South China Morning Post

In Hong Kong, 24-year-old entrepreneur “Jay” was brainstorming ideas to make some cash.

On the other side of the world in Britain, his friend and former schoolmate “Nick” was struggling to get his university homework done.

In a moment, a deal was struck. Nick paid Jay HK$500 ($64) to do his statistics homework. Jay earned Nick top marks.

It wasn’t just math. Soon, Jay was writing essays for other students in Britain. Nick helped to find clients for Jay, and as the orders for assignments grew…

Imagine: the rogue scientist who stops at nothing to push the bounds of technology – and ethics. His frenzied research leads to the birth of twins– but inadvertently gives them mental abilities far beyond those of the average human.

This is no superhero movie. Instead these may have been the actions of controversial Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who shocked the world when he claimed last November to have created the world’s first gene-edited babies.

Now it turns out he may have…

In the Inkstone index, we break down China into the simplest possible chunk: a single number. What can one number tell us about China? Quite a lot.

Canadian-Chinese animator Domee Shi has become the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for Animated Short Film, for the Pixar film “Bao.”

Shi, who is the first Asian woman to direct any film at the animation studio, accepted the Oscar alongside producer Becky Neiman-Cobb.

“Bao” tells the story of an empty-nest mother who makes a bao – a dumpling – which comes to life. But as the dumpling grows, she finds herself increasingly unwilling to let go.

The short resonated with audiences –…

Donald Trump has decided to delay planned tariff hikes on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports following the latest round of trade negotiations with Beijing.

Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that the two governments have made “substantial progress” in their talks over issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer and currency.

If additional progress was made, Trump said, he would be planning to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to …

The spotted seal is a protected animal in China, known for its shyness and dog-like snout. It’s also the only species of seal that breeds in the country.

But what’s special about the slick critters has also led them to their worst enemies: humans.

100 seal cubs in northeast China were abducted around the recent Lunar New Year period, the local government of Dalian said Thursday.

That amounts to about half the annual births of the local seal population.

In a post to Chinese social media…

What the biggest threat to Australia’s lush, diverse ecosystem?

Start with the “bloody old Chinaman” with a sausage hidden in his underwear, according to Australian politician Barry O’Sullivan.

The Aussie senator has been criticized for making racist comments on Tuesday in the Australian Senate during a debate about risks to the country’s agriculture and food safety.

The Chinese embassy in Australia has protested the remarks as racist. And Chin Tan, the Australian Race Discrimination…

The two most innovative companies in the world aren’t Apple and Google, or Facebook and Twitter.

Instead, for the first time ever, they’re two Asian startups – Chinese on-demand delivery service Meituan Dianping and Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Grab.

That’s according to US business magazine Fast Company’s 2019 ranking of the world’s 50 most innovative companies, a rare recognition of innovation that happened beyond Silicon Valley.

And the accolade for the Chinese start-up is likely…

Two young women from Saudi Arabia are running for their lives after they renounced their Islamic faith and fled their family, their lawyer said.

The pair of sisters have gone into hiding in Hong Kong after their attempt to flee to Australia via the city was intercepted at Hong Kong airport by Saudi officials, Vidler & Co Solicitors, a law firm representing the women, said on Thursday.

“They cannot go back to Saudi Arabia as they have renounced their belief in Islam and would be considered to…

In the Inkstone index, we break down China into the simplest possible chunk: a single number. What can one number tell us about China? Quite a lot.