Month: June 2024

IT IS AN unusual arrangement, to be sure. Since its establishment in 1997, the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong has had both local and foreign judges on its bench. The set-up was part of the deal that handed the territory from Britain to China that year. The foreigners, who hold non-permanent seats, tend to have impressive legal backgrounds and come from other common-law jurisdictions, such as Britain, Australia and Canada. So they are accustomed to exercising judicial power “independently and free from any interference”, as laid out in…

ERIC CHAN has long sold durians, a pungent fruit, to South-East Asians. Now he is eyeing a bigger prize. The Musang King variety that he cultivates in Malaysia is beloved by Chinese consumers. But at the moment his country only has permission to export frozen durians to China, where many want them fresh. In total, Chinese foodies gobbled up $6.7bn-worth of imported fresh durians last year, up from $4bn in 2022 and $1.6bn in 2019, the year durians overtook cherries as China’s largest fresh-fruit import by value. The Economist

AN AIR OF quiet piety hangs over Rongwo Monastery in the western province of Qinghai. The streets near this ancient complex draw pilgrims and Tibetan Buddhist monks in dark red robes. Local believers make circuits around the monastery’s yellow walls, turning a line of wooden prayer-wheels as they walk. The Economist

REMINDERS OF a wicked world are multiplying at the Arvfurstens Palace in Stockholm, stately seat of Sweden’s foreign ministry. A bronze briefcase, bearing the initials RW, has for some years stood outside the front door. It honours Raoul Wallenberg, a young diplomat who used his country’s profitable—and at times shameful—tradition of neutrality to save thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary with Swedish “protection passes” he had crafted, before he vanished into the prisons of the Soviet Union. Of late, four large flags also adorn the stone-floored entrance hall. Three reflect…

Starting on June 7th millions of young people will sit for the world’s largest academic test. China’s university-entrance exam, known as the gaokao, is punishingly difficult. Students spend endless hours cramming for it. But it is also meant to be meritocratic. Work hard, score well and, no matter what your social background, you can get into a good college. The Economist

NEARLY 12m STUDENTS will graduate from Chinese universities this month. Where they go after that is increasingly difficult to predict. For decades graduates were drawn to the same four cities: Beijing, the capital; Shanghai, a financial hub; Shenzhen, a tech centre; and Guangzhou, an export powerhouse. There were opportunities in these places. Their economic heft exceeded that of other Chinese cities. Their public services were better, too. And they were huge, with populations that now range from 13m (Shenzhen) to 26m (Shanghai). As a result, they were dubbed “first-tier” cities.…

IN HIS state-of-the-nation address earlier this year, China’s prime minister, Li Qiang, spoke of fostering new engines of economic growth. In particular, he mentioned “the low-altitude economy”. The phrase conjures images of flying cars, which might seem like science fiction to some. But in this area China is moving faster than most countries. Makers of flying cars, or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, have been getting the green light from the government. The Economist