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A unit of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has issued guidelines on best practices and prohibitions for adopting and using OpenClaw, the popular artificial intelligence agent that continues to dominate the market. The advisory, developed in collaboration with AI agent providers, vulnerability platform operators and cybersecurity firms, aims to address risks in typical use cases of “lobster”, OpenClaw's mascot, according to a Wednesday statement from the MIIT-run......

Midea Group, the owner of industrial robot giant Kuka, is the latest Chinese company to pledge heavy investment in AI and robotics – another 60 billion yuan (US$8.7 billion) over the next three years – as traditional industries embrace futuristic technologies. The planned expenditure on research and development, with a focus on “AI, embodied intelligence and other cutting-edge areas”, matched its total spending over the past five years, the company announced in Shanghai on Tuesday. The strategic......

Eli Lilly has pledged an additional US$3 billion investment in China over the next decade to strengthen its local supply chain and manufacturing capabilities, deepening the footprint of foreign pharmaceutical giants in the world's second-largest healthcare market. The move would bring the total cumulative investment of Eli Lilly, the world's largest pharmaceutical company by market capitalisation, in China to nearly US$6 billion, according to a statement released on its WeChat account on......

China's spring hiring season is revealing a sharp surge in demand for artificial intelligence talent as companies speed up the deployment of related technologies, turning it into one of the country's hottest professional fields. The number of AI-related job postings in China in the first two months of the year grew about 12-fold year on year, far outpacing growth in other “new-economy” industries such as healthcare, renewable energy and semiconductors, People's Daily reported on Tuesday, citing......

Betting on rising global demand for energy storage, shares of Chinese lithium battery makers continued to rally on Wednesday, led by Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), which reported stronger-than-expected growth driven in part by its expansion into new energy storage markets. CATL shares surged more than 10 per cent to HK$608 during morning trading hours in Hong Kong on Wednesday – the highest level in five months – before closing 9 per cent higher at HK$599.50. That followed another 9......

China's computer chip exports surged 72.6 per cent in the first two months of the year, far outpacing broad export growth, as technological advances help the country tap into a demand boom fuelled by artificial intelligence (AI). Shipments of integrated circuits totalled US$43.3 billion, with volumes jumping 13.7 per cent to 52.5 billion units, according to customs data released on Tuesday. Overall exports rose by 21.8 per cent, the most in four years. Memory chip prices have surged worldwide......

Escalating tensions in the Middle East could redirect global wealth flows and support demand for Hong Kong property, as investors seek stable financial hubs amid rising geopolitical uncertainty, analysts say. The shift comes as global wealth migration increasingly reshapes luxury property markets from Sydney to Dubai and Hong Kong. Citigroup said in a report released on Monday that prolonged instability in the region could prompt capital and talent to move out of the Middle East. The report said......

Geely Auto has gained the upper hand in mainland China's intensifying automotive sector, as its diverse product line-up pays off after electric vehicle (EV) king BYD suffered a setback following partial withdrawal of a tax break. Controlled by Chinese billionaire Li Shufu, Geely overtook BYD in sales during the first two months of the year because of its vehicles' quality and reliability, even as Beijing intensified efforts to curb price competition among carmakers, according to......

Despite its heavy reliance on oil and gas imports, China's “national strength” insulates its energy security from short-term geopolitical shocks, a prominent petroleum geologist said. Jin Zhijun, dean of the Institute of Energy at Peking University, said that China – as a large country – could ensure its energy security amid a volatile international energy trading landscape, with multiple contingency plans in place. They included tapping more domestic resources by increasing oil and gas......

Halo, short for heavy assets, low obsolescence, has emerged as a major Wall Street theme in recent weeks. Investors are rotating from tech stocks to companies with real physical assets amid fears over artificial intelligence, geopolitical tensions and rising prices of resources and infrastructure. Here's what you need to know about how the strategy gained popularity and why it matters to China. What is Halo? The term was coined last month by Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, to......

