• Iran looks to tap into China’s BeiDou navigation system to plug security gaps
• China Renaissance founder Bao Fan ‘released’ more than 2 years after sudden disappearance
• China’s first rocket recovery ship; tariff truce extension ‘likely’: SCMP daily highlights
• China’s water paradox: rainfall drenches big cities while river run-off drops
• Malaysian PM Anwar says Asean summit to welcome China’s Xi
• China’s Xi Jinping holds phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin
• China’s steelmakers cool competitive fires as price war cuts profit margins
• China’s SMIC downplays impact of Trump’s plan to impose 100% tariff on chip imports
• China TV host ignites debate over childlessness, reveals plans to hire carers for old age
• Humanoid haven: China’s robot store showcases home-grown products amid government push
• Singapore’s Shanmugam meets China envoy for bilateral, security talks
• China launches first SpaceX-style drone ship to recover reusable rockets
• Eliminating mosquitoes not enough to fight China’s chikungunya fever outbreak, experts say
• China jobseekers capitalise on hiring trends of major firms, seeking future-proof careers
• Kenya faces US threat for praising China’s role in ‘new world order’
• New abbot at scandal-hit China Shaolin Temple enforces ‘Buddhist 996’ rule; 30 monks quit
• China’s proposed drone upgrades, landslide in Taiwan kills family: SCMP’s 7 highlights
• Will Trump’s chip tariffs tilt the balance for China in Southeast Asia?
• China concert storm after organisers offer ‘free’ tickets in exchange for adopting calves
• China’s top chipmakers to see small impact from Trump’s 100% tariff on imports: CLSA
• Could the US and Europe go rare earth-free to escape China’s magnetic pull?
• China completes key lander test in preparation for crewed moon mission by 2030

Iran looks to tap into China’s BeiDou navigation system to plug security gaps

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3321043/iran-looks-tap-chinas-beidou-navigation-system-plug-security-gaps?utm_source=rss_feed

Iran’s reported plans to sign up to China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system could expand Beijing’s footprint in the Middle East as advanced technology emerges as a battleground, according to analysts.

The plans come after Tehran suffered major losses to its military and nuclear facilities in its 12-day war with Israel and the US in June.

In an interview with local newspaper Ham-Mihan last month, Iranian deputy communications minister Ehsan Chitsaz confirmed that it deliberately jammed GPS signals to misguide drones or missiles in the war with Israel.

He said Tehran was planning to migrate some of the country’s location-based services, such as those relating to transport and agriculture.

“The Islamic Republic is set to pursue alternative options such as China’s BeiDou system, which has been raised as one of the main axes of the long-time joint agreement during ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Beijing,” he said.

Ali Akbar Dareini, a researcher at Tehran’s Centre for Strategic Studies, said Iran’s switch to BeiDou was a “genuine” Iranian strategic decision with long-term implications and stemmed from its “bitter experience” relying on Western technology.

“There were reports back in June, during the 12-day Israeli-US war of aggression against Iran, that Iran experienced disruptions of the GPS signal. This bitter experience may have compelled Iran to seek an alternative to GPS more quickly,” he said.

Theo Nencini, a lecturer at Sciences Po Grenoble in France, said Iran was trying to work out how to plug its defences.

“Iranian policymakers and strategists are currently understanding the flaws in their defence system and how the American and Israeli services were able to penetrate them,” Nencini said.

He said Iran’s move was a way to align with China “in a complicated moment”.

“The announcement serves Chinese interests in terms of image and consolidates the Chinese desire to assert itself and its hi-tech products as a credible alternative to the US, especially in such sensitive sectors,” he said.

BeiDou, with a network of 60 satellites, has been in full global operation since 2020, making inroads along the routes of the Belt and Road Initiative.

It said it provided services to nearly 140 countries. China has never confirmed any BeiDou military-grade usage for any country.

Bilateral cooperation on BeiDou reportedly dates back to 2020 when Mohammad Keshavarzzadeh, the then Iranian ambassador to China, told state broadcaster China Radio International that China would provide Iran with the system.

Enrico Fardella, a professor at the University of Naples L’Orientale and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS Europe, said the move would further expand the Chinese presence in the Middle East, even into a “military ecosystem”.

“BeiDou isn’t just [a navigation system]. When paired with Chinese drones, missiles, and satellite support, it becomes part of a bigger military ecosystem. That means China could help Iran without needing to base troops or hardware there,” he said.

Fan Hongda, a professor at Shanghai International Studies University, said if Iran relied more on BeiDou, especially in the defence and sensitive sectors, it would “clearly enhance China’s presence in the Middle East” and “demonstrate recognition of China’s technological and military progress”.

Meanwhile, China-Iran BeiDou collaboration could also attract more countries in the region to take part, observers added.

Since 2019, China has held four rounds of the China-Arab States BeiDou Satellite System Cooperation Forum to promote its application in the region.

The Gulf region’s American allies – especially the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia – are the most active in their collaboration with China. The two countries have been buying Chinese weapons in growing numbers and welcoming China’s high technologies, such as artificial intelligence and 5G.

“For countries that value diplomatic diversification, China will become an option. While some competition does exist between China and the US, coexistence is not impossible. This is also true in the Middle East,” Fan said.

Fardella, of the University of Naples L’Orientale, added that the Middle East would gradually become a technology battleground, indicating a growing US-China tech rivalry in the region.

“Today the Middle East seems to be becoming a new tech battleground – not through bases or bombs, but satellites, networks, etc,” he said.

In recent years, China and Iran’s security engagement has grown under pressure from the US. China and Iran have held regular naval exercises with Russia in recent years.

But China has long maintained that it does not sell weapons to Iran or other countries engaging in warfare, and insists that it keeps strict controls on the export of dual-use items.

However, last week, the US Treasury sanctioned several companies from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan due to their support for Iran’s military unmanned aerial vehicle projects.

China Renaissance founder Bao Fan ‘released’ more than 2 years after sudden disappearance

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3321273/china-renaissance-founder-bao-fan-released-more-2-years-after-sudden-disappearance?utm_source=rss_feed

Star investment banker Bao Fan – who helped introduce many of China’s largest technology companies to the capital markets of Hong Kong and New York – has been set free, more than two years after he started “cooperating” in an unspecified investigation launched by mainland authorities.

According to a report by Chinese financial media outlet Caixin, which cited multiple sources, the 54-year-old founder of China Renaissance Holdings “has recently been released”.

China Renaissance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During his absence, Bao resigned as chairman and CEO of the investment bank he founded in 2005. The firm was listed in Hong Kong in 2018. He remains the controlling shareholder of China Renaissance, while his wife Hui Yin-ching serves as chairwoman.

News of the Chinese financier’s release could provide some degree of relief for the company, which became a buyout target last year and saw its stock plummet when it resumed trading last September after a 17-month suspension.

China Renaissance stock closed up 16.84 per cent to HK$6.87 on Friday, about 21 per cent off its peak of HK$31.80 in February 2021.

Born in Shanghai in 1970, Bao studied overseas and worked at some of the world’s leading investment banks, including Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, before striking out on his own to establish China Renaissance.

He was known to have been close to the founders of many of China’s best-known technology start-ups. Recognised as a “matchmaker” in the country’s internet sector, he worked on merger deals that resulted in the creation of ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, on-demand delivery market leader Meituan and online travel platform Trip.com.

Ahead of his own company’s initial public offering, Bao was named in 2015 as one of the 50 most influential figures who moved markets or shaped ideas and policies.

Speculation about Bao’s disappearance, which shocked the business community in Hong Kong and the mainland, started circulating in early 2023. In a filing on February 26, 2023, China Renaissance disclosed that Bao was “cooperating in an investigation being carried out by certain authorities” on the mainland.

According to mainland media reports at the time, Bao’s detention was likely related to an investigation into China Renaissance’s former president Cong Lin, who was taken into custody in 2022. The Chinese securities regulator said Cong was summoned for a talk over alleged misconduct.

China Renaissance avoided a delisting last September and resumed trading in Hong Kong after publishing the required earnings reports.

The company’s shares have risen over 140 per cent this year, riding on growing interest in China’s technology sector and cryptocurrency developments.

In June, China Renaissance said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange that it had invested in stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group through its Huaxing New Economy Fund. Circle’s shares more than doubled on its debut in New York earlier that month.

China’s first rocket recovery ship; tariff truce extension ‘likely’: SCMP daily highlights

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3321236/chinas-first-rocket-recovery-ship-tariff-truce-extension-likely-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 .

