
Trump's Golden Dome and China, Xi calls for more public oversight: SCMP daily highlights
subscribing
The planned defence system could make it harder for the PLA to strike US bases like those in Guam and Okinawa, or warships trying to defend Taiwan.
China has sanctioned the former Senate majority leader of the Philippines Francis Tolentino, a key ally of the Southeast Asian country's President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr on South China Sea issues.
Bottles of Remy Martin VSOP cognac, Remy Martin XO cognac and St-Remy XO Brandy are displayed at the Remy Cointreau SA headquarters in Paris, France. Photo: Reuters
Beijing has extended an olive branch to French cognac producers by promising a 'significant' tax refund if they cooperate with its anti-dumping investigation into European Union brandy sold in China, according to an industry source with knowledge of the matter.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


South China Morning Post
41 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
Meet China's first home-grown carrier, the Shandong – a bridge to a blue-water future
Almost a decade has passed since the People's Liberation Army pulled the trigger on President Xi Jinping's plans for a massive overhaul of the world's biggest military. In the latest of a series on Chinese weapon systems, Seong Hyeon Choi looks at what China's second aircraft carrier tells us about the PLA Navy's blue water ambitions. The Shandong – which arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday for its inaugural five-day port call to the city – is the PLA Navy's second aircraft carrier and its first to be built in China. The carrier is escorted by the missile destroyers Yanan and Zhanjiang, along with the missile frigate Yuncheng, and will host a series of tours and cultural exchanges during its visit. The Shandong's homeport is in Hainan, southern China, where the carrier is in service with the navy's Southern Theatre Command , which mainly operates near the South China Sea. With a full-load displacement of 70,000 tonnes, the Shandong has become an instrument of Beijing's long-range naval power projection across the island chains that have for decades marked the defensive boundaries of the United States and its allies in the Western Pacific. Home-grown The Shandong, commissioned in December 2019 and officially designated Type 002, kick-started China's dual-carrier era. Its fellow carrier, the Liaoning, was reconstructed from a Soviet Kuznetsov-class vessel and delivered to the PLA Navy in 2012.


South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong court quashes government decision to refuse permits to 2 Uber drivers
A Hong Kong court has quashed a government decision to refuse hire car permits to two prospective Uber drivers seven years ago, rejecting authorities' contentions that the move could open the floodgates for ride-hailing services and private vehicles to operate as 'pseudo-taxis'. In a written judgment handed down on Thursday, the High Court found the Commissioner for Transport's dismissal of two litigants' requests for a permit in 2018 to be based on an 'impracticable, illogical and unworkable' interpretation of the legal requirement that would likely render all first-time applications unsuccessful. The court also dismissed the government's argument that the legislature had only intended for taxis to provide personalised point-to-point journeys, ruling that it would effectively impose a categorical ban on ride-hailing operators and run contrary to authorities' clear assurance that they would not be excluded from providing point-to-point services. Mr Justice Russell Coleman ordered the Transport Tribunal to consider the matter afresh, but noted his ruling 'would be practically determinative' of the applications for a permit in the applicants' favour. He stressed the judgment only concerned the correct interpretation of the law governing the issuance of hire car permits but not the government's policy on e-hailing platforms. The ruling came at a time when the government is mulling over legalising Uber and other ride-hailing services through the introduction of a regulatory framework amid popular demand and complaints against poor taxi services The litigants, Chen Hai-tao and Yin Wai-ho, jointly lodged a judicial review after failing to obtain a hire car permit that would have enabled them to legally work as Uber drivers using their Tesla Model S electric cars.


South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Economist Huang Yiping floats Hong Kong as stablecoin staging ground
Issuing a stablecoin pegged to the offshore yuan in Hong Kong may be more feasible than in mainland China due to the latter's capital controls, a central bank adviser has said. The comments from Huang Yiping, also dean of Peking University's National School of Development, came as worries arise in Beijing's policy circles that Washington could gain an upper hand through the cryptocurrency offshoot as a means of consolidating US dollar dominance. 'As China's capital account is not fully liberalised, it would be very difficult to roll out a stablecoin domestically,' he told financial news outlet on Wednesday. Huang, an influential figure in his second stint at the People's Bank of China's monetary policy committee, acknowledged Hong Kong's speedy progress in this area. The special administrative region – often a staging ground for financial experimentation – has taken a more permissive stance than the mainland. In late May, the city passed a law establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins that is set to take effect on August 1. Although stablecoins can be pegged to any fiat currency, more than 99 per cent are currently backed by the US dollar or US dollar-denominated assets – far exceeding the US dollar's roughly 50 per cent share in global payments and its 58 per cent share of global foreign exchange reserves. 'The issue with issuing a stablecoin in Hong Kong is that if it's pegged to the Hong Kong dollar, which in turn is pegged to the US dollar - so ultimately, it's the US dollar that plays the foundational role,' Huang said.