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Chinese hi-tech companies such as TikTok will continue to expand around the world, but their focus will increasingly be on countries that are not in the West, according to Dev Lewis of Hong Kong-based Digital Asia Hub. The fellow at the non-profit internet and society research think tank also said Chinese tech firms…
A school for bodyguards in China’s northern municipality of Tianjin is now training students in cybersecurity along with the usual skills in combat, weapons use and high-speed driving. The school’s founder said digital defences against hackers is now an essential skill for bodyguards in China, where security personn…
A hospital in India has deployed a robot to connect Covid-19 patients with their loved ones. A tablet is installed to robot Mitra’s chest so that the patients can speak to their families and friends through video calls. It is also equipped with facial recognition technology in its eyes, which enables it to recall pe…
Just ahead of US President Trump’s deadline for a deal to head off a ban of video-sharing app TikTok on national security grounds, American computer technology corporation Oracle has reached a deal to become the Chinese company’s “trusted technology partner”. The agreement was confirmed by Oracle on September 14, 20…
Managers of a technology company in Jiangsu province were seen throwing new staff’s cards onto the floor. The employees were made to bend over to pick them up from the ground.
Virginia Chan is a Canadian-born Hong Kong foodie who runs a local food tour business. But when she was forced to suspend operations because of the Covid-19 pandemic, she had to find a new way to stay in business. Her recipe for survival was to take her passion for Hong Kong food into the digital space, with an onli…
Robots are increasingly getting more jobs in Japan, a nation struggling to cope with an ageing, shrinking workforce. The machines have been deployed to help with tasks such as stacking shelves, serving drinks and cleaning toilets. Some, including a shelf-stocking machine called “kangaroo robot”, are even operated re…
India banned another 118 Chinese mobile apps including Tencent Holdings’ popular video game PUBG Mobile and Ant Group’s mobile payment app Alipay on September 2, 2020. Authorities cited national security and data security concerns as reasons for the latest ban.
Japanese engineering company SkyDrive conducted a public demonstration of its SD-03 electric flying car on August 25, 2020. During the first public demonstration of a flying car in Japan, the drone-like aircraft which is about the size of two earthbound passenger vehicles, flew for about four minutes.
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is Samsung’s most-powerful phone yet, but is it worth the US$1,300 price tag? A large smartphone with a built-in stylus, the device comes with top-notch specs including an immersive 6.9-inch display, and a massive 50x camera zoom capability. The Post got access to one of the phones for 72 ho…
Game Science, a formerly little-known Chinese game developer, has made a splash with the August 20, 2020, release of a trailer to promote their new role-playing game Black Myth: Wukong. Within a week, the trailer had been viewed at least 28 million times globally, topping the trending chart on YouTube’s gaming categ…
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on August 17, 2020, that Canada was playing “the role of an accomplice” to the US in detaining Chinese Tech giant Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. China has urged Canada to release Meng immediately and said it supports Huawei in the use of legal means to safeguard their ri…
Malaysia lost its last two Sumatran rhinos in 2019 when 25-year-old female Iman and 30-year-old male Tam died six months apart in a nature reserve on Borneo island. The only known surviving Malaysian variant of the world’s smallest rhino species, they left behind no offspring despite years of attempts to get the pai…
Washington’s treatment of TikTok could set a new norm regarding the nationalisation of technology and in turn lead to more decoupling in the sector, according to Nina Palmer, a senior director at the Albright Stonebridge Group’s China Practice. Palmer, who has also lived on the Chinese mainland and served in the US …
Hongkongers came out en masse to buy the local Chinese newspaper Apple Daily the day after its founder, media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, was arrested under the city’s new national security law. Apple Daily parent company Next Digital’s shares shot up by as much as 344 per cent with a turnover of HK$393 million (US$5…
Hong Kong police force on August 10, 2020, arrested publisher Jimmy Lai and at least six other people. The Apple Daily founder and opposition activist, was arrested for suspected collusion with a foreign country under the national security law the Chinese central government recently enacted in the city. After his ar…
Technology has helped some countries and regions in Asia do a better job containing the spread and coping with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. From apps to manage quarantines, to robots to spread disinfectant, the hi-tech solutions have a common goal of fighting the deadly effects of Covid-19.
Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed an AI device that conveys a sense of touch, allowing users to identify objects, textures and even read Braille letters. The device called ACES (Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin) was created by a research team led by Dr Benjamin Tee from the univers…
China has successfully tested an unmanned aerial vehicle that uses home-grown technology to monitor typhoons. The drone took off from the Boao Airport in Qionghai city in the southern province of Hainan province on August 2, 2020, to observe tropical storm Sinlaku. China says the flight was the nation’s first succes…
China on July 30, 2020, accused Britain of having “poisoned” ties between the two nations. The relationship has soured in the wake of disputes over Beijing’s new national security law for Hong Kong and London’s decision to ban Chinese tech giant Huawei from the 5G network being built in the UK.
British space flight company Virgin Galactic unveiled the cabin interior of its Spaceship Two for commercial flights on July 28, 2020. More than 600 customers from around the world have already paid as much as US$250,000 for a ticket to board the spaceship for a future flight, even though travel dates are yet to be …
Around 70 per cent of India’s 1.3 billion people live in rural areas of the country. For some women in remote areas, the video-sharing app TikTok offered a way to earn money even for those who rarely leave home. But that all ended on June 29, 2020, when the government outlawed the platform and 58 other Chinese apps,…
Philippine journalist Maria Ressa pleaded not guilty to a tax evasion charge on July 22, 2020. The 56-year-old is the founder of online news site Rappler, known for its scrutiny of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Her latest court appearance is related to allegations that incorrect information was filed for a R…
Huawei Technologies equipment will be banned from Britain’s 5G network, UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced on July 14, 2020. London earlier planned to allow Huawei a limited role in Britain’s super-fast wireless infrastructure, giving it up to a 35 per cent involvement of the overall project, but excluded …
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has expanded on his earlier remarks about a possible ban of TikTok, saying the company behind the social networking app was only one of a number of Chinese companies that Washington is now evaluating. At a July 8, 2020, press conference, Pompeo also praised other social media compan…
A cosmetics shop in the South Korean capital Seoul has found a hi-tech way to help protect customers from Covid-19. A mirror that uses augmented reality (AR) allows shoppers to “try out” make-up products without any need to touch their faces.
China is exploring new technologies to recycle kitchen waste into energy sources including biodiesel and methane gas. One facility in Shanghai can reportedly extract about 18 tonnes of crude biofuel from about 1,000 tonnes of such waste.
Japan’s sushi and sashimi restaurants have traditionally relied on people with tuna-grading skills handed down through generations to help select high-quality tuna they serve to customers. But the human skills recently faced a hi-tech challenge in the form of a new app called “Tuna Scope” that helps buyers instantly…
India announced the ban on the app alongside 58 other Chinese apps that comes amid the China-India border row, but what will this mean for content creators who have built careers and businesses from the viral app? Elaine Ly from The Post speaks to the Indian TikTok star, only known as Geet and who has an audience of…
India banned 59 Chinese mobile apps on June 29, 2020, including the popular messenger app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok. The ban was the latest escalation of tension between India and China following a deadly border clash in mid-June that killed 20 Indian soldiers. The Indian government cited national security…
Audrey Tang, 39, is Taiwan’s first openly transgender cabinet member. She was appointed digital minister back in 2016.
The low-energy lifestyle of sloths inspired engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States to create a robotic version that is proving the adage “slow and steady wins the race”. Their device called “Slothbot” uses only solar energy on its lengthy missions to understand long-term environmental …
A Japanese company has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system to monitor workers to make sure they scrub their hands properly. Developed by Fujitsu, the device can reportedly recognise complex hand movements and even detect when people aren’t using soap.
