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China's most powerful economic regions – the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area – are racing to meet President Xi Jinping's call for breakthroughs in core technologies including artificial intelligence, as Beijing maps out priorities for the coming 15th five-year plan during the “two sessions”. As part of the annual meeting on Friday, provincial and municipal leaders of Zhejiang province outlined an ambitious strategy to become a key area of AI development and cement the province's......

China has outlined a basket of measures to support its technology sector, from creating a more flexible and inclusive fundraising ecosystem to boosting demand for hi-tech products. During a high-profile press conference in Beijing, the country's top economic officials laid out plans to deepen reforms to ChiNext – China's board for start-ups – and make it easier and quicker for companies to refinance. “Technological innovation requires high investment, long cycles, and carries significant risks,”......

China's top securities regulator outlined a plan on Friday to strengthen corporate governance, boost investor returns and cultivate globally competitive companies, as Beijing seeks to reinforce confidence in the country's capital markets. “On the basis of continuously strengthening the authenticity of listed companies, we will further enhance their investability,” said Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), at a press conference on the sidelines of China's annual......

China has for the first time included commercial health insurance in its 2026 government work report, signalling efforts to strengthen the country's social safety net and support the growth of innovative drugs and medical devices. On Thursday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said the government would “work faster to develop commercial health insurance” and promote the “high-quality development of innovative drugs and medical devices” to better meet people's diverse needs. Behind the unusual emphasis......

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) has seen significant improvement in the gender diversity of listed companies but the bourse operator has not made progress in the area of mobility for independent directors, exchange data showed. One in five listed companies in Hong Kong have boards where women comprise 30 per cent of members, HKEX chairman Carlson Tong Ka-shing said on Friday. “Gender diversity makes good business sense,” Tong said in a speech at a special gong-striking ceremony on Friday......

BYD, the world's largest electric-vehicle (EV) maker, sold more cars overseas than at home for the first time in February, reflecting a broader trend among Chinese EV makers' global push as domestic sales soften amid fierce competition. “Squeezed by the fierce competition at home, China's EV makers are shifting their focus to global markets,” said David Zhang, general secretary of the Shanghai-based International Intelligent Vehicle Engineering Association. BYD, which overtook Tesla last year as......

Leading Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer BYD has unveiled a new-generation battery featuring charging speeds that the company says can rival a refill at a petrol station. BYD's Blade Battery 2.0, launched on Thursday, can be charged from 10 per cent to 70 per cent in five minutes, and to 97 per cent in nine minutes, which the company said was the world's fastest charging speed for a mass-manufactured unit. Even in extreme weather, with temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius......

Hong Kong stocks headed for their worst weekly performance in four months as the US-Iran war stoked stagflation fears and dampened investor sentiment. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.3 per cent to 25,401.25 as of 9.45am local time on Friday. For the week, the benchmark has declined 4.6 per cent, putting it on course for its steepest decline for the five-day period since November 21. The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 1.3 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index slid 0.6 per cent and the Shanghai......

China's policymakers want the digital economy to account for 12.5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2030, as Beijing accelerates its push to build a modern industrial system anchored in advanced manufacturing. The goal represents a significant increase from the 10.5 per cent share achieved in 2025, which was announced on Thursday during the annual “two sessions” parliamentary meetings and exceeded the initial target. A large part of China's digital economy – activities facilitated by data,......

Donald Trump and his attorney general were sued on Thursday by retail investors in two social media rivals of TikTok seeking to reverse the US president's approval of a deal by the company's Chinese owner ByteDance to form a majority American-owned joint venture. The lawsuit, the ‌first legal challenge to the deal, argues that Trump's approval last year violated requirements set out in a 2024 divestiture law. Two California residents who hold shares in Alphabet and Meta Platforms sued, backed by......

Hong Kong can reinforce its role as an international financial centre by deepening integration with mainland capital markets and expanding cross-border investment channels, financial industry leaders said on Thursday during China's annual “two sessions”. Stronger collaboration between Hong Kong and mainland exchanges would enhance the resilience of the mainland's financial system while supporting the internationalisation of the yuan, said Tan Yueheng, permanent honorary president of the Chinese......

The US Securities and Exchange ‌Commission has agreed to settle its civil fraud case against Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, with one of ⁠Sun's companies paying a US$10 million ‌penalty, a court filing showed on Thursday. The SEC ‌sued Sun and his ⁠companies ⁠Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation and Rainberry ‌in March 2023. It accused them of ‌scheming to ‌illegally distribute the cryptocurrency ‌assets Tronix and BitTorrent, ⁠artificially inflate trading volume, and conceal......

Hong Kong-listed Insilico Medicine has signed a cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates' drug regulator to advance the use of its artificial intelligence tools in drug discovery across the region, even as geopolitical tensions escalate in the Middle East. Shares of Insilico rose as much as 12.8 per cent in morning trading on Thursday before paring gains to close 8.6 per cent higher at HK$56.10. The advance outpaced the benchmark Hang Seng Index, which edged up 0.3 per cent. The......

China has pledged to provide a range of supportive measures to promote the diffusion of advanced technology through all levels of the country's economy, as Beijing seeks to strengthen frontier industries such as artificial intelligence amid an intensifying rivalry with the United States. In its annual work report, the government urged state-owned enterprises to take the lead in opening their vast industrial ecosystems to emerging technologies, and vowed to supply the necessary funding for all......

Beijing has emphasised the safe and orderly development of artificial intelligence amid growing global anxiety about the disruptive impact of the rapidly advancing technology, as the country's leaders put the final stamp of approval on China's next five-year plan at this year's “two sessions”. The 15th five-year plan elevates China's AI Plus initiative as a top national priority, according to a draft version of the document submitted for review to the National People's Congress, China's top......

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com reported a 2.7 billion yuan (US$392 million) loss in the fourth quarter and a halving of annual profit amid an ongoing food delivery battle it ignited last year. The fourth-quarter loss contrasted with a profit of 9.9 billion yuan a year earlier, marking the company's first quarterly loss since the start of 2022, according to its earnings results on Thursday. Profit for last year dropped nearly 53 per cent to 19.6 billion yuan. However, by non-generally accepted......

Mainland China and Hong Kong should ease listing rules for biotechnology companies and lower takeover thresholds for listed firms to capitalise on renewed foreign interest in the healthcare sector, venture capitalist Nisa Leung said. “Besides artificial intelligence, Premier Li Qiang also highlighted biomedicine in the 'two sessions' annual government work report,” said Leung, a former managing partner at Qiming Venture Partners, speaking in a sideline interview during China's annual meetings of......

More of the world's billionaires live in China than anywhere else, after stock market gains and artificial intelligence generated a record number of billionaires globally, according to the latest Hurun Global Rich List. China overtook the United States to recapture bragging rights on the annual report released by Hurun Group on Thursday, with 1,110 billionaires out of 4,020 globally. China added 287 billionaires since the previous edition of the report, more than recouping its losses over the......

China's top semiconductor executives have called for a nationwide push to build a domestic alternative to Dutch chip-equipment giant ASML, urging the industry to “abandon illusions and prepare for struggle” amid US sanctions. The current industry was too “small, fragmented and weak”, which was “dispersing numerous public resources”, according to an article co-authored by the co-founder of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and leaders of Empyrean, Yangtze Memory......

Professor Pan Guang has spent decades focused on Jewish studies, the Middle East and its ties with China. Among his many roles, Pan is founding director of a research centre on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here. Amid recent events in Iran, how do you assess the impact on China? Will China's “petroyuan” settlement encounter problems, and what of the risks to the Belt and Road......