Stock investors are capitalising on the spending power of China’s Generation Z consumers, who splurge on everything from gold jewellery to low-priced drinks, delivering multifold returns on so-called new consumer stocks. Advertisement The ascent of Pop Mart International Group, Mixue Group and Laopu Gold is one of the few bright spots in China’s sluggish consumer industry, which has been plagued by a weak jobs market and the deflationary trend. The robust performance has come at the cost of traditional industry names, including liquor producer Kweichow Moutai, with traders pulling out…
Day: June 14, 2025
Why Chinese firms building foreign factories are no longer focused on US market
This year’s escalation of the US-China trade war has led many Chinese companies to rethink their overseas expansion strategies, with accessing the American market no longer their top priority when considering building factories in foreign countries, industry insiders said. Advertisement There had been a “drastic downshift” in inquiries from Chinese companies seeking land to rent or purchase in Mexico, one of their hottest overseas investment destinations in the past, said Jack Lee, an industrial property agent based in the United States whose clients are mostly Chinese firms. Mexico had become…
Lee Jae-myung turns to China to ease North Korea ties, but will it take sides?
Newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has signalled a desire to ease tensions with North Korea, halting propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along the border, and he has turned to China for support. Advertisement In a 30-minute phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, six days after taking office, Lee urged China to play a “constructive role” in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Xi responded that China would make efforts to resolve the issue, saying that peace and stability on the peninsula were in the common interest of…
Trump’s military parade to start on day marked by assassination, ‘No Kings’ protests
This live blog has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Get faster notifications on the latest updates by downloading our app. For the first time in more than three decades, the United States is holding a major military parade in the nation’s capital on Saturday – fulfilling a long-standing desire of US President Donald Trump on a day that was marred by a political assassination. Echoing displays more typically seen in countries including China, France and Russia, the…
What next for He Jiankui, the human gene editor locked in limbo?
He Jiankui looked a little tired and worn as he contemplated his future. Advertisement With no home and no institution to host his research, the 41-year-old biophysicist and self-proclaimed “pioneer of gene editing” was weighing up what to do next while staying at an upmarket hotel in Beijing late last month. He, who caused a global uproar in 2018 with his announcement of the world’s first gene-edited babies, planned to move to the United States to continue his research into gene-editing embryos to combat diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.…
Chinese brain implant reaches landmark clinical trial with operation on amputee
Advertisement The trial is on a 37-year-old man who had to have all of his limbs amputated after a high-voltage electrical accident more than a decade ago. In March, researchers implanted a device roughly the size of a coin and a series of electrodes into the man’s brain. A few weeks later, he was able to control a cursor on an electronic device, enabling him to play chess and video games, and perform computer operations at a near-normal level of proficiency, according to the report. The researchers plan to conduct…
Canada to mine more amid geopolitical tensions: former minister Bill Morneau
Canada’s new government will invest more in mining at a time when the country’s economy and manufacturing sector are facing “challenges” related to China’s curbs on rare earth exports, Bill Morneau, former Canadian finance minister, told the Post. Advertisement “One of the challenges for Canada is that we will need to increase our own mining,” Morneau, who was in office between 2015 and 2020 under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, said in Shanghai on Friday. “The initiative by new [Prime Minister] Mark Carney is to advance the ability to get big…
Is this the end of summer US study trips for Chinese children?
For two decades, it was popular for many Chinese families to send their children on “study tours” overseas – most often to the United States – during the summer. Advertisement The programmes generally involved summer camps jointly organised by American universities and language institutions, as well as visits to colleges, museums and tourist attractions. In 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, around 1.3 million Chinese students spent part of their summer holidays studying overseas, according to a report by Beijing-based consultancy Huaon.com, with the US ranked the most popular destination. The…
In human rights talks, EU warns of ‘deterioration’ of basic freedoms in China
During thorny human rights talks with China on Friday, the European Union voiced concerns about what it called a “deterioration of fundamental freedoms” in the country. Advertisement The EU cited “government interference” in the succession plan for the Dalai Lama, an ongoing crackdown in Hong Kong, and jailed Uygur and Tibetan activists as examples in its statement on the 40th edition of the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue in Brussels. The bloc accused China of “persistent restrictions on freedom of expression, religion or belief, peaceful assembly, and the right to equality…
Surge in bond yields adds to pressure on BoJ
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. A surge in long-term borrowing costs, high inflation and a month-long string of weak debt auctions are raising the pressure on the Bank of Japan ahead of its monetary policy meeting next week. Yields on 30-year bonds hit a record high of 3.2 per cent last month, pushed up by an ongoing buyers strike among domestic life insurers. While they have since dipped to about 2.9 per cent, many analysts…