South China Morning Post
China, India find common cause in push for multipolar world
Day: February 11, 2026
After solar panels and EVs, is overcapacity coming for China’s robots?
As we get ready for the Year of the Horse, preparations for the Spring Festival Gala, the most important event on China’s television calendar, are well under way. Most viewers will see choreography, spectacle and national pride – as well as humanoid robots. Policymakers and markets, however, should see something else: a carefully staged signal of how China’s political economy is positioning for the next cycle of industrial overcapacity – and its global consequences. The gala has become a national showcase for hard technology. This year, China Media Group is…
World’s largest plasma business seeks new blood as CEO departs
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The world’s largest blood plasma company is urgently seeking its own corporate transfusion after it parted company with its chief executive and wrote down the value of two important business lines. Australia’s CSL recorded an 81 per cent drop in half-year net profit on Wednesday. Chief executive Paul McKenzie had abruptly retired hours earlier, with CSL’s chair saying he did not have the skills the company needed. The turmoil at…
Time called on happy hour as French wine and spirit sales sour in mainland China, US
French wine and spirits exporters saw their worst results since 2020’s Covid-19 shock last year, as companies were buffeted by stormy trade relations between China and the US, two of their biggest export markets. “It’s weighing on everyone’s morale,” said Gabriel Picard, president of the French Federation of Wine and Spirit Exporters (FEVS), during a press conference in Paris on Tuesday where he presented the annual figures. France exported a total of €14.3 billion (117.5 billion yuan) of wine and spirits last year, down by 7.9 per cent. More specifically,…
India slashes takedown time on unlawful online content
India has sharply reduced the time social media platforms have to remove unlawful content, under new rules that critics warn will entrench censorship. The IT ministry on Tuesday published an amendment to 2021 laws governing social media that cuts the deadline companies have to act on official takedown notices to “within three hours”. Previously businesses had 36 hours to do so. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has been tightening oversight of online content, including AI-generated material. The Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights group, warned that the compressed timeline would…
Capital injection: China backs AI drug makers in self-reliance drive
Hangzhou-based METiS TechBio, founded in 2020, raised 400 million yuan in Series D financing in August last year, led by the Beijing Medical and Health Industry Investment Fund and the Daxing Industrial Investment Fund – both government-linked vehicles – according to the company’s website. Using a proprietary AI platform focused on optimising drug delivery, the company has developed MTS-004, an oral treatment for neurological disorders that has completed Phase III trials, making it China’s first AI-designed drug candidate to reach that stage. Advertisement The company plans to seek regulatory approval…
Founding principal of Singapore arm of elite UK school to quit
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The founding principal of a prestigious London school’s Singapore offshoot is to step down, a move that comes after an FT investigation detailed allegations of bullying by some of its senior leaders, safeguarding lapses and health and safety breaches. The announcement of the departure of Paul Friend, who helped set up the Singapore arm of North London Collegiate School in 2020, follows the exit in December of the chief executive…