Month: August 2025

Dong Sijia, a promising young Chinese researcher, has died at the age of 33. Advertisement The oceanographer was an assistant professor at Nanjing University’s school of sustainable energy and resources but despite her internationally recognised contributions to marine chemistry, no official notice has been issued by the university. Instead, the news emerged from a note in a scientific journal that did not give a cause of death, leaving colleagues, students and friends trying to piece together more information. She was listed as the first author of a paper published in…

Eric Trump, one of the final acts in Hong Kong’s biggest gathering of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, praised the city and China during his fireside chat with the organiser of the Bitcoin Asia conference. Advertisement “There is no question that you have made an unbelievable mark on cryptocurrencies,” said the second son of US President Donald Trump in his chat with Bitcoin Asia’s CEO David Bailey. “There is no question that China is a hell of a power when it comes to this.” The younger Trump, who was in Hong Kong to…

China’s central government has cautioned against a nationwide rush into artificial intelligence (AI) investment, urging careful planning while pledging stronger support to expand computing capacity and embed the technology across industries. Advertisement The country’s top economic planning agency said the roll-out of China’s “AI Plus” initiative – aimed at applying cutting-edge technology across the manufacturing and service sectors – should be tailored to local conditions, urging regions to build on their own geographic strengths, resources and industrial bases. “[We should] set priorities scientifically to foster complementary advantages and tangible results,…

The European Union is preparing an “economic security doctrine” that will for the first time connect its trade and economic defences – but while Brussels builds the pipes, national leaders remain reluctant to turn on the tap. Advertisement Sources say the doctrine, which was announced last week by trade chief Maroš Šefčovič, will allow bureaucrats to coordinate between existing and future instruments as they seek to make Europe’s fragmented arsenal quicker and more efficient to deploy. Yet, after spending much of 2025 in the crosshairs of superpowers’ more advanced and…

In 2015, a US Navy F/A-18 pilot flying off the East Coast with the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt encountered something inexplicable: an unidentified flying object shaped like a spindle, hovering above the clouds with no visible means of propulsion. Advertisement Encoded as “Gimbal”, the footage – officially declassified in 2021 – ignited global speculation about unidentified aerial phenomena and prompted serious questions about advanced aerospace technology beyond known military capabilities. Now, nearly a decade later, scientists in China have unveiled and successfully tested a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL)…

Beijing-based AI chipmaker Cambricon Technologies, widely seen as a potential alternative to Nvidia in the Chinese market, has issued a rare warning about supply chain risks and excessive speculation in its shares, which have gained 533 per cent in the past 12 months. Advertisement The company’s Shanghai-listed stock nearly doubled in the last month on a wider rally fuelled by China’s favourable policy support of local artificial intelligence chips and a new AI model from DeepSeek tailored for upcoming domestic chips. “[Our] stock price risks deviating from current fundamentals, and…

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Looks like an airship, acts like a windmill. Engineer says China on brink of turbine leap Chinese scientists expect to soon make a breakthrough in airborne wind turbine technology, with the world’s first megawatt-level system set to take flight, according to the project team. 2.…