Police from southern China’s Hainan province released a parody of Jay Chou’s latest song “Mojito”. The policeman spent just 5 minutes writing lyrics about anti-drugs to the song’s melody. Their parody has gone viral online and received more than 7 million likes on short-video app Kuaishou.
Journalist Maria Ressa was found guilty of cyber libel by a Philippine court on June 15, 2020. The 56-year-old is the founder of online news site Rappler, known for its tough scrutiny of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Her case dates back to a 2012 article that linked a businessman to human trafficking and ill…
Hong Kong’s new national security law is like “anti-virus software”, top Beijing official Zhang Xiaoming said on June 8, 2020. The deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office added that the new law will give more room to “one country, two systems”.
A submarine base built in France by the Germans during World War II has been turned into an enormous digital art centre. The Bassins de Lumières gallery will open June 10, 2020, in the southwestern port city of Bordeaux, with displays of artwork by the renowned artists Gustav Klimt of Austria and Germany’s Paul Klee…
Meng Wanzhou, a top executive and daughter of the founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei, was dealt a legal setback on May 27, 2020, when a Canadian judge ruled that US fraud charges against her satisfied a Canadian extradition requirement of “double criminality”. Meng left the court, returning to house arrest in Vanc…
To help students release stress and learn about animal care, protection and welfare, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology introduced a dog therapy programme last summer. Students said spending time with the dog regularly helps them unwind and relax from school work.
Professor De Kai is a founding member of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and one of the inaugural members of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) ethics council, the Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC). He spoke with the South China Morning Post’s Elaine Ly about how his research us…
China Mobile and Huawei say their engineers finished building the world’s highest 5G base station on Mount Everest on April 30, 2020, installing the equipment at a base camp at an altitude of 6,500 metres (21,325ft) and providing advanced 5G coverage for most of mountain including its summit.
The Covid-19 pandemic has put great strain on hospitals which are short of enough workers and struggling to protect staff from the deadly virus that causes the disease. Many other industries are also scrambling to find ways to protect workers from infection. For some of China’s hi-tech industries, including those in…
Japanese digital game giant Nintendo sold 21 million of its Switch consoles in the financial year ending in March 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic, which forced people around the world into home isolation, was credited for better than expected sales for the console, and its fastest-selling game title, Animal Crossing: Ne…
China has seen a boom in transactions for used goods on online trading platforms, such as Idle Fish, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to hit the country’s retail sector. Also known as Xianyu, Taobao’s digital flea market said its user numbers have exceeded 200 million, with more than 20 million people using it …
Some “lonely” garden eels in Japan are being given a distraction from Covid-19 pandemic isolation. Keepers at Tokyo’s Sumida Aquarium, which has been closed since March, noticed that the creatures were becoming a bit too shy to monitor. The aquarium is appealing to the public to use video calling software to dial in…
A gigantic 46-metre (150ft) long organism called a siphonophore was discovered on March 16, 2020, during an expedition near the Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia. Scientists at the Schmidt Ocean Institute said they are still working to confirm the accuracy of their measurements, but they believe it is the longest …
In a recent interview with the South China Morning Post, the founder and CEO of Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier and China’s biggest smartphone maker spoke about his relationship with his family. Ren Zhengfei also discussed how he is dealing emotionally with his daughter’s arrest in …
In a recent interview with the South China Morning Post, the founder of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei said he was inspired by the political system and business governance he saw in the United States when he started the company. Ren Zhengfei also spoke about how the world’s largest telecommunications equipment suppli…
In a recent interview with the South China Morning Post, the founder Chinese telecoms giant Huawei said he was inspired by the political system and business governance he saw in the United States when he started the company. Ren Zhengfei also spoke about how the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier,…
In the Russian capital Moscow, 100,000 surveillance cameras were equipped with facial-recognition technology just before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since February 2020, thousands of Muscovites have been confined to their homes under 14-day compulsory quarantines for those with a history of travel to coronav…
