Friday’s summit of four leading Asia-Pacific democracies will announce a cooperative approach to 5G and other global technology standards, as well as a pipeline for delivering Covid-19 vaccines to Southeast Asia. Shared trade and other China-relate...

Myanmar activists held more rallies against the junta on Friday as South Korea said it would suspend defence exchanges and reconsider development aid to the Southeast Asian nation because of the military’s harsh crackdown on the protests.Friday’s...

A closed-door hearing was held on Friday afternoon at Hong Kong High Court over whether HSBC must provide certain documents related to the extradition case of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou as the Chinese telecoms giant widened a legal b...

After breaking with tradition and opting to not set targets for economic and labour productivity growth for the next five years, the success of China’s vague goal of aiming for productivity growth higher than that of the overall economy hinges on a...

A 25-year-old woman in eastern China who failed to fall pregnant after 12 months of trying, was shocked to discover she was actually born male and is intersex.The woman, whose external female genitalia never forced her to question her sex, stumbled u...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, excluding the banking, securities and insurance sectors, stood at 176.76 billion yuan in January and February, up 31.5 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce reported on...

A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer who went missing soon after being given an International Women’s Day award by the US government said on Friday she had arrived home safely after being banned from contacting the outside world for almost a wee...

Hong Kong police have arrested two lovers and confiscated HK$20 million (US$2.6 million) worth of suspected heroin in a raid on a public housing flat that was allegedly used as a drug distribution centre.The 16kg haul brings the total value of illega...

A Hong Kong businessman was slashed on the arm and abdomen in a knife attack outside a hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui on Friday, sparking a police manhunt for two perpetrators.The 32-year-old man was driving his Mercedes-Benz along Kimberley Road in the popu...

India is likely to block its mobile carriers from using telecom equipment made by China’s Huawei, two government officials said, under procurement rules due to come into force in June.New Delhi is wary about awarding new technology business to Chin...

Police in China have shut down a sophisticated counterfeit Louis Vuitton racket that netted 100 million yuan (US$15.4 million).Nearly 40 people, including one store saleswoman, were arrested in connection with the alleged forging of the bags over a f...

China’s next-generation Long March 7A blasted off from its Wenchang launch site in the southern province of Hainan early on Friday, one year after a failed attempt.The launch sent a technology verification satellite, the Shiyan-9 developed by China...

Eleven of the 47 Hong Kong opposition activists charged in the city’s largest national security law crackdown to date have been denied bail for a second time, while 10 others withdrew their challenges at the last minute.Chief Magistrate Victor So W...

Health authorities will order all employees of Hong Kong gyms to be screened for the coronavirus by Sunday, as fears of a fifth wave of the disease mounted after the city confirmed 60 new infections on Friday.Most of the latest cases were linked to a...

Ukrainian authorities announced Thursday they plan to nationalise Motor Sich, an aircraft engine manufacturer majority-owned by Chinese companies.The move will likely raise tensions with Beijing, but be welcomed by Kiev’s key ally Washington, which...

China’s growing influence in the Asia-Pacific, coronavirus vaccines and the Myanmar coup are expected to be on the agenda as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday meets his counterparts from Japan, Australia and the US in a teleconference o...

Thailand has delayed its roll-out of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, a health official said Friday, after several European nations suspended their programmes over blood clot fears.The kingdom was scheduled to start the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine roll-...

US President Joe Biden on Thursday offered his coronavirus-weary nation a tantalising glimpse of an almost normal July 4, outlining in a speech how the United States can defeat the virus if people stay united on prevention measures and get vaccinated...

In a highly unusual breach of security last month at the airbase that operates the Air Force One presidential aircraft, an apparently aimless intruder went undetected for several hours and walked on and off a plane on the flight line before his quirk...

China will soon hold the first trial for the two Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor – two years after they were detained, according to mainland media reports.Citing an unnamed source, Global Times, an affiliate of Communist Party mouthpiec...

The Chinese national parliament has formally approved the biggest overhaul of Hong Kong’s political system, empowering the committee that elects the city’s leader to effectively shut out opposition members deemed “unpatriotic” from the ruling...

Should gyms be allowed to stay open now that Hong Kong health authorities are battling a super-spreading coronavirus cluster connected to a fitness centre? That was the question swirling around the city on Thursday after 17 people linked to Ursus Fit...

The Pentagon strongly rebuked Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson Thursday for calling the rise of women in the US military “out of control” and a “mockery” of its war-fighting mission.Spokesman John Kirby said Defence Department Secretary Lloyd A...

