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US lawmakers have advanced 20 new export control measures – including the controversial Match Act – to further restrict Chinese access to US technology and bar Chinese chipmakers from gaining access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In the latest salvo in the US-China tech war, the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday passed the measures through the committee stage to be deliberated by the rest of the House, describing the action as the “largest significant export......

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes industries, and competition to gain a place at an elite university intensifies, parents in Hong Kong are being urged to look beyond grades and technical skills when preparing their children for the future. These themes dominated discussions at the SCMP International Schools Festival – Kowloon 2026 sponsored by Prudential Hong Kong Limited, held on March 21 at the Cordis Hotel. The annual event brought together leading international and private schools,......

The distant geopolitical conflict in the Middle East is sending shock waves through Asia's semiconductor industry, exposing fresh vulnerabilities in the supply chain as shortages of photoresist – a critical chipmaking material – emerge as the latest weak link. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed since early March, supplies of naphtha – a key feedstock for specialty chemicals used in semiconductor production including photoresist – have been sharply curtailed. Produced during the......

China's top market regulator will launch a six-month crackdown on the country's internet advertising sector, targeting malpractices including the misuse of artificial intelligence, in what it described as its first campaign to clean up the broader online advertising ecosystem. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said on Thursday that the campaign comes as new risks – from AI misuse to traffic-driven marketing tactics – emerge alongside long-standing issues, even as data and......

In the second of a three-part series on Anthropic's powerful Mythos artificial intelligence model, we examine the effect it has had on China's cybersecurity and finance industries. US start-up Anthropic's new AI model, Claude Mythos Preview, has drawn global attention for its ability to autonomously identify and exploit cybersecurity vulnerabilities at a level that appears to surpass conventional tools used in enterprise and financial systems. The model has not been made publicly available, with......

Chinese economist Fu Peng, whose candid remarks about the country's economic ills went viral, has joined a Hong Kong cryptocurrency firm as chief scientist, hailing the “historical” leap of digital assets into mainstream finance despite their current slump. “[Digital assets] have become mature enough to be added to investment portfolios,” Fu said in Hong Kong on Thursday, addressing audience members at an event organised by his new employer Bitfire Group, a Hong Kong-listed crypto asset......

A hotel operator's planned entry into Xiongan New Area southwest of Beijing highlights a tentative but growing alignment between Hong Kong's private sector and the state-backed development project, as leaders renew efforts to accelerate the zone's transformation into a hi-tech growth hub. Hong Kong-based Langham Hospitality Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Great Eagle Holdings, said on Thursday that it had signed a management agreement with China Xiongan Group Public Service Management to......

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has reached an agreement with PricewaterhouseCoopers Hong Kong to pay HK$1 billion (US$128 million) in compensation to minority shareholders of China Evergrande Group, following what the regulator described as serious breaches of auditors' professional duties. In a statement on Thursday, the SFC said it had found that Evergrande's annual reports and results announcements for 2019 and 2020 contained materially false or misleading information. The......

This year's Auto China, the world's largest car show, is likely to mark a watershed for Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers as they push dozens of new premium models into the spotlight, challenging European manufacturers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Leading EV makers in mainland China, from BYD and Geely to Leapmotor and Nio, will showcase their latest models at the 10-day show, which starts in Beijing on Friday, having moved up the value chain through the rapid adoption of technological......

Mainland China's population of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) – those with assets exceeding US$30 million – has grown by 23 per cent over the past five years to 121,677, and is projected to expand a further 18.8 per cent to 144,602 by 2031, according to Knight Frank. Despite that growth, China's share of global UHNWIs edged down by one percentage point to 17 per cent this year and was expected to fall further to 15 per cent by 2031, as rapid wealth creation in the United States......

Tencent Holdings has released a new flagship artificial intelligence model, the first since former OpenAI researcher Yao Shunyu joined the Chinese tech giant to lead its foundational AI development efforts. The Shenzhen-based company said on Thursday that the closed-source HY3-Preview was its most powerful model yet, on par with leading Chinese models, while still lagging top US models from the likes of OpenAI and Google DeepMind. Notably, the model is relatively small with only 295 billion......

Mainland Chinese investors have slowed their purchases of Hong Kong-listed shares this year after last year's record inflows, as more artificial intelligence investment opportunities have emerged in mainland markets, according to BNP Paribas. Southbound inflows via the Stock Connect cross-border system have reached about US$30 billion so far this year, a slower pace than 2025, when they hit US$180 billion for the full year, according to the French bank. The deceleration reflected changing market......

Daniel Gros is the director of the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University. Previously, he served as an adviser to the European Parliament, collaborated with the European Commission as economic adviser to the Delors Committee, which developed plans for the euro, and worked at the International Monetary Fund. In this interview, Gros examines the structural tensions shaping EU-China economic ties, draws lessons from the euro's experience to analyse the yuan's......

Alibaba Group Holding has struck its first external partnership for its flagship consumer artificial intelligence app, linking it with China Eastern Airlines in a move that pushes its agentic capabilities beyond the company's own ecosystem and into real-world services. The company said the fresh collaboration allowed users of the Qwen app to manage the full flight booking process – from search and ticket purchase to seat selection and check-in – within a single natural-language chat interface.......

Entrepreneur Justin Sun filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing a Trump family-backed cryptocurrency platform of fraud and alleging he was blocked from withdrawing his assets. In a San Francisco federal court filing reviewed by Agence France-Presse, the Chinese-born crypto billionaire and former Trump ally claims to have bought US$45 million worth of WLFI, an electronic currency launched by World Liberty Financial in October 2024. To thank him for the investment – at a time when WLFI was......

Fund managers investing in Asian and emerging markets added mainland Chinese and Taiwanese stocks to their portfolios in February and March, while cutting their exposure to South Korean equities, according to HSBC Holdings. The reallocation also came at the expense of Indian stocks during the period, with the country's weighting in Asian funds hitting a new low, HSBC analysts Prerna Garg and Herald van der Linde said in a report on Tuesday, without giving details. The report was based on data......

The most revealing fact about Hong Kong's stablecoin launch is not that licences were issued. It is who got them, and who did not. By handing the first approvals to HSBC and the Standard Chartered-led joint venture Anchorpoint Financial, regulators made clear from the start that digital money in Hong Kong will be bank-led. That choice matters because Hong Kong is not trying to become Asia's easiest venue for cryptocurrency experimentation. Rather, it is trying to become the most credible place......

As Chinese artificial intelligence companies continue to push for the adoption of their flagship models overseas, they have taken on a new role as a key source of so-called “token exports” to the global market. Chinese AI models accounted for four of the top 10 models in terms of token consumption on popular AI model marketplace OpenRouter from March 18 to April 18, highlighting their growing visibility in global developer usage of AI systems. Domestic token demand has been surging at an......

Global flexible workspace operator WeWork is expanding in Hong Kong as companies scale back long-term office commitments, opening its fifth site in Causeway Bay to tap rising demand for short-term, flexible space amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty. The new location at Soundwill Plaza II Midtown, owned by Soundwill Holdings, was previously occupied by another co-working operator. WeWork secured the site after competing with several rivals. “In the current uncertain market outlook,......

China's electric vehicle (EV) makers could introduce a lidar sensor-based intelligent driving system in models priced as low as 60,000 yuan (US$8,795) this year, reflecting intensifying competition and falling costs, according to AI-driven tech firm Robosense. This price point is the lowest for models on sale in China's market, excluding mini vehicles sold for less than 50,000 yuan, indicating fierce competition among Chinese carmakers amid the phasing out of policy incentives. Notably, light......