritise business and political ties over spiritual duties.

China Songshan Shaolin Temple controls 17 companies through investments, including Henan Shaolin Intangible Asset Management – Shi’s flagship commercial vehicle that invested millions of yuan across a wide range of businesses.

The case has prompted loud calls for transparency, especially regarding his substantial stake in Henan Shaolin Intangible Asset Management.

“I feel like I’ve been saying that he’s not a good guy since I was in junior high. Now I’m 38 and he’s just been arrested,” wrote one user.

“A report letter 10 years ago, an arrest warrant 10 years later, in between is the Shaolin Temple’s business empire and everyone’s incense money,” wrote another.

‘More important than life’: cancer-stricken China dancer keeps performing in major shows

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3319130/more-important-life-cancer-stricken-china-dancer-keeps-performing-major-shows?utm_source=rss_feed

A famous dancer in China who was diagnosed with breast cancer and endured dozens of rounds of medical treatment last year still devotes herself to dancing.

Zhu Jiejing, a 39-year-old principal dancer with the Shanghai Dance Theatre Company, says dancing is more important to her than life itself.

Zhu shot to fame with her lead roles in prominent dances at the state media CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala Show four times in the past five years. The show is the most watched TV programme in China.

She was absent from the stage for almost a year in 2024 after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Zhu surgery on her left breast and endured chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the Xinmin Evening News reported.

She also suffered from side effects such and and physical weakness.

But she never gave up dancing.

While lying in hospital beds, Zhu clutched at water bottles to boost the strength of her arms. After doctors allowed her to be up and about, she often danced in the corridor.

In January, when her surgical wounds had not fully healed, Zhu hid from her family that she went to Beijing to join dance rehearsals for this year’s Gala Show.

“I must dance. Dancing is more important than life,” Zhu was quoted as saying.

“Returning to the stage again, I feel all my frustration and sorrow gradually disappear through dancing. I believe that only the stage, only dance and only performances can cure me and save me,” she said.

Zhu is from Jiaxing in the nearby Zhejiang province, eastern China. She started learning dance at the age of six.

At the age of nine, Zhu persuaded her parents to let her apply for the prestigious Shanghai Dance School, a boarding institution.

Thanks to her dancing gift and diligence, she was accepted.

Zhu graduated from the Shanghai Theatre Academy, also a top institution in China.

In the 2000s, she won gold at the China Lotus Awards, the highest award for dancers in China, four times.

In May of this year, Zhu won the Plum Performance Award, the top prize for opera artists in the country, for her role in the dance drama Ibis. She became the first dancer to receive this award in the past two decades.

Ibis has been performed in both China and Japan more than 400 times since 2014.

Zhu said she would never forget her dance in the Ibis in May when she was contending for the Plum Award.

“I feel I am using my life to dance. My life is worth it because I am competing for the Plum award,” she said.

Mainland social media has been full of best wishes messages for Zhu.

“Sister Zhu, you represent the highest level of dance in China. I hope you stay healthy,” one person said.

“I feel sorry that she got cancer. But she was not in low spirits; instead she continued to shine on the stage through her enthusiasm for dance. I hope she can beat the disease,” said another.

Why some Chinese students are skipping elite universities amid job market fears

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3319795/why-some-chinese-students-are-skipping-elite-universities-amid-job-market-fears?utm_source=rss_feed

After underperforming in China’s national college entrance exam in June, Lu Jie was accepted into a computer science and technology programme earlier this month at a lesser-known polytechnic university in central China’s Hunan province.

“Good schools had too many applicants for this major, so I had to choose a lower-ranked one to pursue it,” Lu said.

The results for the exam, better known as the , have been released over the past two weeks – marking a life-changing moment for students like Lu.

Now more than ever, students are opting for majors with strong job prospects over prestigious universities. A focus on immediate employability and job security is eclipsing long-term aspirations and personal interests.

Driving this trend is a growing oversupply of college graduates, intensifying competition in the job market amid a challenging economic climate.

Computer science has long been a highly popular major, Lu said, but the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) – widely expected to create new job opportunities – has fuelled even greater demand over the past couple of years.

“Even though my school’s teaching quality may not be top-tier, this major is still highly competitive because so many people have applied,” he said.

New research universities, such as Greater Bay University and Fuyao University of Science and Technology, have capitalised on the shift by promoting “job security” in their inaugural recruitment campaigns.

Both have set admission requirements on par with those of elite Chinese institutions and have drawn significant attention from applicants.

On the other hand, prestigious universities are losing their appeal, especially for majors seen as offering poor job prospects.

Last week, the admissions office of Hubei province, in central China, released admission requirements for an additional round of applications for certain programmes at Peking University, one of China’s top academic institutions.

That means the programmes – including humanities and philosophy majors– failed to attract enough applicants from the province to fill their spots. As a result, the admissions office is allowing students who were not initially accepted to reapply.

Cindy Cheng, a mother in her 40s from Wuhan, Hubei’s provincial capital, said she had guided her son – who took the gaokao this year – to apply for electrical engineering.

“We prioritised employability. New engineering disciplines are in demand, so we had to aim for slightly lower-tier schools,” she said.

In WeChat groups for parents of high school seniors taking the gaokao, job prospects dominated the conversation. Other common concerns included whether universities offered clear pathways to postgraduate studies, as many parents believe a bachelor’s degree alone no longer guarantees good jobs.