China has launched its first drone ship to recover reusable rockets – becoming only the second country after the United States to master the technology – as Beijing pushes forward with its ambitious space programme.

A 90-day extension of a US-China tariff truce is likely, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said, the most concrete signal from the US side about moving the deadline since bilateral talks concluded in Stockholm last week.

Mass-hiring plans among China’s tech giants are serving to reinforce an increasingly popular decision among families for their college-bound children to embrace majors related to science and technology.

US plans to impose 100 per cent of tariffs on imported chips are a heavy blow to Southeast Asia’s chip industry and could push the region closer to China, according to observers.

Experts in mosquito-borne infectious diseases are warning against excessive insect eradication campaigns as cities in southern China seek to eliminate mosquitoes in the fight against chikungunya fever.

Researchers have been seeking alternative ways to produce the magnets needed to make everything from mobile phones to military equipment.

Beijing has protested against the Philippine president’s remarks during a visit to India about a possible conflict in the Taiwan Strait, warning Manila on Friday to stop “playing with fire”.

China’s water paradox: rainfall drenches big cities while river run-off drops

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3321243/chinas-water-paradox-rainfall-drenches-big-cities-while-river-run-drops?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing and surrounding areas may have been engulfed in deadly torrential downpours in the past fortnight but a new study reveals a longer-term drying trend for the country’s major rivers.

New research shows that despite many Chinese cities increasingly being hit by extreme rainfall, the volume of water in China’s rivers has fallen over 60 years, particularly in the country’s north.

The researchers found that from 1956 to 2016, some 756 – or 72 per cent – of the 1,046 hydrological stations in China reported a decline in run-off, with 593 stations showing a decrease of less than 40 per cent and 163 stations showing a drop of more than 40 per cent.

The study was led by the Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the team’s findings published in the journal Science Advances on Thursday.

According to the paper, China has more than 1,500 rivers that have a drainage area exceeding 1,000 sq km (386 square miles).

The authors said these rivers delivered more than 2,700 cubic kilometres of water each year to sustain 1.4 billion people, irrigate more than 120 million hectares (297 million acres) of farmland, and provide fresh water for the largest share of industrial output and food production in the world.

This study is based on data from the hydrological stations and reconstructed data from the ISIMIP3a model. The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project phase 3a model is a core component of a large-scale international project that studies the effects of climate change.

The researchers found that flow rates in the five major river basins of northern China – the Songhua, Liao, Hai, Yellow and Huai rivers – had generally declined, including a 95 per cent decline in the Hai River basin.

The Yellow River is known as China’s “Mother River”, providing drinking and industrial water from its source on the Tibetan Plateau in northwestern China to Shandong in the east of the country.

And while the flow rates on the Yangtze Plain, southeastern coastal areas and northwestern rivers had significantly increased, overall run-off still showed a downward trend, according to the paper.

The most significant impact is on the Hai and Yellow rivers, which supply water to Beijing, Tianjin and more than 60 large and medium-sized cities in northern China. Their flow rates have fallen by around 95 per cent and 61 per cent, respectively.

The authors said if the downward trend continued in the arid regions of northern China, there might soon be a water crisis.

According to the paper, 93 per cent of the decline in run-off at northern sites is attributed to vegetation greening, with increased evapotranspiration – water loss from the ground to the atmosphere through evaporation from the soil and transpiration from plants – accounting for 42 to 115 per cent of the run-off decline.

Some 162 per cent increase in flow in the Yangtze River Basin is attributed to greater precipitation. In comparison, 77 per cent of the rise in northwestern rivers comes from glacial meltwater.

The South–North Water Transfer Project, a megaproject that diverts water from the Yangtze basin to the arid north, has eased the decline in run-off in the northern basins to some extent, according to the authors. However, overall, it is still less significant than the effects of vegetation greening and precipitation.

The study reveals the reshaping effects of human activities on the water cycle in China: large-scale afforestation in northern China has improved the ecology but has unexpectedly exacerbated water shortages; the intensive construction of reservoirs in the south has altered natural hydrological rhythms.

The authors, led by researcher Liu Xiaomang, said that “as Chinese [land use and cover change] is largely controlled by human activities, it is essential to reduce CO2 emissions, limit climate warming, and optimise current reforestation and afforestation strategies”.

“For example, it is important to optimise the structure of revegetated plants and prioritise the cultivation of native species over planting fast-growing exotic ones,” they wrote in the paper.

They also suggested improving the scheduling rules for hydraulic engineering and strengthening climate-hydrology predictions.

Last month, the China Meteorological Administration released the 2025 China Climate Change Blue Book, which indicated that China was a sensitive area significantly affected by global climate change and had a warming rate higher than the global average during the same period.

Because of climate change, extremely high-temperature and heavy precipitation events occurred frequently in China between 1961 and 2024.

According to the Blue Book, the average annual precipitation in China is on the increase, with a rise in extremely heavy precipitation events. From 1961 to 2024, the average annual precipitation in China rose 6 millimetres every 10 years.

During the same period, the frequency of extreme daily precipitation events in China increased. The annual cumulative number of days with heavy rainfall recorded also rose, increasing by an average of 4.5 per cent every decade.

The seemingly contradictory phenomenon of increased precipitation and urban rainfall, alongside reduced river run-off, is expected to continue in China – and might even intensify.

On August 7, the same day the paper was published, Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province and located 20km from the Yellow River, went on a red rainfall alert leading to a complete halt in production, business operations, school classes and transport throughout the city.

Four summers ago, a more severe rainstorm struck Zhengzhou. The flooding caused nearly 400 deaths and 120 billion yuan (US$16.7 billion) in direct economic losses.

Malaysian PM Anwar says Asean summit to welcome China’s Xi

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3321258/malaysian-pm-anwar-says-asean-summit-welcome-chinas-xi?utm_source=rss_feed

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the Asean summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur in October, potentially turning the annual talks into a stage for a high-stakes meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest superpowers.

This is the first indication of a possible meeting venue between Xi and US President Donald Trump, who said on Tuesday that the two leaders could have a meeting “before the end of the year” if both sides were able to come to a trade deal.

Anwar on Friday said this year’s annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) would have the “most high-profile gathering of world leaders to date” with Brazilian head of state Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa also expected to attend.

“We look forward to welcoming the heads of governments of Asean and our dialogue partners, including United States President Donald Trump and, I believe, President Xi Jinping of China,” Anwar said in his speech when launching the Asean Day Celebration.

Last week, Anwar announced that Trump had confirmed in a phone call that he would attend the summit.

It would be the mercurial US leader’s first time attending an Asean meeting, and his first visit to Southeast Asia since his return to office in January.

Trump and Xi were earlier expected to have their first in-person meeting this year at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in South Korea from October 30 to November 1.

The plan followed a June phone call, during which Trump and Xi exchanged invitations to visit each other’s country and paved the way for tariff talks between the two sides.

Washington and Beijing are in the midst of negotiating a trade deal to bring down significant tariff barriers that threaten to choke access for Chinese goods to the US and upend supply chains that are deeply intertwined with Chinese businesses, especially in Southeast Asia.

Trump rolled out levies as high as 145 per cent on Chinese shipments into the US during his April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement. In retaliation, Beijing raised tariffs up to 125 per cent on US goods and imposed export controls on strategic raw materials.

The two nations had since agreed to a 90-day tariff truce, with another 90-day extension likely to happen as bilateral talks continued, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Thursday.

Anwar said the onus now fell on Asean and Malaysia as this year’s chair and host of the meeting to make sure the visiting leaders would feel that “their time was well spent” at the summit.

“We must ensure that their visit yields results of lasting value. The eyes of the world will be upon us. We must, therefore, rise to the occasion,” he said.

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China’s Xi Jinping holds phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3321253/chinas-xi-jinping-holds-phone-call-russias-vladimir-putin?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday, according to state media.

The conversation was held ahead of an expected summit between Putin and US President Donald Trump.

Putin briefed Xi on the recent communication between Russia and the US and said Russia was ready to keep close communication with China, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Xi said China welcomed continued contact between Russia and the US, supported better US-Russia relations, and encouraged progress towards a political solution to the Ukraine crisis.

Xi said complicated issues did not have a simple solution. He added that China would continue to facilitate talks to resolve regional conflicts.

More to follow...

China’s steelmakers cool competitive fires as price war cuts profit margins

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3321242/chinas-steelmakers-cool-competitive-fires-price-war-cuts-profit-margins?utm_source=rss_feed

As a fierce price war threatens to turn their revenues microscopic, China’s steel firms are calling for changes to make the industry less self-destructive – a move in line with directives from Beijing to suppress a downward spiral that has degraded multiple sectors of the country’s economy.

