Zheng Yongnian is a political scientist in China and a government adviser. His academic work is mainly about contemporary China, particularly politics, the country’s transformation and its external relations.
This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here.
Many have offered a lukewarm assessment of the Xi-Trump summit in Washington, citing the lack of a breakthrough. What is your take?
There are two primary views right now. One is...
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei seems to believe that he, the American artificial intelligence (AI) industry and the United States are the only ones who should have the right to determine the fate of humanity.
While he pays lip service to involving other democracies in AI development, which ones remotely approach the technological capacities of the US and China? Do other non-democratic developing countries not count?
His self-belief is far more dangerous than mere commercial greed. Like Peter Thiel,...
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George Long does not talk like a man selling vision. The founder, chairman and chief investment officer of LIM Advisors is understated and unshowy. After three decades running an independent firm in Hong Kong, what comes through is a temperament suited to difficult Asian markets: calm, pragmatic and focused on protecting capital when conditions turn.
How the business began
Long left Barclays’ Asia Pacific asset...
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The Link Hong Kong Open 2026 is set to host the ultimate ‘Par-tee’ for golf fans from across the region during its historic 65th staging of the world-famous tournament from October 22 to 25 at the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling. The Jockey Club Fan Village offers non-stop entertainment right near the green next to the first tee daily from 7:00am to 6:00pm.
Inside the bustling village, visitors of all ages can enjoy...
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Nine young construction competitors from the Construction Industry Council returned from WorldSkills Shanghai with three Medallions for Excellence, the strongest finish the CIC has recorded at the competition.
The honours went to Law Chak-sum in painting and decorating, Tse Yu-lok in welding, and the concrete construction work team of Huang To-kong and Wan Tsz-ho.
It was Hong Kong’s first WorldSkills honour in concrete...
The Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya close on Sunday, bringing the curtain down on a fortnight of competition featuring some record-breaking performances.
Among the best performers were the two athletes named Asian Games MVPs: 13-year-old Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi and Thai track and field sprinter Boonson Puripol.
Yu, who won all three of her individual events with ease, said “I’m no prodigy” after being named the women’s MVP on Sunday.
The schoolgirl, who looks poised to take the Los Angeles 2028...
Beijing has been urged to do more to protect its overseas interests with a call for diplomatic engagement to reshape international rules and deeper security cooperation with other countries.
As China’s expanding global footprint comes under pressure from geopolitics and restrictions from the West, a Chinese analysis posted on the Global Security Research social media account has called for a major shift in strategy.
The author was not identified, but the account regularly posts analysis and...
More than 1,500 Hong Kong residents toured the revamped Huanggang Port border crossing on Sunday as authorities pushed ahead with preparations for its opening.
A Security Bureau spokesman said that participants took franchised buses or cross-boundary coaches from various districts to reach the crossing and were shown the new port building in groups.
“The event effectively enhanced participants’ understanding of the public transport arrangements, immigration and customs clearance and...
A range of public and private-sector Chinese buyers have acquired a total of 44 small-model Bell helicopters, often for sightseeing and corporate travel. This makes China the vendor’s second biggest market in the Asia-Pacific, with growing demand for more despite safety concerns surrounding rotary-wing aircraft, an aviation services firm said.
China lagged behind only South Korea in the total number of five-seat Bell 505 Jet Ranger X helicopters, according to a statement by the Hong Kong-based...
The Hong Kong Observatory has issued an amber rainstorm warning, with the signal expected to remain in place until 10pm on Sunday.
The weather forecaster issued the warning at 8.20pm.
“A few squally thunderstorms are expected to occur over Hong Kong,” a spokesman for the Observatory said.
Showers would be heavy at times in the evening.
The forecaster also warned that intense gusts reaching 70km/h (43mph) could affect the city.
It said there would be flooding in some low-lying and poorly drained...
China Eastern Airlines has reported a male passenger to the police for allegedly disturbing order, after a flight attendant was filmed kneeling in a cabin aisle to apologise for bumping his elbow with a service trolley.
In its second statement on the incident, the carrier said on Saturday that it believed the actions of the passenger amounted to disturbing order aboard a civil aircraft and had severely infringed upon the employee’s personal dignity.
The airline added that it had banned the...
A 60-year-old Hong Kong woman has lost more than HK$21 million (US$2.7 million) in a cryptocurrency scam after a fraudster posing as an investment expert she met online duped her.