“Computer science and AI are hot majors. Even mechanical engineering, which wasn’t as popular in recent years, has regained attention due to the robotics boom,” Cheng said.

Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, a Beijing-based think tank, warned that rising employment pressure is pushing students and parents to “blindly follow trends” – encouraging a short-sighted, utilitarian mindset when choosing majors.

With Chinese university enrolments increasing, a record 12.22 million graduates have entered the job market this year. This has coincided with private enterprises – traditionally the largest employers – facing budget cuts and lay-offs.

“About 70 to 80 per cent of students have their applications filled out by parents, often disregarding their children’s interests. It’s questionable whether they truly understand industry trends,” Xiong said.

“Success after graduation comes from long-term commitment and passion. Interest drives a sustainable future.”

He urged students to choose majors based on their interests and strengths, rather than succumbing to external pressures. “If you excel in your field, you’ll find good job opportunities no matter what the field. If you don’t, you’ll struggle anyway,” he said.

In June, China’s urban unemployment rate for youths aged 16-24, excluding students, was 14.5 per cent, while the rate for those aged 25-29 was 6.7 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The bureau cautioned in its July data report that domestic demand remains weak and external uncertainties continue to weigh on employment, especially for young people and certain industries.

Additional reporting by Sylvia Ma

GSK signs US$12.5 billion licence deal with Hengrui as China rises in global pharmaceuticals

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3319793/gsk-signs-us125-bn-licence-deal-hengrui-china-rises-global-pharmaceuticals?utm_source=rss_feed

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will pay a Chinese company US$12.5 billion for exclusive global rights to develop a dozen drugs, in a landmark deal that underscores how China’s research labs are snapping up market share in the global pharmaceutical and biomedical industries.

The deal would give GSK the rights to develop a drug for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) called HRD-9821, as well as 11 of the preclinical programmes owned by Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals. The global rights exclude mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, according to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday.

The deal is the latest in a string of transactions between multinational firms and Chinese drug developers, which have bolstered China’s share of global licensing deal value to 28 per cent in 2024 from 1 per cent in 2019. Pfizer agreed in May to pay US$1.25 billion to Shenyang-based 3SBio for the exclusive right to develop the Chinese company’s drug for treating solid tumours.

China’s pharmaceutical out-licensing value soared to almost US$66 billion in the first six months of 2025, more than the whole of last year, according to a July 14 report from China Post Securities. For multinational companies, the deals gave them exclusive products to expand their product portfolio and pipelines, while the Chinese developers saw them as opportunities to cash in on prior work and fund new projects.

Hengrui, established in the Jiangsu provincial city of Lianyungang in 1997, would receive a US$500 million upfront payment and charge US$12 billion to GSK upon the achievement of development, regulatory approval and sales milestones.

“The signing of the agreement will help expand the international market for HRS-9821 and multiple innovative medicines in various therapeutic areas, including oncology, respiratory, immunology and inflammation, providing high-quality treatment options for patients worldwide,” Hengrui said in a statement.

Hengrui’s shares jumped after the announcement, rising by as much as 9 per cent to an intraday high of HK$61.50 in Hong Kong. The company’s shares began trading in Hong Kong on May 23 after a HK$9.89 billion initial public offer, at HK$44.05 a share.

For the 11 programmes, Hengrui will lead their development up to the completion of phase 1 clinical trials, including on patients outside China. GSK can decide whether to exercise the exclusive options to invest in their further development outside China.

Earlier this month, Hengrui said it won approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) to start clinical trials on HRS-9821, an inhalation powder that has been shown in early studies to effectively inhibit respiratory inflammation and dilate bronchi.

It was intended to be used as an add-on maintenance therapy for COPD. Hengrui said it spent 38.43 million yuan (US$5.4 million) to develop HRS-9821.

Among similar products worldwide, only London-based Verona Pharma’s ensifentrine, with annual sales of US$42 million last year based on the Evaluate Pharma database, was approved for marketing in the US in July 2024 for this purpose, Hengrui said.

COPD, caused mostly by smoking and air pollution, is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). With breathing difficulty and chronic cough as the main symptoms, the disease caused 3.5 million deaths in 2021, or 5 per cent of all global fatalities, the WHO said.

Hengrui, one of China’s biggest pharmaceutical firms, is forecast to post an 18.4 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit to 4.06 billion yuan for the year’s first six months, according to Bloomberg’s consensus analysts forecast.

China’s NMPA approved 43 innovative drugs in the year’s first half, up 59 per cent from the same period last year, People’s Daily reported on Sunday.

How Chinese scientists fought for 74 years to build most powerful dam on Earth – and won

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3319550/how-chinese-scientists-fought-74-years-build-most-powerful-dam-earth-and-won?utm_source=rss_feed

In 1951, immediately after Tibet’s liberation, the Chinese government established the first Tibetan scientific expedition.

This was the first comprehensive scientific expedition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. More than 50 researchers, equipped with barometers, compasses and other basic instruments, accompanied the army on their pioneering quest.

It took them nearly three years to complete the expedition from the Jinsha River in the east to Mount Everest in the west, and to the Yarlung Tsangpo River in southern Tibet.

A geological map highlighting key mining areas along the route was compiled, complemented by the collection of scientific data on soil, meteorology, hydrology, agriculture, language and history.

This marked the beginning of plans for the Yarlung Tsangpo dam. On July 19, Premier Li Qiang announced the launch of the Yarlung Tsangpo River downstream hydropower project during its groundbreaking ceremony in the Tibetan city of Nyingchi.

