Hong Kong residents struggling financially amid the coronavirus pandemic will not be allowed to dip into their pension funds early, though the welfare department will ease the threshold for the unemployed to apply for social security aid, the governm...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on Europe not to be swayed by other nations in its relations with Beijing, following the conclusion of a major investment treaty between China and the EU that has alarmed Washington.Wang, the most senior Chines...

Japanese women feel there is inadequate female participation at all levels of domestic politics, according to a new survey, although very few are willing to challenge that statistic and run for office. A survey by the Nippon Foundation of 10,000 wom...

Beijing has rejected US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s attack on its claim to be a “near-Arctic state”, as the two countries continue to spar over China’s role in the region.Pompeo tweeted on Monday that it was a “communist fiction” tha...

Eight Hong Kong police officers have been barred from setting foot in a park where they allegedly assaulted a street sleeper, framed another for drug possession and damaged the property of many others last year.The prohibition order was among four ba...

A senior US diplomat has criticised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trade policies, saying growing restrictions on market access and limits on the free flow of data are standing in the way of the South Asian nation becoming an alternative to ...

Unrest broke out at an Australian island immigration detention centre, authorities and NGOs said on Wednesday following reports the Christmas Island facility had been set alight by frustrated detainees.The Australian Border Force said an operation wa...

With US President-elect Joe Biden set to be sworn into office within weeks, US-China watchers are upbeat that the incoming administration could provide fresh opportunities to mend ties with Beijing and increase its commitment to Asia.Yet, at the same...

Giant snow mazes, illuminated frozen towers and crystal palaces etched from vast blocks of ice greeted visitors to China’s annual ice festival in Harbin.The frozen dreamscapes have drawn millions of visitors over the years to the wintry northeaster...

Saudi Arabia has surprised the market with a large cut in crude production, a bold assertion of primacy over the global oil industry that came directly from the kingdom’s de facto ruler.The move papered over cracks in the OPEC+ coalition and was a ...

Three protesters have been convicted of rioting and other charges over an anti-government demonstration at Hong Kong’s airport two years ago, where a mainland Chinese journalist was assaulted.The District Court on Wednesday held the trio responsibl...

For much of 2020, Thailand had the coronavirus under control. After a strict nationwide lockdown in April and May, the number of new local infections dropped to zero, where they remained for the next six months.The country closed its borders and enfo...

The northern province of Hebei recorded 63 new local infections of Covid-19 on Tuesday, the highest number for months in mainland China, with a top Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official raising the alarm that the tally may ...

Household members of Covid-19 patients’ close contacts will be asked to undergo coronavirus tests under a proposal to enhance Hong Kong’s tracing strategy, health officials said, as 25 new infections were recorded on Wednesday, the lowest since m...

A naked fugitive hiding out in trees above crocodile-infested waters has been discovered by a pair of fishermen, after spending days surviving on snails in swampy mangroves in Australia’s far north.Kevin Joiner and Cam Faust found the naked man cal...

The biggest mass arrests under the national security law in Hong Kong took place on Wednesday morning as about 50 former opposition lawmakers and activists were rounded up for their part in a primary election run-off last July.Among the arrested were...

The United States has broken its own record for the number of daily deaths from Covid-19 yet again, recording 3,936 fatalities in 24 hours, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.The worst-hit country in the world by the coronavirus pa...

A court in eastern China has sentenced a gang of pangolin smugglers to up to 14 years in jail in one of the biggest cases of its kind in recent years.Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court announced on Tuesday morning that two of the defendants, ident...

China’s services sector activity expanded at a slower pace in December, a private sector survey showed on Wednesday, as sporadic coronavirus outbreaks tempered the recovery in consumer confidence and weighed on new business growth.The Caixin/Markit...

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) has overtaken Chicago-based CME Group as the world’s largest bourse by market capitalisation, as hopes of more listings of Chinese technology giants bolsters its prospects.The bourse operator’s shares rose ...

The Chinese military has said for the first time that it has established a fully fledged strategic observation post near its high-altitude border with India.A 10-minute report by China Central Television (CCTV) said a platoon of People’s Liberation...

China can produce 1 billion doses this year of the newly approved vaccine against Covid 19 developed by Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of the state-owned conglomerate Sinopharm, according to the Ministry of Industry and Inform...

Beijing’s ambition to catapult the Greater Bay Area economic zone, which includes Hong Kong and Macau, into a cultural and tourism hub through youth engagement will have to first address the cross-border political divide, academics and experts have...

More than 50 former opposition lawmakers and activists were arrested on Wednesday morning on subversion charges in the biggest crackdown yet under Hong Kong’s national security law as authorities accused them of a plot to “overthrow” the govern...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to ban transactions with eight Chinese software applications, citing national security concerns that the programs could provide Americans’ personal data to the Chinese government.Entiti...

