Hong Kong must do more to shatter the glass ceilings at its roots, moving beyond token diversity to ensure motherhood no longer derails women’s careers, advocates have said on International Women’s Day. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Sunday that women were “holding up more than half the sky” for Hong Kong as they…
When Iran’s Supreme Leader was reported killed in a bombing attack, one question surfaced quickly: what happens when a political system built around one man suddenly loses him? For decades, Iran projected durability. Authority was centralised. Institutions revolved around a dominant leader. Stability appeared fixed. Yet in a moment, succession — long managed behind closed…
China has had population control policies, which are now resulting in a declining population rate. To tackle that, it has now come up with some out-of-the-box ideas.From taxing condoms to proposing a dating course in the curriculum, the ideas seem bizarre. However, for a nation trying to cope with population decline after limiting families to…
China’s “institutional strength” will help the country tackle “major tests” over the course of the next five-year plan, analysts and state media have said. The country’s latest development plan, which is due to start next year and run until 2030, comes at a time when Beijing is facing increasing obstacles to its long-term ambitions both…
IN 1958, UNDER the rule of Mao Zedong, China began the Great Leap Forward, a four-year attempt to transform the country from an agrarian society into a modern industrialised one. It was a disaster: the industrialisation was stillborn, and the collectivisation of farming caused one of the biggest famines ever recorded. Somewhere between 15m and…
China is betting on a new generation of digital influencers and content creators to reshape its image in Africa, which observers have said is a major shift as Beijing looks to refine its “soft power” campaigns. This new strategy aims to reshape China’s public image by connecting directly with younger audiences through cultural exchange and…
Tourists were flocking to historical and scenic attractions in Beijing on Wednesday as China was entering an eight-day holiday. Over 2.3 billion trips are expected to take place through the eight-day public holiday that includes the National Day on October 1 and the Mid-Autumn Festival on October 6, according to projections from the Ministry of…
Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s satellite spies on US spycraft in a ‘tit-for-tat’ orbital stand-off In a notable display of reconnaissance capabilities, a Chinese satellite has observed an American satellite that was itself…
TAIPEI (Reuters) -China is intentionally mischaracterising World War Two-era documents to put pressure on and isolate Taiwan given those agreements made no determination of the island’s ultimate political status, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei said. The 80th anniversary of the war’s end has been marked by a bitter dispute between Taipei and Beijing…
The past week has been a flurry of not only state-level diplomacy but also party-to-party outreach, with President Xi Jinping receiving a series of leaders from the four remaining communist countries on a single day. Xi held meetings with leaders from Cuba, North Korea, Laos and Vietnam, all of whom attended Wednesday’s military parade in…