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China and Indonesia have launched a new cross-border QR payment system, marking the latest step in Beijing's drive to build a regional digital payments network as it pushes to internationalise the yuan and reduce dependence on the US dollar. Users can now use domestic mobile apps – such as China's Alipay and Indonesia's QRIS – to scan QR codes and make retail payments in either country using their home currencies. Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for the Asia-Pacific region at French......

Earlier this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang likened artificial intelligence (AI) to “a five-layer cake”. At the top are applications, such as chatbots. The layer below is the software, which includes language models. Further down are infrastructure and memory chips. The bottom layer is the most important. “At the foundation is energy,” Huang said, noting that “energy is the first principle of AI infrastructure and the binding constraint on how much intelligence the system can produce”. Driving......

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a new financing facility aimed at strengthening critical mineral supply chains across the Asia-Pacific region, as a global push to loosen China's chokehold over the sector continues. The initiative is designed to help Asia-Pacific nations move up the critical minerals value chain – moving beyond just mining – by equipping them with the technical capabilities to process and recycle the materials, according to the ADB. “Asia and the Pacific should be......

A court in China has ruled it illegal for a company to terminate an employee on the grounds that an artificial intelligence replacement would be cheaper, affirming limits on AI-driven job displacement amid a wave of anxiety over the technology's potential to fuel unemployment. A 35-year-old worker surnamed Zhou who oversaw AI-generated responses at a fintech firm in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang province, was fired after refusing a demotion and pay cut. The company told him his role......

Shares of Xiaomi jumped in Hong Kong on Monday after the Chinese smartphone and electric-vehicle (EV) maker reported robust growth in its EV business, though analysts cautioned that broader headwinds could limit revenue upside. The stock rose as much as 11 per cent in early trade before trimming gains to 9 per cent at HK$31.56 by the midday break. Turnover reached HK$5.2 billion (US$667 million), placing it among the most actively traded counters on the city's main board. The rally followed data......

Gold imports and trading have surged in Hong Kong recently as merchants and investors from the Middle East and Russia move their holdings from Dubai to the city amid the regional war, according to the Hong Kong Gold Exchange (HKGX). Since early April, some gold merchants from these regions have been selling physical gold in Hong Kong at a discount of 15 to 20 per cent to the market price, said Haywood Cheung Tak-hay, chairman of HKGX. “The discounted sales were a result of the US-Israel war with......

Hong Kong's Exchange Fund, the war chest used to defend the local currency, reported its smallest investment gain in five quarters as the Middle East crisis weighed on stock market performance. The fund gained HK$34.5 billion (US$4.4 billion) in the first quarter, 56 per cent lower than HK$79.2 billion a year earlier, according to data released by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Monday. The fund still managed to report its fifth consecutive quarterly gain, but it was the smallest gain......

The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), a special economic zone in the Kazakhstan capital, is in discussions with Hong Kong and Shanghai's equity exchanges about the creation of stock connection schemes, most likely starting with exchange-traded funds (ETFs), to widen investors' access to each other's markets. According to AIFC's governor Renat Bekturov, Kazakh investors' interest in Chinese companies, from hi-tech behemoths to carmakers, was growing, inspiring organisations in both......

Hang Lung Properties has unveiled its flagship Hangzhou development with a noticeably lighter luxury mix, signalling a pivot towards lifestyle and experience-led retail as consumer tastes in mainland China evolve. Westlake 66, located in Hangzhou's Wulin central business district, spans about 390,000 square metres (4.2 million sq ft) and comprises a 105,900 square metres shopping mall, five prime office towers and a 194-room Mandarin Oriental hotel slated to open in 2027. “Hangzhou has a highly......

DeepSeek's launch of its latest artificial intelligence model could likely trigger a broad reassessment of stocks across the industry chain from chipmakers to large language model developers, analysts say, with the breakthrough poised to drive demand for computing power and more commercial adoption. The unveiling of the V4 series marked another milestone for the Hangzhou-based start-up, which described the model as the most powerful open-source platform capable of challenging US rivals such as......

