Mapleforge News

South China Morning Post The EU’s China dilemma: how to counter Beijing without alienating friends

In September, the Jaecoo 7 – a budget SUV from China’s Chery Automobile – made headlines when it shifted more than 10,000 units to become Britain’s bestselling car. Christened the “Temu Range Rover” online, a nod to the cheap goods available on the Chinese online marketplace and the luxury 4X4 made by Jaguar Land Rover that it resembles, its success showed British drivers’ new-found taste for cut-price Chinese cars. Overall, 23 per cent of new cars bought in Britain last month were Chinese...

South China Morning Post Pope Leo to undergo surgery for small growth on lung

Pope Leo said ⁠on Sunday that doctors had detected a small growth on his lung during a recent health check and he would be undergoing surgery this ‌week to remove it, in the first health scare of the 71-year-old pontiff’s tenure. Leo told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square for his weekly Sunday prayer that the growth was “well-contained” and caught at an early stage. “Recently, during ⁠some medical examinations, doctors found a localised nodule in my ‌lung,” said the pontiff. “It was detected at a...

South China Morning Post Hong Kong hiker dies, Singaporean teen discharged after 2 trail emergencies

At least two people were airlifted to hospital in the past two days after falling ill while hiking in Hong Kong, with a middle-aged man dying and a 17-year-old Singaporean girl discharged. The teenager was flown to Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai on Saturday morning after vomiting and experiencing chills while hiking on Lion Rock, a 495-metre (1,624-foot) peak. In a separate incident, a 66-year-old man suddenly felt unwell and collapsed while hiking with his nephew in Plover Cove Country Park in...

South China Morning Post ‘Special-forces’ travel: Chinese woman wins admiration after climbing 5 famous peaks in 5 days

A woman from southwestern China has climbed five famous mountains in five provinces in five days, earning widespread admiration on social media. The climber, surnamed Peng, began her journey in her hometown of Guiyang, Guizhou province, on September 23, the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reported. She climbed Mount Hua in northwestern Shaanxi province the following day, then Mount Heng in neighbouring Shanxi province on September 25, Mount Tai in eastern Shandong province on September 26, Mount Song...

South China Morning Post How Taiwan’s military manpower shortage is undermining its ability to fight

Taiwan’s military is grappling with a worsening manpower shortage, with its volunteer staffing rate remaining below the 80 per cent target for a third consecutive year and concerns mounting over the impact on combat readiness, according to the island’s legislature. The shortages extend deep into frontline formations – including infantry, artillery, missile and air defence units – raising questions over whether Taiwan will have enough trained personnel to operate and maintain the vast quantities...

South China Morning Post From Abby Choi to the ‘Hello Kitty’ killing: Hong Kong’s most shocking crimes

The alleged murder and dismemberment of Abby Choi Tin-fung in 2023, which prosecutors say was linked to a dispute over a luxury flat, has once again gripped Hong Kong as the trial over the 28-year-old socialite’s death entered its second week. Choi’s ex-husband, Alex Kwong Kong-chi, 31, and his elder brother, Anthony Kwong Kong-kit, 35, have pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful burial of her body. Their father, Kwong Kau, 68, has pleaded not guilty to the same charge. All three men deny...

South China Morning Post Why are mainland China’s tax officials suddenly so interested in my Hong Kong MPF?

For the past few months, this newspaper has extensively covered China’s ongoing clampdown on tax avoidance, especially its push to tax the income of super-rich families held in offshore trusts. We never expected to become targets of the campaign ourselves. But there have been signs in recent weeks that officials are starting to take an interest even in the incomes of South China Morning Post journalists, with several of us being contacted by the tax man. First, a colleague with our Beijing...

South China Morning Post If Hongkongers’ support for Legco is waning, it isn’t just lawmakers’ fault

Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, Hong Kong’s first post-handover Legislative Council president, recently dropped a political bomb. She revealed that one of her friends had been telling her that a legislature with 90 seats costs a lot more than one with 60 and that “I kind of agree with that”. The basic maths behind the statement cannot be refuted: 60 is two-thirds of 90. Even though Fan didn’t bring up the topic herself – she was asked the question by the host during a radio show – it was shocking that a...

South China Morning Post Man arrested after 23,000 bogus customer service scam calls in over a week

Hong Kong police have arrested a 24-year-old man over an alleged scam operation that made more than 23,000 fraudulent calls in over a week by impersonating e-commerce customer service representatives, with one victim losing more than HK$100,000 (US$12,741). The force said on Sunday that the man was suspected of operating a call centre for a syndicate that posed as online shopping platform staff and tricked victims into transferring money for a variety of reasons. Senior Inspector of the...