An upstart contender to US Treasuries has emerged in the wake of last month’s vicious debt rout. Chinese government bonds have defied the turbulence rocking peers from Australia to Europe, offering a port in the global reflation storm.JPMorgan Asse...

US President Joe Biden on Thursday condemned what he called “vicious hate crimes” committed against Asian Americans since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, calling such acts “un-American” and demanding they stop.“Too often, we’ve tur...

Boon Vanasin, chairman of Thai hospital chain Thonburi Healthcare Group, has been talking to Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers for several months now to try to procure as many doses as possible.The group, which runs eight hospitals in the country, plans...

Malaysia’s government has introduced a law that punishes spreading coronavirus misinformation with jail time and hefty fines, sparking fury at what critics labelled an “appalling” attack on free speech.The shock move comes amid growing concerns...

When Aishah Tan moved to Singapore from Xinjiang in 2012, she noticed there were no restaurants serving Chinese traditional dishes from China for the Muslim community.“The halal food in Singapore is very different from Xinjiang. So, I decided to se...

A South Korean cartoon series was taken off Chinese online video platforms last week after people complained that it misled children about the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival and used wrong maps that shrank Chinese territory.Super Wings, a preschoo...

Many details of Beijing’s drastic shake-up of Hong Kong’s electoral system were already known, yet Thursday’s formal announcement still left many wondering about the future of local politics with the opposition virtually wiped out.Pro-establish...

Duong in Vietnam, Michelle in the Philippines, and Jani in Britain are some of the women I’ve written about in recent months. They are among thousands of women who have been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic – from facing increased risk of do...

The Chinese delegation should expect direct, unfettered talks when it meets with its US counterparts in Alaska next week, and Beijing is advised to do its part in addressing strained relations, the State Department said on Thursday.Secretary of State...

The Biden administration has informed some suppliers to China’s Huawei Technologies Co. of tighter conditions on previously approved export licenses, prohibiting items for use in or with 5G devices, according to people familiar with the move.The 5G...

“Can I please have a cappuccino and someone to answer questions about my life insurance policy?” It may sound unlikely, but Hong Kong’s first virtual insurance company has opened a coffee shop where customers can discuss their policies and rais...

The Chinese authorities have stressed their commitment to building a fairer and more caring society in a bid to safeguard the Communist Party’s legitimacy before it celebrates its 100th anniversary in July.Premier Li Keqiang spent the lion’s shar...

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s grip on power appeared increasingly threatened on Thursday as a majority of state legislators called for his resignation and police in the state capital said they stood ready to investigate a groping allegation.The ...

The US State Department on Thursday condemned the approval by Beijing’s legislature of a resolution that will tighten the central government’s control over Hong Kong’s electoral system, calling the move a “direct attack” on the city’s aut...

China has continued to show its dominance in the global battery supply chain by sending the nickel market into overdrive after stainless steel producer Tsingshan Holding Group announced it would be able to provide a new flow of nickel matte from its ...

Pakistan on Thursday blocked the popular social media app TikTok after a court order over a complaint that it ran indecent content, a spokesman for the country’s telecoms regulator said.“The court has asked PTA to block access to TikTok,” Pakis...

Australia’s government will subsidise 800,000 half-price airfares as part of a A$1.2 billion (US$920 million) package to prop up the nation’s ailing tourism industry. Stocks in the nation’s aviation and travel industries jumped.To run from Apri...

President Joe Biden signed his US$1.9 trillion stimulus bill into law on Thursday afternoon, ahead of an evening speech in which he is set to mark the one-year anniversary of the US coronavirus pandemic lockdown, commemorating losses while expressing...

Lou Ottens, the Dutch engineer who heralded a new age for music fans by inventing the cassette, has died at the age of 94 in his hometown of Duizel in the southeastern Netherlands.The company Philips, for whom Ottens developed the compact cassette in...

A digital artwork sold for nearly US$70 million at Christie’s on Thursday, in the first ever sale by a major auction house of a piece of art that does not exist in physical form.Everydays – The First 5,000 Days is a digital work by American artis...

The draft decision passed by Beijing to overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system has dropped the biggest hint yet on curbing the influence of the opposition-held social services sector in the committee that selects the city’s leader, but industry re...

US President Joe Biden’s US$1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue plan has raised the alert level in China, with government officials and advisers openly expressing fear that the massive injection of money into the global market could inflate asset bubbl...

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday reiterated that Beijing welcomed dialogue with any political parties from Taiwan, but only if the island accepted that there was only “one China”.His remarks, at the closing press conference of the annual le...