This interview with David Barboza was originally published in The Wire China on September 26, 2021 and is republished with permission.Q: Let’s start with Hong Kong. There were violent protests there, then a new national security law was introduced ...

Providing migrant workers in Chinese cities with full access to local government services would boost their consumption by as much as 30 per cent and help China double its middle-income population, an adviser to China’s central bank said.Nearly 64 ...

Hong Kong marine police pulled two men from the sea on Thursday – one of whom died later in hospital – after their catamaran capsized off Beaufort Island while a strong monsoon signal from the city’s weather service was in effect.According to p...

Japan’s coastguard has reported sighting a man-portable surface-to-air missile aboard a North Korean vessel operating within Japanese fishing grounds off Ishikawa prefecture, on its northern coast.The vessel is believed to have been a North Korean ...

Taiwan will ensure regional peace and stability and seeks to work with other like-minded democracies, President Tsai Ing-wen told senior French and Australian dignitaries on Thursday, days after a dramatic spike in tensions with mainland China.The tr...

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is sending Covid-19 aid for North Korea through China’s border port of Dalian, despite few signs Pyongyang has eased strict border lockdowns.In the WHO’s latest weekly report for South and East Asia, wh...

A Hong Kong airport worker has tested preliminary-positive for Covid-19, potentially bringing to an end the city’s 50-day streak of zero local infections, the Post has learned.Eight officially confirmed cases on Thursday were all imported. Accordin...

A South Korean court on Thursday ruled it was unfair for the military to forcibly discharge a soldier over her gender-reassignment surgery, months after she took her own life over the decision.South Korea remains deeply conservative about matters of ...

A gay widower who took the Hong Kong government to court over his late husband’s after-death arrangements has withdrawn his legal challenge, after authorities clarified that same-sex widows and widowers would be treated the same as opposite-sex one...

Several factors were in Switzerland’s favour when China and the United States chose the country to host the highest-level diplomatic talks between Beijing and Washington in nearly six months.While China watchers are still debating whether the meeti...

Fresh coronavirus outbreaks in Southeast Asia have hurt factory activity across industries, threatening the region’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and disrupting global supplies of goods such as apparels, cars and electronics.Coronavirus curb...

The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s student union has formally disbanded, eight months after school management cut ties with the body citing possible national security law breaches.The decision, revealed on Thursday, follows similar moves in rece...

The Hong Kong government’s plan to build new railway links with mainland China is aimed at boosting the economy in the north of the city and furthering integration with Shenzhen, but analysts have questioned whether it will place too much of a stra...

Hong Kong’s leader has promised to control construction costs for a vast metropolis she proposed to develop near the border with mainland China, while also reassuring residents it will not create severe traffic congestion.A day after unveiling her ...

The Chinese government has described this week’s talks with the US as constructive, with its top diplomat highlighting the importance of positive gestures by Washington in improving the atmosphere and the two sides agreeing to a virtual summit betw...

After 150 days in operation, one of Malaysia’s biggest Covid-19 vaccination centres shut its doors on Sunday, with over 1.2 million doses having been administered there.At its peak, the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur – the country’s first mega...

North Korea appears to have taken steps to conceal upgrades to an uranium-enrichment plant from spy satellites, as it reopens communications with South Korea’s pro-engagement president, Moon Jae-in.Satellite imagery shows that previously reported c...

A report exposing the “hidden” Chinese debts of countries like Zambia and Ethiopia is expected to complicate their ongoing debt relief talks under the G20’s so-called Common Framework.The total value of those under-reported debts – external o...

Travel during China’s “golden week” national holiday was down by a third on pre-coronavirus levels, with government measures to contain sporadic outbreaks prompting holidaymakers to spend closer to home.The number of trips taken on China’s ro...

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and members of his inner circle were implicated in a sprawling corruption investigation that threatens to open a new chapter of political turbulence in the Alpine nation. Offices at Kurz’s Chancellery and several...

Nearly 10 tonnes of shark fins were seized as part of a record HK$210 million (US$27 million) haul of luxury goods and endangered wildlife products destined for mainland China, customs officials said on Thursday.The 9.7 tonnes of fins, valued at HK$1...

Hong Kong educators have called for further details about a new plan to require more teachers to pass a test on the city’s mini-constitution, including whether the proposal applies to native English speakers. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-...

American billionaire Jeff Bezos – recently toppled as the world’s richest man by rival tech tycoon Elon Musk – is betting on the future of Southeast Asian e-commerce with his investment in 18-month-old Indonesian start-up Ula.Through his family...

At least 20 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a shallow earthquake hit southwestern Pakistan in the early hours of Thursday, with rescuers trying to reach coal miners reportedly trapped underground.Many of the victims died when roofs ...

Famous for the remarkable red residue they leave in users’ mouths, betel nuts are a common vice across Asia thanks to the “buzz” they give to chewers.Unfortunately, they also contain chemicals that cause oral cancer, and last month China’s Na...