South China Morning Post Can Saudi Arabia’s 2034 Fifa World Cup survive the Middle East’s escalating wars?

When 60,000 football fans gathered in Jeddah for the Arabian Gulf Cup on Tuesday, they inadvertently highlighted the vulnerability of major sports events hosted by Gulf monarchies to the wars raging across the region. The previous day, Saudi Arabia resumed strikes on Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi rebels after a four-year ceasefire collapsed. That truce had originally followed a Houthi attack on an oil facility near Jeddah’s Formula One track during a practice session. While the two-week football...

South China Morning Post China’s rich coastal cities to see sea-level rise up to 20% higher than global average

International scientists warn that rising sea levels driven by melting Antarctic ice will be 15 to 20 per cent higher in cities such as Hong Kong and Shanghai compared with the global average. They said gravitational shifts caused by shrinking Antarctic ice would redistribute water across the globe, causing higher ocean levels along China’s densely populated coastlines. “Even if we limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius [2.7 degrees Fahrenheit], the Paris Agreement’s most ambitious goal,...

South China Morning Post Spirit of Hong Kong Awards: Gaza nurse’s obstacle-laden road to becoming a professor

On six occasions, Hammoda Abu-Odah, a Gaza nurse-turned Hong Kong scholar was offered an opportunity to study overseas. But each time, border closures and travel restrictions prevented him from taking them up. Abu-Odah had obtained a nursing degree in his native Gaza but set his sights on an academic career abroad. He kept working, teaching and conducting research, despite the many challenges that prevented him from leaving. Finally, on the seventh attempt, he made it to Hong Kong, where he...

South China Morning Post Urn with Anita Mui’s ashes missing from Lantau monastery as family appeals for help

The urn containing the ashes of late Hong Kong Cantopop star Anita Mui Yim-fong was discovered missing from a monastery three months ago, the singer’s family has revealed, saying police have made “no progress” in their investigation and that the incident has caused “immense distress”. A police spokesman said on Sunday that the force had received a report on July 18 that an item stored in a Lantau monastery was suspected to have gone missing. The case has been classified as a “request for police...

South China Morning Post Tariffs, millions in extra costs, Iran war: Trump’s policies hammer US firms

For Doug Rende, who runs an aluminium product manufacturer in the US state of Ohio, President Donald Trump’s tariffs have meant millions of dollars more in annual costs – and recently, the Iran war has made shipments even more expensive. Rende is CEO at Shapes Unlimited, one of many American producers smarting from Trump’s economic policies as the midterm election approaches. “Frustrating would be one word,” Rende said. “And I think that we’re sensing a lack of trust in not only the...

South China Morning Post Trump’s new spokeswoman is a ‘devoted fan’ who lived in Beijing and speaks Chinese

Before she addresses the world from behind the White House briefing room podium this week, 42-year-old Katie Zacharia has a story that stretches far beyond Washington’s power corridors. Years before US President Donald Trump appointed her as his new press secretary, she lived in Beijing, worked at one of China’s leading law firms, and learned enough Chinese to occasionally surprise people. Her reported experience in China spans international law and a communications role with a non-profit...

South China Morning Post India’s cockroach party leaders freed as election chief protests mount

The leaders of India’s youth-led online “cockroach” movement were released on Sunday, their lawyer said, a day after they were detained to thwart a major protest against the chief election commissioner. The leaders pledged on Sunday to continue their campaign against the election commissioner, hours after they were released. Thousands of protesters were detained before Saturday’s planned demonstration in New Delhi, according to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which called on supporters to keep...

South China Morning Post Huanggang Port a ‘milestone’ for connecting Hong Kong, Greater Bay Area: John Lee

The revamped Huanggang Port checkpoint is a “critical milestone” for the connectivity of the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong’s leader has said, as the city and Shenzhen count down to its launch on Monday. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said at a ceremony on Sunday that the Huanggang control point was a “landmark project” built and shared through the joint efforts of Hong Kong and Shenzhen. “Hong Kong unveiled its first five-year plan last month to proactively align with the national 15th five-year...

