Top Swedish universities eager to forge ties with city, Hong Kong minister says
Business

Top Swedish universities eager to forge ties with city, Hong Kong minister says

Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong says visit aimed at strengthening collaboration in innovation and technology Top Swedish universities are eager to deepen collaboration with Hong Kong in areas such as life sciences, the city’s innovation and technology minister has told the South China Morning Post during a visit to the country to strengthen ties. “What impressed us most during this trip to Sweden is the incredible enthusiasm of Swedish organisations, groups and individuals for cooperating with Hong Kong. This exceeded my expectations,” Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong said on Tuesday, after visiting KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University in Sweden. “I have extended invitations to the three universities, hoping they will utilise our platforms such as InnoHK and the soon-to-be-established Life and Health Technology Research Institute. Many start-ups also hope to expand into the Chinese market while raising funds in Hong Kong to pursue global development.” The trip marked Sun’s first official visit to Northern Europe since taking office, with a stop in Helsinki, Finland, scheduled after Sweden.

May 12, 2026
Unitree Unveils GD01: World’s First Mass-Produced Human-Carrying Transforming Mecha at 3.9M RMB
Technology

Unitree Unveils GD01: World’s First Mass-Produced Human-Carrying Transforming Mecha at 3.9M RMB

Unitree Tech has unveiled the GD01 — the world's first mass-produced human-carrying transforming mecha, priced at 3.9 million RMB (~$540K). The 500kg robot can walk upright, punch through brick walls, and transform into a quadruped form in seconds.

May 12, 2026
Why Trump’s visit to Beijing has Taiwan on edge about US arms sales
Business

Why Trump’s visit to Beijing has Taiwan on edge about US arms sales

Taipei fears US leader’s transactional approach to diplomacy could turn the island into a bargaining chip for a broader Sino-American deal Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump said arms sales to Taiwan would be among the issues discussed with Xi, who has long opposed Washington’s military support for the island. The remarks immediately reignited debate in Taiwan over whether Trump’s transactional approach to diplomacy could undermine the “Six Assurances” – long-standing US commitments that Washington would not consult Beijing in advance on arms sales to Taiwan. On Tuesday, Taiwanese foreign ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei said the island was “closely monitoring US-China interactions and maintaining close communication with Washington” to safeguard its interests.

May 12, 2026
Kuaishou’s Kling AI Pursues Independent Listing at $20B Valuation
Technology

Kuaishou’s Kling AI Pursues Independent Listing at $20B Valuation

Kuaishou is preparing to spin off its Kling AI video generation business for an independent listing at a $20 billion valuation, with a Pre-IPO funding round already underway.

May 12, 2026
China clears Tencent’s Ximalaya acquisition with strict bans on exclusive deals, fee hikes
Innovation

China clears Tencent’s Ximalaya acquisition with strict bans on exclusive deals, fee hikes

The State Administration for Market Regulation cleared the deal on Tuesday, but imposed five conditions Tencent Holdings has secured conditional approval to acquire online audio platform Ximalaya after a nearly year-long review by China’s antitrust watchdog, a move set to expand the Shenzhen-based tech giant’s footprint in China’s digital content ecosystem. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) cleared the deal on Tuesday, but imposed five conditions covering pricing and exclusivity to “effectively mitigate the potential negative impacts” of the acquisition, according to an announcement by the regulator. The SAMR mandated that Tencent and Ximalaya must not raise service fees for the online audio platform and must maintain the current portion of free content. They are also prohibited from entering into exclusive copyright deals or bundling audio and music services for carmakers. Additionally, the parties are barred from restricting creators from joining rival platforms. Tencent announced its plan to acquire Ximalaya, which runs China’s most popular long-form audiobook and podcast platform, last June through its subsidiary Tencent Music Entertainment Group.

May 12, 2026
AI Hardware Startups: VCs Favoring Young Founders, But Is There a Valuation Premium?
Technology

AI Hardware Startups: VCs Favoring Young Founders, But Is There a Valuation Premium?

China's AI hardware startup scene is divided over whether young founders deserve the valuation premiums they command — or whether VCs are simply chasing hype and labels rather than fundamentals.

