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1. As Chinese provinces slash revenue outlook, analysts warn of debt control

   Fiscal strains are forcing Chinese provinces to slash their budget-revenue expectations for 2026 due to the knock-on effects of a five-year property market slump, and analysts cite the shift as a warning sign that intense debt pressures continue to drag down the nation’s economic growth outlook. Major provinces are budgeting for 2 to 3 per cent growth this year in general public operating...

2. China mulls US manufacturing fund ahead of Xi-Trump summit, business leader says

   China and the US are likely to secure several “very positive” outcomes but not a “grand bargain” at their presidential summit in April, according to the board chief of a major American business lobby. James Zimmerman, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said on Friday that “the optics [of] announcing deals” such as aircraft and soybean sales might be US President Donald...

3. Chinese power line projects seek private capital in sign of infrastructure shift

   In the latest sign of China’s push to channel private capital into infrastructure, several local governments have begun actively seeking private investors for two major ultra-high-voltage power line projects – the first schemes of their kind to open up to non-state funding since a Beijing directive encouraging the practice last November. China is building a series of vast power lines to funnel...

4. Hong Kong’s West Kowloon arts hub secures HK$3 billion, 10-year loan facility

   The authority managing Hong Kong’s West Kowloon arts hub has averted a funding crisis after obtaining a longer-than-usual 10-year loan facility of HK$3 billion, which comes in addition to a US$1 billion (US$383.8 million) bond sale programme announced earlier. The financing would provide a much-needed lifeline to the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in the coming decade before its...

5. Hong Kong to test 5-second facial recognition e-channel by June

   Hong Kong plans to test a new clearance channel using facial recognition at one of its checkpoints by June to cut processing time to five seconds, with immigration authorities handling a record 335 million people entering and leaving the city last year. Director of Immigration Benson Kwok Joon-fung said at an annual press conference on Friday the city handled 12 per cent more passengers overall...

6. Will tourism slump force Trump to rethink his unilateral approach?

   As Hong Kong braces itself for the Lunar New Year tourist surge, and perhaps long-awaited evidence of a return to the tourism heydays of 2017 and 2018, spare a thought for the US and mounting evidence of a “Trump slump” in US tourism this year. While UN Tourism data shows that international tourism was up by 4 per cent globally in 2025 – back to levels not seen since the Covid-19 crash in...

7. Missing French tourist in Chad found dead ‘after a fall’

   A French tourist who went missing in northeastern Chad after heading off to visit an oasis in the desert has been found dead “after a fall”, Chad’s tourism minister said on Friday. The 70-year-old man – from the city of Dijon, according to a French newspaper report – had been missing since Wednesday. He was part of a group visiting Chad for the International Festival of Saharan Cultures in the...

8. Beware of ‘political swindlers’, China’s cadres warned ahead of leadership change

   China’s anti-corruption watchdogs have again put cadres on notice, ordering tighter discipline and greater scrutiny of Communist Party officials in the countdown to next year’s leadership reshuffle. Among the fresh warnings on Thursday was a caution against associating with “political swindlers”, people who fraudulently claim to have links to senior officials so they can peddle promotions for...

9. Beijing and Tokyo in new maritime stand-off after Japan seizes Chinese boat, holds captain

   Beijing has urged Tokyo to protect its crew members’ rights after Japan said it had seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its captain. Japanese authorities said the incident occurred on Thursday inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off its southwestern Nagasaki prefecture after the Chinese vessel allegedly tried to flee an inspection. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said...

10. China charges former AstraZeneca executive – what it means for global pharmaceutical firms

    AstraZeneca’s former China head has been formally charged with medical insurance fraud, illegal trading and unlawful collection of personal information, more than a year after he first came under investigation – casting a shadow over the Swedish-British drug maker’s expansion in its second-largest market. The pharmaceutical giant confirmed to the Financial Times and Reuters that Leon Wang was...