While acknowledging the seemingly endless drive to reduce prices is erasing profit margins, industry insiders still struggle to find a market for their chronic oversupply, and expressed scepticism over the extent to which the state-led campaign can alleviate their burdens.

Steel is regarded as one of several sectors experiencing a phenomenon referred to by officials as , a cutthroat level of competition where firms pour increasing resources into efforts that yield diminishing returns. The term has made more frequent appearances in high-level political meetings.

“Steel firms are selling below cost to clear inventory and maintain cash flow, but the more we produce, the more we lose,” said Michael Cao, who owns a mid-sized steel company in the northern province of Hebei that employs over 100 workers.

“This is actually drinking poison to quench thirst,” he said. “You may survive for now, but you’ll ultimately need to rely on innovation and differentiated services for lasting change.”

However, Cao added, the massive amounts of funding required to upgrade factory infrastructure, coupled with shrinking demand, are keeping companies from pursuing innovation and distinguishing themselves in the market.

Unequal labour costs are another challenge, as some rivals skimp on employee benefits to lower costs and slash prices further, Cao noted. As a positive example, he cited e-commerce giant JD.com’s decision to provide social insurance benefits to its delivery workers.

“With everyone on equal footing, price undercutting is harder, fostering fairer competition.”

Last week, the country’s Supreme People’s Court issued a ruling voiding any agreements to skip social insurance contributions, even those mutually agreed upon or initiated by employees. Employers often dodge these payments, and some workers request cash as a substitute to increase their take-home pay.

After nearly all the country’s major steel companies reported losing money in the third quarter of 2024, the industry made production cuts that have led to a slight recovery, said Huatai Securities in a note published on Thursday.

While the industry saw rapid profit growth in the first half of the year, its average sales profit margin ranks among the lowest in all industrial sectors and prices have remained low, according to the China Iron and Steel Association.

In the first six months, selected major companies achieved a total profit of 59.2 billion yuan (US$8.24 billion), up over 60 per cent year-on-year; however, the average profit margin was only 1.97 per cent. Nearly a quarter reported losses, down 18 percentage points from last year.

Policies intended to end the race to the bottom could further reduce crude steel output, boosting profits, Huatai’s analysts said.

These could include a price supervision system and cost standards created by the association, its head Zhao Minge was quoted as saying by China Metallurgical News last week.

“The steel industry’s core issue remains supply-demand imbalance,” Zhao said, stressing that new policies over excessive capacity have yet to be systematised or clearly defined.

David Wang, a steel company owner from the eastern province of Jiangsu, said oversupply has persisted despite decades of rhetoric about capacity reduction. He expressed doubt that things would change soon.

Drawing on nearly 40 years spent in the industry, Wang noted that current prices have yet to reach a historic low, and the “involution” phenomenon is being worsened by trade conflicts blocking China’s steel exports and slowing domestic sales.

“Exiting the industry is nearly impossible,” he said. Despite a reduction in investment caused by technological advances, Wang explained, the industry remains asset-heavy.

Steel firms also have complex supply chains and are often bedrock government enterprises, he said.

“No steel company has fully exited. They just reorganise and return.”

China’s SMIC downplays impact of Trump’s plan to impose 100% tariff on chip imports

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3321238/chinas-smic-downplays-impact-trumps-plan-impose-100-tariff-chip-imports?utm_source=rss_feed

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), mainland China’s largest contract chipmaker, on Friday downplayed the potential impact of US President Donald Trump’s proposed 100 per cent tariff on imported chips, as stout domestic demand is expected to continue.

“Our overall capacity remains in a state of demand exceeding supply,” SMIC co-CEO Zhao Haijun said in a briefing after the company reported its second-quarter financial results. “[Even if growth in demand slows], there will be no significant impact on our utilisation rate.”

He said the company has already helped clients build up a certain level of inventory in the first three quarters of the year. Orders and shipments are expected to slow in the fourth quarter, which is the typical off-season for the industry.

Apart from citing SMIC’s limited exposure to the US market and production at its factories running at full capacity, Zhao pointed out that previous tariff disputes resulted in a less than 10 per cent impact on SMIC’s overseas clients.

His assessment reflected Shanghai-based SMIC’s strong confidence in its current global market mix, as China accounted for 84.1 per cent of the firm’s sales in the three months to June. Revenue share from the Americas fell to 12.9 per cent last quarter, from 16 per cent a year earlier.

SMIC reported second-quarter revenue of US$2.21 billion, up 16.2 per cent from US$1.9 billion a year earlier, but down 1.7 per cent from the previous quarter’s US$2.25 billion.

Net profit attributable to shareholders reached US$132.5 million last quarter, down 19.5 per cent from US$164.6 million a year ago. That also marked a 29.5 per cent decline from US$188 million in the first quarter.

Wafer shipments, measured in standard 8-inch equivalent units, reached 2.4 million in the June quarter, with a utilisation rate of 92.5 per cent. Monthly capacity stood at 991,250 wafers.

The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed down 8.19 per cent to HK$48.66 on Friday.

Still, the chipmaker forecast revenue to increase from 5 per cent to 7 per cent in the third quarter, driven by both higher shipment volumes and an increase in average selling prices. Gross margin is expected to remain in the 18 per cent to 20 per cent range.

Zhao said that strong demand was expected to remain steadfast until at least October and that growth was sustainable. He pointed out that part of SMIC’s capacity was reserved for research and development, which meant that utilisation would “never exceed 95 per cent”.

The company had also not asked for customer feedback on Trump’s proposed 100 per cent tariffs on imported chips, he added.

Trump’s tariff plan would exempt companies that were manufacturing in the country or had pledged to invest in new US factories. Those would include major tech firms such as Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Micron Technology and Apple, which committed to invest another US$100 billion into US manufacturing.

Hua Hong Semiconductor, the mainland’s No 2 chip foundry, on Thursday reported second-quarter revenue of US$566.1 million, up 18.3 per cent from US$478.5 million a year earlier. Net profit was US$8 million, a 19.2 per cent increase from US$6.7 million a year ago.

Hua Hong’s Hong Kong-listed stock closed down 1.74 per cent to HK$44 on Friday.

China TV host ignites debate over childlessness, reveals plans to hire carers for old age

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3320456/china-tv-host-ignites-debate-over-childlessness-reveals-plans-hire-carers-old-age?utm_source=rss_feed

Nationally renowned and childless Chinese television host Ouyang Xiadan has attracted much attention on social media by addressing questions about who will care for her in old age.

She also revealed her plans to hire professional carers later in her life.

A widespread online discussion was sparked when Ouyang released a video on her personal social media account on July 29.

The television host has 700,000 online followers.

In the video, she shared a story about her friends caring for their elderly mother while responding to a frequently asked question from netizens.

She said: “Some netizens asked me what I will do when I am old and have no children to look after me.”

“Actually, I have thought about this very thoroughly. When I am old, I will hire professional nursing care. And when I am sick, I will rely on trained carers. That is perfectly fine.”

Born in 1977 in Guilin, Guangxi province in southern China, Ouyang is a household name and is known for her distinguished career in television broadcasting.

She joined China’s state broadcaster CCTV in 2003 and gained national recognition in 2007 when she triumphed at the China Golden Mic Awards.

Ouyang later became a familiar face on the flagship news programme Xinwen Lianbo in 2011 before quietly leaving the network.

In 2023, she also drew online attention by refuting rumours of divorce and claims that she was single and uncertain about future marriage.

She said: “Marriage is beautiful, but being single is not bad. I believe there is no difference between being married and being single; what matters is whether you can enjoy your life and live well every day.

“I have a feeling that when you understand yourself more, accept yourself, accompany yourself and love yourself, it might become harder to fall in love with someone else.”

Marriage rates in China plunged by 20 per cent to a record low in 2024, despite traditional values that emphasise marriage and family.

As individual choices and alternative lifestyles gain visibility, her empowering statement has ignited heated discussion online.

One online observer said: “Netizens are really idle. Everyone has the right to choose their own lifestyle, and that choice should be respected and supported.”

“But for ordinary people without a solid financial foundation, having children might actually make old age a bit easier. At least, when you are in a nursing home, they might visit occasionally, and the carers will think twice before mistreating you.”

Another person said: “The most important thing is to save money. Hiring a carer costs nearly 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) a month. In the future, with fewer carers available, these prices might double.”