It is the world’s most ambitious dam project, with a total installed power capacity of 60,000 megawatts (MW) – three times that of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze in central China.

“The Yarlung Tsangpo River is the highest in China, with a length of 2,057km (1,280 miles). Its hydropower potential is only slightly less than that of the Yangtze River, but when calculated per unit length, it ranks first in the country,” Guan Zhihua, who led the second expedition to Tibet in 1973, said in 2010 during an interview with Southern Weekly.

Now in his mid-80s and retired, Guan used to be part of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Due to the national economic difficulties caused by the Great Leap Forward, the Dalai Lama’s rebellion and subsequent flight, the border war with India and the ensuing political struggles, scientific research related to Tibet was halted.

It restarted only in 1972 – when CAS established a comprehensive scientific expedition team for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with Guan serving as the leader of the Yarlung Tsangpo River leading stream group, responsible for assessing its hydropower potential.

Guan made 22 further trips to Tibet and nine Yarlung Tsangpo River expeditions during his working life.

The Yarlung Tsangpo, which courses through central and southern Tibet, is famous for flowing through the world’s deepest canyon, which has a drop of over 6,000 metres (19,700 feet).

Originating from the icy peaks and snowy ridges between the Himalayas and the Gangdise Mountains, the river extends eastwards before cascading down at a significant bend in the eastern Himalayas to flow into the Indian plains near the town of Pasighat where it later becomes the Brahmaputra River.

In 1980, a nationwide comprehensive survey of hydropower resources in China was initiated, which included the Yarlung Tsangpo River.

Based on the survey data collected by the comprehensive expedition team, around 12 potential sites for hydropower stations were identified along the main stream of the river.

During the later 1980s, the Tibet provincial government made two attempts to divert and dam the main stream of the Yarlung Tsangpo; however, neither dam project was able to commence due to a lack of funding and technology.

In 1981, Chen Chuanyou, another researcher at the same CAS institute as Guan published a special investigation report on water resources in Tibet.

Chen planned to build a reservoir on the main stream of the Yarlung Tsangpo, raise the water level and then drill a 16km tunnel to divert water to the Duoxiong River, a tributary with a drop of more than 2,300 metres. “For the sake of safety and the environment, hydropower stations can be built underground,” he said at the time.

CAS repeatedly studied and demonstrated the Yarlung Tsangpo River water conservancy development projects. In September 1997, it published an article in the state-run Guangming Daily with an eye-catching title, “Can Tibet build the world’s largest hydropower station?”

In 2002, Chen published an article in the Engineering Science journal on the positive impact of a Yarlung hydropower development project. He argued that power could then not only be exported to Southeast Asia but also transmitted via high-voltage queues to Guangdong and Hong Kong.

“These were all just scientific discussions, very advanced plans,” Chen said in an interview with Southern Weekly in 2014. “We just laughed and didn’t do it in detail.”

But 20 years later, these scientific investigations and concepts have become reality.

The published technical details for the Yarlung Tsangpo project – development methods such as straightening bends and tunnel water diversion, underwater construction of power stations, and cascade power stations – are fundamentally similar to Chen’s plan, but on a much larger scale.

The electricity is primarily for external transmission and consumption, while also taking into account local demand within Tibet. There is no longer a shortage of funding.

China will bear these costs on its own, with a total investment of 1.2 trillion yuan (US$168 billion).

Shortly before the announcement of the project’s launch, related supporting projects had already begun.

On June 23, the ±800 kilovolt ultra-high voltage direct current transmission project from southeastern Tibet to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, known as the Tibet-Guangdong DC project, was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Construction is expected to be in full swing within the year, and once completed, clean energy from Tibet can be “delivered instantly” to the Greater Bay Area, according to an NDRC report.

The Yarlung Tsangpo was once the last central river in China that had not been dammed, but that is now a thing of the past.

In October 2015, the Zangmu hydropower station was fully commissioned for power generation. It is located in the middle reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo.

It is currently the largest hydropower station in Tibet, with a total installed capacity of 510MW – less than one-hundredth of that expected from the Yarlung Tsangpo dam.

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Shaolin Temple head under investigation, US-China tariff pause: 5 weekend reads you missed

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3319781/shaolin-temple-head-under-investigation-us-china-tariff-pause-5-weekend-reads-you-missed?utm_source=rss_feed

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

Mainland Chinese hotel brands poised to reshape Hong Kong’s hospitality scene, analysts say

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3319733/chinese-hotel-brands-poised-reshape-hong-kongs-hospitality-scene-analysts-say?utm_source=rss_feed

Mainland Chinese hotel operators are expected to significantly increase their presence in Hong Kong’s hotel industry, potentially replacing established brands in the coming years, according to analysts.

Currently, Western and international operators dominate Hong Kong’s hotel landscape, while Chinese ones have a minor presence. Among some of the more notable mainland players, BTG Homeinns operates both upscale and mid-market hotels in Hong Kong, including the Wharney Hotel in Wan Chai, Oasis Avenue in Tsim Sha Tsui, and Oasis Aurum 181 in Sai Ying Pun.

However, mainland brands had significant potential for growth, said Hannah Jeong, executive director and head of valuation and advisory services at CBRE Hong Kong.

