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Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings cited data privacy risks after its request to remove open-source WeChat export tools from GitHub sparked an online backlash. Some of the projects claiming access to WeChat chat records have used reverse engineering, among other techniques, to crack local database keys, bypassing the app's encryption mechanisms, according to Tencent. “These actions compromise user privacy and data security and could be exploited by malicious actors,” Tencent said in a statement......

Life insurance sales in Hong Kong rose 56 per cent in the first nine months of last year to another record as affluent customers continued to buy policies in the city for wealth transfer, protection and medical needs. The industry wrote HK$264.5 billion (US$34 billion) worth of new policies from January to September, compared with HK$169.6 billion a year earlier, according to data from the Insurance Authority on Friday. It was the highest figure for the corresponding period since the authority......

China will probably lower its economic growth target this year, the Post reported, as domestic challenges weigh on the nation's two-speed economy (see SCMP Plus factsheet). Policymakers may set a target range of 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent, the Post said, citing three unidentified people briefed on the matter. That compares with a goal of “about 5 per cent” in each of the last three years. The potential cut reflects a focus on “high-quality” development and a shift away from assessing local......

Zhipu AI, known internationally as Z.ai, is restricting sign-ups for its new flagship artificial intelligence coding product, as existing users face performance issues amid a computing crunch that continues to beset Chinese AI firms. On Wednesday, the Beijing-based firm announced in a WeChat post that it would limit new sign-ups for its GLM Coding Plan to 20 per cent of existing levels and crack down on “malicious” use. This issue reflected the challenge faced by a growing number of Chinese AI......

A Nomura Holdings banker has bought a detached luxury house at Villa Rosa in Hong Kong's Southern District for HK$75 million (US$9.6 million), highlighting the gradual return of foreign professionals and senior executives to the city's high-end residential market as prices soften. Sachin Tulshyan, a Hong Kong-based managing director for equity products at Nomura, acquired the four-bedroom house in Tai Tam on December 5, according to Land Registry records. House 16 at Villa Rosa, has a saleable......

China is moving forward with the initial public offering (IPO) plans of four private rocket makers this month, as Beijing pushes to build up its commercial space industry amid intensifying competition with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The Shanghai Stock Exchange has issued questions on LandSpace Technology's IPO application, according to an update late on Thursday, advancing the company's plan to raise 7.5 billion yuan (US$1 billion) on the tech-focused Star market. IPO preparations also advanced at......

Shares of Labubu maker Pop Mart surged on Friday, extending this week's gain to 23 per cent, after its CEO appeared in a high-profile state media interview and a newly launched product went viral amid growing investor appetite for consumer stocks. In a documentary interview released by Xinhua news agency at noon, founder and CEO Wang Ning reflected on the company's entrepreneurial journey and outlined his long-term vision, offering rare public remarks that investors viewed as a signal of......

The board of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical approved the spin-off and Hong Kong listing of its vaccine unit, aiming to bolster the business as biotechnology shares continue to outperform in the city's stock market. The board cleared the proposed spin-off of Fosun Adgenvax (Chengdu) Biopharmaceutical for a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday, according to a late filing by Fosun Pharma, whose shares are listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The filing did not disclose the planned IPO......

China's central bank has strengthened the yuan's daily fixing rate to break through the psychologically important level of 7 per US dollar for the first time since May 2023, as the American currency weakens amid concerns over recent US attempts to gain control of Greenland. The People's Bank of China set the yuan's midpoint rate – also known as the daily fixing rate – at 6.9929 to the US dollar on Friday, after weeks of keeping the benchmark just on the weaker side of the 7 mark. The move came......

Major international marques, from Tesla to Volkswagen, continued to lose market share in mainland China, as consumers increasingly favoured new domestic electric vehicle (EV) models equipped with hi-tech features. But in 2026, foreign carmakers are expected to stage a comeback when they launch models with innovative technologies, which are expected to attract buyers in spite of sluggish consumer demand, according to industry officials and analysts. “Finally, foreign OEMs [original equipment......