“Having children does not necessarily mean they will take care of you. Just look around, how many people with sons or daughters are actually accompanied by them in old age or even at the end of their life?” said a third.

Humanoid haven: China’s robot store showcases home-grown products amid government push

https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3321212/humanoid-haven-chinas-robot-store-showcases-home-grown-products-amid-government-push?utm_source=rss_feed

China opened what is touted as the world’s first full-service store dedicated to humanoid robots during the 2025 World Robot Conference (WRC) in Beijing on Friday, showcasing the latest consumer products and services from some of the nation’s leading manufacturers.

Inspired by the 4S model used in car dealerships, the Robot Mall in Beijing’s E-Town integrates the core functions of sales, service, spare parts and surveys. It features more than 50 products from over 40 brands, including Chinese companies like Unitree Robotics and UBTech Robotics.

China’s robotics market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 23 per cent, expanding to US$108 billion by 2028 from US$47 billion in 2024 to solidify the country’s position as a leader in the industry, according to a Morgan Stanley report in June.

The Robot Mall allows consumers to experience live demonstrations of various robots designed for the industrial, medical and other sectors. For example, visitors can watch machines play football or perform a lion dance.

Fuelled by government initiatives in humanoid robotics and rapid artificial intelligence advancements, the industry is swiftly moving from the research and development stage to mass production.

Unitree and AgiBot, both of which had set their mass production initiatives in 2024, each planned to produce more than 1,000 units this year, according to a report from market research firm TrendForce in April.

As humanoid robot makers move towards commercialisation, they are also seeking additional funding.

Hangzhou-based Unitree aims to apply for a listing by December, according to pre-initial public offering documents filed with China’s securities regulator published last month. Galaxea AI, another intelligent robot company, secured over US$100 million in funding in July.

The WRC, taking place until August 12, features over 1,500 products from more than 200 leading robotics companies worldwide, including a record number of humanoid robot manufacturers.

More than 400 industry experts are expected to attend, including Unitree’s low-profile founder and CEO Wang Xingxing. He is scheduled to speak at an industry development forum on Saturday.

Singapore’s Shanmugam meets China envoy for bilateral, security talks

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3321223/singapores-shanmugam-meets-china-envoy-bilateral-security-talks?utm_source=rss_feed

Singapore’s Coordinating Minister for National Security K Shanmugam has met China’s envoy to the city state Cao Zhongming to discuss security cooperation, with the ambassador posting on social media that both men had “in-depth exchanges on bilateral relations”.

Cao added on his Facebook page on Thursday that he and Shanmugam, who is also Singapore’s home affairs minister, had discussed “law enforcement and security cooperation”.

“Taking the 35th anniversary of our diplomatic ties as an opportunity, I look forward to strengthening our practical cooperation in various fields, and making new progress in our all-round high-quality future-oriented partnership,” the ambassador said.

This Week in Asia has contacted Shanmugam’s office for comment.

Their meeting comes after the Chinese embassy took issue with local media linking cyberthreat group UNC3886 to China last month. Shanmugam had earlier named the group and warned it was attacking local critical infrastructure.

UNC3886 has been identified by Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant as a China-linked cyber espionage group, although Beijing’s embassy in Singapore has vehemently rejected the claim.

Asked by local media if he was concerned about retaliation from China by calling out UNC3886, Shanmugam said last month: “As far as the Singapore government is concerned, we can say we are confident that it is this particular organisation. Who they are linked to, and how they operate, is not something I want to go into.”

In response to a question about the strategic advantage of Singapore naming the group, the minister said the government thought Singaporeans ought to know where the attack was coming from.

Earlier this year, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong visited China on his first bilateral trip outside Southeast Asia since taking the helm. Wong met President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Qiang while on the official visit.

Since 2013, China has been Singapore’s largest trading partner, with the city state being China’s largest foreign investor. In 2023, the countries upgraded ties to an “All-Round High-Quality Future-Oriented Partnership”.

China launches first SpaceX-style drone ship to recover reusable rockets

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3321210/china-launches-new-spacex-style-drone-ship-recover-reusable-rockets?utm_source=rss_feed

China has launched its first drone ship to recover reusable rockets – becoming only the second country after the United States to master the technology – as Beijing pushes forward with its ambitious space programme.

The launch of the new vessel marks a major step forward for China’s push to develop reusable rockets – a technology seen as vital to helping the country cut the cost of space travel and develop a commercial space industry.

Beijing aims to catch up with the US in an intensifying space race by replicating America’s approach of combining state and private sector investment, which paved the way for Elon Musk’s SpaceX to drive a series of technological breakthroughs.

The new vessel – named the Xingji Guihang, or “Interstellar Return” – was developed by the Beijing-based private aerospace firm iSpace, and it will eventually be used to recover reusable rockets developed by several Chinese manufacturers.

“The vessel is designed for the launch of iSpace’s SQX-3 rocket later this year,” the company said in an article published on Tuesday. “In the future, it will also be compatible with sea recovery missions for various medium-to-large reusable rockets.”

Like SpaceX’s drone ships, the iSpace vessel is equipped with a dynamic positioning system and can operate autonomously. It has a recovery deck area of 2,400 square metres – large enough to fit a returning first-stage rocket booster.

According to iSpace, the new ship can handle heavy loads and precisely position itself to capture returning rocket parts even in rough seas. It was built and launched in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, where it will now undergo testing before being sent down the Yangtze River to the coast and then on to Hainan province for delivery in October.

Rocket recovery vessels are designed to retrieve rocket parts like first-stage boosters after launch and then transport them for analysis and reuse, helping companies reduce launch costs.

Normally, missions with lighter payloads will return to the launch site, but those with heavier payloads or requiring higher velocity often do not have enough fuel for a return and instead rely on a recovery vessel to dock with the booster at sea.

The technology was originally developed by SpaceX, which successfully recovered its Falcon 9 rocket booster using a drone ship for the first time in 2015.

The US company now has a fleet of three drone ships along with several smaller auxiliary vessels. Last year, it recovered the booster of its Starship mega-rocket for the first time.

Before iSpace’s recent launch, the US remained the only country worldwide to possess rocket recovery vessels. The project also received investment from a firm affiliated with the state-owned Chengdu Industrial Investment Group.

Eliminating mosquitoes not enough to fight China’s chikungunya fever outbreak, experts say

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3321049/eliminating-mosquitoes-not-enough-fight-chinas-chikungunya-fever-outbreak-experts-say?utm_source=rss_feed

Experts in mosquito-borne infectious diseases are warning against excessive insect eradication campaigns as cities in southern China seek to eliminate mosquitoes in the fight against chikungunya fever.

Guangdong province in southern China has been hit by a wave of chikungunya fever cases, with more than 7,000 people affected so far – marking the most severe outbreak since the disease was first detected in China nearly two decades ago.

Chikungunya fever is a viral disease transmitted by the Aedes mosquito. While rarely fatal, it can lead to symptoms such as fever, rash and joint pain. The combination of heat, humidity and rain has created a favourable environment for mosquitoes to thrive and spread the disease.

In Foshan, the centre of the outbreak, some health authorities have penalised businesses, including hotels and restaurants, for failing to promptly eliminate mosquito breeding sites, according to state-run news site Southcn.com.

However, Jin Dongyan, a professor of biomedical science at the University of Hong Kong, said the efforts to kill all kinds of mosquitoes in the cities, including those in homes and shops, may be missing the target because most of them did not carry the virus.

Chikungunya is most commonly transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female mosquitoes including Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, which can also transmit the dengue and Zika viruses. However, Aedes aegypti is rarely seen in Guangdong, according to Jin.

He said the species mainly survived in wild places such as outdoor reservoirs and it bit mainly during daylight hours. It cannot fly far – only about 100 metres (328 feet), while other common mosquitoes in cities cannot transmit chikungunya.

To more effectively curb the chikungunya outbreak, authorities should examine patients and identify areas where the virus-carrying mosquitoes were present, Jin suggested.

Routine mosquito monitoring was also important, he said, citing Hong Kong’s experience as an example.

To understand the distribution of the Aedes mosquito, the Hong Kong authorities have placed traps in various locations across the city to monitor their breeding. When the density of these mosquitoes reaches a certain level, corresponding measures are triggered.

Although mainland China has reported several instances of imported chikungunya fever leading to sporadic local cases, these outbreaks have not resulted in a pandemic in the past.

Since the first case was reported in Foshan on July 8, the outbreak has seen a sharp rise in cases, quickly spilling over into neighbouring cities.

