South China Morning Post - China

On July 13, more than 200 leading economists and AI researchers, including 16 Nobel laureates, signed an open letter organised by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. Its warning was stark: artificial intelligence may drive an economic transformation “larger than the Industrial Revolution” compressed into a fraction of the time, and that we “must act now” to build the institutions ...

One morning in February 1784, a converted privateer called the Empress of China sailed out of New York harbour. It was bound for a country almost no one aboard had ever seen – China, then ruled by the Qing dynasty. Six months later, it dropped anchor at Canton, the only port where the Qing government allowed Western maritime trade. At the time, the Declaration of Independence wa...

China finished the first high-speed railway tunnel under the Yangtze River on Friday, marking a major step forward in the construction of a line that will one day connect the inland of the country with the coast. The 11.9km (7.4-mile) Caiyuanba Yangtze River Railway Tunnel links two districts in Chongqing and will be a key link in a high-speed line between two key hubs in the so...

Beijing’s soft power drive to win African hearts through cinema was on display recently in Bujumbura, where Chinese dragon and lion dances merged with sacred Burundian drums to open Chinese Film Week. The Chinese embassy in Bujumbura, the economic capital of Burundi, said the July 15 event offered “a beautiful example of cultural exchanges between the two countries” and that bot...

A People’s Liberation Army helicopter’s unprecedented flight in the Taiwan Strait has raised concerns in Taipei that Beijing is rehearsing a new kind of operation for a potential cross-strait conflict. Taiwan’s defence ministry said it detected four PLA aircraft, including a helicopter and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), operating around the island on July 20 and the following...