At the end of March, China inaugurated the World Data Organisation in Beijing, a body with a stated mission of “bridging the data divide, unlocking data's value and powering the digital economy”. The move is the latest signal of a broader trend: over the past several years, Beijing has developed a distinct data governance strategy to drive artificial intelligence (AI) development as it reshapes the terms of technological competition. Since late 2025, Beijing has pursued an aggressive AI adoption......

For decades, the global image of Chinese trade was synonymous with massive container ships loaded with footwear, bags and furniture. However, a profound structural shift is under way. Having conquered the world of physical goods, China is now rapidly ascending the industrial chain as an emerging exporter of manufacturing technology. In 2025, the country's exports of telecoms, computer and information services reached 808 billion yuan (US$118 billion), marking a robust 13 per cent year-on-year......

Ant Bank, the digital banking arm of Ant Group, has rolled out stock trading services within its AlipayHK mobile application, marking a further push into Hong Kong's retail brokerage market as fintech players race to capture a new generation of investors. The service allowed users to trade Hong Kong and US stocks and exchange-traded funds, as well as structured products including warrants and callable contracts, through the app's wealth-management section, according to its promotional......

Singapore wealth-tech firms are increasingly using Hong Kong as their first major overseas expansion market, betting that the city's large pool of idle savings, deep wealth base and role as a regional financial hub will support the scaling of their retail investment platforms. The latest entrant, Chocolate Finance, launched in Hong Kong last month with a product targeting retail investors' idle cash. It offers 3.8 per cent annualised returns on the first HK$100,000 (US$12,763) with no minimum......

China's smartphone and electronics supply chain is adapting its expertise to support the country's fledgling but fast-growing humanoid robotics industry, as component suppliers seek new growth beyond a slowing mobile market. The sector received a glimpse of that crossover after Honor's humanoid robot D1, a dark-horse entrant from the smartphone maker, won Beijing's recent robot half-marathon, beating established Chinese robotics names such as Unitree. Honor entered the humanoid robotics sector......

Technology firms are increasingly gravitating towards premium office space in Shenzhen's core business districts, offering a degree of support to the city's office market. However, vacancies are expected to remain elevated in the near term as a wave of new supply continues to outpace demand, analysts said. The city's technology sector – spanning artificial intelligence, consumer electronics and robotics – remained a key driver of leasing activity, particularly in western submarkets such as......

China has become one of the largest sources of investment in land parcels and other properties in Singapore, as the safe-haven status of Southeast Asia's top financial hub continues to attract global capital, according to analysts. China-linked developers and business entities have become more active in the market, said Alan Cheong, executive director for research and consultancy at Savills Singapore. “Chinese developers who have had experience in Singapore are now familiar with the rules,......

Driven by intensifying competition in advanced manufacturing, the world is waking up to “China shock 2.0”. The first “shock”, associated with China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, focused on low-tech manufacturing. Of course, this latest “shock” isn't framed as such by Chinese policymakers. They present it as an upgrade in export strength, often described as a shift from the “old three” of textiles, furniture and home appliances to the “new three” of electric vehicles,......

ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is pushing deeper into artificial intelligence with Anew Labs, a drug-discovery unit that has begun presenting its AI-designed therapies at international conferences. The unit – also known as Anew Therapeutics or ByteDance AI Drug Discovery – operates from Shanghai, Singapore and San Jose, California. Its official website listed 36 core members, as well as big names on its “scientific advisory board”: Liu Yongjun, former president of Innovent Biologics, Ji......

At the close of his presentation at this year's Auto China show, Li Fenggang, president of Beijing Hyundai Motor, surprised the audience by asking them to lift LED boxes placed on their seats. “We'll use this beam of light to kick off Hyundai's new journey in China,” he said, raising the device stamped with the logo of Ioniq, the new brand the Korean carmaker has just launched in mainland China. After years of lacklustre performance in the country, Hyundai was preparing to regain lost ground by......