A decade ago the plight of former champion gymnast Zhang Shangwu shocked China and made world headlines when he was discovered begging in Beijing, prompting one of the country’s richest men to give him a job.That should have heralded a turnaround f...

Hong Kong’s incentive-laden plan to boost its sluggish Covid-19 vaccination uptake has prompted an outcry from some of the sectors most affected by the looming rules changes.Hailing it as a “new direction in fighting the pandemic”, Chief Execut...

Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s envoy to the United Nations, has said leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) should resist recognising the military junta when they convene for an emergency meeting next week. While Asean has yet to...

Lawyers defending a Hong Kong couple found guilty of murdering their five-year-old daughter have conceded that her case was a very serious instance of child abuse and little could be said in mitigation of the killing.But they also argued the abuse wa...

Beijing warned on Tuesday it was determined to stop Taiwan getting close to Washington with the use of military action, ahead of a visit by a former US politician and officials to the island at US President Joe Biden’s request. Ma Xiaoguang, a spo...

A 27-year-old barista has been jailed for 4½ years for taking part in a riot and burning miscellaneous items outside a Hong Kong police station during 2019’s anti-government protests.Siu Lok-ting was sentenced at the District Court on Wednesday fo...

New Zealand said on Wednesday it will stop the export of livestock by sea following a transition period of up to two years, citing animal welfare concerns for a decision that will affect major trading partners including Australia and China.The ban wa...

The Oscars are the glitziest night of the year in Hollywood and millions across the globe tune in, but they threaten to be a dud in China after the nomination of a Hong Kong protest documentary.Beijing-born filmmaker Chloe Zhao, who is touted to win ...

South Korea on Wednesday recorded 731 new coronavirus cases, the most since January 7, prompting authorities to warn of a possible fourth wave.New cases have centred on the greater Seoul area and have spread to over a dozen cities and provinces despi...

Iran vowed to ramp up its uranium enrichment to close to weapons grade in retaliation for an attack on one of its leading atomic facilities, sending a jolt through big power talks on containing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear work due to resume late...

Eight months after a massive blast ripped through Beirut port and nearby districts of the Lebanese capital, a host of foreign companies with different national interests are competing to rebuild it.“Everyone has their eyes on the port: the Russians...

Salaries for locally hired foreign domestic helpers could be pushed up as much as 30 per cent amid keen demand if a new flight ban mechanism aimed at keeping an emerging coronavirus variant out of Hong Kong makes it harder for workers to reach the ci...

A one-time California man who scammed wine collectors out of millions by selling cheaper booze he rebottled in his kitchen has been deported to his native Indonesia, US immigration officials said.Rudy Kurniawan, 44, was deported last week on a commer...

North Korea could resume nuclear tests this year as a way to force US President Joe Biden’s administration to enter into dialogue, US intelligence experts said in a report released on Tuesday.“North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may take a number of ...

Traditional opposition strongholds in the Hong Kong legislature’s functional constituencies have been left intact by Beijing’s drastic electoral overhaul, but their presence on the Election Committee that picks the city’s leader has been severe...

Shanghai’s authorities have unveiled a grand plan to develop new townships out of five suburban districts to relieve the population density in the sprawling megapolis of almost 25 million people.Five new towns will be developed in the Qingpu, Fengx...

Hong Kong police are drawing up protocols for screening candidates for office as part of Beijing’s overhaul of the local electoral system, according to the city’s security minister, who also said an anti-government stance would not automatically ...

Hongkong Land Holdings, owner of The Landmark and The Exchange Square in Central, is poised to upgrade its half-century old buildings with modern features it hopes will help attract a new generation of millennial bankers and lawyers. The 132-year-old...

Singapore’s economy exited negative territory in the first quarter of this year after three consecutive quarters of contraction, signalling that the trade-reliant city is set to recover steadily.The country’s export-dependent economy grew 0.2 per...

Lee JH didn’t have to think twice before signing a petition objecting to the construction of a tourist-focused “Chinatown” in South Korea’s eastern Gangwon province. The 29-year-old illustrator in Bucheon, about 20km outside Seoul, distrust...

The sight of a cleaning robot quietly going about its business is becoming more common in Hong Kong’s shopping malls, offices and hotels. The makers of the machines say they offer much-needed confidence to shoppers and hotel guests whose awareness ...

Your favourite bubble tea shop may not be serving its signature drink for a while as shipping delays are keeping some retailers from getting the supplies to make the sweet beverage.The shortage started about a month ago, according to Oliver Yoon, the...

One of the most disturbing child abuse cases in Hong Kong history concluded on Tuesday with a jury finding a father and step-mother guilty of murdering their five-year-old daughter in January 2018. The girl’s step-grandmother, who failed to interve...

Beijing’s ambassador to Canada on Tuesday pushed back at growing calls in the West to disengage from China, saying this would risk unravelling globalisation.Ambassador Cong Peiwu, speaking at the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, also pitched ...

