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In global discourse, a script has been handed to us: the United States and China are locked in a “tech race”. But this is really a misnomer. True competition requires a level playing field. When one runner trips the other to ensure victory, it's not a competition; it's cheating. So, when Washington deploys an arsenal of sanctions, export controls and diplomatic strong-arming to hamstring China's technological ascent, it is not competing. It is an act of suppression. This reflects a deliberate......

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] More than four million users now access OpenAI's coding assistant Codex weekly, a recent uptake of one million users in two weeks proving just how quickly the competitive gap in developer tools is widening. Recognising this urgency, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has brought Codex and the latest artificial intelligence (AI) models to Amazon Bedrock. For CIOs and CTOs, this means capturing the fruits of agentic AI within......

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] In an era defined by scientific acceleration, geopolitical complexity and rising expectations for healthcare delivery, one truth has become unmistakable: no country, company or institution can solve tomorrow's health challenges alone. That is why the Asia Summit on Global Health (ASGH) 2026, taking place on 11–12 May, matters more than ever. Recognised as Asia's premier event on health innovation, ASGH convenes global......

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] In a bold bid to reshape the future of retail, Siam Piwat Group has unveiled NEXTOPIA at its flagship Siam Paragon, the world's first prototype for a global sustainability platform that turns eco-conscious living into an immersive, everyday experience. Chief Executive Officer Chadatip Chutrakul introduced the project during The Economist's 5th annual Sustainability Week Asia, recently held in Bangkok, positioning......

A Hong Kong government-backed artificial intelligence lab is preparing to launch a new model built on DeepSeek that can run entirely on Chinese-made chips. The Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Centre (HKGAI) plans to unveil its HKGAI-V3 model in the first half of this year as it looks to export its “sovereign AI” capabilities to overseas markets. The system was based on DeepSeek V4 architecture with “full-parameter fine tuning for localisation”, and had been optimised to operate......

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers – including BYD and Geely Automobile – saw their sales stabilise in April, as exports and new technologies continued to help offset weakening demand at home. BYD, the world's largest EV manufacturer, sold 321,123 vehicles last month, a drop of more than 15 per cent compared to a year ago, according to its exchange filing on Sunday. However, compared with March, April's sales figure was nearly 7 per cent higher, while the year-on-year decline was nearly five......

Hong Kong's property market is poised for a broad-based recovery as a strong upturn in the residential segment spills over to the struggling office and retail sectors, according to analysts. Morgan Stanley upgraded its forecast for the city's home prices to a 12 per cent increase this year from 10 per cent previously and anticipated another 5 per cent rise in 2027, it said in a report on Monday. Likewise, the office property segment was likely to see some relief, with Hong Kong's top business......

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......