According to the Guangdong disease control centre, a total of 4,824 cases had been reported in the province by July 26. The province reported 2,892 new cases a week later, 2,770 of which were in Foshan and 65 in Guangzhou.

The rapid increase in infections also prompted the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a travel warning earlier this month.

Public health experts say a number of factors, including climate change and poor population immunity to the pathogen, are believed to have contributed to this outbreak.

In an interview with state broadcaster CCTV in late July, Liu Qiyong, chief expert in vector-borne disease control at the national disease control centre, said the weather this year was particularly conducive to mosquito breeding and the virus strain circulating in Guangdong was easily transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes.

State news agency Xinhua reported last Friday that Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong had visited Foshan, urging the authorities to strictly implement port health quarantine measures. Liu told city authorities to “improve prevention and control measures”, “effectively eliminate mosquitoes” and “cut off epidemic spread channels”, the report said.

Cities such as Guangzhou are stepping up their efforts to combat the outbreak using biotechnology. CCTV reported on Tuesday that a hi-tech “mosquito factory” in the city was producing five million sterile male mosquitoes every week to reduce the population of mosquitoes capable of spreading the chikungunya virus.

But another leading scientist in the field from a top mainland university stressed that “our enemy is the virus, not the mosquitoes”.

The virologist, whose research focuses on mosquito-borne infectious diseases as well as the development of strategies to combat viral infection and transmission, declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Rather than focusing solely on mosquito control and eradication, authorities should identify the causes and basic patterns of the virus’ spread.

“In addition to cutting off the transmission route, i.e. controlling mosquitoes, more in-depth basic research is needed to understand the causes and patterns of mosquito-borne virus transmission. This will allow us to propose new solutions based on local conditions,” he said.

Scientists have observed that mosquito-borne diseases occur regularly in some tropical regions but not in others – despite these locations having a similar climate, environment and mosquito population density.

For example, a joint Chinese research team led by Cheng Gong, a professor at Tsinghua University, investigated in the tropical regions of the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, why dengue is more prevalent in Xishuangbanna and Lincang than in cities such as Wenshan and Puer.

In their paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Science in April last year, the team reported that a bacterium identified in the guts of mosquitoes enables them to resist dengue infection.

“The only harmful element is the viruses carried by mosquitoes. When they no longer carry viruses, humans, mosquitoes and animals all coexist in harmony,” lead author Cheng said at the time.

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China jobseekers capitalise on hiring trends of major firms, seeking future-proof careers

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3321195/china-jobseekers-capitalise-hiring-trends-major-firms-seeking-future-proof-careers?utm_source=rss_feed

Mass-hiring plans among China’s tech giants are serving to reinforce an increasingly popular decision among families for their college-bound children to embrace majors related to science and technology.

The determination to capitalise on emerging trends, including a greater emphasis on fields related to artificial intelligence (AI), comes as China’s youth-unemployment rate – comprising 16- to 24-year-olds but excluding students – has remained stubbornly high.

This week, Xiaomi became the latest firm to unveil global hiring plans for students expected to graduate from now until the end of next year. It is offering 16 types of jobs, open to both domestic and international applicants. The top positions are related to software research, algorithms, testing, operations and hardware development.

Other tech giants, including Alibaba and ByteDance, have similarly released details of their campus recruitment programmes for the next batch of university graduates, and a marked emphasis on AI talent reflects the intensifying rivalry between China and the United States.

Several hundred universities and institutions in China now offer AI-related majors, according to state media and independent findings from financial services firm Morgan Stanley, and nearly half of the world’s top AI researchers are from the country.

As Washington tightens export controls on advanced chips and key technologies, Chinese tech giants are doubling down on domestic innovation and talent cultivation to reduce their reliance on foreign technology and stay competitive on the global stage.

And in a nation of 1.4 billion people, the firms have a massive pool of talent to choose from, giving them a competitive edge in the field that has become a defining battleground in global technological and geopolitical competition.

Alibaba said this week that it plans to extend more than 7,000 job offers, with AI roles to account for more than 60 per cent of openings in this year’s autumn recruitment, according to the Securities Times.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

ByteDance said this week that it aims to recruit over 5,000 graduates in China across eight major job categories, including algorithm, front-end and client-side development, as well as operations and marketing. More than 1,500 positions will also be offered in non-technical areas.

Meanwhile, new-energy-vehicle maker Li Auto launched a hiring programme targeting graduates with experience in AI-related fields on Monday, seeking talent for roles such as large language model development, AI chip design and AI security research.

Late last month, Huaxia Bank announced a recruitment programme on its WeChat account, seeking graduates with information technology backgrounds to develop specialised AI products for the financial sector.

In a research note released late last month, Citic Securities analysts said: “As the large AI industry continues to mature and demonstrate its value, competition for talent has far surpassed that of the previous internet era.

“Top-tier talent has become the core competitive barrier on the model side, with research resources increasingly concentrated among leading players.”

Despite an easing of China’s youth unemployment rate in June, the country is steeling itself for a challenging job-hunting season as a record number of fresh graduates enters the labour market.

The urban jobless rate for those aged 16 to 24, excluding students, dipped to 14.5 per cent in June, down from 14.9 per cent in May, the National Bureau of Statistics said last month.

A sharp rise is expected in the figure for July, as was the case last year, with most of the record 12.2 million university students who graduated this year likely to be looking for work.

Additional reporting by Mandy Zuo

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Kenya faces US threat for praising China’s role in ‘new world order’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3321166/kenya-faces-us-threat-praising-chinas-role-new-world-order?utm_source=rss_feed

Kenya has become the latest country in a high-stakes geopolitical struggle between the US and China after Washington threatened to revoke Nairobi’s Major Non-Nato Ally status.

The tension escalated following a state visit to Beijing in April, when President William Ruto secured landmark infrastructure and trade deals and publicly praised China’s role in what he called a “new world order”. This provoked a backlash from the United States, which has launch a review of the ally status.

The status, granted in 2024, gives Kenya preferential access to a range of military and economic benefits, including US defence contracts and joint training opportunities. It was part of Washington’s strategy to counter Chinese and Russian influence in the region.

Now, the US is leveraging the non-Nato status to express its frustration with Kenya’s deepening ties to China, Kenya’s largest bilateral lender which has financed infrastructure projects from railways to highways in the country.

US Senator Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week proposed an amendment to the National Defence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2026 to reassess the status.

The review, to be conducted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio within 90 days, demands a detailed breakdown of Kenya’s military, political and financial engagements with China, including its participation in the Belt and Road Initiative and its long-term financial dependence on China.

The findings will then inform Congress’ decision on whether Kenya retains the designation.

Washington’s move puts the Kenyan leader in a difficult position.

Ruto appeared to make an about-turn from his initial alignment with Washington when he became president in 2022. His initial relationship with the US culminated in Kenya being designated a major non-Nato ally in 2024, but his recent state visit to Beijing has shifted the geopolitical balance.

During the trip to China in April, Ruto secured deals including one to extend the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) to Malaba on the border with Uganda and a plan to remove tariffs on key agricultural exports like tea and coffee.

This is a shift from Ruto’s previous campaign message, in which he criticised his predecessor’s borrowing from China.

It was his public statement in Beijing that Kenya and China were “co-architects of a new world order” that outraged Washington, where the phrase was seen as a direct challenge to the US-led global system.

Responding to the US’ threats, Ruto defended Kenya’s relations with Beijing, saying “it is in the best interest of Kenya”.

Speaking at a round table forum with the private sector on Wednesday morning, Ruto said China had agreed to remove tariffs on Kenyan agricultural exports such as tea, coffee and avocados, a move he termed “a major breakthrough for us”.

“It’s partly why I have a bit of a problem with some of our friends,” he said, referring to the US, and added: “It is what one must do for Kenya.”

The move by Beijing to remove tariffs stands in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s decision to impose a 10 per cent tariff on Kenyan goods, which has further incentivised Nairobi to expand its economic ties with China.

X.N. Iraki, a professor at the University of Nairobi, said Kenya, which remained non-aligned during the Cold War, was maintaining a difficult balancing act, now “torn between the US and China”.

He said that if Kenya wanted to face the East economically and the West politically, it faced a “strategic paralysis”, especially given its strategic location as a gateway to both the East African region and the broader African continent.

The economic and military stakes are high to Nairobi, observers say.