“The Chinese operators are increasing their footprint and it’s a global trend,” said Jeong, adding that because 70 per cent of tourists in Hong Kong came from the mainland, Chinese hotels “must show their presence” in the city.

The shift reflects the growing ambition of Chinese hotel operators to expand beyond the mainland, which could give them a competitive edge in attracting hotel asset owners, according to CBRE.

Hotel operations typically follow several business models, such as a master lease – where the hotel owner leases the asset to an operator – or hotel service management, whereby the operator manages the hotel on behalf of the owner.

Chinese hotel brands usually preferred new assets, but due to the lack of such options in Hong Kong, they were willing to compete by offering better deals to landlords and asset owners, she added.

Timing could benefit Chinese hotel operators. With hotel management contracts or leases generally lasting five years, asset owners who made concessions during the Covid-19 pandemic may now seek new contract terms as those agreements expired, creating an opportunity for mainland players, Jeong said.

The anticipated entry of mainland hotel operators coincides with three emerging trends that could enhance their prominence in Hong Kong, according to Wei Junya, vice-president of investment sales in Greater China at JLL.

The first trend is changing preferences of tourists.

As Hong Kong’s largest source of tourism, mainland travellers were increasingly seeking hotel experiences that align with their home culture, Wei said. Chinese operators had showed “superior capability in catering to this demand through mature digital ecosystems like WeChat mini-programmes and membership synergies”, he added.

The second trend involves asset optimisation, where mainland Chinese operators can achieve higher margins through centralised procurement systems, organisational efficiencies and artificial intelligence-driven dynamic pricing, according to Wei.

The third trend was the appeal of Hong Kong as a testing ground for mainland operators with global ambitions, Wei said.

While Hong Kong’s tourism industry is experiencing an uneven recovery, high-tier hotels have rebounded fully, with their average daily rate reaching HK$2,145 (US$273) in the first five months of the year – almost matching the 2018 level of HK$2,149, according to CBRE.

On the other hand, lower-tier hotels are offering competitive rates to attract a wider range of tourists. From January to May, Hong Kong welcomed over 20 million international visitors, suggesting it was on track to exceed last year’s 44.5 million arrivals by 12 per cent, although the estimate was still 22 per cent below the peak in 2018, CBRE said.

While the entry of new hotel operators could provide visitors with more options, other factors also play into the success of the industry, according to Lawrence Wan, senior director and head of advisory and transaction services for retail at CBRE Hong Kong.

“To attract tourists to Hong Kong, hotels are just one factor,” he said. “Major factors are the quality of service we provide, new attractions we offer” and strategies to encourage longer stays rather than just day trips, he added.

The role of the government and retailers in offering diverse experiences is crucial, Wan said.

China forensic doctor goes viral for her muscular build, handles 600 corpses in 3 years

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3319143/china-forensic-doctor-goes-viral-her-muscular-build-handles-600-corpses-3-years?utm_source=rss_feed

A forensic doctor in China who has gone viral thanks to her muscular build says she works out to perform better at work and break stereotypes about women in medicine.

Yanyan, 26, is the first woman forensic pathologist to investigate sudden or suspicious deaths in a forensic science laboratory in southwestern China’s Chongqing municipality.

She has worked there for the past three years after graduating a degree in forensic medicine from Chongqing Medical University.

As an experienced forensic pathologist, she has handled more than 600 bodies.

On social media, she runs an account with 14,000 followers, on which she is a fitness fanatic.

Yanyan said she could dead lift 120kg, hold a chainsaw with one hand and carry out a craniotomy in three minutes.

She said she worked out to perform better at work.

Forensic pathologists often need to work with heavy bodies weighing up to 150kg.

As a result, women are usually discriminated against in the industry, as they are considered weak.

Those who stereotype women as “family people” also say that they are not suited to a job that requires a lot of night shifts and business trips.

Some institutions even openly limit their posts to male applicants only.

Many, regardless of their gender, said they also face discrimination from the public who saw their job as ominous.

Some said people refused to shake their hands after learning about their profession.

Yanyan said she and her husband’s family understand her job. Her husband is also keen on fitness training.

She said she ran her social media account to break public stereotypes about her profession.

Yanyan said she was calm even when she encountered her first body.

She says the value of her work lies in giving justice to the dead and their families peace.

She also planned to keep learning new technologies applied in the industry.

Yanyan added that she witnessed people who died from illnesses and accidents, and saw relatives of the dead reacting to their demise with frustration or indifference.

She said she wanted to tell people to “enjoy life” while they still can.

China’s tech hub Shenzhen mandates leniency for innovators whose state-funded projects fail

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3319739/chinas-tech-hub-shenzhen-mandates-leniency-innovators-whose-state-funded-projects-fail?utm_source=rss_feed

Authorities in China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen have called for leniency towards innovators whose government-funded projects fail or do not pass evaluation.

The first policy statement of its kind from the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission comes as China aims to cement the city’s status as a hi-tech powerhouse and reduce reliance on foreign technology amid a sustained strategic rivalry with the United States.

The new rules applied to all universities, hospitals and companies that undertake technical innovation with government financial aid, the commission said in a statement on its website last Monday.

It said that if the mistakes did not involve misconduct, there was no abuse of power and the innovators took reasonable actions to correct the errors, then they should not be punished.

The statement further listed scenarios where such exemptions could be made, such as goals stalled due to technical difficulties, products developed but rendered unviable due to market changes, or research remaining incomplete because of the need to explore new mechanisms, methods, models or technologies.

