China’s wolf warrior diplomats and its state-run media have described the storming of Washington’s Capitol building on January 6 as a failure of US democracy. But an alternative view is that it may instead be a sign of the democratic system’s s...

Australia and Brazil, the world’s two largest iron ore producers, remained China’s top suppliers in 2020, but imports from India soared 88 per cent as Chinese mills diversified sources amid sky-high raw materials prices.Australian shipments rose ...

An ousted Hong Kong opposition lawmaker found guilty of assaulting two police officers with a loudhailer at an anti-government rally in 2019 has failed in his bid to clear his name.The High Court on Wednesday dismissed Au Nok-hin’s appeal against h...

The UK coronavirus strain has spread to at least 60 countries, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday, after the incoming US president Joe Biden led a moving tribute to 400,000 American victims.Covid-19 has claimed more than two million liv...

There was a Malaysian connection to the flurry of pardons outgoing US President Donald Trump issued on Wednesday, with a top Republican donor convicted of illicitly lobbying for Jho Low, the fugitive mastermind behind the 1MDB scandal, among those re...

Hong Kong’s pro-establishment lawmakers on Wednesday urged the city’s leader to do more to alleviate residents’ hardship and contain the coronavirus pandemic, as they went over the contents of her policy address rolled out in November.The Legis...

A report by Indian media that Chinese authorities had recently constructed a village near the eastern stretch of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) separating both countries has cast a spotlight on a potential new front emerging in the eight-month bord...

An American woman and self-described digital nomad will be deported from Indonesia after posting tweets that sparked a social media backlash over perceived western privilege and lack of cultural awareness, after she said Bali was “LGBT friendly”....

Seven current and former Hong Kong bankers were arrested in a series of raids on Tuesday as police moved against an international money-laundering syndicate alleged to have handled HK$6.3 billion (US$813 million) in criminal proceeds – the biggest ...

The US political system is broken and China will be the most powerful nation on earth within a decade, according to most Europeans responding to a survey which has revealed a dramatic shift in attitudes on the continent.While 53 per cent believed Joe...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday named a former national security adviser who played a key role in realising the first-ever summit between the United States and North Korea as the country’s next foreign minister. The nomination of C...

Hong Kong is expecting more than 70 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, according to a medical source, extending an upward trend in infections that may continue under a more stringent testing approach launched after the outbreak in Yau Tsim Mong distric...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China rose to a record high in 2020 by posing the fastest growth rate in five years despite the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.FDI in US dollar terms – excluding financial sectors such as banking...

After political and economic instability saw unprecedented demands for reform of the Thai monarchy, King Maha Vajiralongkorn is seeking to burnish his image in what is shaping up as another year of tension in the country.Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o...

A Chinese diplomat in Brazil has mocked Mike Pompeo on Twitter, calling him the best US secretary of state ever, as he prepares to leave office.“You made great contributions in dividing US people and uniting Chinese people, destroying US image and ...

Donald Trump granted a presidential pardon to his former chief strategist Steve Bannon as part of a late flurry of clemency action benefiting 143 people, but not himself.The 73 pardons and 70 commutations were announced after midnight Wednesday in th...

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group, delivered a video speech to 100 rural Chinese teachers on Wednesday morning, marking his first public appearance in nearly three months after his controversial speech at a Shanghai financial forum on October 24....

Joe Biden will be sworn in Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States, during a day steeped in tradition and ceremony that nonetheless has been altered due to the pandemic and tight security after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Night...

Hong Kong’s justice minister has hit back at “disgraceful” attacks and political pressure from the British government that dissuaded a Queen’s Counsel from prosecuting opposition activists in the city. Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk...

US President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Tuesday the incoming administration planned a full review of the US approach to North Korea to look at ways to increase pressure on the country to come to the ne...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Natasha Korecki on politico.com on January 19, 2021.Joe Biden paces as he dictates long portions of his speeches to aides, spinning out thoughts that quickl...

Paul Singer’s Elliott Management plans to close its Hong Kong office and shift its remaining staff to Tokyo and London, as the downsizing by one of the biggest foreign financial firms amid the city’s worst recession culminates in its exit.The US ...

India started exporting Covid-19 vaccines on Wednesday, paving the way for many mid- and lower-income countries to get supplies of the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot.“First consignment takes off for Bhutan!” Anurag Srivastava, spokesman for the Ministry...

Cities around China are tightening travel restrictions and encouraging migrant workers to stay where they are for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, as the country fights to contain the latest Covid-19 outbreak.China has been reporting 100-plus cas...

China kept its benchmark lending rate for corporate and household loans the same for a ninth straight month at its January fixing on Wednesday, matching market expectations.The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was kept unchanged at 3.85 per cent, while...

