China has emerged as the brightest spot in Apple’s quarterly earnings, as the US tech giant achieved record iPhone revenue in the world’s largest smartphone market. Revenue in Apple’s Greater China region, which comprises mainland China, Hong K...

The southern Guangdong province has been the largest engine powering China’s economic rise for decades. But the region is now in danger of losing its status as the country’s top regional economy, as a rival to the east outpaces its growth. Jiangs...

China’s Bulang people have an unusual rite of passage known as ranchi in which they dye their teeth black to mark adulthood and social rights. The ethnic group, with a history spanning more than a thousand years, is mainly found in Yunnan province,...

US President Donald Trump criticised UK and Canadian efforts to boost ties with China, as traditional American allies increasingly seek to diversify their global relations. “It’s ‌very dangerous ⁠for them to do that,” Trump said about a UK ...

Although the war in Gaza has clearly cooled diplomatic ties and sparked disputes between China and Israel, science and technology cooperation at a civil level between the two countries has continued. “I have a feeling that we have a lot of common g...

Hong Kong’s economy expanded by 3.5 per cent in 2025, marking the city’s third consecutive year of growth and surpassing an earlier forecast of 3.2 per cent. Advance estimates released by the Census and Statistics Department on Friday also showed...

Wang Gungwu is widely regarded as a pre-eminent expert on the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia and the history of China, but at 95, he writes in his latest memoir that he is no longer able to call himself a historian. In No Borders: Journeys Across I...

Hong Kong’s transport chief has said the government will suspend a mandatory seat belt requirement for bus passengers and later revise the legislation, after the law was found to be only applicable to new buses registered from January 25. Secretary...

Since returning to the White House a year ago, US President Donald Trump has stepped up pressure on the Federal Reserve. With the term of the current Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, set to end in May, Trump said he would announce his pick to re...

In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Mike Campbell described how he went bankrupt: “Gradually, and then suddenly.” Over the past weeks, there is a feeling that US President Donald Trump and his administration have reached the “suddenly�...

“Assemble!” someone bellowed in the prison corridor, cutting through the silence. Murmurs began echoing off the white walls, and the stairwells filled with people from all over the world: Egyptians, Chinese, Cameroonians, Kenyans, an Italian - al...

US President Donald Trump sued the US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for at least US$10 billion over an unauthorised disclosure of his tax returns to the press during his first term in office, potentially putting American taxpayers on th...

China ramped up its South China Sea patrols in 2025, maintaining an “unprecedented” nearly year-round presence at contested sites like Scarborough Shoal to assert maritime claims, according to a new US-based think tank report. An analysis publish...

Malaysia’s football leadership resigned en masse this week in what it called a governance move to protect the sport, but critics say any “reset” will count only if the association explains how allegedly forged eligibility documents were submitt...

South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labour has apologised to the family of a Cambodian migrant worker who died after living in a makeshift “greenhouse dormitory” and vowed to reinforce protections for foreign workers, following a Supreme C...

Hong Kong authorities have arrested two men and two women in an undercover operation targeting those allegedly working illegally as cleaners and renovation workers, after mainland Chinese businesses advertised their services online ahead of Lunar New...

HSBC, Hong Kong’s biggest bank with a customer base of 6.2 million, suffered a system breakdown on Friday afternoon. The bank’s mobile banking app could not be accessed, instead showing a message stating the system was under maintenance and would...

Singapore’s ban against undesirable visitors began on Friday, with airlines flying to the city state required to bar passengers flagged as risks from boarding. The new directive is aimed at preventing “undesirable or prohibited immigrants, and th...

The United States has urged China to allow the yuan to appreciate, accusing Beijing of a lack of transparency and describing the currency as “substantially undervalued”. “It is important that the Chinese authorities allow the RMB exchange rate ...

A visit by a United States warship to a Cambodian port built with major Chinese backing has underscored Phnom Penh’s superpower balancing act, but observers say American concerns will linger over the facility’s usage being dominated by Beijing. T...

Hong Kong police are investigating an alleged robbery in which 58 million yen (US$376,600) was stolen outside a currency exchange shop in Sheung Wan. The force said a passer-by reported the case at 9.47am on Friday, with initial investigations sugges...

A former Communist Party chief of the resource-rich Inner Mongolia autonomous region, who was also China’s first veterans affairs minister, is under investigation amid the country’s continuing anti-corruption campaign. Sun Shaocheng, 65, is being...

Former Chinese actor and businessman Li Yapeng, who is also the ex-husband of Cantopop diva Faye Wong, hit the headlines recently after he admitted that a charity hospital he founded was in serious debt. Li, 54, announced on January 14 that the Beiji...

Plain clothes Iranian security forces have rounded up thousands of people in a campaign of mass arrests and intimidation to deter further protests after crushing the bloodiest unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, sources told Reuters. Modest ‍...

Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings, controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, risks losing its rights to operate major ports at both ends of the Panama Canal after the country’s Supreme Court ruled that its subsidiary’s contract was unconstitutio...

From his newly built three-storey home outside Hanoi, Trinh Tat Thang has watched the surging global gold price with mounting dread. The Vietnamese have a long tradition of holding their wealth in gold, and a parallel practice of borrowing the asset ...

China suspended trading of five commodity funds on Friday to curb investment mania in gold, silver and oil and reduce underlying risks amid geopolitical tensions. The only public fund investing in silver futures in mainland China, UBS SDIC Silver Fut...

Tesla’s falling car deliveries and declining profitability on the mainland have not stopped its Chinese electric-car rivals from imitating the US firm’s transition into an artificial intelligence entity. Xpeng, Li Auto and Nio, dubbed as Tesla ch...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please conside...

Niger’s military ruler Abdourahamane Tiani on Thursday blamed the French, Benin and Ivory Coast presidents for sponsoring an attack on Niamey international airport, an accusation he made without offering any evidence. Gunfire and ‍loud explosions...

The UK and China are considering a new cross-border asset-management link and upgrades to their existing stock connect scheme, as both sides seek closer capital-market cooperation, according to Ashley Alder, chairman of the UK’s Financial Conduct A...

Controversy over Hong Kong’s mandatory seat belt rule has deepened after a former lawmaker said a government statement neglected to specify that the measure applied only to buses registered from January 25 this year, and urged authorities to clarif...

Remote surgery conducted over thousands of kilometres can be just as reliable as robot-assisted operations done by a medical team in the same room as the patient, according to a new study led by Chinese military researchers and carried out in five ci...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Asia is scaling renewable power, electrification and clean manufacturing faster than any other part of the world. Yet the pace is outstripping the availability of skilled wor...

Subdued Chinese demand was a key contributor to a decline in Australia’s wine exports last year, according to the Australian government agency that promotes the industry. With consumer sentiment and evolving tastes reshaping the Chinese market, shi...

Top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees called on Thursday for US President Donald Trump’s chief spy to brief their panels on why she was ‍present at an FBI raid on an election facility in Georgia. Senator Mark Warner and Co...

A group of three suspects robbed five people on a street in central Tokyo on Thursday night, fleeing with suitcases that the victims said contained around 420 million yen (US$2.7 million) in cash, according to police. A few hours later, a man with lu...

Thailand’s slump in visitors from China has become so acute that Chinese tourism workers in Phuket are learning English for the first time to attract new customers, according to a boat tour organiser. Chanchanat Boonlon said her catamaran business ...

Advanced chipmaking engineer Xu Zhenpeng has left the United States to take up a full-time position at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), one of China’s leaders in artificial intelligence hardware research. Before his return to China, Xu led a t...

Lawrence J. Lau is a Hong Kong economist specialising in economic development and East Asian economies. He was an economics professor at Stanford University in the United States before becoming vice-chancellor and president of the Chinese University ...

The notion that China is flooding the world with excess industrial capacity is usually based on its massive surplus in goods trade, now standing at nearly US$1.2 trillion. That number is real, but treating it as proof of systemic overcapacity is not ...

A precautionary recall of infant formula products in Europe has sent South Korean parenting communities into a frenzy, with online mum cafes and forums buzzing over fears that some popular imported brands may pose health risks to babies. While the re...

A 10-month-old baby had to be rushed to hospital with his body covered in needle marks after he was allegedly stabbed hundreds of times by his abusive mother. The infant’s plight sparked a wave of outrage online. A video telling of the child’s tr...

The number of children who died by suicide in Japan rose to a record 532 in 2025, the second straight year in which the figure has reached a historic high, even as the country’s overall suicide toll fell to its lowest level in decades. Preliminary ...

US Senate leaders were scrambling to save a bipartisan spending deal and avert a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday as Democrats have demanded new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country. Democrats struck a rare deal ...

A key US congressional panel on Thursday advanced four Taiwan-related bills aimed at strengthening the island’s energy security, communications resilience and diplomatic influence as lawmakers ramp up efforts to counter Beijing ahead of President D...

Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday signed a law that opens the nation’s oil sector to privatisation, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades. The refor...

As Shanghai resident Adam Liu drives his new Mercedes CLA – a German-manufactured car he has long revered – this edition of the luxury vehicle is carrying another point of pride: a smart system hailing from his home country. The recently launched...

British Columbia Premier David Eby said Alberta separatists who have sought help from Washington in their quest to gain independence from Canada are carrying out an act of immense disloyalty. “To go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in...

Today, double-digit tariffs imposed by the United States are the new baseline. Breaking decades of low single digits norms, the US rolled out a “reciprocal tariff” framework in April 2025, setting a 10 per cent baseline and layering on higher rat...