“These units and individuals should not be held accountable, nor should their performance evaluations be affected. They should not be hindered from applying for government-funded scientific and technological projects again,” the document said.

It urged that researchers be encouraged to “boldly explore uncharted territories and strive to become creators of significant scientific achievements”, as well as to set up a long-term mechanism to avoid losses caused by failed innovations.

Shenzhen, which transformed from a small fishing village into “China’s Silicon Valley” within a few decades, has consistently prioritised innovation as a key driver of its economy while fostering a business-friendly environment.

In August 2023, Shenzhen issued three work plans outlining 55 measures to optimise its business environment by improving the rule of law, easing market access, protecting intellectual property and promoting internationalisation.

In February this year, the city government announced a major initiative to boost the AI and robotics industry, with a particular focus on humanoid robotics.

According to the Shenzhen Artificial Intelligence Industry Office, the city will offer subsidies covering up to 60 per cent of the cost of training AI models, capped at 10 million yuan (US$1.39 million).

This is part of a broader 10 billion yuan fund aimed at supporting AI software, hardware and embodied intelligence.

President Xi Jinping has also repeatedly spoken about boosting tech innovation to secure supply chains at a time of intense US competition on multiple fronts.

At a science and technology conference last month, Xi called for breakthroughs in “bottleneck” technologies for six key areas – integrated circuits, industrial machine tools, basic software, advanced materials, scientific research instruments and seed sources.

“Technological revolution is intertwined with the wrestling of superpowers, with the hi-tech sector becoming the main battlefield,” Xi was quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua.

Who is Yu Zidi, the Chinese 12-year-old making waves at World Aquatics Championships?

https://www.scmp.com/sport/china/article/3319763/who-yu-zidi-chinese-12-year-old-making-waves-world-aquatics-championships?utm_source=rss_feed

Yu Zidi could make history on Monday, when the 12-year-old sensation races for her first medal at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.

While Canadian world record holder Summer McIntosh, herself only 18 and an Olympic champion in the event, is the overwhelming favourite in the 200m individual medley final, Yu could become the youngest person to win a medal at an international event in 89 years.

That accolade belongs to Denmark’s Inge Sorensen, who won bronze less than a month after turning 12 at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in the women’s 200m breaststroke.

Even if Yu misses the podium on Monday, she still has the 200m butterfly and the 400m medley – her best event – to fall back on. The youngster could also be selected for the relays.

Yu began to make waves in China in 2024, and within a year, she was among the fastest in the world in her three events.

From hitting international headlines to qualifying for the world championships and being tutored by an Olympic champion, here is everything you need to know about the swimming sensation.

Who is Yu Zidi?

Yu was born on October 16, 2012, in Baoding, in the northern province of Hebei. She started swimming aged six when a coach spotted her at a local water park.

“The summer was too hot, and my dad took me to the water park,” she state media. “I enjoyed the coolness of the water and spent much time in different small pools for kids. One day, a coach approached me and asked if I wanted to swim faster.”

Three years later, she moved to neighbouring Hengshui to train at Hebei Taihua Jinye Swimming Club and joined the provincial team.

Yu has competed in national competitions in China since 2023, but her times at May’s National Swimming Championships grabbed headlines all over the world.

In the 200 individual medley, her time of 2:10.63 was the fastest ever by a 12-year-old swimmer – male or female – according to World Aquatics.

Then, she put up two times that would have secured her fourth at the Paris Olympics last year. First, she hit 2:06.83 in the 200m butterfly. Then, in the 400 individual medley, she went 4:35.53 – the fifth-fastest time of the year in that event and just 0.6 seconds behind America’s bronze medallist, Emma Weyant.

It was these times that earned her a spot at the world championships, and since joining the national team, she has been tutored by Olympic champion Li Bingjie.

On Sunday, the first day of the championships in Singapore, she improved on her 200 individual medley personal best, hitting 2:10.22 to qualify for the final.

“Her 400 IM time is 15 seconds faster than Summer McIntosh’s at the same age,” said China sports expert Mark Dreyer.

“We haven’t seen much, but from what we’ve seen so far, Yu Zidi’s times aren’t just fast – they’re statistical anomalies.

“She’s currently redefining the curve. If her trajectory holds, she could reshape how the world approaches youth development in swimming.”

How far can she go?

Already, it is hard to imagine Yu not just dominating discussions around the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, but podiums, too.

Chinese media and fans have been quick to tout her as the new Ye Shiwen, who at age 16 won two gold medals at the London Olympics in 2012 and set a world record time of 4:28.43 in the 400m individual medley.

But Ye’s performances dropped off massively after 2012, and injuries played a part in ensuring she did not win another Olympic medal.

International swim coach and YouTuber Sonny Trigg said he hoped that Yu’s training, at such a young age, could be effectively managed to avoid any possibility of burnout.

“You don’t want to be training 10 times a week when you’re 12,” Trigg said. “Being taken out of a youth environment and put in a senior one is going to have some effect in terms of how far she can get, but also in her enjoyment of the sport.

“The type of burnout we get with kids is more of an emotional or mental burnout.

“I don’t want to say she’s at risk of that, but there needs to be a level of enjoyment and fun when you’re taking part in sports as a child.”

