https://www.scmp.com/rss/523391/feed The latest news and top stories on Yau Shing-tung, a Chinese-American mathematician and the Director of the Yau Mathematical Sciences Center at Tsinghua University and Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. Known for his contributions to differential geometry and geometric analysis, he was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982 for solving the Calabi conjecture and the positive mass conjecture. His expertise spans partial differential equations, general relativity and string theory. He has founded... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com SCMP SCMP Navigating the future of education Widely recognised for his monumental contributions to mathematics and his deep academic roots in both the US and China, Professor Shing-Tung Yau, chair of Tsinghua University’s Qiuzhen College, will delve into the critical issues shaping the future of global talent. The event is designed to move beyond general headlines, providing an in-depth understanding of systemic educational differences, the race for fundamental science talent, and his unique educational... https://www.scmp.com/announcements/article/3348545/scmp-plus-exclusive-meet-shing-tung-yau-person?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/announcements/article/3348545/scmp-plus-exclusive-meet-shing-tung-yau-person?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:24:42 +0000 Meredith Chen Meredith Chen A proposal to build a Boston campus of Tsinghua University, China’s most prestigious tertiary institution, with the help of Harvard University faculty was unexpectedly revealed in Friday’s release of emails related to Jeffrey Epstein. The plan eventually fell through and has little chance of revival as the US and China engage in a heated science and technology rivalry. Tsinghua is now a bastion of China’s efforts to break US tech sanctions and controls. But the proposal offers a glimpse at how... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3342420/epstein-files-reveal-proposal-tsinghua-university-campus-boston?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3342420/epstein-files-reveal-proposal-tsinghua-university-campus-boston?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:17:18 +0000 SCMP SCMP Catch up on some 2025 entries in Open Questions, SCMP’s series of in-depth interviews with global opinion leaders. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. ‘Delusional’: Jeffrey Sachs on why Western hegemony has ended American economist sees China as key to the global energy transition to zero-carbon energy, especially in markets outside US and Europe. 2. Ex-diplomat Kerry Brown on how Trump ‘stunned’ China with his ‘lack of caution’ King’s College, London... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3337325/how-trump-stunned-china-why-western-hegemony-has-ended-12-key-interviews-2025?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3337325/how-trump-stunned-china-why-western-hegemony-has-ended-12-key-interviews-2025?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Dec 2025 07:00:09 +0000 Zhang Tong Zhang Tong Even as the bombs fall in Ukraine, precisely following trajectories defined by equations, Ukrainian and Russian mathematicians, among others, gather in sunlit rooms beside tranquil Yanqi Lake in an industrial estate north of China’s capital. Here, at the Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications (Bimsa), they debate string theory over coffee, co-author papers on quantum fields and lose themselves in problems that stretch across centuries while some of their countries engage in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3333734/maths-without-borders-how-china-turned-cement-factory-haven-mathematicians?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3333734/maths-without-borders-how-china-turned-cement-factory-haven-mathematicians?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Nov 2025 08:00:10 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin The quest to understand the “God particle” may have just hit a wall in China. An ambitious multibillion-dollar plan to build the world’s largest particle collider – a machine that could have placed the country at the pinnacle of global basic research and scientific talent – may be abandoned, according to its lead scientist. The Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC), designed to smash electrons and their antimatter counterparts to study Higgs bosons with unprecedented precision, was not put... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3331618/chinas-god-particle-quest-over-worlds-largest-collider-project-may-be-dropped?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3331618/chinas-god-particle-quest-over-worlds-largest-collider-project-may-be-dropped?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Nov 2025 10:00:13 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Political purges, funding cuts and a growing hostility towards expertise have unsettled the US research community, evoking memories among Chinese-Americans of a dark chapter in Chinese history and prompting some to look to China for stability. The Cultural Revolution, launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 to eliminate “bourgeois” influence and consolidate his power, plunged China into turmoil. Factories and schools were shut down while scholars were denounced and exiled for “re-education”. The upheaval... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3329862/us-fuels-brain-drain-china-trumps-anti-science-cultural-revolution?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3329862/us-fuels-brain-drain-china-trumps-anti-science-cultural-revolution?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Oct 2025 15:00:10 +0000 SCMP SCMP Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s exports defy expectations in September under weight of trade war uncertainty China’s exports rebounded in September after hitting a six-month low in August, supported by recovering overseas demand and front-loading ahead of the “super golden week” holiday – though the latest flare-up with the United States over the weekend has renewed uncertainty... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3328851/chinas-exports-defy-expectations-military-mouthpieces-pla-vow-scmp-daily-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3328851/chinas-exports-defy-expectations-military-mouthpieces-pla-vow-scmp-daily-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Oct 2025 13:30:07 +0000 Jane Cai,Zhang Tong Jane Cai,Zhang Tong Shing-Tung Yau, one of the world’s most influential mathematicians, is chair of Tsinghua University’s Qiuzhen College, which is fast-tracking talented young students through a programme of his own design. Born in the southern province of Guangdong and educated in Hong Kong and the US, the 76-year-old shared his ideas on science and education, key to China’s 15th five-year plan (2026-2030), which is expected to focus on the development of an innovation-driven economy. Speaking solely in a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3328659/maths-guru-shing-tung-yau-what-china-needs-global-leadership-science?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3328659/maths-guru-shing-tung-yau-what-china-needs-global-leadership-science?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Oct 2025 22:00:17 +0000 Jane Cai,Zhang Tong Jane Cai,Zhang Tong Shing-Tung Yau, one of the world’s most influential mathematicians, is chair of Tsinghua University’s Qiuzhen College, which is fast-tracking talented young students through a programme of his own design. Born in the southern province of Guangdong and educated in Hong Kong and the United States, the 76-year-old shares his ideas on science and education, key to China’s 15th five-year plan (2026-2030), which is expected to focus on the development of an innovation-driven economy. Speaking solely... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3328359/top-mathematician-chinas-talent-gap-role-pure-science?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3328359/top-mathematician-chinas-talent-gap-role-pure-science?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Oct 2025 08:35:07 +0000 Holly Chik Holly Chik Mathematics plays a big role in developing advanced weapons, top mathematician Shing-Tung Yau said in an interview with a Chengdu-based media outlet after watching China’s military parade in Tiananmen Square on Wednesday. “The development of cutting-edge weapons relies heavily on foundational disciplines such as mathematics and physics. Without original innovations and deep accumulation in basic sciences, a country risks being constrained by others in terms of technologies,” Yau told Cover... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3324336/chinas-military-parade-shows-power-maths-shing-tung-yau?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3324336/chinas-military-parade-shows-power-maths-shing-tung-yau?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Sep 2025 10:00:12 +0000 Shi Huang Shi Huang Would mathematician Terence Tao consider leaving the United States for Hong Kong or mainland China in light of funding cuts under the Trump administration? When the South China Morning Post put the question to the Fields medallist and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) professor, his response was measured but telling. “The situation is very fluid and unstable right now – far more than it has been at any previous point in the last 30 years,” Tao wrote in an email on August 21. “What... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3323325/will-you-leave-us-china-it-depends-says-mathematician-terence-tao?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3323325/will-you-leave-us-china-it-depends-says-mathematician-terence-tao?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:00:08 +0000 Edith Mao Edith Mao It was a golden opportunity for academic exchange when Chinese mathematician Hong Wang, a contender for a top award, gave lectures at universities in Beijing last month, but instead her overseas experience and use of English made her an unexpected victim of rising nationalism in China. The 34-year-old mathematician earned global attention last year when a paper she co-authored solved the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture – a century-old problem in geometric measure theory. The study, with... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3317963/chinas-cyber-nationalists-target-maths-star-hong-wang-over-lectures-english?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3317963/chinas-cyber-nationalists-target-maths-star-hong-wang-over-lectures-english?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:00:16 +0000