South China Morning Post

Chinese wealth and demand for luxury cars is fuelling a vast money laundering and tax avoidance scheme in Canada, involving thousands of fake local buyers of vehicles that are actually destined for China.

According to a report commissioned by the British Columbia provincial government, the illicit gray market selling luxury cars to Chinese buyers had exploded in recent years.

Under the scam, car dealers in British Columbia employed locally-based “straw buyers” to act as purchasers of luxury…

President Donald Trump has threatened to drastically raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from Friday and impose a new 25% tariff on all remaining Chinese imports that are currently untaxed by US customs.

The threat has jolted markets around the world. If Trump follows through on it, the tariffs are set to hurt American shoppers because they affect almost everything America buys from China, from iPhones to Nike kicks.

The United States imported $540 billion worth of products…

Singapore has become one of the first countries to outlaw the sending of unsolicited lewd photos, or “cyber flashing,” as governments and companies around the world seek to curb new forms of harassment enabled by technology.

The city state passed a bill on Monday that makes unwanted sexual exposure through images a crime punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine.

While public nudity is considered illegal in many jurisdictions, few laws exist that address the use of technology, such as…

Is your Airbnb host spying on you?

It’s a thought that worries 58% of American users of the home-sharing platform, according to an April survey by financial services company IPX1031.

And with good reason.

Some 11% of respondents said they had actually found a hidden camera in an Airbnb.

Perving on guests is not limited to the US – as proved in China this month after an Airbnb “Superhost” who placed a hidden camera in a bedroom he rented out was caught when he hosted a woman who recognized…

Pakistan said it has busted a criminal ring that trafficked young women to China, arresting eight Chinese nationals and four Pakistanis suspected of human trafficking.

“The gang members confessed that they have sent at least 36 Pakistani girls to China where they are being used for prostitution,” Jameel Ahmad, a top official at Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency, said on Monday, Reuters reported.

The cases in Pakistan highlight what Human Rights Watch has called a “disturbingly similar…

While rapidly melting ice in the Arctic presents a threat to polar bears and human beings alike, both the United States and China see a once-in-a-lifetime economic opportunity.

But in a rebuke of Beijing’s polar ambitions, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has hit out at China’s claim to be a “near-Arctic state.”

“There are only Arctic States and Non-Arctic States. No third category exists, and claiming otherwise entitles China to exactly nothing,” Pompeo said, noting that China is at least…

A lack of connection combined with a series of cultural faux pas – and maybe just a touch of arrogance – are costing American social media influencers big when it comes to cracking China.

In October last year Kim Kardashian joined Little Red Book (aka Xiaohongshu), a Chinese content and shopping platform that has more than 100 million users. The site's KOLs (key opinion leaders) are extremely powerful, directing consumers straight to the shopping pages.

Kardashian has a mere 171,000 followers…

Chinese parents-to-be are smuggling blood across borders to identify the sex of their unborn babies – possibly leading to terminations of unwanted female fetuses and a widening gender imbalance.

Men outnumber women by 31.6 million in China, according to the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, partly because of a cultural tradition that favors sons.

China imposes a two-child limit on families living in major cities. In 2003, authorities banned any test to identify the gender…

Dubbed “China’s Silicon Valley,” the southern city of Shenzhen is home to some of the country’s biggest tech companies.

And just like San Francisco, a tech boom in Shenzhen has been a curse to those who can’t keep up with rising property prices.

But in an attempt to calm public discontent over unaffordable housing and to keep attracting talent, the Chinese tech hub said it would build one million subsidized homes by 2035.

Shenzhen is seeking to adopt a housing model that, if successful,…

More flashpoints are likely to occur in the South China Sea as China strengthens its presence with ships that blur the lines between military and civilian operations, experts warn.

Beijing lays claim to almost all of the South China Sea, including islands that sit amid rich fishing grounds and which are believed to be sitting on big oil and gas deposits.

China’s claims put it at odds with Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.

While China’s military activities have been under…