Event: Hong Kong

Chinese President Xi Jinping is embarking on his biggest push to recover corporate taxes as local provinces hunt for new revenue sources. | BLOOMBERG During more than two decades as a public company, Heilongjiang Agriculture never once reported a first-half loss. That run is ending this year.The trigger wasn’t a harvest failure, fraud or a stock market crash. It was President Xi Jinping’s tax collectors serving the listed arm of China’s third-largest farming conglomerate with a bill totaling 120% of its net income in 2025, as they demanded back payment for previously enjoyed perks that they said it wasn’t eligible to claim. Over just three days in June, hundreds of millions of dollars were erased from the company share price — a fifth of its market cap — as investors digested the bad news.Far from an aberration, cases like this are playing out across China. More than 100 listed companies were sprung with tax clawbacks and charges for delayed tax payments totaling around 7.7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in the first six months of 2026, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of filings. That tally exceeded the entire amount reclaimed in the 14 years since Xi came to power in 2012. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. SUBSCRIBE NOW

A group of Hong Kong-listed biotechnology companies have seen their stock prices surge in the wake of Moderna’s breakthrough cancer vaccine trial, as the Chinese companies push forward with similar vaccine programmes.The companies – from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals to Li Ka-shing-backed CK Life Sciences – already have a slew of cancer vaccines in development.“China is moving quickly and has already built a large pipeline of more than 100 cancer vaccine programmes,” said Cui Cui, head of healthcare research for Asia at Jefferies.“The next challenge is how to replicate Moderna’s breakthrough in other tumour types, as melanoma alone is not a big market,” Cui added, referring to the severe form of skin cancer Moderna’s vaccine treats.An estimated 2.58 million people died of cancer in China in 2024, according to the latest data from the country’s National Cancer Centre.It also remains to be seen whether the companies can manufacture personalised vaccines quickly and at a reasonable cost, according to the analyst.

China’s deliberation on its sweeping cross-border anti-corruption law may ripple through Hong Kong’s financial and property markets, as Beijing seeks harsher punishments for corrupt officials and broadens its scrutiny of the massive pool of wealth transferred overseas.Hong Kong remains in focus after the draft law was submitted on Tuesday to the standing committee of the national legislature for deliberation, analysts said.The law was “designed to give mainland authorities a clearer statutory basis for pursuing corruption cases with an overseas element, strengthening international cooperation and supporting the recovery of illicit assets held abroad”, said Karen Cheung, a partner at law firm HFW.“High-value assets, including luxury goods and prime property, together with complex corporate and trust structures, may come under closer scrutiny where they become relevant to mainland corruption investigations,” she said.For decades, Hong Kong has drawn affluent Chinese wanting to build up their wealth through stock listings or asset acquisitions, with the city’s equity, property and even luxury-goods markets prospering on the inflow of mainland funds.Chinese yuan bank notes are arranged in this photograph. Hong Kong is home to branches of major Chinese financial institutions. Photo: ShutterstockThe city was also home to branches of major Chinese financial institutions, state-owned industrial giants and private firms eyeing global expansion.

The South China Morning Post has launched a major data project diving into President Xi Jinping’s signature anti-graft campaign. In the second part of an accompanying series, William Zheng examines how the campaign has targeted corrupt officials outside the Chinese capital and long after retirement.It used to be an easy choice for senior Chinese officials deciding between a local government position and a post at the same level in Beijing.Most would choose the assignment outside the capital, as fewer supervisors around meant more clout and a bigger say in local affairs. As the Chinese saying goes: “The mountains are high and the emperor is far away.”But that may no longer be true under President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which has sought to target graft in all corners of China’s massive bureaucracy.In fact, according to a tally by the South China Morning Post, among the most senior tier of officials targeted in the anti-corruption campaign between 2013 and 2025, 60 per cent were taken down while in regional government roles.According to the same tally, the median age of the officials targeted by the country’s top anti-graft agency was 60 – the usual retirement age for those at the deputy provincial rank.The SCMP looked at all publicly known officials targeted by the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Most of them belonged to a pool of officials known as “centrally managed cadres”, meaning they typically held ranks at the deputy ministerial level or above. A smaller number of them held slightly lower ranks but occupied sensitive positions in important sectors.