Month: May 2025

A Hollywood film topped ticket presales for China’s Dragon Boat Festival, but latest data points to a subdued box office for the holiday season as the industry grapples with a string of underwhelming performances. Advertisement The box office revenue for Saturday, the first day of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, was estimated at 122 million yuan ($16.9 million), according to Maoyan, a Chinese film industry data platform. The figure was lower than the 177 million yuan for May 1, the first day of mainland China’s last public holiday. The Hollywood…

The inaugural summit between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and China, recently held in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, went beyond underscoring Asia’s growing geoeconomic prominence – it also served to position the continent as a catalyst for a cultural renaissance. Advertisement Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, the current Asean chair, has long maintained the principle of neutrality as essential to maintaining the bloc’s centrality. One key approach to securing the region’s stability and prosperity, he has said, is through expanding…

Taiwan’s main opposition party the Kuomintang is gearing up for a pivotal leadership election in September – hoping a new party chair can steer it back to power after years on the political sidelines. Advertisement But before it can look ahead to the 2028 Taiwan leadership race, the KMT faces an existential threat: a sweeping mass-recall campaign engineered by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that could gut its fragile legislative majority and plunge the party into deeper disarray. Analysts warn that failure to contain the recall challenge could derail…

China’s quantum satellite could potentially be hacked due to tiny delays between its onboard lasers that could be exploited by eavesdroppers in an attack, a former Russia-based quantum researcher who is now working in Singapore has warned. Advertisement Quantum communication is a form of information transfer that relies on quantum physics-based cryptography to encode data in single light particles called photons. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is one method that relies on exchanging secret keys between two parties used to decrypt the information, which makes it difficult for eavesdroppers to listen…

A PLA major general leading the Chinese delegation at this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue has accused the United States of “destabilising the Asia-Pacific” – after US defence chief Pete Hegseth called for collective deterrence against what he characterised as Chinese aggression in the region. Advertisement In a panel session at Asia’s premier annual security conference on Saturday afternoon, Hu Gangfeng, vice-president of China’s National Defence University, said Hegseth’s address earlier in the day involved “groundless accusations against China”. This came after the US defence secretary claimed that China was “destabilising” the…

China’s high-profile outreach to Latin America underscores Beijing’s expanding strategic emphasis on the region, according to Chinese observers, one of whom said solid China-Latin America ties would be “unstoppable” if the United States continued its current approach toward its southern neighbours. Advertisement With key Celac leaders floating megaproject proposals during the event, another Chinese observer noted that infrastructure was likely to remain a key sector of engagement for Beijing, playing a crucial role in countering US influence in the region. While it was a routine event under the established China-Celac…

China’s doctoral education has long been under attack for overemphasising the number of published papers, along with their lack of groundbreaking research findings. At a recent forum in Beijing, a noted academic blamed the system for shackling talent and hindering innovation. Advertisement “Can you imagine the emergence of DeepSeek, if its founder Liang Wenfeng had pursued a PhD instead?” That was the question raised by Wang Shuguo, president of eastern China’s Fuyao University of Science and Technology, at the Sohu Annual Sci-Tech Conference on May 17. Liang graduated in 2010…

President Donald Trump’s comment that international students in the US would be “fine” has only added to the confusion about his administration’s stance, following controversy over an earlier announcement that it would “aggressively” cancel Chinese student visas. Advertisement Asked on Friday about what message he would send to foreign students in the country, Trump said: “Well, they’re going to be OK. It’s going to work out fine.” “We just want to check out the individual students we have. And that’s true with all colleges,” he told reporters at the White…