Two Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils marking China’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown in 1989 were found guilty of “incitement to subversion”, in one of the most high-profile cases in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed its national security law in 2020. Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 “incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power”, a press summary handed out to reporters said. The defendants face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail. Sentencing…
Day: August 20, 2026
International study finds solar panels in China could be harming birds
Solar expansion policies across China have led to a reduction in bird diversity, with wealthier and non-desert regions bearing the brunt of species loss, according to a study led by researchers in China and the US. They found that solar expansion had eaten into birds’ foraging and breeding grounds, and had left what habitat remained more fragmented, pitting China’s carbon reduction policies against biodiversity conservation. “Our findings highlight a critical green dilemma: without meticulous spatial planning, policy-driven solar expansion can inadvertently compromise local biodiversity,” the team said in a paper…
HK’s Tiananmen activists guilty in national security trial
Lee and Chow were also leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance (HKA). The HKA was founded in May 1989 to support students holding pro-democracy rallies. Weeks later, the Communist Party crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square with troops and tanks. Estimates of the death toll range from a few hundred to many thousands. Over the next three decades, HKA called on authorities to accept responsibility for the crackdown, free dissidents and introduce democratic reform. The Alliance’s leaders were charged in 2021 and have been behind bars since. Rights…
In the embodied AI race, China can opt to look beyond bigger models
The world has seen tremendous progress in the capabilities of robots in the past year. Robots can now walk, dance, run and perform increasingly sophisticated movements, yet impressive demonstrations do not equal commercial value. Beyond the hype surrounding China’s red-hot embodied robotics sector, one challenge confronts all players: data. Robotics has long faced the challenge of achieving widespread adoption. To do so, robots must be for general purpose, reliable and economically viable – all at the same time. So far, no company has fully solved all three facets of this…
Japan lawmakers to visit China in bid to cool row, but thaw unlikely: experts
A reported trip to China next week by a cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers could carry “pronounced” symbolic weight but is unlikely to herald a thaw in ties between the two neighbours, Chinese experts suggest. For the first time since bilateral relations succumbed to a bitter chill 10 months ago, a delegation of Japan’s parliamentary members will visit Beijing from August 24 to 27, according to reports by multiple Japanese outlets on Wednesday. Those legislators – including some from the lower chamber of Japan’s National Diet such as Gaku Hashimoto…
Ahead of Xi Visit, US Designates American Held in China as ‘Wrongfully Detained’
The U.S. State Department yesterday designated Myanmar scholar and U.S. citizen Min Zin as “wrongfully detained,” two months after his arrest in China on espionage charges. The move was announced by Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, who said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had made the designation after “an extensive review of the circumstances” surrounding Min Zin’s arrest on June 3. “The safety and security of U.S. citizens is the State Department’s top priority,” Johnson said. “We will continue to advocate for Mr. Zin…
China ‘likely’ ran targeted campaign to align Pacific with its latest five-year plan
China “very likely” coordinated a targeted campaign across the Pacific to demonstrate that local development strategies should align with Beijing’s latest five-year-plan, a recent report by The Alliance Futures Initiative says. In the report, titled “China’s Model on the Offensive: Why China’s Five-Year Plan Promotion in the Pacific Matters,” the Washington-based think tank documented how in eight of the nine Pacific island countries where Beijing has an embassy, the heads of mission published op-eds in the local media touting the merits of China’s latest sweeping national policy framework proposed late…
US designates academic Min Zin as wrongfully detained in China
The US State Department said on Thursday that it had determined after a detailed investigation that Min Zin, an American political analyst of Chinese descent detained by Beijing last month, was being improperly held. That formal designation shifts the case from a State Department consular issue to one handled by its presidential office dealing with hostage affairs. Thursday’s terse statement, which said the decision was made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, adds another irritant to the fraught… South China Morning Post
As China shows, liberal capitalism is not the only path
Much of the Western debate about China begins with a category error. “Communism” is often treated as synonymous with a monolithic command economy, limited private enterprise and bureaucratic control over every commercial decision. Modern China does not fit that model. It is better understood as a mixed, state-led system in which private enterprise, foreign investment and fiercely competitive markets coexist alongside public ownership and state control in strategic sectors. This is more than… South China Morning Post
New Peru government vows to apply Hong Kong trade deal, but is silent on mainland China
Peru’s new government has pledged to bring its free-trade agreement with Hong Kong into force this year as part of an effort to position the country as a commercial bridge between South America and the Asia-Pacific, even as its first comprehensive policy programme made no direct mention of mainland China or the Chinese-operated Chancay megaport. Prime Minister Luis Galarreta told lawmakers on Thursday that commercial openness would remain a state policy under Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori’s… South China Morning Post