Chow Chung-yan
Editor-in-Chief
Chow Chung-yan began his journalistic career at the South China Morning Post and rose to become editor-in-chief in 2025. He has been running the SCMP’s day-to-day news operations since 2011. He led the newsroom’s organisational restructuring, streamlined its production workflows and set up dedicated teams for both the print and digital products to facilitate the newspaper’s digital transformation. He also assembled an award-winning infographics desk and spearheaded the redesign of the newspaper. To strengthen the paper’s international coverage, he established the SCMP’s US operations in 2017 with bureaus in New York and Washington, and subsequently set up offices in Brussels and Nairobi. He has been directing the SCMP’s China coverage since 2007 to build the news outlet into one of the most important sources of information on China for global readers. He initiated the hugely successful Open Questions series for the world’s thought leaders to share their insights on critical global issues. In 2024, he designed and supervised the creation of SCMP Plus, a premium content product that has won a top prize at WAN-IFRA’s Digital Media Awards Worldwide.
Chow Chung-yan began his journalistic career at the South China Morning Post and rose to become editor-in-chief in 2025. He has been running the SCMP’s day-to-day news operations since 2011. He led the newsroom’s organisational restructuring, streamlined its production workflows and set up dedicated teams for both the print and digital products to facilitate the newspaper’s digital transformation. He also assembled an award-winning infographics desk and spearheaded the redesign of the newspaper. To strengthen the paper’s international coverage, he established the SCMP’s US operations in 2017 with bureaus in New York and Washington, and subsequently set up offices in Brussels and Nairobi. He has been directing the SCMP’s China coverage since 2007 to build the news outlet into one of...
Areas of Expertise:
Editorial contentLanguages Spoken:
Cantonese, English, Mandarin
Outside attention has focused on the anti-corruption drive within the PLA. The purge of the military-industrial sector is just as striking.
The tipping discussion in Tarantino’s 1992 crime thriller was unexpectedly prescient about American capitalism’s trajectory.
As the PLA approaches its centenary, it must execute a modern Long March to ensure the doctrine remains decisive in this hi-tech era.
Serving central banks and institutions is important but adding a vibrant gold wholesale and manufacturing centre would be an ace move.
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High-level optics from Xi’s state visit cannot hide underlying friction – over tech exports, investments and domestic politics – that threatens to pull ties back off track.
With Shanghai pricing the contracts and Hong Kong handling offshore vaulting, Beijing is building a gold-backed route to currency internationalisation.
Beijing built its dominance through innovation and meticulous planning, not superior natural reserves.
Xi and Trump’s latest summit shows the need for cooperation even as deep differences continue to shape ties between the two powers.
As the flagship project of Hong Kong’s five-year plan, the cross-border hub is built to function as a sandbox – a special zone for bold policy and economic innovation.
Whether under British rule or modern superpower competition, Hong Kong’s value as a strategic gateway makes it a vital security asset.
Beijing is decoupling the internationalisation of the yuan as a transactional currency from the role of an unconstrained global reserve store of value.
Social engineering: why Elon Musk, Nobel Prize winners and cult leaders are all obsessed with Asimov’s Foundation.
The film’s reinterpreted Homeric hero represents a contemporary reckoning with the West’s ruthless pursuit of power and disregard for boundaries.
A comprehensive redesign is launching today, in which we adapt to the times while remaining true to our core values.
With the right policy support, there is great scope for media operations to function as sandboxes for developing and testing advanced AI technologies.
From the Mandate of Heaven to the ‘pursuit of happiness’, the US and China share a rich intellectual tradition of ethical governance.
The connection between Chinese civilisation and Western scientific thinking is far deeper and more intricate than commonly understood.
The explosive growth of China’s commercial space business, combined with geopolitical realities, gives the city a captive market.
An alternative system is needed to end Washington and London’s ability to weaponise maritime insurance for their geopolitical ends.
China-Asean trade is expected to surge as the Pinglu Canal synergises with the Hainan free-trade zone – creating demand for services Hong Kong can provide.
The city’s biggest growth catalyst of the next decade will be to embrace its role as China’s global treasury capital.
The twin superpowers may be slowly learning lessons from the ancient rivalry between Rome and Persia.
Swords into Ploughshares can tell us a lot about Beijing’s approach to the crisis in Iran, cross-strait relations and this year’s ‘two sessions’.
The EU post-war project left Europe lagging behind the US and China. Now, without American protection, the continent must reclaim its edge.
As the world fixates on US military adventurism, trillion-dollar shifts in trade, R&D and debt are rebalancing the global economy and geopolitics.
A decade on, the humble tuber’s public adoption remains an elusive goal for China’s planners and yet it offers a lesson for uncertain times.
In the first edition of the new SCMP Plus series, Between the Lines, SCMP Executive Editor Chow Chung-yan annotates the communique from the fourth plenum of the Communist Party’s 20th Central Committee, which outlines the 15th five-year plan.
Washington’s weaponisation of the global financial system has accelerated and Beijing is acutely aware of the danger.
Washington’s weaponisation of the global financial system has accelerated and Beijing is acutely aware of the danger.
