Wong Siew Fong

Since the release of ChatGPT late last year, Chinese tech companies have been rushing to release their own chatbots. But given the Chinese government’s tight grip on information and speech, how will chatbots developed by Chinese tech companies fare on the world stage?

Following the recent report on China’s shrinking population, Zaobao’s correspondent Wong Siew Fong takes a closer look at how this might affect China’s education system, and what the authorities will have to do to mitigate these effects, in terms of planning ahead and being proactive rather than reactive.

With Chinese New Year around the corner, the wave of human movement during the period could trigger a fresh wave of Covid-19 in China, not least in the rural areas with its villages and less than readily available healthcare. Zaobao correspondent Wong Siew Fong recounts her visit to a rural area in Zhangjiajie to find out if the rural villages are prepared to handle a surge in Covid-19 cases.

China’s Covid-19 strategy has constantly been in the process of tightening and easing restrictions, and the key challenges now will be addressing the rate of deaths and critical cases among the elderly, preventing a squeeze on medical resources and mitigating public doubts about Covid-19 control policies.

China’s resurgence of Covid-19 infections has widened the gap between the young workers opposed to the tightening of controls, and the older generation that feel safer with strict measures in place. Given that the elderly make up a high proportion of the Chinese population, Chinese authorities seem to be holding fast to the dynamic-zero policy. Zaobao correspondent Wong Siew Fong tells us more.

Zaobao correspondent Wong Siew Fong notes that there seems to be contradictory views of China’s Covid-19 situation from people outside and inside the country. On the one hand, the strict zero-Covid measures seem to be easing for travellers, but on the other hand, lockdowns in several regions show that officials are sticking to harsh restrictions. How will China bridge the gap between the two and move out of the zero-Covid policy?

Zaobao correspondent Wong Siew Fong notes that consumer spending attitudes have changed since the pandemic, especially among Chinese youths — the biggest spending market. This spells a more difficult road to recovery for China’s ailing economy.

Despite state media dispelling the misunderstanding that China’s zero-Covid policy would become a long-lasting basic national policy, Zaobao correspondent Wong Siew Fong notes that the Chinese people are still wary of how much longer the strict measures will persist, especially amid the sudden censorship of specific search terms related to the end of the pandemic on social media. Is there an end in sight for the strict anti-epidemic measures?

In this fifth instalment of a seven-part Lianhe Zaobao-Business Times series on China and ASEAN, we look at how China’s electric vehicle manufacturers are making inroads in Singapore and the region.