A Chinese city on the border with North Korea is looking to upgrade its cross-border trade facilities amid speculation that the two countries are moving to strengthen their relationship in the face of increased pressure from the United States. Govern...

The Governor of the Chinese island of Hainan said the authorities will conduct a “deeper investigation” after a scandal erupted this week over a tourist claiming that a US$35 dish of steamed sea urchin mixed with egg did not contain any urchin me...

A research team in China claims to have developed a text censor that can filter “harmful information” on the internet with unprecedented accuracy using artificial intelligence.Traditional machine censors rely mainly on keywords to do this and str...

President Joe Biden plans to withdraw the remaining 2,500 US troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021, 20 years to the day after the al-Qaeda attacks that triggered America’s longest war, US officials said on Tuesday.The disclosure of the plan cam...

A bipartisan pair of US senators on Tuesday introduced a bill to expedite refugee applications from Uygurs, matching an effort in the US House of Representatives to assist members of the largely Muslim ethnic group that advocates say face persecution...

The US intelligence community has put China at the top of its annual report of national security threats, warning of Beijing’s struggle to realise “an epochal geopolitical shift”, including increased air and naval operations in Asia intended to...

A white Minnesota police officer who fatally shot a black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb and the city’s chief of police both resigned on Tuesday, moves that the mayor said he hoped would help heal the community and lead to reconc...

Former US senator Chris Dodd and former deputy secretaries of state Richard Armitage and James Steinberg headed to Taiwan on Tuesday at President Joe Biden’s request, in what a White House official called a “personal signal” of the president’...

Three-time Academy Award winner Bong Joon-ho thinks filmmakers have to do their part to help stamp out hate and racism.The Parasite director recently served as a masterclass guest lecturer for Chapman University’s Dodge College, sharing his thought...

John Kerry, the Biden administration’s climate envoy, will travel to China later this week to meet Chinese officials to discuss “raising global climate ambition,” the US State Department said on Tuesday.Kerry was expected to arrive in Shanghai ...

The US Commerce Department said on Tuesday it had issued a subpoena to an unnamed Chinese company as part of the Biden administration’s review of its supply chain for any risks posed to US national security.The administration of President Joe Biden...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Nick Niedzwiadek on politico.com on April 13, 2021.US President Joe Biden suggested a potential meeting “in the coming months” with Russian President Vl...

Traditional Beijing-friendly organisations and unionists in Hong Kong with a track record of mobilising pro-establishment supporters in polls have emerged to be big winners in an all-powerful committee that controls all key elections under proposed l...

The megaship which blocked Egypt’s Suez Canal and crippled world trade for nearly a week has been “seized” on court orders until the vessel’s owners pay US$900 million, canal authorities said on Tuesday.The 200,000-tonne MV Ever Given got dia...

A former consultant microbiologist at the Centre of Health Protection (CHP) has been charged by Hong Kong’s corruption-buster with misconduct in public office and fraud for allegedly abusing his official capacity for personal gain involving more th...

Prominent opposition figure and former Hong Kong lawmaker Dennis Kwok, who has moved to Canada while under police investigation, has announced he is quitting the Civic Party which he had co-founded. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Kwok, who used to re...

China and the United States should work together in areas like climate, energy and green finance for the benefit of everyone, even as their rift deepens in other areas, academics from the two countries say.Speaking at virtual round-table talks on Chi...

Beijing’s move to send 25 warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone on Monday aimed to heap more pressure on the island and send a message to Washington, according to analysts.Taiwan’s defence ministry said 14 J-16 fighter jets, f...

Japan’s decision on Tuesday to release treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea was met with fierce opposition from its neighbours, including China, as well as the local fishing industry. Prime Minister Yoshi...

China’s first domestically developed mRNA vaccine is ready to start its final stage trials overseas next month, its developer has told state media.The vaccine – which uses the same advanced revolutionary techniques as the drugs developed by Pfize...

The Philippines on Tuesday said it had summoned Beijing’s top envoy in Manila to press for Chinese ships to immediately leave the Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea, describing the escalating row as a “source of regional tension”.Officials fro...

A social media campaign by the European Union to mark International Women’s Day that featured Hong Kong pro-establishment lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee “failed to properly illustrate our values”, according to the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep B...

India is to fast track emergency approvals for Covid-19 vaccines that have been authorised by Western countries and Japan, paving the way for possible imports of Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna shots.The move, which will drop the need for compa...

Against the backdrop of a transpacific rivalry and amid uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus, China’s imports are on the rise, with its purchases from the United States setting record highs in both March and the first quarter of the year. Mean...

Washington’s new supercomputer sanctions on China are already beginning to bite, as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has suspended new orders from Phytium Information Technology Co, one of seven Chinese organisations related to su...

The World Health Organization on Tuesday called on countries to impose emergency regulations to stop the sale of live wild mammals in food markets to limit the risk of new diseases emerging.“Traditional markets, where live animals are held, slaught...