May 12, 2026
US consumer inflation jumps as Iran war sends energy prices higher
Business

US consumer inflation jumps as Iran war sends energy prices higher

Inflation had been dropping more or less steadily since peaking with a 9.1 per cent year-over-year spike in prices in June 2022 US consumer prices climbed sharply again last month as the 10-week war with Iran pushed energy prices higher. The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose 3.8 per cent from April 2025, according to data released on Tuesday. On a month-to-month basis, April prices rose 0.6 per cent from March as petrol prices rose 5.4 per cent during the month; the month-over-month gain was down from 0.9 per cent increase from February to March. Labor Department figures showed that petrol prices are up more than 28 per cent compared with a year ago. However, the AAA motor club listed the average regular gallon of petrol above US$4.50 on Tuesday, about 44 per cent more than it cost last year at this time. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called consumer core prices rose 0.4 per cent last month from March and 2.8 per cent from April 2025, relatively modest readings that suggest the energy price burst has yet to spill over more broadly into other prices. Grocery prices rose 0.7 per cent from March to April as meat prices rose. Those prices had retreated slightly the month before.

May 12, 2026
Dajin Heavy Industries Aims to Capture Half the European Offshore Wind Market
Technology

Dajin Heavy Industries Aims to Capture Half the European Offshore Wind Market

Dajin Heavy Industries, whose stock has tripled in the past year, is aggressively scaling into European offshore wind installations that now account for 75% of its revenue — targeting 50% of the European market.

May 12, 2026
Tencent QClaw AI Integrates With Docs and ima Knowledge Base
Technology

Tencent QClaw AI Integrates With Docs and ima Knowledge Base

Tencent's QClaw AI has integrated with Tencent Docs and the ima knowledge base, letting enterprise users query across documents and knowledge bases in one conversation — a significant expansion of Tencent's AI productivity tooling.

May 12, 2026
Trump’s cadre of CEOs hunts for wins in China, from soybeans to semiconductors
Business

Trump’s cadre of CEOs hunts for wins in China, from soybeans to semiconductors

Corporate leaders join this week’s state visit, with a diverse group eyeing market access and stability amid frictions Beyond high-profile names like Apple’s Tim Cook, a number of lesser-known CEOs joining US President Donald Trump on his trip to China this week represent industries caught in the crossfire of the trade war, analysts said, and are expected to push for deeper engagement rather than risk becoming a “geopolitical football”. Seventeen American CEOs have been invited in total, according to a list released by the White House on Monday – a smaller business delegation than in 2017, when 27 high-profile executives joined. “These companies are looking for engagement, both with China and with the Trump administration,” said Kent Kedl, managing partner at Blue Ocean Advisors. “They all know that they’re in sectors with significant exposure to geopolitical tensions between the US and China, and that the future is very unpredictable.” Dina Powell McCormick, president and vice-chair of Meta Platforms, Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen and Coherent CEO Jim Anderson were also on the list.

May 12, 2026
Alibaba’s Qianwen Fully Integrated with Taobao: AI Shopping Covers Full Loop from Discovery to After-Sales
Technology

Alibaba’s Qianwen Fully Integrated with Taobao: AI Shopping Covers Full Loop from Discovery to After-Sales

Alibaba announced the full integration of its Qianwen AI assistant with Taobao, enabling users to complete the entire shopping journey—from product discovery and comparison to ordering, fulfillment, and after-sales service—entirely through AI conversation.

May 12, 2026
Trump says Cuba is seeking help, will hold talks
Business

Trump says Cuba is seeking help, will hold talks

Trump had threatened that Cuba was ‘next’ after the US military seized ‌the leader of long-time Cuban ally Venezuela earlier this year US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Cuba was asking for help and “we are going to talk”, without providing any more detail. “No Republican ‌has ever spoken to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and only heading in one direction – down! Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!! In the ⁠meantime, I’m off to China!” Trump wrote on social media. Representatives for the White House and the State Department could not be immediately reached ‌for comment. Representatives for Havana also could not ⁠be immediately ⁠reached. Trump had threatened that Cuba was “next” after the US military seized ‌the leader of long-time Cuban ally Venezuela earlier this year and has ‌since imposed ‌fresh financial sanctions and expanded others. His administration has ‌also imposed a fuel blockade, curtailed US travel and ⁠remittances to the island nation and sought to dissuade regional ⁠allies from contracting Cuban doctors. China, where Trump is travelling this week to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, ‌has called ‌on Washington to immediately end its embargo and sanctions on Havana.

May 12, 2026