Yuen Yuen Ang on how China can turn ‘polycrisis’ into ‘polytunity’

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3319375/yuen-yuen-ang-how-china-can-turn-polycrisis-polytunity?utm_source=rss_feed

Yuen Yuen Ang is the Alfred Chandler Chair Professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University. She is an influential scholar, writing extensively on China’s political and economic trajectory, its international relations and its adaptive development in a fragmented, unpredictable world. Originally from Singapore, her award-winning work includes the books How China Escaped the Poverty Trap and China’s Gilded Age.

This interview first appeared in . For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click .

To put things in historical context, I would point to my “grand teacher” Michel Oksenberg.

He served in the administration of US President Jimmy Carter, and was the expert behind the normalisation of relations between the US and China. In addition to his policy work, he was a passionate educator who nurtured generations of China experts. A majority of leading China scholars today are his disciples or grand-disciples – including myself.

I’m sharing this story to remind us of how deeply and purposefully the pioneers of US-China engagement had invested in helping American policymakers and the public understand China. They went to great lengths to build up a community of expertise.

Today, we are looking at a different environment. Despite that, America is still benefiting from knowledge investments made in the past.

For instance, if the US Congress or US-China Economic and Security Review Commission want to understand any topic better, they can call upon the insights of numerous China experts across the country. There are well-established mechanisms for gathering knowledge about China.

By comparison, does China have a similar knowledge infrastructure about the US that has been built up over decades? Foreign policy experts often debate “what the West got wrong about China” – but I would pose the reverse: does China also get the West wrong?

Another factor, I think, contributing to misunderstandings is the social media environment.

We’re all suffering from an attention deficit. We used to read books, then articles, then essays, then blogs, and now it’s further reduced to tweets of 280 characters.

So you can imagine what sorts of messages fit in that tiny space. It has to be simplistic. If there are two sides to a story, you can only choose and exaggerate one side to fit in one tweet.

For public intellectuals, the great challenge these days is to explain complex problems in a simple, memorable – yet not simplistic – way. To spark interest without misleading.

One misleading narrative is more of a see-saw; it claims the Chinese economy is going to collapse but also that China will take over the world.

American commentary swings from one extreme to another, sometimes within days. In 2024, the talk of the town was “peak China”. It was all over the media. Only a few months later in 2025, do you hear anyone talking about it any more? Suddenly, it has disappeared. Instead, The New York Times publishes pieces like [Thomas Friedman’s column] “I Just Saw the Future. It Was Not in America.”

What happened? Did the Chinese economy dramatically perk up within five months? No. It has nothing to do with China’s reality. It is only a reflection of America’s self-perception.

Last year, near the end of the [Joe] Biden administration, the US economy was doing well. It bounced back strongly after the pandemic. So there was a great deal of confidence in the US at the time. By comparison, China was struggling with a real estate meltdown and deflation. These problems were real. Set against American confidence, the meme of “peak China” took off – including in Asia.

But in 2025, the situation in America abruptly changed. Pessimism set in, and China appeared scary again.

In short, what people perceive and broadcast can be very different from reality. In this case, the Chinese reality barely nudged, yet American perceptions went from night to day.

China is not – as many foreign observers imagine – a development model that is planned from the top, at least not during the market reform era since the 1980s. Rather, it is a combination of directions from the top plus improvisation from numerous actors on the ground, including local governments and entrepreneurs. Together, they produced a diversity of “China models” within China.

Directed improvisation goes against the usual binary that we are presented with: either top-down planning or free market. In fact, these extremes do not exist. The US economy is not a 100 per cent “free market”. The government heavily regulates the economy and guides innovation.

During China’s early stage of export-led mass industrialisation, one expression of directed improvisation was that the central government permitted local governments to find their own ways to attract investment. This resulted in multiple regional models, with some localities centred on foreign direct investment and others on private entrepreneurship.

Today, “directed improvisation” is just as relevant, but the direction and the goals of development have dramatically changed. China has entered a different chapter.

Beijing wants to retire an old economic model that was highly dependent on low-cost exports, construction and real estate. It wants hi-tech, innovation-driven development.

So we now see “directed improvisation” expressed in this new context. The central government still plays an indispensable role in telling local governments to steer the ship in a different direction. They set new key performance indicators (KPIs) that signal to local officials that their job is not just to deliver any gross domestic product, but high-quality GDP.

And local governments, in turn, are also trying to find ways to attract investment and start-ups, but with a focus on the sectors and the types of innovation that the central government rewards, for example, electric vehicles, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).

But there are some interesting differences between the past and the present.

At an early stage of economic development, it was relatively easy to set and enforce KPIs because they were simple and measurable. For example, GDP, tax revenue or industrial output.

But now that China has moved into hi-tech development, the desired outcomes become increasingly ambiguous and hard to pin down.

For instance, the central government has set KPIs for patents. Why patents? Because they are the most countable output of innovation. Initially, the KPI was a certain number of patents each year. But as you can imagine, local governments started gaming around that number.

This unintentionally spawned an industry of patent agents, who specialised in filing as many patents as possible. They found tricks to boost the numbers without actually improving innovation (for example, filing multiple patents for the same invention). Years later, that prompted the central government to penalise such behaviour. It’s like a cat-and-mouse game.

Innovation is, by definition, uncertain and unmeasurable. This is different from mass industrialisation, where both the government and companies know what to produce – namely, consumer goods for rich markets, like shoes and toasters.

But with emerging technology, the best products are the ones you cannot imagine, or they just seem too out of the box for a government official to consider a worthy bet.

