Day: August 21, 2025

Cao Ting, a leading artificial intelligence researcher and former research manager at Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), has left the US tech giant to join Tsinghua University, as AI becomes a new front in the US-China tech rivalry. Advertisement According to the university’s website, Cao left MSRA in July to join Tsinghua’s Institute for AI Industry Research under Zhang Yaqin, a former MSRA managing director. The Beijing-based MSRA, established by Bill Gates in 1998 to tap China’s “deep pool of intellectual talent” and once hailed as the “hottest computer lab in…

It has been a tumultuous couple of months for Alex Xu’s company – a solar panel manufacturer based in eastern China’s Zhejiang province – as product prices have surged by about 20 per cent. Advertisement Long plagued by severe oversupply, China’s photovoltaic industry is grappling with cutthroat price wars and even loss-making sales. From Xu’s perspective, nearly half of the industry’s capacity is excessive. But a rebound in prices has followed recent calls from Chinese authorities to combat “involution”, or neijuan – a buzzword referring to destructive competition that is…

Beijing’s top envoy in New Delhi on Thursday expressed strong support for India, citing the steep US tariffs imposed against the country, and called for “teamwork” and “collaboration” between the world’s two most populous nations in standing up to the “bully”. Advertisement “US imposed tariffs of up to 50 per cent on India. China firmly opposes it. Silence only emboldens the bully. China will firmly stand with India, uphold the multilateral trading system,” Ambassador Xu Feihong said. He said tariffs and trade wars are undermining the very free trade international…

As US destroyers closed in on Venezuela’s coast on Thursday, China condemned Washington’s military build-up and warned against foreign interference, backing Nicolas Maduro in a showdown that is drawing in powers far beyond the Caribbean. Advertisement Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that China opposed “any move that violates the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and a country’s sovereignty and security”. She added that Beijing rejected “the interference of external forces in Venezuela’s internal affairs under any pretext” and urged the United States to “do more things conducive…

Newly published details of the recent EU-US trade deal show the bloc cleaving closer to Washington on technology, security and commerce, potentially driving a new wedge into Europe’s relationship with China. Advertisement A joint statement released on Thursday confirmed that the European Union will accept tariffs of 15 per cent on 70 per cent of its exports to the US, as agreed in July. It will also consider exempting American goods from some of its sweeping climate laws, even as it moves to lower tariffs on American products, including industrial…

Advertisement The Beijing-based company said it would pay a special dividend of HK$0.46 per share after reporting better-than-expected financial results in the second quarter, driven by gains made from its artificial intelligence tools, according to its filing. Dividend payments to shareholders will be made on October 6. Second-quarter revenue rose 13.1 per cent to 35 billion yuan (US$4.87 billion), up from 31 billion yuan a year earlier. Profit attributable to equity holders was 4.9 billion yuan, compared to about 4 billion yuan a year ago. First-half revenue increased 12 per…

Resource constraints and precedent mean China is unlikely to become one of Ukraine’s security guarantors – despite Russia’s suggestion that it could, according to analysts. Advertisement With rising expectations for a face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, security guarantees for Kyiv have taken centre stage in discussions about a peace deal with Moscow to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. During a press conference on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow had agreed to develop a system of security…