Author: Media Library

US air strikes may have weakened Iran’s ability to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, but in the short term it is probably too risky to provide a military escort for oil tankers because of the threat from drones and mines, according to Chinese analysts. Multiple media reports have said the United States was considering the use of ground troops to open the waterway, but many military observers have argued this would not be enough without further protracted fighting. The strait is a vital shipping route that carries around 20 per…

The mayor of the southwestern metropolis Chongqing has been put under investigation by China’s top anti-corruption agency. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) issued a statement on Friday saying that Hu Henghua, mayor of Chongqing and deputy secretary of its municipal committee of the Communist Party, was under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law” – a term commonly used to refer to corruption. Chongqing is among China’s four centrally administered municipalities – along with Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin – placing it on the same administrative tier as…

As Hainan pushes ahead with its free-trade port, the tropical island is emerging as a potential rival to Hong Kong’s long-standing role as a regional shopping and low-tax hub – even as both sides signal interest in closer cooperation. Since launching a separate customs regime three months ago, Hainan – now a gateway to the Chinese market – has positioned itself as a “super partner” to Hong Kong across industry chains, finance, tourism and other sectors, according to officials. “Hong Kong serves as the mainland’s ‘superconnector’, and the Hainan-Hong Kong…

South China Morning Post

If there is a thread that provides coherence to Donald Trump’s mad emperorship, it is the frenetic invention of new, evermore dramatic diversions: no week can be allowed to pass without new melodrama that erases the chaotic melodramas of weeks past. Nor can a week be allowed to pass without the seeds being sown for next week’s melodramas. This week it is Iran, and the computer-gaming unreality of a scorched-earth US-Israeli bombardment that has generated convulsions across economies in the Persian Gulf. After dropping billions of dollars’ worth of ordnance…

World-renowned life scientist Shu Xiaokun has received numerous awards and significant funding from the US government over the past two decades. Earlier this year, he was appointed the prestigious Toby Herfindahl Endowed Chair professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), capping a career that included pioneering fluorescent protein tools in Nobel laureate Roger Yonchien Tsien’s laboratory. The motto of Shu’s lab is a quote from the Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman: “If you’re not having fun, you are not learning. There’s a pleasure in finding things out.” Advertisement…

China and Japan’s long-standing rivalry has deep historic roots, and relations between the two have taken a significant turn for the worse in recent months. This series dives into the complicated ties of the two Asian powers in a turbulent 2026. Updated: 20 Mar, 2026 South China Morning Post

South China Morning Post