A new survey of Asian sentiment surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine suggests urban dwellers in China and India are ambivalent about Moscow’s aggression even amid their governments’ efforts to stay above the fray.The poll of 6,920 people i...

Li Ning, the triple-gold Olympic medallist in gymnastics, said his namesake company has not found any forced labour in its supply chain, defending one of China’s largest athletic brands after its exports were banned this week by US customs.“Durin...

President Joe Biden had set out to finally complete the “pivot to Asia,” a long sought adjustment of US foreign policy to better reflect the rise of America’s most significant military and economic competitor – China.But Russia’s brutal inv...

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday flatly called Russia’s Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for the unfolding onslaught in Ukraine, where hospitals and maternity wards have been bombed. But declaring someone a war criminal is not as simple as ju...

China will encourage publicly traded companies to buy back their shares and money managers to invest in their own funds, offering investor-friendly policies to bolster the world’s second-largest capital market amid an unprecedented rout.The governm...

China’s new Covid-19 epicentre Jilin province will incorporate rapid antigen tests (RATs) into its mass testing campaign after the country approved more test kits in a bid to curb the Omicron variant.Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, who has been leading t...

A Hong Kong doctor has been placed on a wanted list after being accused of selling a vaccine exemption certificate for HK$800 (US$102) to an undercover police officer without consultation.The man, surnamed Chan, has been placed on a list of people wa...

Two Hong Kong men were in police custody on Thursday after being arrested in an anti-narcotics operation at the Central Ferry Pier.Officers are investigating whether the two suspects, aged 41 and 51, were carrying out a drug deal inside a white Toyot...

Zhou Zhuguang surveys his Shanghai workshop and rows of workers meticulously stitching high-collared Chinese dresses known as qipao, some of which sell for nearly US$5,000.“It’s a highly skilled craft,” said Zhou, co-founder of Hanart, one of C...

Kazakhstan’s president vowed to implement sweeping political reforms and share more powers with a bolstered legislature, two months after his country was rocked by deadly nationwide unrest.Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told a joint session of the oil-rich ...

Hong Kong could be easing up on flight bans, class suspensions and quarantine periods for travellers a month earlier than planned, with the city’s leader conceding that the public’s tolerance for harsh anti-epidemic measures was “fading”.Many...

Japan’s sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are necessary, even if they squeeze energy supplies, because Tokyo one day could need allies to counter China in East Asia, former foreign minister Taro Kono said.“We need to tell the peopl...

Figures showing a global rise in Covid-19 cases could herald a much bigger problem as some countries also report a drop in testing rates, the WHO said on Tuesday, warning nations to remain vigilant against the virus.After more than a month of decline...

A retired Shanghai woman reportedly spent over 1.5 million yuan (US$236,000) and went into debt buying health services from a wellness scam over the past four years.The 74-year-old woman, called Fang Fang (not her real name), said many of her friends...

The United States Federal Reserve System (Fed) raised its key interest rate by 25 basis points, from a target range of zero to 0.25 per cent, to a range of 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent.That officially ended the era of zero interest rates, in place s...

The local administration must distribute aid from the central government properly and plan for the next stage of the pandemic in an orderly way, a top Beijing official has said during the latest high-level meeting in Shenzhen on Hong Kong’s coronav...

The UK is introducing long-awaited and sweeping legal proposals to force internet companies to remove illegal content from their platforms, giving regulator Ofcom power to impose massive fines and prosecute executives personally for failures to compl...

A huge dust storm swirling over Europe from the Sahara desert made it hard to breathe in large parts of Spain and gave cleaning crews extra work as far away as Paris, London and Belgrade to remove the film of dirt falling on cars and buildings.Europe...

Russian and Ukrainian envoys to Indonesia are courting the country’s largest moderate Islamic group Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), in acknowledgement of its political influence on leaders of Southeast Asia’s largest economy.Last week, Ukraine’s envoy me...

South Korea reported a record 621,328 new daily Covid-19 cases and a daily record 429 deaths, authorities said on Thursday, as the country which once took an aggressive anti-pandemic approach is set to end restrictions.The Korea Disease Control and P...

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) raised the city’s base lending rate by 25 basis points to 0.75 per cent in the first widely heralded move since December 2018, which is expected to add upwards pressure to mortgage payments linked to interban...

An infant who died from sudden illness will provide hope for the babies of two families she saved with her kidney donations.Nicknamed “Yiyi”, the baby girl was born in Shanghai on February 10 but suddenly became very ill on March 4, only 22 days ...

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor may want to showcase her governing team’s solidarity and determination to win the Covid-19 battle through hosting daily press briefings, but such a move could further undermine her credibility if she fail...

Guangdong resident Stephen Yao used to take more than 20 overseas trips a year to buy properties for wealthy Chinese clients in popular tourist destinations like Kyoto, Bangkok, Pattaya and Kuala Lumpur.But the coronavirus pandemic brought an abrupt ...

