Digital

Gaming fans react as they watch a big screen showing the League of Legends World Championship 2023 final between South Korean's T1 and China's Weibo Gaming, at the Communication University of China in Beijing, China, on 19 November 2023. (Pedro Pardo/AFP)

Youths of today stand at a pivotal moment in history: Singapore's Health Minister Ong Ye Kung in Beijing

Singapore's Health Minister Ong Ye Kung delivered the keynote speech entitled "Youths – Bridge Between East and West, Pivot Between Present and Future" at the Lianhe Zaobao Singapore-China Forum 2023 held in Beijing on 21 November. He spoke about issues affecting the youths of today — whether in China or Singapore — noting that while they have big issues to tackle, they still have much to look forward to in this pivotal moment in history. This is the English version of his keynote address delivered in Mandarin.
A customer shops at a supermarket in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, on 13 October 2023. (AFP)

The struggle facing big-box supermarkets in China

A broader depression has been weighing on the country’s supermarket sector, especially for big-box retailers that are fighting the rising tide of competition from online shopping platforms and smaller physical stores.
ChaGee, a Chinese tea brand that set up its first overseas store in Singapore in 2020. (SPH Media)

Chinese brands making waves in Singapore’s saturated beverage market

Several coffee and tea brands from mainland China, such as Heytea, Mixue, ChaGee and Luckin Coffee, have recently entered Singapore and expanded rapidly. In addition to injecting new vitality into the already-diversified local beverage market, these beverage giants have also brought in their innovative technologies in operations, product development and customer experience. Lianhe Zaobao senior features writer Wang Hwee Wen finds out how these digital innovations from Chinese companies will change the local food and beverage scene in Singapore.
Livestream recruitment hosts on various livestream recruitment channels. (Internet)

China experiments with livestream recruitment to fill job vacancies after Covid-19

Chinese companies have gotten creative in their recruitment process since the Covid-19 pandemic eased. Companies can now hit a bigger pool of talent at low cost by livestreaming job vacancies, while job seekers, especially blue-collar workers, can easily send in their resumes at a click of a button. Lianhe Zaobao journalist Zeng Shi looks at how the job market is changing due to this innovative channel.
An illustration projected on a screen shows a robot hand and a human one moving towards each others during the "AI for Good" Global Summit at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland, 7 June 2017. (Denis Balibouse/File Photo/Reuters)

AI is us, we are AI

Malaysian academic Goh Chun Sheng ponders the weighty issues thrown up by artificial intelligence, seeking a little assistance from none other than OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
A researcher plants a semiconductor on an interface board during a research work to design and develop a semiconductor product at Tsinghua Unigroup research centre in Beijing, China, 29 February 2016. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Can China's semiconductor industry survive under sanctions and the Chip 4 alliance?

Researcher Ding Ke looks at the US’s Chip 4 alliance initiative and its implications for China’s semiconductor industry. With the US seemingly intent on containing China’s high-tech industries, it will take a lot of effort for China to keep this sector going and growing, especially if the Chip 4 alliance works out.
People walk and ride their bicycles in Jakarta, Indonesia, 20 November 2022. (Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

'Perfect storm': Indonesia's opportunities in a world in crisis

Taking an overview of global megatrends, including rising inflation, changes to business valuation and the race for technological supremacy, Indonesian business magnate Ang Tjoen Ming (Tahir) sieves out opportunities for Indonesia, and ways forward that could see it becoming one of the world’s seven largest economies in the next ten years.
A QR code for Covid-19 contact tracing was displayed at the entrance of a shopping mall in Shanghai, China, on 29 November 2022. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

China's growing digital economy does not guarantee a 'digital civilisation'

Amid the frequent refrain of building a digital civilisation in China, Chinese academic Zhang Tiankan warns of the natural progression assumed in digital progress leading to greater civilisation. Innovations such as facial recognition technology or human tracking devices are placed in the hands of man and can be used for good or evil.
A person walks past a sign of Alibaba Group during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China, 1 September 2022. (Aly Song/Reuters)

Rebirth of China's tech companies possible through regulatory reforms

While it appears that large digital platforms in China have been hit hard by a series of regulatory reforms in the last few years, they are down but not out, says researcher Jia Kai.