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un admitted that “almost all sectors” had fallen short of their economic targets as he opened a rare congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, state media reported on Wednesday.The gathering is the first of its kind...

A company in southern China is fining workers for taking too many toilet breaks.In an effort to improve work efficiency, Anpu Electric Science and Technology in Dongguan, Guangdong province, started imposing 20 yuan (US$3) penalties on employees who ...

In January last year, as the first cases of Covid-19 were detected in Wuhan, US diplomats based in China offered guarded praise for Beijing’s level of transparency compared to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2002, which off...

Had it not been for the massive protests against the extradition bill, which broke out in June 2019, and the coronavirus pandemic that followed, the Lantau Tomorrow Vision – launched by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in her 2018 policy ...

Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s two Senate run-offs on Wednesday, becoming the first black Senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party’s reach.A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the At...

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is committed to delisting three Chinese telecommunications companies if their subsidiaries are found to be affected by a US blacklist, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.The NYSE intends to comply wi...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett on politico.com on January 5, 2021.The Senate Republicans opposed to certifying US President-elect Joe Biden’s win are...

Beijing made a record number of incursions into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone last year, but analysts say the hawkish strategy is more a signal to the world than a threat to the island’s resolve.The Chinese air force flew over 380 sort...

China’s first deals to import scrap steel since lifting a two-year ban on it last week are “symbolic” and do not signal that the country is set to significantly reduce its demand for iron ore as the key steelmaking ingredient, according to anal...

Scotland’s leader Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday poured cold water on rumours that Donald Trump was set to visit, saying even the US president was subject to coronavirus travel restrictions.Speculation has grown that Trump, who is still refusing to con...

The head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday that he is “disappointed” Chinese officials have not finalised the permissions to allow a team of experts into China to examine the origins of Covid-19.WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom ...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Nick Niedzwiadek and Kyle Cheney on politico.com on January 5, 2021.US President Donald Trump pressured Vice-President Mike Pence publicly on Tuesday to rej...

The World Bank on Tuesday downgraded its outlook for the global economy, and warned the situation could deteriorate if Covid-19 infections accelerate or the vaccine roll-out is delayed.The coronavirus pandemic also has worsened the risks surrounding ...

Beijing’s latest measures to redistribute state capital in key sectors while enhancing the influence of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are arousing concern in China’s private sector while also fuelling foreign suspicion about the return of state ...

The youngest son of the firebrand Indonesian cleric behind the 2002 Bali bombings called his father a “victim” for believing in the teachings of Islamist extremists, and said he would tell him about “the serious wrongs that exist in Islamic Sta...

The Chinese Communist Party has revised its restrictions on what its members are allowed to say in public in a set of regulations published on Monday.The amended party rules, which include new guidelines on access to information and how to handle int...

Two Chinese pharmaceutical firms plan to apply this week for their Covid-19 vaccines to be cleared for emergency use in the Philippines, according to a top diplomat, while President Rodrigo Duterte has blocked his security chief from appearing in a S...

China’s military has carried out training that may have involved its most advanced hypersonic missile, the DF-17, which analysts say is capable of striking US bases in the region.Footage aired on Chinese state television last week shows a new and u...

The governor of Indonesia’s South Sulawesi said on Tuesday an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) found in the waters off his province that has sparked concern about a potential security breach or espionage attempt appeared to be made in China.The ...

Mainland China has been waging “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan, using weapons such as misinformation and an army of online trolls in an attempt to sway public opinion in Beijing’s favour, a local think tank has warned.The report said that so...

Heritage advisers and architects in Hong Kong have urged the government to learn from its blunders and engage the public actively after the near-demolition of a century-old underground reservoir caused an uproar.A week after officials halted works to...

The rapid development and delivery of a vaccine against the new coronavirus seems like a medical miracle, but not to the scientists who spent years pushing boundaries to solve the unsolvable.Among them is Wang Nianshuang, a former research associate ...

Senior government ministers in Singapore on Tuesday defended the use of data from the country’s Covid-19 contact-tracing programme in criminal investigations, saying it would be used only in cases involving “serious offences”.Police had used th...

Police were called to the offices of Fok Ying Tung Group in Hong Kong on Tuesday afternoon after more than 350 rounds of ammunition were found in a safe there.Authorities were alerted at around 3.40pm after a family member of late tycoon Henry Fok Yi...

Yum China Holdings, one of China’s largest restaurant operators, is aiming to cut its use of environmentally harmful plastics by almost a third in the next five years by shifting to paper straws and biodegradable packaging.It intends to phase out n...