South China Morning Post Paul Chan highlights 4 priorities ahead of Apec finance ministers’ meeting this month

An Apec finance ministers’ meeting in Hong Kong this month will focus on fiscal policies that support livelihoods, financing for digital infrastructure, inclusive finance and young financial talent, underlining the city’s role as an international financial centre, the finance chief has said. “These four priorities are areas of strength for Hong Kong and fields in which we can make an active contribution,” Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po wrote in his weekly blog on Sunday. “Hosting the...

South China Morning Post Unsung turtle conservation heroes in Malaysia’s Sabah unite to fight poachers

Roziah Jelali has a tip or two on catching a turtle poacher: carrying a pair of binoculars and having patience in spades are key to doing the job well. The 36-year-old Malaysian volunteer ranger once spent three months in Sabah tracking a man whom she suspected of illegally capturing protected turtles. Once thriving off the azure seas of Omadal Island in the Malaysian state, many turtles had been hunted down, killed and sold for their meat, according to conservation experts. Recounting the 2023...

South China Morning Post Admission scores fall for Hong Kong physiotherapy courses amid jobs crunch

Admission scores for physiotherapy degree programmes at three Hong Kong tertiary institutions fell by as much as 10 per cent this year compared with 2025, amid gloomy career prospects in the sector, the latest data shows. The decline prompted the professional body for physiotherapists to call on the government to halt healthcare funding cuts in the next budget, saying they had contributed to a jobs crunch in the sector. Across four institutions, 23 per cent of students admitted to physiotherapy...

South China Morning Post Denuclearising North Korea would ‘defy history’ as US, allies missed the boat

The denuclearisation of North Korea has become an “increasingly improbable” goal and the United States and its allies should move beyond it to devote their diplomatic efforts to talks on arms limitations and crisis communication, the director of the US-based North Korean analysis website 38 North said. Recalling the 20 years since North Korea carried out its first nuclear test on October 9, 2006, Jenny Town said in a written interview that “a pivotal moment” in Pyongyang’s weapons development...

South China Morning Post Nanotechnology expert Antonio Facchetti joins HKUST from Georgia Tech in the US

Materials scientist and chemist Antonio Facchetti, formerly of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, has joined the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a chair professor in its newly established department of materials. Facchetti, who was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering last year for his “contributions to the engineering of commercially viable electronic materials and devices”, researches semiconductors, dielectrics for thin-film and...

South China Morning Post Chinese retiree devotes life to photography after tumour shrinks post-bucket-list trip

After spending all her savings on a month-long trip to Antarctica following a cancer diagnosis, a woman from southwestern China discovered that her tumour had shrunk. Wang Ying, 67, is an amateur wildlife photographer who has photographed more than 1,200 bird species. In 2013, as she was preparing to retire from her job as an administrator at a school in Kunming, the capital of southwestern China’s Yunnan province, Wang was diagnosed with a form of thyroid cancer. Doctors urged her to undergo...

South China Morning Post Japan’s Sumitomo Bakelite expands China chip packaging materials output amid AI boom

Japanese semiconductor materials giant Sumitomo Bakelite plans to expand production of advanced chip packaging materials in China and Singapore, marking the second such announcement for its Chinese operations in less than four months as artificial intelligence drives demand for more sophisticated semiconductors. The Tokyo-based company said on Friday that it would add production lines for mould underfill (MUF) materials and compression-moulding granules at its facilities in Suzhou, eastern...

South China Morning Post Could Thai durian export duty mean higher prices, higher quality in China?

A Thai government proposal to charge export duties on durians, a major cash crop, could raise prices for the fruit in China – its primary market – along with the quality, analysts said. Thailand’s draft bill to establish a fund for research and “sustainable” development of the durian sector would include the collection of fees, the government’s public relations department said last month. Southeast Asian media outlets and agricultural publications have tipped the export duty to be as high as 2...

South China Morning Post New HK$122 million lifeguard outsourcing contract sparks public spending concerns

A controversial decision by Hong Kong authorities to award a lifeguard and first aid services contract worth more than HK$122 million (US$15.6 million) to a company previously found to have failed to provide the required staffing at swimming pools has sparked concerns over whether public funds are being used prudently. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department on Saturday defended the decision, saying it was satisfied with Spotlight Enterprises’ performance over the past two years and that it...

South China Morning Post Spirit of Hong Kong Awards: biotech firm eyes cervical cancer test breakthrough

Hong Kong biotech entrepreneur Ricky Chiu Yin-to is seeking to make cervical cancer screening easier through urine-based HPV testing, using sample-concentration technology developed by his company. His company, Phase Scientific, made its name during the Covid-19 pandemic through its rapid antigen test, Indicaid. The product received US emergency-use authorisation in July 2021, was used in Hong Kong community testing and sold in more than 30 countries. At the start of the pandemic, the firm...

