Seventy years after a group of young scholars first coined the term “artificial intelligence” at the 1956 Dartmouth Conference, the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) concluded in Shanghai this month at what may prove an equally defining moment. In his keynote address, President Xi Jinping articulated a vision of AI developing in a direction…
Nearly three decades after its return to Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kong is once again at an important crossroads. The recent decision by the United States not to renew “The President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization” has once again focused international attention on the city’s future. For some, it represents another chapter in the geopolitical…
Hong Kong businesses can leverage Xinjiang’s connectivity with Central Asia to expand into new markets while the city’s financial, trade and professional services can help businesses in the region enter Southeast Asia, according to political analysts. But an economist and a textile industry veteran have warned of potential risks for Hong Kong businesses building ties…
The Hong Kong Jockey Club has urged the city to position the Greater Bay Area as a leading equine hub under its first five-year plan, proposing the formation of a distinctive racing circuit for both mainland Chinese and international tourists. In a submission to the government on Thursday, the club said the equine industry had…
Many mainland Chinese businesses that joined a Hong Kong-led delegation to Central Asia last month are preparing to list in the city to raise capital for global expansion, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has revealed. At a summit on Tuesday, the city leader stressed that Hong Kong would continue to leverage its role as a…
The Hong Kong stock exchange is drawing a growing number of foreign companies from across Asia and North America that are seeking international capital, as the bourse marks progress in its ambition to be a global magnet for fundraising. The latest firm seeking to join the cohort is Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the Central Asian nation’s…
For decades, warnings of Hong Kong’s terminal decline have arrived in periodic waves. When Stephen Roach, the former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, ignited a firestorm with his February 2024 assertion that “Hong Kong is over”, he pointed to a toxic cocktail of domestic and external pressures. Roach, who doubled down on his “wake-up call”…
In their 2022 book Sinostan, Raffaello Pantucci and Alexandros Petersen saw Central Asia as China’s “inadvertent empire”. If that is true – and the five-country region embracing Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan (informally called the C5) certainly sits at the heart of China’s Belt and Road Initiative – then Beijing could not have chosen…
China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the world’s largest ongoing infrastructure program, has a substantial climate impact. More than half its emissions stem from steel, the majority of which was produced in China. Cutting the emissions will require stronger environmental policies and major investment in cleaner manufacturing technologies, two new studies concluded. More than 130 million…
In my travels around the world, I’m often asked if the best days of Hong Kong are behind us. My answer is always an emphatic “no” – and this is not merely a pep talk. When you step back and take a broad macroeconomic view, it becomes clear that, structurally speaking, our greatest opportunities lie…