Hong Kong stocks rose on Wednesday as fears over surging oil prices eased and Chinese tech names rebounded after a deep rout. The Hang Seng Index gained 0.5 per cent to 26,028.00 as of 9.36am. The Hang Seng Tech Index edged up 0.6 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index were little changed. Oil prices fluctuated after the Wall Street Journal reported that the International Energy Agency proposed the largest ever oil release from its strategic reserve. The......

Mainland Chinese investors, once perceived as a stabilising force in Hong Kong stocks, are this time adding to the market's wild swings spurred by sharp movements in crude oil prices, flip-flopping from record selling to unprecedented buying within days. The escalating hostilities in the Middle East prompted onshore Chinese investors trading Hong Kong's stocks through cross-border Stock Connect programmes to behave more like short-term day traders. They dumped HK$27.7 billion (US$3.5 billion)......

Deutsche Bank is seeking to capitalise on wealthy investors across mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines who are looking to diversify away from US assets, as it pushes ahead with ambitious expansion plans in the region. Affluent investors from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines – markets Deutsche Bank groups as “North Asia” – were becoming increasingly uneasy about their heavy exposure to US assets and were looking more closely at opportunities in Europe,......

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio has forecast a surge of up to 97 per cent in first-quarter deliveries, underscoring the turnaround after posting its first-ever quarterly profit and defying a slowdown that has hit most of its domestic rivals. Nio, ranked the 15th bestselling Chinese EV maker last year, set a delivery guidance of 80,000 to 83,000 vehicles for the first quarter of 2026, representing a year-on-year surge of between 90 per cent and 97 per cent. The growth projection bucked......

K.K. Chiu is reimagining Hong Kong's real estate future by helping to shape the next chapter for the city through technology, housing and long-term commitment. Few executives have witnessed Hong Kong's real estate evolution as closely - or continuously - as K.K. Chiu, Chief Executive of Greater China at Cushman & Wakefield. With more than 40 years in the industry, Chiu has advised clients through market booms and downturns, political transition, and the growing influence of technology on how......

Memory price hikes are likely to become “the new normal” for the next few years, according to an executive at storage giant Seagate Technology, as the artificial intelligence boom of the past two to three years pushes the industry into what he described as a supercycle. “It's hard to tell if it will last forever,” Ban-Seng Teh, Seagate's chief commercial officer, told the South China Morning Post. The current cycle was “very unusual because in the past we went through cycles of shortage and......

China's cybersecurity agency on Tuesday issued a second warning about security and data risks tied to OpenClaw, despite a rush among local governments and tech companies to adopt the artificial intelligence agent amid a nationwide frenzy. At a time when major Chinese cloud service providers were touting easy deployment of OpenClaw to capitalise on its popularity, improper installation and use of the agent had also led to severe security risks, said the National Computer Network Emergency......

Hong Kong family offices are showing rising demand for risk-management products, services and advisory support amid growing geopolitical and market uncertainty, according to an affiliate of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). “We see a general trend that demand for risk-management products and services has been rising, and family offices are strengthening these functions year after year,” said Enoch Fung, CEO of the Hong Kong Academy of Finance and executive director of the Hong Kong......

Hong Kong is set to challenge London's dominance in marine insurance as Middle East tensions highlight the city's ability to provide war-risk cover at a lower cost, according to the local insurance regulator's chairman. Stephen Yiu Kin-wah on Tuesday said the Insurance Authority had supported insurers in launching a special war-risk insurance pool last November, which now covered 10 mainland Chinese ships sailing in the Gulf. The pool, backed by five Hong Kong insurers, offers up to US$130......

Hong Kong's fragile retail recovery is clouding the outlook for shopping mall rents, with Wharf Real Estate Investment Company (REIC) warning that rising geopolitical tensions could add further uncertainty even as visitor traffic improves. The landlord of Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui and Times Square in Causeway Bay said the retail market showed gradual improvement in 2025 as tourism picked up. “Volume increase, however, was not often accompanied by commensurate yield increase,” the company......