SCMP

My 18-year-old summer intern is very scared of me. She spent the entire week watching me sit in front of my computer, in complete silence, motionless except for the occasional click of the mouse to move to the next electronic document, and barely breathing. She told me this could not be further from what she imagined a barrister’s life to be.

Hong Kong’s redevelopment policy is approaching an institutional turning point. Recent government proposals – pilot schemes for additional plot ratios and cross-district plot ratio transfers – are presented as new instruments to stimulate redevelopment in ageing districts. Yet they extend the same paradigm that shaped policy for decades: incen

A couple from central China saw their business empire, valued at 100 million yuan (US$15 million), collapse and were plunged into debt after being wrongly accused of fraud. Wang Fei and his wife, Liu Sumin, from Zhumadian in Henan province, began their journey as small-scale farmers before gradually establishing two pig farms. They later expan

Claims that the recent magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck southwestern Japan was man-made have been spreading online, with experts dismissing the theory as unrealistic in technological, financial and practical terms. On July 28, the day the deadly earthquake hit Kumamoto prefecture, a user on social media who has previously shared false clai

While global markets watched closely for a joint move by Washington and Tokyo to prop up the Japanese yen this week, Australian dollar traders have been laser-focused on the actions of another power: China. Some analysts view the Australian currency as particularly sensitive to policy moves in Beijing. If China intervenes to boost domestic gro

The career of Kuan Jimmy Hsia, a prominent researcher in interdisciplinary mechanics, has long spanned two worlds – he is an acclaimed scientist and a skilled administrator who unites fields and stakeholders. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Hsia has published more than 100 papers and made substantial

Hong Kong homeowners could adopt technology-led preventive maintenance of older buildings to avoid costly large-scale renovation, with the upmarket Residence Bel-Air serving as a viable example that saved residents more than HK$1 billion (US$127.5 million). Allen Ha Wing-on, convenor of the Residence Bel-Air owners’ committee, said while the W

Xabi Alonso faced the press in Hong Kong this week and tried to play down the increasing expectations on Chelsea, saying the club’s overarching mission this season was to “have the feeling that we are competitive, that we deserve to fight for important things”. Still, after four years of lavish spending under the club’s BlueCo ownership return