According to Kenyan Trade Minister Lee Kinyanjui, before the new deal with China, Kenyan exports to China faced a 10 per cent tariff, a disadvantage that caused importers to route products through neighbouring countries that were covered in the initial zero-tariff policy.

Still, Kenya needs the US more than vice versa, and any move by a future Trump administration to cancel these benefits would be a major blow to Kenya, according to Michael Chege, a political economy professor at the University of Nairobi.

He noted that the US was Kenya’s leading supplier of military hardware and training, which was crucial for counterterrorism efforts against groups like Al-Shabaab.

Nairobi-based international relations researcher Adhere Cavince said Kenya was in a very difficult diplomatic situation.

“Being boxed into an ‘either-or’ situation when it comes to Kenya’s two foremost development partners is certainly not very desirable, yet it was bound to happen,” he said.

With both the US and China having clear geopolitical interests that are hard to fulfil without rattling the other, “in both the US and China, Kenya also draws many benefits, each unique and almost irreplaceable by the other partner”, Cavince said.

China’s large-scale financing offered immediate capital without stringent governance conditions, while the US prioritised governance and counterterrorism, which he said would “not match the immediate economic impact of China’s infrastructure-driven model”.

“It appears that Kenya is amplifying its development partnership with China, particularly in the backdrop of unpredictable trade and economic policies of the US under President Trump,” Cavince said.

New abbot at scandal-hit China Shaolin Temple enforces ‘Buddhist 996’ rule; 30 monks quit

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3321047/new-abbot-scandal-hit-china-shaolin-temple-enforces-buddhist-996-rule-30-monks-quit?utm_source=rss_feed

The introduction of gruelling work schedules like those in China’s tech industry, or so-called Buddhist “996” reform, has swept through the internationally renowned Shaolin Temple.

The new rules come in the wake of an investigation into former Shaolin abbot, Shi Yongxin, for financial and sexual misconduct and the appointment of his successor, Shi Yinle.

After the downfall of Shi Yongxin, who led the famous temple in central China’s Henan province for more than two decades, it was announced that Shi Yinle, the abbot of The White Horse Temple, had taken over leadership.

Shi Yinle, 59, became known for his low profile, dedicated leadership style during his 20-year tenure at The White Horse, China’s first Buddhist temple.

He was appointed abbot of the Shaolin Temple on July 29.

On taking office, he immediately announced five sweeping reforms.

They were: halting commercial performances; banning high-priced consecration rituals; removing temple shops; promoting monastic self-sufficiency through farming; and overhauling income distribution by eliminating previously criticised fees.

He expressed concern that some monks had strayed from the spiritual path.

“Now some monks neither truly practise nor properly work,” he said.

The new abbot cited examples such as monks ordering takeaway food in meditation rooms or listening to pop music with earphones during chanting.

He has also suspended international tours by the Shaolin Temple’s Martial Arts team, along with cultural and creative shops and online shops that were once key revenue sources.

In addition, a “bottom-tier elimination system” has been put in place, under which monks who fail assessments for three consecutive months may be required to leave.

The new rules have also imposed an unprecedented level of discipline at the temple.

Monks are now required to participate in morning prayers at 4.30am followed by farming and then Zen martial arts practice in the afternoon.

Mobile phones must now be stored in a central storeroom, and all forms of entertainment are banned. Screen time has been reduced to just 30 minutes.

The diet has also become stricter, consisting mainly of vegetables, with tofu permitted only once a week.

The demanding schedule and lifestyle reforms have been humorously dubbed by netizens as “Buddhist 996” in reference to the work culture in some Chinese tech companies where employees work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week.

The move has reportedly triggered a wave of resignations.

Within a week of the new abbot’s appointment, more than 30 monks and staff reportedly left the temple. It is unclear whether they transferred to other temples or left entirely.

One young monk lamented that having his mobile phone, which was used for reading scriptures, confiscated felt like “losing an arm”, while another joked that he now “smells vegetables and feels like vomiting”.

The resignations have also ignited a heated discussion on mainland social media.

One person said: “This helps weed out a large number of fakes who became monks just to enjoy life.”

“Those leaving were never real monks, they chanted ‘gold’ rather than Buddhist scriptures. It is a good thing. Let them go and take away the impurities with them,” said another.

While a third quipped: “When pilgrims arrive at the Shaolin Temple and see how hard the monks live, they suddenly feel their own lives are not so bad after all.”

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China’s proposed drone upgrades, landslide in Taiwan kills family: SCMP’s 7 highlights

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3321059/chinas-proposed-drone-upgrades-landslide-taiwan-kills-family-scmps-7-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

After a construction boom spanning nearly two decades, China’s high-speed rail (HSR) network has made record-breaking strides. But to ensure long-term sustainability, analysts said the government needs to address challenges around commercial profitability and mounting debt.

In Ukraine, about nine in 10 Russian drones have been shot down by advanced air defences, according to various estimates. A group of Chinese aerospace engineers and defence researchers have now proposed a radical technological enhancement for combat drones that may dramatically increase their ability to survive to nearly 90 per cent.

A Hong Kong employers’ group has called for freezing the minimum salaries of foreign domestic helpers given the economic slowdown, after some unions representing the workers asked for up to a 30 per cent pay rise to HK$6,500 (US$833) a month.

Concerns over China’s local-level debt have long loomed large in international discourse, with a mountain of “hidden” debt viewed as a “ticking time bomb” that threatens to trigger a cascade of defaults while posing a risk to financial stability.

A tragic accident in southern Taiwan has evoked widespread sympathy after a car carrying five family members plunged into a valley, claiming all their lives – including a baby and the father, who initially escaped from the vehicle but lost his life in a desperate attempt to save his family.

When Zara Qairina Mahathir’s body was found in a drain outside her school dormitory in Malaysia last month, the official explanation only prompted more questions, both from her grieving family and many others.

Hong Kong’s wealthiest family denied that their residence of more than half a century is up for sale, as CK Asset Holdings issued an unusual rebuttal of rumours that have circulated for days on social media.

Will Trump’s chip tariffs tilt the balance for China in Southeast Asia?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3321133/will-trumps-chip-tariffs-tilt-balance-china-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed

US plans to impose 100 per cent of tariffs on imported chips are a heavy blow to Southeast Asia’s chip industry and could push the region closer to China, according to observers.

US President Donald Trump announced the duties on semiconductors and chips on Wednesday, saying that only companies that were “building in the United States” were exempt.

It is unclear just how much of a US manufacturing presence companies would need to have to qualify for tariff exemptions or reductions, or whether the policy will differentiate between the more advanced AI chips and legacy semiconductors.

Southeast Asia, led by Singapore and Malaysia, has emerged a key manufacturing hub for legacy semiconductors, integrated circuits that use older technology.

Vietnam, which has stepped up investment in semiconductor production and workforce training in recent years, is also emerging as a key player in the global supply chain.

With the region already struggling to absorb other tariffs imposed as part of Trump’s “America first” policy, the latest US duties – as well as Washington’s policy unpredictability – could open the way for China, analysts said.

Antonio Fatas, professor of economics at INSEAD business school, said Trump’s tariffs on imported chips showed that the American leader was still testing the limits of economic policies, even though they were damaging global growth and adding to inflation in the United States.

“For Southeast Asian countries, this is a confirmation that exporting to the US has become much harder, that the US is not a reliable partner and that you cannot trust it even if you manage to sign a deal,” he said.

Fatas said the US had “clearly become an unreliable partner” and would become more isolated, and that meant that countries – and firms – would try to find opportunities and build trade relations with others.

“Countries like China where saving rates are too high should step in and provide that impetus. If they did, we would see a regionalisation of trade flows as they move away from the US. But before we get there, there will be pain,” he said.

Since Trump returned to the White House in January, Beijing has ramped up its charm offensive to Southeast Asia, a region that is now a priority for China’s neighbourhood diplomacy to offset its own pressure from the US.

In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia, and in May, Chinese Premier Li Qiang also paid an official visit in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Beijing also rolled out red carpet for Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in June, when Xi urged Singapore to join China on “right side of history” and to promote an “equal multipolar world”.

City University of Hong Kong professor Julien Chaisse noted that China’s most attractive feature at the moment was its sense of certainty – something Beijing was deliberately projecting to strengthen its long-term appeal to Asean.

“China is quietly positioning itself as the more predictable option. It is not offering perfection, but it is offering clarity ... And that is exactly the kind of language that appeals to Asean leaders who are trying to shield their economies from policy shocks,” Chaisse said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

And while Southeast Asian countries had been “cautious by nature” about taking sides between China and the US, there was a limit.