South China Morning Post More support needed for ethnic minority children with special needs, charity says

A non-profit children’s education organisation in Hong Kong has urged the government to expand support services for preschool-aged ethnic minority children with special needs to more districts, after a pilot project found that 95 per cent of participants showed improvement. Heep Hong Society said on Sunday that many ethnic minority families faced multiple barriers when seeking support for children with special educational needs (SEN), including language difficulties, financial constraints and...

South China Morning Post Why warm welcomes can’t stop Malaysia’s doctor exodus from Borneo

On Facebook, public hospitals in Malaysia’s Bornean states have been rolling out “Selamat Datang” [welcome] banner posts to embrace medical staff reporting for duty. Tawau Hospital on Sabah’s east coast recently published a group photograph welcoming newly arrived medical officers. Kinabatangan Hospital posted similar banners hailing arrivals across various departments, while in neighbouring Sarawak, Kapit Hospital accompanied its greeting with a portrait of a newly arrived doctor. But behind...

South China Morning Post Hangzhou is doubling down on tech – minus the viral hype

A year ago, a Unitree robot kickboxing could light up social media. When DeepSeek released its latest open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model, developers around the world rushed to test it. This year, however, Hangzhou’s latest technology bets have barely made a ripple. The city’s “New Eight Steeds” – eight deep-tech companies in fields ranging from smart glasses and inference graphic processing units (GPUs) to compute-in-memory chips and space computing – are a very different proposition...

South China Morning Post Bar Association urges proxy cap, electronic voting to curb building bid-rigging

The Hong Kong Bar Association has suggested capping the number of proxies a person can hold at homeowners’ meetings, without restricting who may act as a proxy, stressing that improving transparency and introducing an electronic voting system could help to deter abuse in large-scale maintenance procurement. Speaking to the South China Morning Post, association chairman Jose-Antonio Maurellet expressed reservations about a government proposal to restrict an owner’s representative to a relative or...

South China Morning Post Who rules Negeri Sembilan? Royal row tests Malaysia’s constitutional order

The dust has yet to settle in Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan, where a royal row has led to the fall of a state government and left the public wondering who, exactly, is in charge. Observers warn that the months-long constitutional crisis could create ripple effects well beyond the state’s borders, testing the entire nation’s systems of monarchy and government. The dispute centres on which of two men: the incumbent, Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir, or his intended replacement, Tunku Nadzaruddin Tuanku...

South China Morning Post Tiger kills man who entered big cat enclosure at UK wildlife park

A man died on Saturday after he entered the tiger enclosure at a wildlife park in northern England and was attacked by one of the animals, police said. Emergency medical personnel responded to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park near the city of Doncaster after the incident was reported at about 1.35pm, but the victim died at the scene, South Yorkshire Police said in a statement. The tiger was not injured and remained inside the enclosure during the incident, the force said. The wildlife park was...

South China Morning Post How a museum masterpiece’s life-size replica sparked rare US-China collaboration

For anyone who has visited the Chinese galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, there is one work that stops them in their tracks. Stepping into Gallery 206, home to Chinese Buddhist art, visitors are met by a monumental wall – over 15 metres wide and 7.5 metres tall (nearly 50 feet by 25 feet) – covered in a Buddhist assembly so vast and majestic that it momentarily erases the Manhattan bustle outside. Here stands the Medicine Buddha, a 14th century Yuan dynasty (1279-1368)...

South China Morning Post In AI, India’s choice needn’t be between a US leash or Chinese hook

On June 12, two of the world’s most capable artificial intelligence models went dark. An American export directive barred foreigners from using Anthropic’s two flagship AI models, and because the company could not check every user’s nationality, it switched them off. Access returned on July 1 but the warning is clear: India’s AI future can be switched off from Washington. In September, Beijing came calling. At the Brics summit in New Delhi, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised China would “be a...

South China Morning Post 9 dead, including children and pregnant woman, in shooting in Erie, Pennsylvania

A man killed eight people including a pregnant woman, children and other relatives at his home in Erie, Pennsylvania, before taking his own life as well, authorities said on Saturday. Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said the 45-year-old man was related to seven of the victims in the previous day’s shooting, while the eighth was a friend of the pregnant woman. Video and audio evidence recovered by investigators included muffled gunshot sounds coming from inside the home just before two “distressed”...

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