SCMP

With bad loans and repayment collateral in focus, Chinese banks are increasingly using satellites to evaluate their clients’ terrestrial assets, mounting a hi-tech offensive to safeguard against rising credit risks. China Merchants Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank started making use of satellites this year, following a 2022 launch by

A turret explosion that killed three Japanese crew members inside a Type 10 tank during manoeuvres earlier this week has caused shock and confusion in military circles. Japan’s defence ministry and experts concur that a round detonating inside a tank turret is virtually unheard of and the cause of the accident will need to be traced before the

The idea of a token economy is gaining traction. The concept is still nascent, loosely defined and easy to dismiss as just another piece of artificial intelligence jargon. It is no surprise Chinese policymakers are quick to jump on the bandwagon. But in the Chinese context, there is a more concrete policy logic that deserves attention. It refl

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the United States of ⁠abandoning internationally recognised diplomatic ⁠conventions in pursuit of its ⁠own interests, particularly in dominating energy markets, in an interview broadcast on Friday. Lavrov, interviewed by Russian state television, said Washington, in its dealings with Latin America

Hon Wing, 77, and his family climbed 19 floors to their fire-ravaged flat in Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court housing estate on Tuesday but left almost empty-handed after a two-hour search for valuables. Hon, a retired part-time taxi driver, had hoped to find a bag of change he kept during his work shifts, but “nothing much was there” in his charred

China would see India’s attempt to expand defence industry cooperation with South Korea in artillery and anti-aircraft guns as “inevitably sensitive” given Beijing’s border dispute with New Delhi in the Himalayas, according to analysts. After meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday as part of his three-day visit to India, So

Some 1,400 years ago, a young girl, celebrated as China’s “most pampered child,” was laid to rest in a palace-like stone coffin, surrounded by her grandmother’s affection and a wealth of treasures. Li Jingxun, an aristocrat from the Sui dynasty (581–618), also known as “Little Girl,” hailed from Longxi, located in what is now northwest China’s

The World Health Organization announced on Friday that it had given prequalification approval to a malaria treatment for newborns and infants for the first time. Artemether-lumefantrine is the first antimalarial formulation designed specifically for the youngest victims of the mosquito-borne disease. “The prequalification designation indicates