For example, AI and quantum computing – how many people can confidently say they understand such technology? How would a government official, who is not a scientist or inventor in that field, know how to regulate this technology or know what incentives to give?

In short, the uncertainty of innovation completely changes the game. And it is a challenge that is not unique to China. All of the Asian economies that escaped poverty and became middle-income – even the high-income countries that want to go further and become innovation powerhouses – are facing the same issue. So is the US government.

What is particularly interesting in the Chinese context is that it is still using familiar bureaucratic tools to carry out a tech- and innovation-centred version of “directed improvisation”.

Another challenge is that China’s development goals today are numerous. That wasn’t true in the past, when the list of goals was short, basically focused on one thing – GDP. So whether you produce GDP by exports, real estate or construction, the quality did not really matter.

But now China has many different expectations – development has to be environmentally friendly, inclusive, innovative. Many of these goals are in tension with one another. For instance, if you want rapid GDP growth, it’s necessarily in tension with conserving the environment.

Chinese government officials know clearly that the central leadership wants to move towards hi-tech, clean, inclusive development. But when implementing this vision, their context is different from the start-up stage of industrial growth. There is no playbook they can imitate.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, they could imitate the late industrialisation model in East Asia. Today, there aren’t many role models. China itself has become a trailblazer, and other countries are seeing it as a role model.

Thus, I would say more than before, China needs “directed improvisation”. Although the desired destination is clear, the paths to it are unclear, untested or ambiguous. The only way to achieve that goal is by mobilising a lot of players to engage in creative adaptation. The central government, or even local governments, do not know the solutions in advance.

Now that China is pursuing innovation-driven development, it would need a much more open-minded and experimental bureaucracy, and it must be willing to listen. Because when it comes to innovation, government officials are not the ones who know what success looks like. Only scientists or entrepreneurs would know that. The government cannot plan on creating DeepSeek, the AI start-up; it can only create an ecosystem that might give rise to DeepSeek.

In other words, the government has to play a directing role, not a dictating role. If they attempt to dictate innovation, they will actually stifle it.

They need to have a different mindset, a much more failure-accepting mindset. This is difficult in any public sector, because government officials are inherently risk-averse.

For instance, local governments have created many government guiding funds. The failure rate is inherently high, because it is supposed to function like a venture capital fund.

One recent policy debate is: what should be the acceptable failure rate? How much failure can the government tolerate? And if it fails frequently, does it mean it’s not doing its job?

This is new terrain for China. But I think the fact that local governments are still willing to go into this uncharted territory says a lot about Chinese innovation capacity, because I can imagine that in many other parts of the world, you may not even have this conversation at all.

For example, it would be difficult in a democracy like America, because public funds are scrutinised. If the government invests billions and fails, it has to be accountable to taxpayers.

The Chinese system has advantages and disadvantages. Usually, the debate is set up as a simplistic horse race: which is superior – the Chinese or American system?

But that is not the reality. The reality is that the Chinese and American systems each have their strengths and weaknesses. And I would say the party that wins, if there is a victory at all, is the one who can minimise weaknesses and maximise strengths.

One of the strengths of the Chinese system is that it has more room to make mistakes. It can be much bolder. It can make big bets that would be politically difficult in a democracy.

But the downside of that same advantage is that it can result in tremendous waste. And the size of the waste could be so large that it exceeds any success.

That is why in the Chinese context it is important to figure out a way to take risks without becoming too wasteful. But there’s no clear formula for striking the right balance. The Chinese government is flying the plane and building it at the same time.

Yes, there are similarities – I’ve called them “the clash of two Gilded Ages”. They are overlooked because of the narrative that China and America are two polar opposites with nothing in common. The term that foreign policy analysts like to use: “the clash of civilisations.”

It’s attractive because it’s easy to think in terms of two opposites. It allows people to project their cultural biases onto the debate. And so it has a lot of traction, but it obscures important similarities between the Chinese and American political economies.

America has always projected itself as the champion of free markets. For a long time, the US government carried out industrial policy – but never marketed it, because industrial policy was seen as politically incorrect, inconsistent with its ideology of market fundamentalism.

Scholars of American innovation call the system that was quietly operating behind the scenes “decentralised coordination”. The network of American innovation was wide and highly decentralised, involving many companies, inventors, research labs and universities.

The role of the US government was to coordinate this network. For instance, by setting strategic directions, identifying scaling bottlenecks that required government intervention and support, and providing seed funds.

And if you think about all of the things I have just described, does that not sound like China’s “directed improvisation”?

The impression that Chinese innovation is all top-down whereas American innovation is all bottom-up is false. In fact, it’s different degrees of “directed improvisation” using different tools.

Of course, there are also large differences between them. The Chinese context is highly state-centric, with the central and local governments playing an outsize role, whereas in the US system, the government sees and calls itself a coordinator.

Another difference is scale. The US government provided various subsidies and grants to start-ups and emerging technologies. But the current scale of financial support being provided by the Chinese government is many times larger.

There’s a bit of tech fetish in development discussions, projecting tech as a panacea that will solve all problems in society. We should avoid that.

Humans have always been innovating. Remember when computers were first introduced, and how revolutionary it was?

The difference now is that we’re even less able to envision the effects of new technologies. We are experimenting with AI, surprised by it, and also scared of it; how far will this go?

Institutions will certainly play a key role, but in the innovation age, it will be less about planning and much more about directing. Yet traditional management is all about planning.

