Inside China

The second in a three part special on Hong Kong's new retail crypto trading era: SCMP specialist digital editor Jarrod Watt speaks with Neil Tan, chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong about how generative AI is changing crypto; his involvement in blockchain development in mainland China; how Hong Kong's legalising of retail crypto trading will attract talent that fled Beijing's crypto ban; and whether bitcoin mining will come to Hong Kong.

SCMP tech reporter Xinmei Shen presents an episode on Hong Kong’s new era of regulated retail cryptocurrency. Matt Haldane looks at the major players in Hong Kong and the attraction to mainland Chinese talent and investment after Beijing’s crypto and bitcoin bans in 2021; Ken Lo of crypto exchange HKbitEX discusses how the regulations work; and Chengyi Ong from Chainalysis examines Hong Kong’s regulations, how they compare globally and analyses the risks ahead.

Hear analysis from Orient Capital Research managing director Andrew Collier of the raids and arrests on consulting firms conducting due diligence and sharing expert analysis in mainland China and the impact on foreign investment; Post tech desk editor Zhou Xin looks at why the Cyberspace Administration of China has labelled American chipmaker Micron a “national security risk”.

Finbarr Bermingham analyses the EU Indo-Pacific forum and the reality of "de-risking" from China; Kawala Xie reports on expectations for the role of China's peace envoy to Ukraine Li Hui; Rob Delaney looks at the Wang Yi-Jake Sullivan meeting as the US mends relations without raising balloon incidents; and Shi Jiangtao on Beijing's response to the G7 meeting and how it views Japan's increasingly hawkish call for Europe to focus on the Taiwan Strait.

Holly Chik presents the latest update on AI in mainland China. William Zheng reports on the first person arrested for using ChatGPT to generate fake news; while tech reporters Ben Jiang and Coco Feng explain the lag of China’s tech companies as they try to catch up, while the first wave of AI-related job losses begin.

Hear the stories going viral this week from the SCMP People and Society desk with Luisa Tam and Kevin Kwong. The airbnb guests from hell who protest a denied cancellation by turning the taps and gas on for days; the man who had his girlfriend's name added to his mother's tombstone, only to have her demand it be removed two years later; the grieving brother and sister who find out their dead mother left them millions, made even more distraught by the brother's wife demanding her fair share, and…

The 2023 “golden week” holiday period which includes May Day did more than just reveal how badly people in mainland China wanted to travel and visit tourist sites. Beijing-based reporter Luna Sun discusses the numbers and has a look at an island hoping to surpass Hong Kong as a free trade and travel destination, while the Post’s Oscar Liu and Harvey Kong look at new trends and behaviours seen among the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visited Hong Kong over the past week.

Holly Chik presents an episode analysing new announcements about the Chinese space programme. Post science reporter Xin Ling and Space.com journalist Andrew Jones report on Beijing’s timeline for developing a GPS system for the moon and 3D printing bricks for the first lunar base, its hopes for beating the US in a race to get soil samples from Mars and its plans for a survey of Jupiter’s moon Callisto.

Holly Chik looks at how people in China are using AI and ChatGPT. A dead woman holds a conversation with her grandson; a surveillance satellite operates without human control; and the PLA considers “cognitive warfare”. In Hong Kong, a stock brokerage with thousands of millennial and Gen Z investors prepares to launch a ChatGPT-powered investment assistant. And hear from nuclear weapons and China tech expert Dr Amy J Nelson on chances for a global AI arms treaty.

Holly Chik presents the second in a two part special. Technology reporter Xinmei Shen analyses Beijing’s new draft guidelines for generative AI and how it will affect China’s burgeoning chatbot industry. China technology and AI expert Matt Sheehan from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace compares the approach of China, the US and Europe in regulating AI and the prospects for superpower co-operation.