The clerk reported the case to police on Saturday, saying she had befriended an individual claiming to be an investment specialist on “Baby Kingdom”, a popular online parenting forum and community website, on March 15 this year, a source said.
The fraudster duped her into investing on a fake cryptocurrency platform...
For American and Chinese people interested in the outcome of the latest summit between China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, their conclusions could not be more different if they turn to the media and pundits for guidance.
Chinese state media spared no superlative, echoing the official description of the summit as: forging the right way for the major powers to get along and writing a new chapter in ties. It played up the fact that Trump gave Xi the highest-level reception...
Authorities in the Chinese capital are releasing more than a billion parasitic wasps and encouraging caterpillar-catching competitions to try to contain the spread of the invasive North American fall webworm.
The caterpillars have blanketed trees in Beijing and surrounding areas this summer, spinning clouds of greyish-white webs as they eat their way through foliage.
The insects are the fuzzy larval stage of Hyphantria cunea and metamorphose into adult white moths.
While not harmful to humans,...
Most trade ministers from the world’s largest economies disagreed with calls to curb excess industrial capacity at a Group of 20 (G20) trade meeting that ended on Thursday, according to China’s commerce ministry, a view that contrasts with a US statement that a “handful” of countries objected.
“The issues related to excess industrial capacity and forced labour have been highly controversial,” a Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday about the two-day G20 Trade...
It is no secret that Chinese emperors had many women in their lives, and the imperial concubine system was a significant feature of feudal social structures.
Ming-era (1368–1644) emperors could have upwards of 9,000 consorts, ostensibly to ensure an heir. Unfortunately, these women often existed in gilded prisons, barred from leaving the palace grounds and frequently subject to the wrath of a cruel emperor.
However, one leader stands out for doing just the opposite; the Hongzhi Emperor (r....
Taipei’s dilemma over its history during World War II appeared to deepen as Beijing and Washington looked to the Flying Tigers as a source of connection and goodwill during last month’s Xi–Trump summit.
US President Donald Trump’s description of China as an American ally during the war has raised concerns in Taiwan that what could have been a valuable historical connection with the United States ended up benefiting Beijing’s ties with Washington.
The dilemma resurfaced after Trump and Chinese...
Hong Kong’s first Legislative Council president suggested reviewing the number of seats in the city’s legislature, citing the need to use public funds properly.
Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai also said on Sunday that Hong Kong and Shenzhen authorities had discussed the development of a plot at the two cities’ border before the handover to Chinese rule in 1997, but the plan failed because of opposition within the government.
Fan made the remarks during an appearance on a radio show, in which she was asked...
At a two-day trade exhibition in Hong Kong earlier this week, Vera Nikitina, a representative of Russian confectionery producer Belyov Pastila Manufacture, was looking for new buyers – while also trying to reassure them that the company’s products were genuinely made in Russia.
The company made its first attempt to enter China in 2019, before beginning regular shipments and establishing a local office in 2022-23. Its sales grew in 2024 amid booming Chinese demand for Russian consumer goods.
That...
When the Auspicious Ark entered Dakar, Senegal, on September 25, the scene looked closer to a public health mission than a naval deployment. Senegalese people and members of the Chinese community were waiting at the port as the vessel arrived for the first visit by a Chinese naval hospital ship to Senegal.
The Auspicious Ark is a PLA Navy vessel. That places the visit within a wider Chinese maritime presence in Africa, something more often associated with anti-piracy patrols, port calls,...
Despite signs that Hong Kong property prices could have bottomed out and begun rebounding in August, market sources said at least 100 secondary residential homes were sold at a loss in September, up from at least 81 the previous month.
Hong Kong’s property market dodged an immediate setback from the US Federal Reserve’s rate increase in September, and agents estimated that home prices could end the year 15 per cent higher than a year earlier. The positive trend, however, did not generally apply...
Beijing has hit back at a US lawmaker’s criticism of coffee chain Starbucks for opening its first stores in Xinjiang, rejecting the allegation that China has committed human rights abuses against the far-western region’s mostly Muslim Uygur population.
Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun on Saturday said claims of “genocide” in Xinjiang were a “blatant lie” and accused the “US group” who raised the suggestions of attacking Beijing for political purposes.
“Today’s Xinjiang enjoys social...
A flight bound for Okinawa returned to Hong Kong airport on Sunday morning after its landing gear was suspected to have failed to fully retract after take-off.
Hong Kong Airlines said the crew of flight HX676, which departed at 8.57am, decided to return to ensure flight safety, in line with standard procedures.
