Day: June 7, 2025

Subsidising men’s participation in household chores and childcare could help reverse declining global birth rates, according to a new study, offering a fresh approach to deepening demographic challenges in countries like China. Advertisement The study, co-authored by researchers from Fudan University and the University of Hong Kong (HKU), argued that subsidies for fathers produce significantly higher long-term fertility gains than solely subsidising mothers. The findings came as the world’s second-largest economy faces a rapidly ageing population, shrinking workforce and strained social welfare system – before reaching high-income status. The researchers…

Ten years have passed since President Xi Jinping, who is reported to be a fan of the game, unveiled a plan to make China a “world football superpower” by 2050. Advertisement Since then, the men’s national team has been overshadowed by its consistently excellent women’s counterpart, while falling in the world rankings from 2016’s 81st place to 94th in April. The scandal-stricken football sector has also become a focus of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign in recent years. Yet China has not missed all its yardsticks. Official data shows that tens of…

A Macau conglomerate is targeting Hong Kong’s affluent retirees with a new luxury senior housing project in the Greater Bay Area, capitalising on a shortage of high-end retirement options for the city’s affluent retirees. Advertisement “There is a lack of high-quality lifestyle retirement [options] in Hong Kong,” said Amber Li, founder of Serensia Woods, a 135,000-square-metre (1.45 million sq ft) retirement community in Zhuhai’s Hengqin district. The community, on an island largely in the Guangdong city neighbouring Macau, includes a 133-room hotel, four residential towers with a total of 300…

For years, the story of artificial intelligence (AI) has been cast as a high-stakes contest between the US and China – a technological arms race with global consequences. But to De Kai, a pioneering machine learning scientist and advocate for AI ethics, this framing fundamentally misunderstands the technology. Advertisement “I would prefer to think about it as the AI climate change challenge,” De Kai said in an interview with the Post at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he is a professor of computer science and engineering.…

As Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency was shaking up federal agencies in America with deep spending cuts, bureaucrats in China were also feeling the heat. Advertisement Since mid-March, thousands of Chinese officials have been scrambling to comply with President Xi Jinping’s austerity orders – making sure their offices are modest, their meal receipts are in order and returning any lavish gifts – as inspectors carry out checks. The campaign has been running since 2012 and takes aim at overspending among Communist Party and government bodies. It covers spending…

Ukrainian attacks targeting airbases deep inside Russian territory despite lacking long-range missiles or bombers could offer important lessons about modern warfare in the event of any conflict in the Taiwan Strait. Advertisement Under the operation, code-named Spider’s Web, Ukraine smuggled drones into Russian territory undetected and hired unwitting drivers to transport them in modified containers to locations near airbases, some of them thousands of kilometres from Ukraine’s border. The drones were then launched remotely to destroy surveillance planes and long-range bombers as they sat on the tarmac. The innovative approach…

China has condemned “political manipulation” by the United States and its “overstretched concept of national security”, days after two Chinese researchers were charged with illegally importing a toxic fungus described by US authorities as a “dangerous biological pathogen”. Advertisement The Chinese Consulate in Chicago said in a statement on Saturday that it was seeking information about the case and had lodged a “stern representation” with the US side. This comes after the US Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that Chinese citizens Jian Yunqing, 33, a research fellow at the…

US-China trade talks in London next week would signal positive development in ties but the negotiations would not be easy, observers said. Advertisement Meanwhile, Chinese state media reaction to the expected talks was muted, with commentaries reminding the US to honour its pledges while asserting Beijing’s red lines. On Friday, a day after his much-anticipated phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump announced that a new round of high-level bilateral meetings were due to take place in the British capital. Beijing’s foreign ministry confirmed the meeting…

Selecting which crops to grow each season can be a make-or-break decision for farmers. And in the ancient Chinese town of Baisha, famous for its liquor production, more and more are sowing seeds of change in a bid to capitalise on the evolving tastes of consumers. Advertisement Located in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing and home to the distillery of Chinese baijiu distilled-liquor brand Jiang Xiao Bai, the town is seeing its farmland increasingly being used to grow green plums instead of sorghum grain. Both are key ingredients in producing…

Taiwanese authorities are moving to tighten security protocols on cross-strait travel by expanding oversight to include grass-roots public officials and newly hired staff members of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Advertisement At the centre of a growing scandal is former DPP aide Huang Chu-jung, who is under investigation for allegedly using an encrypted messaging app developed on the mainland to leak classified information. Notably, the information in question involves the travel details of Taiwan’s second most senior official at the time – now the island’s leader – William Lai…