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The United States maintains it has the upper hand being the bigger "buyer" in the relationship, while the Chinese argue the goods of lower costs it exports are doing a big favor to US consumers, who would ultimately suffer if the costs of such goods continue to rise because of tariffs. While China is busy fighting the trade war externally, Beijing is concurrently trying to improve the efficiency of the economy to make it more robust and resilient in such difficult times. An often-overlooked feature of Sino-US trade imbalances is that although Beijing runs up huge trade surpluses in the manufacturing sector, it has large deficits in the service sector. These supply and demand mismatches suggest that there may exist inefficient misallocations in the Chinese economy. Economic efficiency is achieved when factors of production in an economy are distributed or allocated to most productive firms or sectors with the highest demand.

In today’s workplace where many employers favor technical know-how over emotional aptitude, soft skills seem to be less desirable but for Professor Kellee TSAI, Dean of HKUST’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS), creativity is deemed to be an essential skill for the future of work. The world is moving toward automation at speed, today’s cutting edge technology and patents may become obsolete within years, while skills like critical thinking and creativity on the other hand, do not. At a time when AI and other forms of advanced machine learning are gaining prominence, it would be unwise for humans to only focus on mastering abilities that can be easily outsourced to computers, warns Prof. Tsai.

The global race for fifth generation supremacy is under way, with countries competing to be the first to provide 5G mobile broadband services. The ultra-fast network will prompt inventions, of which today we cannot even dream. Countries around the world have devoted much resources to developing, manufacturing and deploying the new equipment necessary for 5G transmissions. China, for instance, has recently become highly influential in the field with its ability to develop infrastructure for 5G systems worldwide. In Asia, Hong Kong has been blamed for being slow to launch the new service in comparison with the mainland, South Korea and Japan. Actually, a delay is not necessarily a bad thing, as it allows Hong Kong to have a longer testing period to ensure a more reliable and decent 5G mobile service. Hong Kong's privately-owned telecom market is very competitive and cautious.

Unmanned aircraft systems started to gain attention in US military operations more than a decade ago, but nowadays, people enjoy flying drones for photography and videography purposes. Drones are also gaining widespread acceptance for goods delivery, surveying and scientific research. I have two recreational drones, so I was eager to examine the three-month drone regulation proposals put out by the Civil Aviation Department in late 2017. There are six recommendations for the UAS regulatory regime: a registration system; risk-based classification of operations; training and assessment requirements; drone maps; insurance requirements; and indoor operations. The recommendations are sound, but a number of salient issues were omitted. The first is the absence of regulations governing drone manufacturers.

By Donald Low, Professor of Practice in Public Policy and Chen Kejun, master of public policy student Leaders from more than 30 countries gathered in Beijing late last month for a forum on the Belt and Road Initiative. In his speech at the opening ceremony, President Xi Jinping stressed that "the market should play a decisive role in resource allocation." This appears to be in response to international concerns about the "debt trap," the cost-benefit calculus of Belt and Road projects, and the possible export of China's governance practices. To address Belt and Road doubts, China should take three steps to strengthen the role of the market in the initiative. First, it should enhance transparency and market discipline by making public procurement procedures, tendering processes and lending standards.

By Henry Tye and Wang Yi, Chair Professor of Physics and IAS Professor; Assistant Professor of Physics, HKUST Scientific breakthroughs do not always make the front pages, but when an image of a black hole was released in mid-April, it became a headliner for days. What makes this photo so fascinating? There are multiple reasons. First, it is the first time humanity succeeded at photographing a black hole; in the past, scientists only inferred its existence from the effect black holes exert on their neighbors via its gravitational waves. Second, this picture confirms a number of theories we have long believed about these mysterious objects. People often ask: "How do you see a black hole?" Thanks to the immense energy emitted by its spinning accretion disk, this cosmological wonder is actually one of the brightest objects in the universe.

Prof Tom Hiu Tung Cheung and Prof Kam Tuen Law from Division of Life Science and Department of Physics respectively were honored the prestigious Croucher Innovation Awards 2015 by the Croucher Foundation for their distinguished scientific research achievements. Click here for further details.

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