A US Navy flight officer convicted last year of lying about his purchase of two pistols for a Chinese national was sentenced on Wednesday to four years in prison.Fan Yang, a 37-year-old lieutenant in the US Navy trained in anti-submarine warfare, was...

Shenzhen residents have expressed growing concern as the city struggles to contain its current Covid-19 outbreak with rumours blaming illegal border crossings from neighbouring Hong Kong – even though the city has never confirmed how the outbreak s...

Since 1997, Hong Kong has yet to confront a more serious non-political issue than the pandemic. On the heels of the 2019 protests and the aftermath, which considerably damaged confidence in our city, the way we have handled the latest wave of Covid-1...

For Candice Zhang, a small cross-border merchant based in the southern Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen, the past three weeks have been particularly tough for her business.She has lost about half her usual orders since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war...

International outrage over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grew on Thursday as US and Ukrainian officials said civilians waiting in line for bread and sheltering in a theatre had been killed by Russian forces.US President Joe Biden called Russian lead...

Netflix is giving its US subscribers what they want – and apparently that’s more of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.After popular demand, the streaming giant announced Wednesday that it will bring Zelensky’s 2015 comedy television series...

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has signalled Australia would move in lockstep with its allies to sanction China if it has provided military support to Russia in its war with Ukraine.Morrison also criticised China’s move to import Russian ...

On February 24, Hong Kong immigrant Fermi Wong Wai-fun caught a bus from her new home in Bristol, England, bound for a protest in London’s embassy district.Wong, a veteran of Hong Kong’s protest movement, had moved to Britain in late 2020 amid fe...

China’s economy will “never enjoy a meaningful lead” over the United States and will remain far less prosperous and productive per person even by the mid-century point, though it will still become the world’s largest economy, according to a n...

British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and dual national Anoosheh Ashoori arrived in Britain from Iran on Thursday, ending an ordeal during which they became a bargaining chip in Iran’s talks with the West over its nuclear programme.T...

“[I’m] better off in saying that my favourite hero is Putin,” Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said just months into office. Declaring his “separation” from treaty ally America, he launched an “independent” foreign policy in favour ...

The United Nations’ top court for disputes between states ordered Russia on Wednesday to immediately halt its military operations in Ukraine, saying it was “profoundly concerned” by Moscow’s use of force.Although the rulings of the Internatio...

The US Federal Communications Commission ejected Pacific Networks Corp. and ComNet (USA) LLC from the US market, continuing a series of bans of Chinese telecommunications companies over security concerns.Wednesday’s 4-0 vote follows the agency’s ...

United States prosecutors unveiled charges against a Chinese national on Wednesday over an alleged scheme backed by Beijing to pressure a former pro-democracy protester out of running for Congress.The indictment, brought in a federal court in New Yor...

Tens of thousands of Japanese households remained without power on Thursday morning after a magnitude 7.4 quake struck soon before midnight, throwing a swathe of northeastern Japan into darkness, severing key transport links and killing four.Companie...

Chinese youths born after 1990 hold more negative views of the United States than older generations, a recent study has concluded.The study, based on surveys conducted immediately before and after the US election in 2020, suggested that Donald Trump ...

International gym chain Fitness First shut down all branches in Hong Kong on Wednesday amid the “prolonged challenges” brought by the coronavirus pandemic.It marked the first closures in the fitness industry since the government in January ordere...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the US Congress on Wednesday to provide more weapons and humanitarian relief as Russia’s attack on his beleaguered country neared its fourth week.The video address, part of a pressure campaign on W...

Last year, a stranger approached Wong Shue-teung, 73, on a pavement in Chinatown in the northern California city of Oakland and pushed him to the ground. “He happened to take a swing at me, and I went down,” Wong recalled.A few weeks ago, just a ...

Authorities could amend Hong Kong’s overlapping planning rules to boost land supply while limiting input from residents at project hearings, and barring parties “without legal interest” from raising concerns against clearances.Land reclamation ...

Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, one of the world’s largest suppliers of video surveillance cameras, plans to buy a second-hand lithography machine made by Dutch firm ASML Holding for its in-house chip manufacturing operation, according to a ...

China has approved seven more rapid antigen test (RAT) kits for Covid-19, bringing the total to 12 as the country races to stop the spread of the Omicron variant severely challenging its zero-Covid defences in place since 2020.In a break with past po...

Hong Kong police arrested seven suspected triad members on Wednesday after tit-for-tat knife attacks between two rival gangs left five men in hospital.The seven men, believed to be members of two Sun Yee On triad factions, were detained on suspicion ...

Hong Kong is facing a shortage of coffins and ritual offerings from mainland China in the wake of a week-long Covid-19 lockdown in neighbouring Shenzhen, further affecting funeral services in the city.With cross-border traffic restricted since the lo...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson began lobbying Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to pump more oil to calm markets roiled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as he met the Gulf states’ leadership on Wednesday.Johnson arrived in Abu Dhabi ...

Tesla will suspend all operations at its Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai for two days to allow health authorities to test every employee for the Omicron variant as the Covid-19 outbreak threatens to flare up again in China’s commercial hub.Production of ...