“If one partner keeps disrupting the system while the other offers to support it, the choice starts to become less about politics and more about survival,” he said.

However, there is no sign that Asean is about to give up its neutrality, according to Dylan Loh, assistant professor in the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

“US tariff pressure does present an opportunity for China to strengthen its economic ties in the region, insofar as China is positioning itself as a reliable partner through trade agreements and investment. That said, this alone will not portend any major shift or alignment with China – we do not see clear evidence of this,” Loh said.

He said countries in the region continue with “a mix of hedging, balancing, deeper Asean integration, and diversification of their ties [with other countries] while maintaining their relationship with the US and China as best as possible”.

Still, countries in the region will have to take the semiconductor tariff pain, at least for now, according to Xu Tianchen, senior China economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“There is no doubt that Southeast Asia will be the first in line to be affected. If Trump expands tariffs to consumer goods such as mobile phones containing foreign chips, the impact will be even greater. This is because Southeast Asia is an important production base for consumer electronics,” Xu said.

Like China, Southeast Asia’s position in the global semiconductor industry is largely cemented by its strength in cost-efficient operations, with very limited access to advanced-node processor chips.

The 100 per cent US tariffs would erode its edge for China as a low-tariff launch pad for chip exports to the US.

“China was selling low-end semiconductors elsewhere, but in a way, packing in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia. Now, it would not be able to do that with the 100 per cent tariffs,” said Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at French investment bank Natixis.

China concert storm after organisers offer ‘free’ tickets in exchange for adopting calves

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3320012/china-concert-storm-after-organisers-offer-free-tickets-exchange-adopting-calves?utm_source=rss_feed

A controversial “get good seats by adopting calves” scheme put in place for a sell-out concert by one of China’s top entertainers has caused a stir on mainland social media.

Actor and singer Yi Yangqianxi’s concert sparked a nationwide ticket-buying frenzy.

But a public welfare project has captivated social media by offering tickets for privileged seats for people who pay 120,000 yuan (US$17,000) to adopt 12 calves.

Yi, 24, who is also known as Jackson Yee, is regarded as the most accomplished star in China born after the year 2000.

Since making his debut as a member of the boy band TFBoys at the age of 12, Yi has become hugely popular.

When tickets for his concert in Shanghai on August 2 went on sale on July 24, they sold out in seconds, Hubei TV reported.

Some good seats have attracted bids of as much as 80,000 yuan (US$11,000) on the second-hand market, the report said.

However, internet users soon noticed another way to get precious seats: join a “calf adoption plan”.

The project was launched by Xiangyang Public Welfare Development Centre in Huaihua, in central Hunan province.

Anyone who adopts eight calves at a cost of 80,000 yuan will receive a randomly selected ticket for Yi’s concert. People who adopt 10 calves for 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) can get two such tickets.

Individuals spending 120,000 yuan to adopt 12 calves are entitled to a ticket from a so-called “infield” seat, which is usually deemed to be the best location at the concert.

“Yes, this project is real. Some people have already received the tickets through this channel,” a worker from the public welfare organisation told the media.

He said the calves would be sent to be raised by farmers and slaughtered about two years later.

Adopters can choose one of three options after two years.

They can receive raw beef, processed beef snacks, or what they paid plus potential profits after the organisation sells the beef products.

“This project is designed to help farmers earn more money,” the worker said.

Reaction to the scheme was mixed on mainland social media.

“It is good that a top star aligns with philanthropy to support farmers,” one person said.

However, another netizen made an accusation: “The organisers cannot guarantee any profits. Be alert to similar fraudulent schemes.”

Yi graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing with a bachelor’s degree in performance.

He won the Best New Performer title at the 2020 Hong Kong Film Awards.

In June, Yi won the Best Actor award for 2024 from the China Film Directors Guild.

He has sung at China’s most-watched CCTV Spring Festival Gala Show eight times.

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China’s top chipmakers to see small impact from Trump’s 100% tariff on imports: CLSA

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3321132/chinas-top-chipmakers-see-small-impact-trumps-100-tariff-imports-clsa?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top chipmakers, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), are expected to avoid the worst of US President Donald Trump’s plan to impose 100 per cent tariffs on imported semiconductors.

According to a research note published by CLSA, the potential impact of the proposed US tariffs on imported chips – the details of which are expected as soon as next week – would be small for SMIC and Hua Hong Semiconductor.

The two Shanghai-based firms could also benefit from possible countermeasures that China and other countries could pursue, according to CLSA, without elaborating.

SMIC’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed up nearly 1 per cent on Thursday to HK$53, while Hua Hong’s stock rose 2.52 per cent to HK$44.78.

On Wednesday in Washington, Trump announced that the US would impose a 100 per cent tariff on imported semiconductors, although companies that were manufacturing in the country or had pledged to invest in new factories would be exempt.

Those would include major tech companies such as Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Micron Technology and Apple, which committed on Wednesday to invest another US$100 billion into US manufacturing.

CLSA’s assessment reflected how China managed to increase the share of its integrated circuit (IC) exports, including memory chips, to countries in Southeast Asia, customs data showed.

SMIC’s sales in the US made up 12.2 per cent of the firm’s total revenue in 2024, while about 9.3 per cent of Hua Hong’s revenue last year was attributed to sales in North America.

China’s IC exports to the US last year were valued at US$2.2 billion, a significant portion of which was used in the automotive manufacturing sector, according to customs data.

In the first half of this year, the mainland’s IC exports to the US reached US$983.7 million, an 11 per cent year-on-year decline, customs data showed.

While China is still a net importer of ICs, the country remains a major exporter of so-called legacy chips, which are widely used in cars, home appliances and consumer electronics.

According to research firm TrendForce, mainland China’s global share of older-generation chips – produced using 28-nanometre or larger wafer-etching technology – is projected to grow from 34 per cent to 47 per cent between 2024 and 2027. That would surpass Taiwan chipmakers’ share, which is expected to decline from 43 per cent to 36 per cent over the same period.

In the first seven months of this year, China’s chip exports reached 199.6 billion units valued at US$108.3 billion. That marked a 20.5 per cent year-on-year increase in value, according to customs data released on Thursday.

Despite that growth, China’s chip imports still exceeded exports in both quantity and value. The country’s IC imports from January to July totalled 337.2 billion units valued at US$228.6 billion. The average price per imported IC was US$0.68, higher than the US$0.54 average price of chips exported.

Could the US and Europe go rare earth-free to escape China’s magnetic pull?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3321100/could-us-and-europe-go-rare-earth-free-escape-chinas-magnetic-pull?utm_source=rss_feed

Rare earths are needed for everything from consumer electronics to electric vehicles, wind turbines and fighter jets – and China controls the supply chain. In the last of a four-part series, we look at how countries are looking for alternatives that could help reduce their reliance on China.

Seventy years ago, the US was the world’s leading producer of rare earth magnets. But by the start of this century, the country’s last producers of the most powerful commercial magnets were being sold off, locking in Beijing’s dominance over this critical market.

In 2010, the world was reminded of the stark reality of China’s control over rare earths and the production of permanent magnets after a territorial dispute with Japan led to Beijing temporarily banning rare earth exports to the country.

The move sent waves of concern through the supply chain as the price of these magnets soared, leading countries to examine their reliance on Chinese minerals in certain key sectors.

But strong demand for rare earth permanent magnets, which are used in everything from mobile phones, electric cars and wind turbines to defence systems, has made this difficult to achieve.

In April this year, Beijing tightened its export controls on magnets and seven rare earth elements, three of which – samarium, dysprosium and terbium – are also often used to make magnets.

According to a 2022 report by the US Department of Energy, America accounted for 16 per cent of total rare earth mine production in 2020, while China accounted for 60 per cent.

Rare earths are favoured because of their efficiency, but researchers worldwide are looking to develop rare earth-free magnets as part of the effort to reduce reliance on Chinese permanent magnets.

“It is vital for the United States to reduce its reliance on China for rare earth magnets,” said Roderick Eggert, a research professor at the Colorado School of Mines and deputy director of the Critical Materials Innovation Hub, a research consortium established by the US Department of Energy. “One approach is rare-earth-free magnets that rely on materials available outside of China.”

Permanent magnets can generate a constant magnetic field without the need for an external source of power. They are used in a wide range of applications, from everyday items like phones and induction cookers to electric motors and vital medical devices, such as MRI machines.

They have been known to humanity since ancient times. The earliest accounts noted the properties of lodestones – naturally magnetised pieces of the mineral magnetite – which Chinese inventors later used to develop the compass around 2,000 years ago.

