In global politics, where dominance is often measured by loud declarations and displays of power, China behaves like a master of the game of Go, carefully and silently placing its stones, favoring strategic depth over superficial spectacle. At first glance, all the prerequisites for hegemony seem to be in place: the world’s second largest economy,…
Hong Kong customs has arrested five people on suspicion of laundering HK$8.9 billion (US$1.1 billion) in suspected crime proceeds over a four-year period, with investigators for the first time uncovering a syndicate using sophisticated fake shipping websites for “phantom trading”. Senior Investigator Tsoi Kim-fai of customs’ financial investigation bureau said on Tuesday that the operation…
It has been a turbulent year for the fraught US-China relationship. In the fourth part of a series looking back at the events of 2025, we examine the impacts of Trump’s foreign policy on global geopolitics. As the administration of US President Donald Trump ends its first year, expect the unabashed disrupter to continue applying…
The Chinese ambassador to Rwanda said on Friday that China-Africa cooperation had expanded into forward-looking sectors such as artificial intelligence, the digital economy, green energy, fintech and sustainable development. While attending the Seventh Africa’s Business Heroes Summit held in Kigali, Rwanda, Gao Wenqi thanked entrepreneurs from China and African nations for expanding cooperation into sectors…
Since early 2023, Chinese companies have pledged more than $180 billion for clean energy projects outside China, according to a report by Climate Energy Finance. These firms produce most of the world’s solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles. They invest in full supply chains, from mining to recycling, helping other countries build green power systems….
A quiet transformation is weaving itself into the fabric of Hong Kong. In recent years, the city’s social and business circles have been energised by a wave of newcomers from across the Chinese mainland. They have brought with them a culinary revolution – restaurants serving flavours from fiery Sichuan to delicate Zhejiang now dot neighbourhoods…
For decades, New York and London have defined the flow of global capital. But while markets still chase short-term returns in US equities, the next great wave of productive investment is taking shape in East Asia, led by China’s financing, manufacturing and export of the clean technologies that are remaking the global economy. That contrast…
We should call it the “Neom factor”: the force that transforms reasonable aggressive ambition into hallucinogenic fantasyland. It glared out at me last week in a Financial Times headline: “Three ‘Heathrows’ of growth: the unstoppable rise of Middle East airports”. In short, Dubai, Istanbul, Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi in aggregate have airport expansion plans…
Nearly 300 pets have been rescued from the deadly inferno that engulfed a Hong Kong housing estate last week, including fish, parrots and turtles, with a charity leader saying the recovery efforts have “strengthened her belief in humanity”. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said in a social media post that…
South Africa is looking to new export markets in Asia – particularly China – and Europe to diversify away from the United States, as its relations with Washington rapidly deteriorate. America boycotted last weekend’s Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg after Washington accused Pretoria of persecuting Afrikaner farmers, labelling the situation “white genocide” – a…