If you go online and search the history of this term “directed improvisation”, the earliest use of this term appeared in computer programming – although How China Escaped the Poverty Trap was the first to apply it in the context of development. Initially, I was surprised. But it makes sense, because computer programming is about setting the parameters of creation.

Fundamentally, there’s a similarity between the logic of programming and governing: how do you design a creative environment?

Adaptation without direction does not work. If there’s no vision, no rules, no parameters, it will be pure chaos. But you also do not want to have the other extreme, which is top-down direction with no feedback and creativity from the ground.

Innovation is not something that governments can plan, much less command. It is the result of many actors interacting with one another. The government has to play the part of an effective director, so that creative people can contribute ideas and co-produce an original play.

I would frame it differently. At this particular point in time, the West is trying to re-industrialise. This is in tension with China’s goal of furthering its capacity in advanced manufacturing.

So, ideally, what Western policymakers would hope to see is a Chinese economy that is less export-driven and more consumer-driven. Their criticisms reflect a competition of economic models.

I’ve argued that we’re seeing an unprecedented economic paradox in China: a persistent growth slowdown alongside an impressive tech boom.

The big question for China is, can it transition away from its old growth model and into a new one? China is now in an intermediate zone between the two. That is why we are seeing the strange coexistence of weaknesses and strengths at the same time.

Trade tensions are not new to China. It began experiencing them back in 2016, and some would say even earlier.

So Chinese policymakers already knew that they must move away, not only from the US market, but from the export-industrialisation model, which is dependent on high-income markets keeping their doors open.

You can see the Belt and Road Initiative as a part of that effort in diversifying and creating new trade routes for China. But that effort is still new. Frankly, it’s less than 10 years old.

I think some of those efforts have borne fruit, but not yet enough to compensate for the loss of access to the US market. After all, the American consumer market is still the world’s largest.

In a broader context, this intermediate zone that China is facing is also what the entire world is facing. In the West, everyone is talking about the transition from an old economic order to an emerging economic order whose shape and form we are not sure of.

Development has always implied emulation and copying. In the old, Western-centred political order, development meant becoming like the West, both in terms of its economic and political institutions. Even though this was not explicitly stated, global development was in practice a project of assimilation.

So that now we are moving away from the Western-centred global order toward a multipolar one, we must be careful – we should not simply transfer the target of emulation from the West to China. That would be just repeating a logic that was wrong in the first place.

So my advice to other countries has always been that you should learn from any country, but only take what is useful to you. Learning is not copying. Whatever lessons you take, you still have to tailor them to your own countries’ contexts. The inspiration of China’s development experience is that success necessarily requires adaptation. Even though China had role models of late industrialisation in East Asia, it adapted their models to Chinese conditions.

In particular, today’s late developers cannot replicate China’s path, because the gates of globalisation are now half closed. Countries like Vietnam cannot hope to export their way out of poverty by doing exactly what China did 20 years ago, because times have changed.

I have encountered Chinese policymakers and local officials who reflect and express with regret the amount of pollution that China suffered over the course of its rapid industrialisation.

My research involved going to different places and seeing the physical environment for myself. Often I would find myself standing at a river that had completely dried up. Locals told me the river used to be teeming with fish. I tried to imagine what it looked like 40 years ago.

When you are actually there to see it for yourself, the destruction of the environment is not an abstraction. The Chinese middle class gets to consume goods that they did not have 30 or 40 years ago. But you can also see that the river is dry, and the air and the soil are heavily contaminated.

I hear local officials say, “Was it worth it?” Could China have achieved development without sacrificing the natural environment so much?

And I think many countries, not just China but countries like South Korea or even Britain, all went down this path of polluting heavily then coming back to clean it up. But maybe some losses of the natural environment are so severe that no amount of money can bring it back.

So for today’s developers, that is a cautionary tale. Do you really want to pay an irreversible price just so that you can have rapid GDP growth, particularly as the climate crisis gets worse?

The term “polycrisis” has been popularised to describe the chaos that seems to define our current times. But I don’t see it in entirely pessimistic terms. I think of the current moment as a “polytunity” rather than a “polycrisis”.

Yes, the establishment is breaking down – parts of it were good, but parts of it were not.

The old economic order was structurally unequal. It involved poor countries sacrificing their natural environment and labour to produce goods cheaply for consumers in rich markets. As a result, consumers in rich markets overconsumed. They bought things that they did not need and worsened the climate crisis. Then the rich economies turned around and said, “You’ve created a problem for us. We have deindustrialisation and it’s your fault. So we’re launching a trade war.”

For sure, the old economic order had its benefits, giving a populous country like China an opportunity to escape poverty through export industrialisation. But it also had various inequalities that I’ve just described. It is unsustainable. So if what is crumbling was not perfect to begin with, maybe the polycrisis isn’t as bad as we think.

But if the existing imperfect order is crumbling, what is the alternative? The danger is that the alternative could be worse – that is what people are afraid of. But that is only one possibility. By coining the term “polytunity”, I’m highlighting the possibility of a better, fairer future.

For example, while many developing countries today are anxious about the trade war, they also find themselves having a louder voice on the global stage than they did before. They have more agency to band together in a multipolar world.

So as I see it, it’s not all bad. The “polycrisis” is paralysing only for those who are attached to the old order, who have benefited disproportionately from it. For those who are not, it offers the opportunity to reflect on the status quo and create a better alternative.