Permanent magnets are divided into two major classes: those made with rare earths and those made from alloys of other metals, including iron, cobalt and nickel.

Rare earth elements are a group of 17 chemically similar metallic elements that are fairly common within the Earth’s crust, but are unevenly distributed and hard to extract and refine.

China is not only the world’s largest producer of rare earths, but its global market dominance increases once they have been processed and refined, according to the US Department of Energy.

This includes the production of permanent magnets, where China accounts for more than 90 per cent of production.

When it comes to neodymium magnets – the strongest commercial permanent magnets on the market – China’s global share stood at 92 per cent in 2020, compared with just 1 per cent for the US.

These are made using an alloy that mixes the rare earth neodymium with iron and boron – something that was independently discovered by both General Motors and Sumitomo Special Metals in Japan in the early 1980s.

However, GM later offloaded its subsidiary Magnequench, which specialised in the technology, to Chinese buyers with the result that its last American plant closed in the early 2000s with production shifting to Asia.

In 2011, Donald Manzullo, at the time a Republican Congressman, told a hearing into China’s rare earth dominance that the sale was “the last act in the American tragedy” and warned there was “barely any awareness of the seriousness of this crisis”.

J. Ping Liu, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, said it appeared politicians were increasingly realising the importance of magnets due to the need for this technology for green energy, electric vehicles and other applications.

He added that rare earths were not that rare in comparison to many other metallic elements currently in use, but China’s advantage in the magnet market lay not just in its reserves, but in “constant research and development work for decades, while other countries gave up their work in this area”.

The 2010 Japanese export ban caused “panic”, especially in the car industry, according to Tatsuya Terazawa, chief executive of Japan’s Institute of Energy Economics.

Writing on the institute’s website two years ago, he said this had prompted Japan to look for ways to find alternative materials, which reduced Japanese dependence on Chinese rare earths from 90 per cent of supplies to 60 per cent.

“Despite a series of diplomatic problems with China since the incident, these progresses arguably have protected Japan from being the target of another embargo,” Terazawa said.

Meanwhile, in 2011 in the US, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy announced that it would fund 14 projects under the Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies programme.

This focused on cost-effective alternatives to rare earth materials, particularly for use in electric vehicles and wind generators, but funding from the programme dried up in 2016.

Some US institutions, including Ames National Laboratory, which is funded by the Department of Energy, have continued to develop rare earth-free magnets.

In April, the laboratory announced that its scientists had developed one using manganese and bismuth that could retain its magnetism at high temperatures.

The US firm Niron Magnetics has also produced an iron nitride magnet, which it says excels under 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit). The company’s chief executive, Jonathan Rowntree, said these could replace neodymium-iron-boron magnets, which also operate best in this temperature range.

The European Union is also funding research in an effort to reduce its dependence under the Passenger (Pilot Action for Securing a Sustainable European Next Generation of Efficient RE-free magnets) project, which focuses on resources widely available in Europe.

The project brings together 21 partners from eight countries – including Spain, Germany, and Britain – to develop magnets that can perform well at high temperatures, resist corrosion, and are easy to recycle.

As part of the project, researchers from TU Darmstadt, a university in Germany, have developed a manganese, aluminium and carbon magnet that can be produced with low-cost, scalable manufacturing techniques and used in applications such as electric bikes and water pump motors.

These magnets were not made to replace high-performance rare earth magnets, but could rather be used as a “gap magnet” for applications where top-tier performance is not required, according to a blog post on the Passenger website.

“Almost certainly, new types of rare-earth-free magnets will become commercially available in the next five years or so,” Eggert said.

“For this to happen, manufacturers need to take magnetic materials that are promising in the laboratory and demonstrate that they can be produced at scale and can satisfy customer requirements – at costs competitive with existing magnets from China.”

But in industries such as aerospace, energy, and medicine, rare earth magnets that can operate at higher temperatures still have the edge. Liu said rare earth-free magnets had a capacity “well below” those that used rare earths “in most advanced applications” and could not replace them.

One of the major challenges with developing rare earth-free magnets is coercivity, which is the measure of its ability to resist demagnetisation when exposed to an external magnetic field or high temperatures such as those found in industrial motors.

Liu said: “More systematic research work is needed to understand the coercivity limitations in a variety of magnetic materials.

“It is clear to me that there is still ample space for coercivity enhancement and improvement for various magnets in the near future.”

Some researchers are turning to artificial intelligence to develop alternatives, using the technology to cut the time needed to manually check for new metal alloys.

In 2023, Ames National Laboratory announced that its scientists had used a machine learning model to discover new combinations for permanent magnets by predicting their Curie temperature, the point where ferromagnetic material loses its permanent magnet properties.

Last year, in collaboration with the Henry Royce Institute, Britain’s national institute for advanced materials research, and the University of Sheffield, the tech company Materials Nexus used an AI platform to design and create a rare earth-free magnet in just three months.

The company said in a social media post, this proved to be 200 times faster than “traditional trial-and-error techniques”.

Eggert pointed out that there were other ways to reduce reliance on China, including developing supply chains outside of China or using rare earths that were more easily found elsewhere.

Rare earth magnets could also be recycled, refurbished, remanufactured or reused, while motors could be re-engineered to use existing rare earth-free magnets, or even no magnets at all.

“Almost certainly it will be a combination of these approaches that prevail,” Eggert said.

China completes key lander test in preparation for crewed moon mission by 2030

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3321150/china-completes-key-lander-test-preparation-crewed-moon-mission-2030?utm_source=rss_feed

China has completed a critical landing and take-off test of its crewed lunar lander, moving a step closer to putting astronauts on the moon before 2030.

A prototype of the four-legged Lanyue (“embrace the moon”) lander – designed to ferry two astronauts between lunar orbit and the surface – underwent a comprehensive trial on Wednesday in Huailai County, in north China’s Hebei province, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced on Thursday.

Using giant tether towers to mimic lunar gravity and a cratered field to simulate the moon’s rugged terrain, the test was designed to ascertain how well Lanyue’s systems work together, from its landing and ascent design to the control system, engine shutdown on touchdown, and coordination among guidance, navigation and propulsion systems.

“This marks a major milestone in China’s effort to develop a crewed lunar landing mission,” the space agency said, adding it was also the country’s first full test of a crewed spacecraft’s potential ability to land on, and take off from, an extraterrestrial body.

Footage aired by state broadcaster CCTV showed a lunar rover mounted on the lander’s side, along with a ladder attached to one leg for astronauts to climb down to the lunar surface. During the descent, main engines and attitude-control thrusters emitted yellowish exhaust – likely nitrogen dioxide from the propellant.

Lanyue would serve as astronauts’ habitat, power source, and data hub during their stay on the moon, CMSA said. Given its many functions, the lander was especially challenging to design, Huang Zhen, of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said.

“Every bit of weight has to be used to its fullest, so we’ve pushed integration and lightweight design to the limit,” Huang told CCTV at the test site. “What looks like a solid structure is, in its thinnest parts, not much thicker than a soda can.”

At the Huailai test site – Asia’s largest facility for simulating lunar gravity and terrain – China previously tested the Mars lander for its Tianwen-1 mission. Wang Xiaolei, another engineer, said Lanyue’s defining feature is that it will carry people, so “every test is aimed at ensuring astronauts can land and return safely.”

Lanyue remains in the prototype stage, Wang told Xinhua.

“If a test can be done on Earth, we do it on Earth,” he said. “Only when every task is completed will we move to the flight model production.”

China plans to land astronauts on the moon with two Long March launches: one to send the Lanyue lander into lunar orbit, and the other to carry the Mengzhou crew spacecraft. After docking in lunar orbit, two of the three mission astronauts will transfer from Mengzhou to Lanyue for the descent and landing.

Lanyue consists of the lander itself and a propulsion module, which carries most of the fuel and engines for the initial slowdown. A few kilometres above the surface, the propulsion module will separate from the lander and lighten the load for final landing. The propulsion module was not tested on Wednesday.

Development work for the lunar mission is progressing smoothly, Xinhua reported. Completed tests include an integrated electrical systems check for the Long March 10 rocket, the first high-altitude drop test of Mengzhou, and a zero-altitude escape test.

Meanwhile, Nasa’s Artemis II crewed lunar fly-by is now slated for no later than April of next year, with a possible move up to February. The Artemis III moon landing remains planned for mid-2027, though delays with the Starship Human Landing System pose schedule risks.