Month: May 2025

Zhou Zhongpeng, a 28-year-old Peking University doctoral dropout turned tech engineer, has deciphered one of mathematics’ most cryptic frontiers dubbed the “alien’s language” for its impenetrable 2,000-page framework and extraterrestrial-like notation. Advertisement Japanese professor Shinichi Mochizuki’s Inter-universal Teichmueller Theory (IUT) has baffled experts since its 2012 debut as a proposed proof for the ABC conjecture, a Holy Grail problem with radical implications for number theory. Armed with late-night study sessions and a discarded academic career, Zhou’s breakthrough may have transformed the ABC conjecture from conceptual abstraction to computationally usable tool.…

American retail giants are now demanding that their Chinese suppliers shoulder half to 66 per cent of the cost of US import duties, as the ongoing US-China trade war ramps up pressure on businesses’ bottom lines, industry sources told the Post. Advertisement US retailers have been locked in talks with Chinese producers for weeks over how to handle the additional costs caused by the trade war, with the firms facing intense political pressure at home to “eat the tariffs” and keep prices stable. Walmart and other major US retail groups…

US troops in South Korea could be “critical” for containing China, and might potentially benefit Seoul’s outreach to the Arctic, according to the front runner for the coming presidential election who has signalled a possible change in his position on China. Advertisement During an exclusive interview with Time Magazine published on Thursday, the Democratic Party of Korea’s (DPK) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said US Forces Korea (USFK) could play a “critical role for the United States policy of containment against China”. He also said Washington’s recent rapprochement with Moscow was…

China’s power grid now wields a futuristic safeguard against catastrophic collapses – a quantum-powered, all-seeing “diamond ring” capable of detecting grid instability in real time with unprecedented precision. Advertisement The urgency was underscored in April, when sweeping outages paralysed Spain, Portugal and France after grid oscillations severed Spain from Europe’s interconnected network. Such incidents highlight a critical challenge – as renewables dominate energy transitions, their weather-dependent unpredictability strains traditional monitoring systems. Advertisement Designed by a team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in collaboration with the…

China said that Miao Hua, a disgraced admiral and member of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), was suspected of “legal violations”, suggesting his wrongdoings were more serious than previously thought. Advertisement The CMC’s political work department decided to expel Miao from the top legislature in March for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law”, according to a statement from the legislature dated May 15. The statement was made public recently and first reported by the media this week. While his expulsion was reported in March, this is the first…

Mark Twain, in his bestseller The Innocents Abroad, commented on travel as the great unifier: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” Advertisement A Hong Kong government investing heavily in tourism promotion to charm its way back into the good books of communities worldwide after our 2019 street riots and clumsy management of the Covid-19…

China’s top security official Chen Wenqing pledged Beijing’s law enforcement cooperation with Moscow on terrorism, separatism, extremism and drug trafficking, as he wrapped up a seven-day trip that began in Hungary, followed by Russia. Advertisement In a meeting on Tuesday with his counterpart Sergei Shoigu, Chen told him that “we are fighting together against attempts to harm sovereignty, security and development issues”, according to Russia’s news agency Tass. “We are jointly countering terrorism, separatism, extremism, drug trafficking and other challenges,” he said, as he co-chaired the 10th meeting of the…

A potential multibillion-dollar deal unveiled on Friday by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group is the latest in a growing number of agreements by Chinese biotechnology firms to license development rights for innovative medicines to global pharmaceutical firms, according to lawyers advising the companies. Advertisement Many of these deals use a so-called newco structure, which combines traditional intellectual property licensing with fundraising via a newly established corporate vehicle, said the Shanghai-based partners of San Francisco-based international law firm Morrison Foerster. “Last year we saw at least seven newco deals,” managing partner Sun Chuan…