Le Journal

A key industrial hub in eastern China is launching a push to transform itself into one of the world’s top copper-smelting bases, aiming to forge stronger supply chains for the strategic metal as prices flirt with record highs. In an implementation plan released on Tuesday, the Shandong provincial government pledged to expand its copper industry, with the next two years seeing rapid advancements. The move comes as geopolitical tensions and the race for technological dominance shore up copper’s...

Multiple documents on websites run by public institutions in China were found to feature fake names and people, a pattern state media warned could harm government credibility and provide a haven for corruption. The series of blunders unfolded when internet users on December 3 found that a tender document listed what appeared to be a fake judging panel, with the names of all five members coinciding with the first five entries on Baidu’s “10,000 Popular Chinese Names” archive. The proposal was...

When US tech giant Meta Platforms released its flagship Llama family of artificial intelligence models in February 2023, they were open-sourced, a move that singled it out among global AI model developers at the time. That September, one of the many derivatives of Llama was announced: Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen. The first generation of Qwen adopted Llama’s training process and cited Meta's seminal research findings in its accompanying technical report. Out of deference, the Chinese researchers even...

Don’t miss Car Boot Christmas Market China Hong Kong City’s Car Boot Christmas Market has returned, trading traditional tinsel for a grittier street-culture aesthetic. In collaboration with wood artisans Start from Zero, the Tsim Sha Tsui harbourfront space is hosting more than 100 vendors, ranging from Eric Kot Man-fai’s fashion brand Like Black to vintage curios. With classic motors on display, live sets from The Boogie Playboys and charity games in aid of animal rescue groups, it’s a...