HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 3, 2025--
Eric Jing, Chairman of Ant Group, reaffirmed Ant’s commitment to deepening cross-sector collaboration on regulated AI and tokenization innovation in the territory, and to expanding its cross-border payment and trade financing services to support Hong Kong’s initiative to help Chinese businesses go global.
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Speaking on a panel with Christopher Hui, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, and Fred Hu, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Primavera Capital Group at the 10th annual Hong Kong Fintech Week on November 3, 2025, Jing said the City’s visionary and prudent approach to policy innovation, rich commercial and financial use cases and a robust ecosystem of cross-sector collaboration constitute a strong foundation for the City’s continued global leadership.
Ant Group took its first steps in Hong Kong when Chinese consumers and travellers began to make cross-border payments online and offline in Hong Kong with Alipay. Today, Hong Kong is a critical globalization anchor for Ant Group and its main affiliates, including Ant Digital Technologies, Ant International, and OceanBase, a distributed database technology provider.
AI and Tokenization Driving Evolution of Finance
“AI and tokenization are the two of the most critical forces driving the evolution of financial services,” said Jing. “Hong Kong regulators are leading the global experiment in both areas through visionary and prudent policy mechanisms.”
“Financial services are data-rich and language-heavy, relying on precise communication of abstract and complex products. Nevertheless, the pace of change is faster and faster. In the mid-term, we will be able to see the rise of full AI account managers supported by agentic systems,” Jing said.
While AI will help build accessible and quality professional financial services for billions, blockchain-based tokenization technology also demonstrates proven potential to realize secure and reliable global real-time settlement to improve trade efficiency for economies large and small.
“The trend for tokenization in fintech is not for speculation, but for regulated institutions to work within the policy framework to improve real efficiency and transparency in value exchange,” Jing said.
Ant Expanding Collaboration in Hong Kong on AI & Blockchain Innovation
Ant Group’s digital technology subsidiary, Ant Digital Technologies (AntDT), is a key participant of HKMA's GenAI Sandbox to support banks' adoption of AI agents, and apply AI to unstructured data to develop enhanced risk management and anti-fraud solutions.
Early in 2025, AntDT announced a series of new initiatives from its international headquarters in Hong Kong. AntDT established a joint AI and Web3 lab with Hong Kong Polytechnic University to accelerate breakthroughs and train new talents. It also recently announced that it is opening all four core pillar technologies to Hong Kong industry partners.
Under Project Ensemble, Ant International worked on two use cases for global liquidity management with Standard Chartered and HSBC, leveraging its Whale blockchain platform to enable real-time cross-border, cross-currency institutional settlements. Following the collaboration in the Sandbox, Ant International also supported the co-development of HSBC’s first global tokenized deposits solution for its corporate clients.
Through Alipay+, the global wallet gateway service under Ant International, AI payment and growth agents are rolling out not only to the 4.5 million Hong Kong active users and businesses through AlipayHK, the City’s largest digital and financial services platform, but also partner wallets in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Expanding Cross-Border Financial Services from Hong Kong for Chinese Businesses to Go Global
In October, Hong Kong launched the GoGlobal Task Force – a one-stop support platform aimed at helping Chinese mainland enterprises expand their international business using Hong Kong as a strategic base.
Under Ant International, Antom, the unified merchant payment service, provides integrated payment facilitation and growth solutions to China’s travel, digital and entertainment (D&E) and electric vehicle (EV) leaders. WorldFirst, a payment and financial services hub for SMEs, already supports 50,000 cross-border businesses in global e-commerce.
“Hong Kong has a lot of advantages as a GoGlobal centre for Chinese businesses – world-leading financial systems, outstanding professional services, and a pool of talents with global insights and knowledge,” said Jing. “We look forward to expanding our cross-border payment, account and trade financing services from here to help more Chinese companies reach overseas markets and capital.”
Christopher Hui, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury (left), Eric Jing, Chairman of Ant Group (second from left), and Fred Hu, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Primavera Capital Group (second from right), speak at a panel titled “Curating the New FinTech Era”.
John Lee, Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR visited the booths of Ant International and Ant Digital Technologies during the 10th annual Hong Kong Fintech Week on November 3, 2025.
