Usually people in Taipei walk quite slowly. Notoriously so. But at 1.27pm on Thursday some were almost sprinting through the busy shopping district of Ximen. They knew they had three minutes to get where they needed to be without being stuck in the nearest underground bunker for the half an hour. At 1.30pm exactly, deafening sirens wailed across the city, and a text hit every mobile phone warning that “the enemy has launched a missile attack toward northern Taiwan”. Cars and buses pulled over in Ximen, and everyone was ushered…
Month: July 2025
Warning of glut in AI computing centres as China readies for Nvidia H20’s return
Advertisement Citing data from the Inspur Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Science and Technology Daily reported on Thursday that despite the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence, only about 30 per cent of the country’s intelligent computing capacity was being used. As of November, nearly 150 intelligent computing centre projects were up and running throughout China, and another 400 or so projects were planned or under construction, according to the newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Ministry of Science and Technology. “The rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has given rise to a…
China’s job market preps for impact as record graduate wave approaches
Despite an easing of China’s youth unemployment rate in June, the country is steeling itself for a challenging job-hunting season as a record number of fresh graduates prepares to enter the labour market. Advertisement The urban jobless rate for those aged 16 to 24, excluding students, dipped to 14.5 per cent last month – more than one in seven people – from 14.9 per cent in May, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday. While this marked the fourth consecutive month that China’s youth…
PLA offers back-to-back military drill updates during Taiwan’s Han Kuang
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has stepped up messaging about its round-the-clock military drills conducted in an apparent response to Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang exercise. Advertisement For four consecutive days this week, the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command – the division responsible for overseeing the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea – has given daily updates on cross-service military drills that appear to correspond to the exercises in Taiwan. Taiwan’s 10-day Han Kuang exercise, which began on July 9 and wraps up on Friday, is the largest and longest in…
US-built naval facilities may strengthen Philippine hand in South China Sea
The US plan to build new naval facilities in the western Philippines could strengthen Manila’s ability to “confront” Chinese vessels in the South China Sea and even pave the way for shared use between the two allies in the event of future conflict, according to one observer. Advertisement Earlier this week, the United States said its navy would construct two maintenance facilities for smaller vessels at Oyster Bay and Quezon on Palawan, which is less than 260km (160km) from the Second Thomas Shoal, a major flashpoint between Manila and Beijing.…
Meituan executive bemoans ‘irrational’ price war with Alibaba, JD.com
A Meituan executive said the company had no choice but to join the latest round of what he called “irrational competition” against rivals JD.com and Alibaba Group Holding in China’s instant delivery sector, even though the blizzard of discounts being offered to woo buyers had become disconnected from business fundamentals. Advertisement “We didn’t want to take part in [the price war], as we don’t think it makes sense,” Wang Puzhong, head of Beijing-based Meituan’s core local commerce business, said in an interview on Tuesday with local media outlet LatePost. Meituan…
What you need to know about China’s restrictions on 8 key battery technologies
China’s latest export restrictions on eight key electric vehicle (EV) battery technologies officially took effect this week, about half a year after it announced its intention to implement them. Advertisement According to the rules announced by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology, manufacturers using the technologies in the production of EV batteries must now obtain government licences before transferring them abroad. In this explainer, the Post takes a look at the technologies involved and the potential impact of the restrictions. Which technologies are subject to…
What China wants from Europe
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Next week’s EU-China summit will be in Beijing because Chinese President Xi Jinping wouldn’t come to Brussels. To scornful American security types, the shift signifies more European kowtowing to China. The summit won’t produce the “grand bargain” with China that some Europeans fantasise about. Still, it’s momentous. Europeans find themselves surrounded by three hostile powers — Russia, the US and China — one of which they barely understand. China is…
AI for science, drug discovery to have ‘greatest impact’, says Nvidia’s Huang
The use of artificial intelligence for science would have an even bigger impact than its use for human-related tasks, Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang said during a discussion with Alibaba Cloud founder Wang Jian, amid rapid advances in the field of AI-enabled drug discovery. Advertisement Applying AI to human tasks was easier because it was done in the language created by humans in the first place, but biology was created by nature and therefore harder to “manipulate”, Huang said at the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing on…
Record Japanese M&A streak powers on with $1bn Mitsubishi salmon catch
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Mitsubishi Corporation has agreed a $1bn takeover of salmon farms from Norway’s Grieg Seafood, as corporate Japan continues on a record-breaking M&A trail and increases its influence over global food supply chains. The deal by the trading house’s Norwegian subsidiary, Cermaq, for aquacultures in Norway and Canada, will create the world’s second-largest salmon farming group, with annual production of 280,000 tonnes by 2027 helping to meet the world’s growing demand…