A US federal judge temporarily blocked Texas’ new ban on most abortions, handing a preliminary victory to the Biden administration as it seeks to overturn the strictest such law in the nation.The ruling Wednesday by US District Judge Robert Pitman ...

As the last policy address of a chief executive’s tenure, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s speech on Wednesday was unconventional. Her 168-paragraph policy blueprint, her longest since taking up the office in 2017, was a cornucopia o...

Chinese conservationists have set out a number of proposals to protect biodiversity ahead of a major United Nations conference in the southwestern city of Kunming next week.The China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, a Beiji...

Hong Kong will strive to phase out coal as a power generation source by 2035 while increasing its renewable energy share to 10 per cent, the city’s leader has pledged as part of the city’s push towards carbon neutrality.Chief Executive Carrie Lam...

Republican and Democratic leaders edged back Wednesday from a perilous stand-off over lifting the nation’s borrowing cap, with Democratic senators signalling they were receptive to an offer from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that would a...

Peru’s President Pedro Castillo moved toward appeasing conservative critics, announcing plans to replace his radical prime minister as he seeks a more stable political environment after three months of clashes with Congress.Guido Bellido was genera...

Hong Kong’s leader is taking the city in the right direction with her ambitious Northern Metropolis proposal and other measures to boost economic development, analysts and lawmakers have said, while also urging her to elaborate on how to finance su...

China’s military has deployed its new J-16D fighter jet designed for electronic warfare to an eastern airbase near Taiwan, according to satellite imagery and a People’s Liberation Army source.It comes amid heightened tensions across the Taiwan St...

The latest round of talks between top national security officials from Washington and Beijing finished in Zurich with a commitment to continue speaking at a senior level.Six months after tempers flared at their dramatic first meeting in Alaska, US na...

Government ministers in Canberra on Thursday welcomed France’s decision to return its ambassador to Australia, saying they hoped the two nations could repair the damage after falling out over a cancelled submarine contract.“We welcome back the...

Nato said on Wednesday it had stripped eight members of the Russian mission to the alliance of their accreditation, calling them “undeclared Russian intelligence officers”, meaning spies.A Nato official giving the information said that “we can ...

Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum ordered the phones of his ex-wife and her lawyers to be hacked as part of a “sustained campaign of intimidation and threat” during the custody battle over their children, England’s High Cour...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday he made a mistake travelling for a holiday last week on a day meant to honour Indigenous survivors of Canada’s residential schools system.The newly reelected prime minister has faced intense criticism...

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday the only approved vaccine against malaria should be widely given to African children, potentially marking a major advance against a disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people annually.The ...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called China’s recent actions around Taiwan “provocative”, warned of the risks of “miscalculation” and vowed to deepen ties with the self-governed island that Beijing considers a wayward province.The...

Hong Kong’s border area with mainland China will be built into a new Northern Metropolis of 2.5 million people in 20 years, including a “Silicon Valley” that will closely interact with neighbouring Shenzhen, according to a blueprint laid down b...

Hong Kong’s leader predicts her policy proposals will provide more than 1 million homes in the next three decades, but has only pledged to build 5,000 more temporary flats in the next few years, shrugging off “quick fixes” to ease the city’s ...

The local government in Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan province, is seeking compensation for losses from a failed chip making joint venture, according to the initial public offering prospectus of GlobalFoundries, which is seeking a listing ...

Soon after US federal prosecutors announced an agreement on September 24 to end Huawei Technologies Co. executive Meng Wanzhou’s arrest of nearly three years on fraud charges, lawmakers denounced the move.Within hours, at least two leading China ha...

This is the third in a series of stories looking at China’s Xinjiang province and how the far-western region is coping economically under a series of US sanctions over alleged human rights violations and the widespread use of forced labour.As the m...

About 50,000 elderly residents stand to benefit from a higher welfare cash subsidy set to cost the Hong Kong government HK$800 million (US$102.7 million), with another HK$32.9 billion (US$4.2 billion) earmarked to close a loophole in the pension syst...

A convicted wildlife smuggler who still operates as a leading buyer and seller of reptiles has been accused by federal prosecutors of scheming to smuggle illegally harvested Florida turtles to China, Japan and other places.Michael Van Nostrand, his c...

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr, the only son and namesake of the late Philippine dictator, is running for president in next year’s election.Marcos Jnr filed his certificate of candidacy on Wednesday, saying he intended to provide a “unifying...

A group of French senators arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday for a five-day visit to show support for the self-ruled island amid mounting tensions between Taipei and Beijing.Led by Alain Richard, a former French defence minister and head of the French S...

Hong Kong has made progress in safeguarding national security but the to-do list on this front remains “substantial”, the city leader has said, stressing the need to pass local legislation on the issue and educating teachers and students about th...