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A crack in a damaged chemical tank in Southern California has eliminated the risk of a catastrophic explosion but it's still not safe enough for the remaining 16,000 residents living closest to the aerospace plant to go home, officials said Tuesday.
Crews were spraying water to keep cooling the tank that overheated last week, prompting the evacuation of 50,000 people in the Orange County city of Garden Grove. Most returned home after a crack formed over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, relieving pressure inside.
The evacuation zone remained the same on Tuesday morning, said Orange County Fire Capt. Brian Yau.
Crews worked overnight to ensure two other nearby tanks were neutralized and would not be affected by the compromised tank, he said, adding that material from one of these two tanks was transferred to another that has a neutralizing agent.
“They are moving material over to ensure that all threats have been eliminated,” Yau said.
Those threats include the risk of a very small explosion and potential spill, officials said.
Exposure to methyl methacrylate — a highly flammable chemical used to make plastics — can cause serious respiratory problems, neurological problems and irritation to the skin, eyes and throat, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The tank at the GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems plant contains 6,000 to 7,000 gallons (22,700 to 26,500 liters) of the chemical.
The interior cooled to 93 degrees F (33.9 degrees C), the county's fire division chief Craig Covey said Monday, down from 100 degrees (37.7 degrees C) a day earlier. The company said its technical specialists and the county fire authority have removed insulation from the tank to help cool it.
Health officials sought to reassure people who are returning to homes near the plant.
“There was no contamination. There were no fumes,” Orange County Health Director Regina Chinsio-Kwong said at Monday's news conference. “There was not a leak. So it should be, you should feel comfortable going home even if you’re across the street from that new zone line.”
The South Coast Air Quality Management District will monitor the air for several months and the EPA will be checking sewer and storm drains for spills, Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen said.
Garden Grove Unified School District said last week it was shutting a dozen schools through what was supposed to be the last day of the school year on Wednesday but later said only three would remain closed Tuesday. It was unclear if they would reopen before the school year ends this week.
At a parking lot at a large park in Fountain Valley, just southwest of Garden Grove, people sought refuge in an ad hoc shelter there or pitched tents outside. Other people gathered in the park to enjoy Memorial Day.
Kim Yen, a retiree who was still evacuated from her home two blocks from the plant, welcomed news that the worst was not expected.
“I am happy and many of us are happy,” she said Monday.
She said she's ready to go back but wants to be sure it’s safe first. She's also been worrying about the emergency workers, who she called “our heroes.”
As the tank heated up, the chemical converted from liquid to gas, ramping up the pressure and explosion risk, said Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University engineering professor who has studied environmental contamination. Some of the methyl methacrylate may already have hardened into a stable plastic similar to plexiglass, reducing the danger, he said.
The tank could eventually cool enough for crews to safely stabilize and drain the remaining material without triggering a spark or ignition, Whelton said.
However, he said there is still a risk of an explosion while the chemical remains hot and reactive. Temperatures need to fall closer to 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 21.1 degrees C) before conditions are considered significantly safer, he said.
GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems makes cockpit windows, canopies and windshields for military and commercial aircraft. It employs about 16,000 people across 32 manufacturing sites in 12 countries, according to the company website.
“We apologize for the ongoing disruption this incident is causing and our priority remains its safe resolution, so that residents can return to their homes as quickly as possible,” the company said.
GKN Aerospace agreed in 2025 to pay state regulators more than $900,000 to settle violations involving recordkeeping, permitting issues and nitrogen oxide emissions, according to a report on the South Coast Air Quality Management District website.
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This story has been corrected to attribute a quote to TJ McGovern, interim fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, not to division chief Craig Covey.
Willingham reported from Boston. Contributing were Associated Press journalists Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Ethan Swope in Garden Grove, California; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.
Two evacuees sit in their pickup truck at a gas station within the evacuation zone in Stanton, Calif., Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
An aerial view shows a police checkpoint enforcing a road closure at the evacuation zone boundary in Anaheim, Calif., Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Jan De Jonge and fiancé Sher Stuckman set up a tent with their belonging and pet outside the Elks Lodge in Garden Grove, Calif., on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An evacuation map is displayed at the incident command post at the Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a damaged tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026, after the tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
People walk outside Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An American Red Cross volunteer walks outside Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif.,on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
People tend to their pets outside Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., on Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
