Empty shops litter Hong Kong as vacancy rates hit 4½-year high
A large number of shops have closed down in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: Dickson Lee
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South China Morning Post
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The shortest Silk Route between China and Europe is set to reopen for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, following Friday's agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan to end the conflict that had been blocking the way. Shoehorned last minute into negotiations by Azerbaijan's close ally Turkey , the US took on the role of security guarantor for Armenia in return for a lease to develop and operate the so-called Zangezur Corridor, a route linking Azerbaijan to its Karabakh enclave via a strip of Armenian territory bordering Iran. Dubbed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the proposed project represents the first major US involvement in the South Caucasus since a 1994 contract with an international consortium that set Azerbaijan on the path to becoming a major oil and gas exporter – via pipelines through Turkey, rather than Iran or Russia US President Donald Trump (centre) is flanked by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (right) and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev at the peace signing ceremony in the White House on Friday. Photo: AP Briefing journalists, a White House official claimed 'the losers here are China, Russia and Iran'. Eurasia experts, however, said that the deal was not viewed in such binary terms by Armenia and Azerbaijan.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong stocks on course for nearly 4-year high on Tencent earnings beat
A stellar run on Hong Kong stocks gained traction on Thursday, with the benchmark heading for a level not seen in almost four years after better-than-expected earnings by Tencent Holdings added to signs that China's economic activity is picking up. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.2 per cent to 25,674.25 as of 10.56am local time, on track for its highest close since November 16, 2021. The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 0.1 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index climbed 0.7 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.3 per cent. Tencent, the second-biggest weighting on the Hang Seng Index, gained 1 per cent to HK$592. Semiconductor Manufacturing International advanced 3.8 per cent to HK$54.05 and Anta Sports Products added 2.9 per cent to HK$92.60. Second-quarter net income for Tencent rose 16 per cent from a year ago to 55.6 billion yuan (US$7.8 billion) based on the global accounting standard, the social-media giant said on Wednesday after the market closed. That beat the consensus estimate of 50.8 billion yuan in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. Sales increased for the 11th quarter, with a 15 per cent increase. 'Hong Kong stocks still have upside room,' said Yan Zhaojun, an analyst at Zhongtai Securities. 'Expectations for corporate earnings are stable. Earnings for the upstream industries will be revised upward because of China's move to cut excessive capacities in the anti-involution campaign.'
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
China's mega dam Xiluodu stops using Western industrial chips over security concerns
China's Xiluodu Dam – one of the world's largest hydropower stations – has fully transitioned away from Western-made industrial control chips over national security and supply chain resilience concerns, according to a leading Chinese industrial chip supplier Loongson Technology said that the dam, located on the Jinsha River at the junction of the southwestern Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, had replaced long-standing foreign 'programmable logic controllers' (PLCs) – from German giant Siemens and French firm Schneider Electric – with a domestically developed system powered by fully home-grown Loongson 3C6000 processors. The change follows growing alarm over vulnerabilities in industrial control systems – highlighted by historic cyberattacks via computer worms like the Stuxnet virus, which allegedly exploited Siemens PLCs to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme more than a decade ago. The South China Morning Post has reached out to Siemens and Schneider for comment. Xiluodu is the third-largest hydropower station in China, after the Three Gorges Dam and the Baihetan Dam, and the fourth-largest in the world. With nine units of 770 megawatt turbine generators on each bank, it has a total installed capacity of 13.86 gigawatts.
