China urges global consensus on balancing AI development, security
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HKFP
3 hours ago
- HKFP
Macau ex-lawmaker arrested in city's first nat. security law action
A former Macau pro-democracy lawmaker became the first person to be arrested under the city's national security law, with authorities alleging on Thursday that he had ties to foreign groups endangering China. The Chinese casino hub, which has its own legal system largely based on Portuguese law, enacted national security legislation in 2009 and widened its powers in 2023. Macau's judicial police said a 68-year-old local man surnamed Au was arrested and handed over to public prosecutors on suspicion of 'establishing connections… outside Macau to commit acts endangering national security'. Local media identified the man as Au Kam San, a primary school teacher who became one of Macau's longest-serving pro-democracy legislators before deciding not to seek re-election in 2021. The man allegedly provided 'a large amount of false and seditious information to an anti-China group' for public exhibitions online and abroad since 2022, and 'stirred up hatred' against the Macau and Beijing governments. He is also accused of spreading false information to various groups, which allegedly disrupted the city's 2024 leadership election and caused foreign countries to take hostile action against Macau, police said in a statement, without naming the groups. A stalwart of Macau's tiny opposition camp, Au spent years campaigning on issues such as social welfare, corruption and electoral reform. Online news platform All About Macau reported that judicial police took away the ex-lawmaker and his wife Virginia Cheang on Wednesday. Cheang told the outlet outside the public prosecution office on Thursday that she was listed as a witness and that she did not know why her husband was detained. AFP was unable to reach Au for comment. Chill on dissent The former Portuguese colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1999 via a 'One Country, Two Systems' framework that promised a high degree of autonomy and rights protections. For years it was regarded by Beijing as a poster child in contrast with neighbouring Hong Kong, which often saw boisterous protests. The high-water mark of Macau activism came in 2014 when some 200,000 people rallied to oppose granting perks to retired government officials, an event that Au helped to organise. One pro-establishment Macau lawmaker told a newspaper in 2020 that the city was threat-free, as shown by the fact that the 'national security law had never been used… in 11 years'. But when Beijing cracked down on Hong Kong after months of huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019, similar curbs were extended to Macau. The casino hub expanded the scope of national security laws in May 2023, which officials said was meant to step up prevention of foreign interference. Former top judge Sam Hou Fai became Macau's leader in December after a one-horse race. City officials this month disqualified 12 candidates from the legislative elections set for September, saying they did not uphold Macau's mini-constitution or pledge allegiance to the city. The dozen hopefuls include sitting lawmaker Ron Lam, who said last week that the grounds for barring him were 'ridiculous'.
South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Trump's order to end ‘de minimis' tariff break expands from China to rest of the world
Washington's decision to suspend the 'de minimis' tariff exemption for all countries – expanding on an earlier move that targeted Chinese shipments – is set to disrupt and ultimately reshape the global cross-border e-commerce sector, analysts said. The White House announced the order on Wednesday as part of efforts to close loopholes used to evade tariffs and smuggle 'deadly synthetic opioids as well as other unsafe or below-market products' into the United States. It will come into effect on August 29. In May, the US eliminated the exemption – which had allowed small packages worth less than US$800 to enter the country duty-free – for goods from China . The move aimed to close what many considered a regulatory loophole exploited by Chinese platforms like Temu and Shein to rapidly scale their businesses. Experts said the latest action marked a return to trade normalcy and left Chinese exporters with limited options: either compete in an already saturated domestic market, or battle fellow Chinese sellers abroad. 'Before, they could source from other countries to get around rules — that's no longer viable, as the pathways to the US market are all blocked,' said Zhuang Bo, global macro strategist at Loomis Sayles Investment Asia, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers.
South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
PLA unveils 10GW microwave weapon blueprint with ultra-fast firing ‘superradiance' tech
Chinese military scientists have revealed the design of a microwave weapon theoretically capable of firing 10 gigawatt power beams at a repeating rate of 126 million times per second. The inspiration for the blueprint can be traced back to an explosive quantum phenomenon first glimpsed in Soviet laboratories during the Cold War The concept is rooted in the physics of 'superradiance', a design that promises unprecedented peak power, efficiency and firing speed – a combination that would mark a dramatic leap beyond limitations that have long constrained high-power microwave systems. Published in a recent paper by a team from the PLA Academy of Military Sciences and Key Laboratory of Advanced Science and Technology on High Power Microwave, the design outlines a compact, relativistic electron beam device that leverages a non-uniform slow-wave structure and precision feedback control to generate a rapid-fire sequence of sub-nanosecond-scale microwave bursts. Computer simulations show the system producing a first pulse with a peak power of 16.6GW – boosting input power with conversion efficiency up to 143 per cent without violating the law of power conservation. Instead, it leveraged the coherent, avalanche-like emission of radiation from tightly bunched electrons. Subsequent pulses maintained power above 10GW, each lasting just 0.77 nanoseconds, with a central frequency of about 9.7 gigahertz. Crucially, the pulse train repeated at 126 megahertz, a rate once considered unattainable for weapons-grade systems due to thermal, electrical and material constraints.
