But DeepSeek’s head office in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, on Wednesday kept mum on the firm’s potential next moves, as it declined all requests from news media, including the South China Morning Post. More security personnel were deployed outside its office building on the same day, according to one of the guards on…
Hong Kong may require students to have lived in the city for a minimum period to be classified as “local” after some mainland Chinese professionals were accused of exploiting talent schemes to secure cheaper university tuition for their children. Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said on Tuesday she would take reference from jurisdictions such…
Text size The UK government Thursday announced new local inquiries into sexual exploitation of children by grooming gangs, recently the subject of a row between US tech billionaire Elon Musk and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “As we have seen, effective local inquiries can delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally relevant answers,…
The British finance minister’s plans to visit China next month may be the latest signal that the Labour Party wants to take a pragmatic approach that balances economic ties with concerns over security and human rights, analysts have said. One said it may also be a way of “testing the waters” about whether this approach…
London — A lawyer accused of trying to interfere in British politics on behalf of the Chinese government has lost a legal challenge against the U.K.’s domestic intelligence agency MI5. Britain’s Security Service issued a security alert to all lawmakers in January 2022, warning that London-based lawyer Christine Lee was knowingly engaged in “political interference…
Text size China on Tuesday slammed as “preposterous” claims that a businessman had used his links with Britain’s Prince Andrew to spy for Beijing, after the UK government voiced mounting concerns over the allegations. “Accusations of so-called Chinese espionage are preposterous,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, adding that strong ties with London were “in the…
As Britain’s new Labour government bids to reset long-fraught ties with China amid a suspected spy scandal, another issue could mar relations: Beijing’s controversial plans to open the largest embassy in the UK. China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to a sprawling…
Text size Photos by Justin Tallis. Video by Yelim Lee The son of the Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai said Tuesday that his father’s trial in the Chinese territory was a “sham” but that he was “proud” of how he was handling himself in court. The 76-year-old media tycoon has been testifying for three…
Text size UK religious leaders joined forces Sunday to say they are “deeply concerned” by draft legislation to legalise assisted dying that MPs will vote on this week. Two new polls ahead of Friday’s parliamentary vote showed a majority of Britons support changing the assisted dying laws. The House of Commons will get a free…
Beijing has sharply rebuked the West over its condemnation of the jailing of former Hong Kong legal academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting and other opposition activists for subversion, slamming foreign powers for applying “hypocritical double standards” and painting the criminals as advocates for democracy. The State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) said in…