Beijing has tightened scrutiny of quantitative trading funds in recent months amid fears they add to market instability. Yet a leading investor believes the future is bright for China’s quant funds, as they are “necessary for a developed economy”.
Seth Huang, the head of Aris Capital, said quant funds had such a clear advantage over retail investors on China’s capital markets that the situation could be described as “a war with some using machine guns and others butcher knives”.
Quant funds have...
China’s spending on research and development (R&D) has reached a milestone worth celebrating, a testament to Beijing’s sustained commitment to science and technology.
It hit a record 2.8 per cent of gross domestic product last year, exceeding 3.92 trillion yuan (US$584.8 billion) and beating the average for Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member states. Yet, there is still a long road ahead as the nation strives to lead the world at the technological frontier.
The...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
