Jocelyn Chia’s MH370 joke, China builds warship radar and Hong Kong’s work culture — SCMP’s 7 highlights of the week
- From China building a new warship radar to a comic’s joke sparking fury, here are a few highlights from SCMP’s recent reporting
We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues.
1. Will new Chinese warship radar shift balance of naval power?
Chinese scientists have revealed that construction has begun on a radar system that could shift the balance of naval power in the world’s oceans with its ability to detect incoming missiles from thousands of kilometres away. A military vessel equipped with the radar would be able to detect a ballistic missile from up to 4,500km (2,800 miles) away – about the distance from southern China to northern Australia, according to scientists involved in the project.
2. ‘Rent me for 14 US cents’: woman takes tiny fee to do ‘happy things’ with strangers
A 26-year-old, who goes by the name Peggy, has been renting herself out to strangers for just 1 yuan (14 US cents) on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. She said she wants to “accompany people to do things they dare not do alone” in order to “feel alive”. So far she has had three takers, a “shy” programmer who wanted to sell balloons in a park, a “lonely” university graduate who wanted to go rock climbing and a man who wanted to attend a McDonald’s Children’s Day games event.