Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways will launch direct flights to Urumqi in April, expanding its mainland Chinese destinations to 20. The airline said on Friday that the 5½-hour flight between Hong Kong and Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in western China, would commence on April 28 and run four times…
The southern Chinese megacity of Shenzhen has unleashed a barrage of policies aimed at propelling itself to the forefront of the global artificial intelligence and robotics industries, as the metropolis seeks to reaffirm its status as China’s leading technology hub. In a rare move, the city rolled out three major action plans in a single…
Hundreds of Hong Kong politicians and business leaders are set to head to Beijing on Monday for the nation’s top annual political gathering, with analysts predicting further integration with mainland China will be a major talking point among elites. Ding Xuexiang, the Chinese vice-premier and head of the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and…
China would assist Pakistan in selecting and training astronauts and the chosen candidates would then travel to China for further training, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said on Friday after the signing of a cooperation agreement in Islamabad. Later, one or more of them will join a Chinese crew for a short-term mission aboard…
China’s rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping the dynamics of global technology and one of the most consequential shifts is taking place beyond the traditional AI power centres of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. China’s AI influence is expanding across the Global South, from Africa to Latin America and Southeast Asia. With affordable AI-powered…
With Chinese start-up DeepSeek poised to help accelerate the development of artificial intelligence (AI) across Africa, China has cemented its presence in the continent’s digital transformation, experts have said. But, they added, as Africa’s digital landscape speed along, it had also pushed policymakers to build governance frameworks around the new technology. Through the Digital Silk…
Satellite technology that can track hundreds of millions of shipping containers around the world has been successfully tested by Chinese military scientists, in a huge leap forward in monitoring global supply chains. Developed by researchers with the National University of Defence Technology (NUDT) in Changsha, the technology centres on the Tiantuo-5 satellite – a compact,…
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said the country is still willing to work with Israel to improve ties. Wang made comments in a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the highest-level direct talks between the two sides since the start of the Gaza…
Every year, China’s minister of foreign affairs embarks on what has now become a customary odyssey across Africa. The tradition began in the late 1980s and sees Beijing’s top diplomat visit several African nations to reaffirm ties. The most recent visit, by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, took place in mid-January 2025 and included stops in…
Beijing is concerned that Hong Kong may need help from mainland Chinese companies in developing large cross-border projects amid a public deficit, analysts have said, after its point man on city affairs met local officials ahead of the annual budget address. Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), on Sunday…