Shanghai residents have been flocking to sell gold as the price of the precious metal surges to record highs. The latest jump in gold prices was fuelled by ongoing economic and geopolitical uncertainties, but prices slumped by 4 per cent on Friday, January 30. South China Morning Post
China has emerged as the brightest spot in Apple’s quarterly earnings, as the US tech giant achieved record iPhone revenue in the world’s largest smartphone market. Revenue in Apple’s Greater China region, which comprises mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, surged 38 per cent from a year earlier in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which ended December 27, the Cupertino-based company said on Friday. That growth, more than double the company’s overall 16 per cent quarterly revenue increase, also marked Apple’s strongest performance in China since late 2021. Advertisement…
The southern Guangdong province has been the largest engine powering China’s economic rise for decades. But the region is now in danger of losing its status as the country’s top regional economy, as a rival to the east outpaces its growth. Jiangsu, home to a wide range of multinationals and hi-tech enterprises, has long been Guangdong’s closest competitor: together, the two provinces account for over 20 per cent of China’s gross domestic product (GDP). And the region has shown greater dynamism over the past few years as Guangdong’s growth engines…
South China Morning Post
“I have a feeling that we have a lot of common ground and plenty of opportunities for cooperation in sectors such as energy and agriculture,” said Yaroslav Efimov, head of science and technology at PLANETech, an Israeli non-profit innovation community specialising in climate change-related technologies and part of the Israel Innovation Institute. Efimov was in China on a five-day trip in late January to promote the technological development of Israel and its innovation system. During his trip, he met representatives from various Chinese organisations, including the International Ecological Economy Promotion…
In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Mike Campbell described how he went bankrupt: “Gradually, and then suddenly.” Over the past weeks, there is a feeling that US President Donald Trump and his administration have reached the “suddenly” bit. First, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney captivated a World Economic Forum audience when he described the “rupture” in the rules-based order, a “bargain” that “no longer works”: leaving middle countries like Canada with no choice but to dilute their reliance on the United States and collaborate with each other to build…
China significantly intensified its South China Sea patrols in 2025, maintaining an “unprecedented” nearly year-round presence at contested sites like Scarborough Shoal to assert maritime claims, according to a new US-based think tank report. An analysis published on Thursday by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) – a research programme affiliated with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies – showed a substantial increase in China’s patrol presence as well as a broadening of its patrol coverage near Scarborough Shoal and Sabina Shoal. The AMTI’s analysis drew on data from…
The United States has urged China to allow the yuan to appreciate, accusing Beijing of a lack of transparency and describing the currency as “substantially undervalued”. “It is important that the Chinese authorities allow the RMB exchange rate to strengthen in a timely and orderly manner in line with market pressure and macroeconomic fundamentals,” the US Treasury said in a report released on Thursday. China’s exchange-rate policies stood out among major US trading partners for their “relative lack of transparency”, it added, though it stopped short of designating Beijing a…
A former Communist Party chief of the resource-rich Inner Mongolia autonomous region, who was also China’s first veterans affairs minister, is under investigation amid the country’s continuing anti-corruption campaign. Sun Shaocheng, 65, is being investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law”, a euphemism for corruption, the top disciplinary body said on Thursday. Sun serves as vice-chairman of the Social Development Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, a semi-retirement position he was appointed to in October 2025 on…
China suspended trading of five commodity funds on Friday to curb investment mania in gold, silver and oil and reduce underlying risks amid geopolitical tensions. The only public fund investing in silver futures in mainland China, UBS SDIC Silver Futures Fund, a listed open-ended fund (LOF), will be suspended for the whole day on Friday, the second such halt since January 22. The trading halt also spread to oil LOFs, four of which were halted for an hour up to 10.30am on Friday. Before the halts, fund-management firms had issued…