Hong Kong stocks rose for a third day on Friday after China's central bank signalled more room for policy easing and strong US data reinforced a solid outlook for global equities. The Hang Seng Index gained 0.7 per cent to 26,806.85 as of 9.41am local time. The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 0.6 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index slipped 0.1 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.2 per cent. Pop Mart International Group rallied 8 per cent to HK$222, and Alibaba Group Holding......

As Chinese biotech and pharmaceutical firms gain importance on the global stage, foreign investors from sovereign wealth funds to industry players are securing strategic stakes in their future success. International institutional investors have built up significant positions in Chinese biotech firms over the past decade. These positions often approach, and in some cases exceed, the 5 per cent disclosure threshold for substantial shareholders in Hong Kong. BlackRock, the world's largest asset......

Alibaba Group Holding is paving the way for a listing of its wholly owned chip design unit T-Head, as a renewed frenzy to fund semiconductor development in China gathers pace, Bloomberg reported. T-Head, founded in 2018, is set to be first restructured into a separate business partly held by employees, followed by Alibaba exploring an initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reported citing sources, adding that the timing remained unclear. Alibaba owns the Post. Alibaba's US-listed American......

Baidu on Thursday unveiled Ernie 5.0, a multimodal artificial intelligence model with 2.4 trillion parameters, as use of the Chinese tech giant's AI-powered namesake assistant climbed to 200 million monthly active users. The omni-modal foundation model, capable of processing text, images, audio and video, is the Beijing-based company's most advanced to date. The model was first previewed in November and has since climbed the rankings. A leaderboard published last week by LMArena showed......

China has kicked off construction on the southern section of the Tibet-Guangdong ultra-high-voltage power transmission line, an ambitious scheme to channel vast amounts of green energy generated high in the mountains of western China to factory hubs along the country's south coast. The project – which will shoot the equivalent of half the electricity produced by the Three Gorges Dam across China each year – comes as Beijing strives to push forward with its carbon-reduction plans and keep up with......

Complaints against Hong Kong property agents jumped 56 per cent in 2025, outpacing the rise in property transactions, as a reviving housing market exposed pressure points in industry practices, according to the Estate Agents Authority (EAA). The EAA said it opened 253 complaint cases in 2025, up from 162 in 2024, even as overall residential transactions rose 18.3 per cent year on year. The faster growth in complaints suggests tensions between agents and consumers intensified more sharply than......

Moore Threads, one of China's artificial intelligence chip champions, expects to report a tripling of revenue for 2025, reflecting how local semiconductor firms are expanding rapidly amid Beijing's push for self-sufficiency. The company, founded in 2020 by Nvidia's former China head Zhang Jianzhong, said it expected revenue to land between 1.45 billion yuan (US$208 million) and 1.52 billion yuan after surging between 231 per cent and 247 per cent compared with 2024, according to a stock exchange......

Hong Kong health and beauty retailer AS Watson Group, owner of the iconic Watsons brand, is intensifying its focus on key growth areas, particularly instant retail and community stores in mainland China, as the company explores strategies to “enhance long-term value for shareholders”. The retail arm of conglomerate CK Hutchison, Watsons had accelerated its expansion in mainland China by increasing the number of physical stores and boosting online sales in response to shifting market dynamics,......

China's “infrastructure first” approach to developing its artificial intelligence industry will help unlock frontier innovation in the fast-moving technology, according to the president of Kimi model developer Moonshot AI. The country's energy buildout had made the supply of electricity “very cheap”, which was essential for fundamental research and innovation, said Moonshot's Zhang Yutong in Wednesday's panel discussion on China's “AI Plus” strategy at the World Economic Forum in Davos,......

US tech giant Apple is offering discounts of up to 1,000 yuan (US$144) on selected products to customers in mainland China, the latest promotion from the iPhone maker ahead of an expected holiday shopping wave and heightened competition from local rivals. Promoted as a limited-time Lunar New Year offer, Apple said buyers of iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus from its mainland China website and official stores between January 24 and 27 would receive the discounts, which also applied to some MacBook,......