Foreign holdings of US Treasuries declined for a fourth straight month in November, although China increased its load of American debt for the first time in six months, data from the US Treasury department showed on Tuesday.Foreign investors held US$...

Beijing’s relationship with the body regulating Hong Kong’s barristers has grown increasingly rocky over the past three years, its outgoing chairman has acknowledged, while calling for a resumption of exchanges to iron out differences.Philip Dyke...

On January 20 last year, a 66-year-old man from the central Chinese city of Wuhan arrived in Singapore and headed to the Shangri-La hotel on Sentosa island for a family holiday. Within three days, he became Singapore’s first case of the novel coron...

In crowded Hong Kong malls, shoppers can walk into local retailers and buy Fancl’s skincare and cosmetics products at knock-down prices, dramatically undercutting sales at branded Fancl stores throughout the city.Unofficial wholesalers of beauty pr...

China’s top anti-graft watchdog is on a publicity blitz, using a number of high-profile cases to warn cadres not to test the leadership’s resolve on corruption.The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party’s top anti-cor...

A dramatic promotional video aimed at giving a public relations boost to Hong Kong’s embattled police force is getting a sceptical reception even before its release this weekend in a city where many remain resentful about law-enforcement action dur...

US President Donald Trump stated in a muted farewell address on Tuesday that he will pray for Joe Biden’s administration and insisted he was “horrified” by the attack on the US Capitol that he incited earlier this month, as he prepares to leave...

The Covid-19 pandemic could be the catalyst for much-needed reform of the World Health Organization just as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 forced urgent changes at the UN nuclear agency, an independent review panel said on Tuesday.The panel, ...

Some of Hong Kong’s biggest developers are seizing the moment to launch their super deluxe projects to capitalise on a surging stock market and the prospect of a market recovery in the second half of the year.Wharf (Holdings) and CK Asset Holdings ...

US President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to be the secretary of state told Congress on Tuesday that China seeks to become the dominant world power and undermine American interests, the latest sign that the Trump administration’s hardline stance tow...

In the Diet on Monday, delivering his first policy speech of the year, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was adamant about the two issues that have come to overshadow his administration – Japan would overcome Covid-19 “as soon as possible”, he insi...

Yuichiro welled up as he collected a food parcel at a Tokyo outreach event offering help to the growing number of Japanese pushed into poverty by the coronavirus pandemic.“There is no work. Absolutely none,” said the 46-year-old, until recently a...

Kenya is seeking debt relief from China to help it cope with a coronavirus-fuelled economic slump, as the first repayment on a loan for a railway under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative comes due this week.The Chinese embassy in Nairobi confirmed ...

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte won a confidence vote in the upper house Senate on Tuesday, allowing him to remain in office after a junior partner quit his coalition last week in the midst of the raging Covid-19 pandemic.He failed to secure an...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson defeated a rebellion by his own lawmakers on Tuesday after they pressed for British judges to be able to rule on whether China’s Muslim Uygur minority is suffering genocide.The House of Commons narrowly voted down an am...

Follow the main events of the US presidential inauguration day with the SCMP’s live blog from 10am EST/11pm HKT on January 20.The tumultuous events in the US, from the coronavirus pandemic to threats of violence from supporters of outgoing presiden...

As President Donald Trump entered the final year of his term last January, the US recorded its first confirmed case of Covid-19. Not to worry, Trump insisted, his administration had the virus “totally under control”.Now, in his final hours in off...

A scandal involving a high-profile celebrity and two surrogate children has rocked Chinese social media, setting off heated debate over whether there should be an outright ban of surrogacy in China.At the centre of the controversy is popular actress ...

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was arrested on his return to Russia last weekend, released an investigation into a lavish Black Sea property he claimed is owned by President Vladimir Putin.The Navalny investigation, published on the opposition fi...

Twelve US Army National Guard members have been removed from the presidential inauguration security mission after they were found to have ties with right-wing militia groups or posted extremist views online, according to two US officials. There was n...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Andrew Desiderio on politico.com on January 19, 2021.US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said President Donald Trump “provoked” the cro...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Lara Seligman on politico.com on January 19, 2021.US president-elect Joe Biden has tapped former aide and long-time Asia expert Ely Ratner to be the incomin...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused China of “genocide and crimes against humanity” for the country’s treatment of Uygur Muslims in its far-western region of Xinjiang, using his last full day as America’s top diplomat to issu...

Chen Channing, a 30-year-old legal professional in Shenzhen, cannot go a day without WeChat, the all purpose app developed by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings.Before he brushes his teeth in the morning, Chen checks for messages on the app. He uses...

President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be his assistant secretary of health, leaving her poised to become the first transgender federal official to be confirmed by the US Senate.A paediatrician and former ...