“[The flight] encountered a suspected incomplete landing gear retraction issue after take-off,” the airline said.
The aircraft landed safely at 10am, with no injuries reported on board....
Japan is traditionally seen as a reliable host for major sporting events but an Asian Games dogged by organisational woes has tarnished that image and raised questions over future bids, experts say.
The Games in Aichi-Nagoya saw a catalogue of mishaps, from athletes bused to the wrong venues to the North Korean national anthem played for the South Korean hockey team.
There were not enough beds for the over 17,000 athletes and officials, a bigger number than the Olympics.
Countries complained of...
On the edge of western China’s Taklamakan Desert, in a county where sand covers 90 per cent of the land, an unlikely harvest is heading to market: Australian freshwater crayfish.
As China begins its National Day “golden week” holiday, a farm in Maigaiti county, in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region’s Kashgar prefecture, is pulling 250 to 300kg (551 to 661lbs) of the premium crustaceans from its ponds every day.
Native to Australia’s rivers and streams, freshwater crayfish are now being raised...
Opened in the 1950s, Sai Woo was a two-storey restaurant in Toronto’s Chinatown, with a traditional Chinese banquet hall on the upper floor. Designed for wedding celebrations, the space featured a canopy with two columns, a golden dragon entwined on one and a phoenix on the other. Lazy Susans sat atop the round banquet tables.
Chinatown was also home to Charlie’s Meat and Seafood, a white-tiled butcher shop that opened in 1971. Inside was a glass display case filled with cuts of meat. On the...
Malaysia is proving to be a middle ground for many Hong Kong and mainland Chinese investors looking to buy property in a country that provides the stability Singapore offers, but with competitive price points similar to those found in Thailand, according to analysts.
Data from Juwai IQI, a property portal with 7 million listings across 111 countries, showed that in the first half of 2026, Malaysia was the fourth-highest destination for inquiries received from Chinese buyers. That compared with...
Two decades after stepping away from the spotlight, iconic actress Joey Wong made an unexpected return to the screen – not through a traditional production, but via artificial intelligence-powered reconstruction.
In a two-minute video by NetEase this summer, Wong, one of the most well-known actresses of the 1980s and 90s, had some of her most celebrated roles recreated, including the beautiful ghost in A Chinese Ghost Story and an alluring snake demon in Green Snake.
The revival is just the tip...
From online-gambling rings in eSwatini to SIM swapping in Kenya and cybercrime networks in Zambia, a wave of cross-border fraud is drawing African governments and China into closer security cooperation.
China hosted East African security ministers and police chiefs in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, on September 10 for talks on terrorism, kidnapping, online fraud and other cross-border threats.
China’s public security minister, Wang Xiaohong, said Beijing would strengthen law-enforcement...
Christie’s auctioneer Rupert Banner leans forward with practised showmanship as bidding stalls on a rare Yongzheng bowl near New York’s iconic Rockefeller Centre. He pauses as if willing offers from thin air, scanning dozens of in-person buyers and phone banks connecting with China, London, Texas.
It will be a bad look if the frenzy abates for this delicate peach-decorated bowl highlighted on Christie’s glossy Chinese sale catalogue and online advertising. But bidding soon resumes with a...
The US is set to deploy one of its signature anti-ship missile systems to the Japanese island closest to Taiwan, an unprecedented move that comes as tensions in the region between Beijing and Tokyo continue to simmer.
The ground-based US uncrewed missile platform known as the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) will be deployed on Yonaguni Island in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture during biennial joint exercises this month, according to the regional bureau of the Japanese...
Business-class flights, once largely the domain of company reps on paid trips, are becoming more popular among tourists in China who do not mind spending a bit extra for a comfortable ride from start to finish, industry insiders said.
Businesspeople once occupied 90 per cent of the spacious seats, but have lost that edge to leisure travellers who can buy their way out of economy class but not into first class, said Wong Hong, director general of the 18-member Association of Asia Pacific...
As global adoption of the open-source RISC-V chip architecture accelerates, US intellectual property provider MIPS is collaborating with Chinese firms at an unprecedented level, according to a senior executive, highlighting how cross-border cooperation persists despite intense tech rivalry between Washington and Beijing.
MIPS, which was acquired by US chipmaker GlobalFoundries last year, was driving RISC-V standardisation “very closely with China”, chief technology officer Yankin Tanurhan said...
Unless London can turn its independent tariff policy into real bargaining power with Beijing, it will lose more by being shut out of an integrated European industrial framework.
