A feng shui-obsessed Chinese woman who kept repositioning a traffic mirror caused multiple accidents in her residential compound. Residents of a Shanghai community were troubled by frequent road accidents at a sharp turn for the past two months. Peop...

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up StepFun has unveiled a lightweight AI model that it says punches above its weight, rivalling larger systems from domestic competitors including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI as competition intensifies in the countr...

A veteran Chinese investigative journalist has been detained by police in Sichuan province after publishing an article critical of local officials, raising fresh concerns about the abuse of power. On Monday evening, police in Jinjiang district in the...

Hong Kong’s retail sales rose 1 per cent in 2025 after recording a 6.6 per cent year‑on‑year increase in December, with authorities saying that improving consumer sentiment and growth in visitor arrivals would continue to support the sector. Fi...

Around 85 per cent of insurance claims for damages caused by Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades have been settled, with the amount paid out totalling almost HK$510 million (US$65.3 million). The city’s Insurance Authority said on Tuesday that ...

The last treaty limiting nuclear weapons deployments by the US and Russia expires on Thursday, ending more than 50 years of restraints on the world’s two biggest nuclear powers. Russia has offered a one-year extension to New START, which was origin...

China’s economic locomotive Shanghai is aiming for a growth rate of around 5 per cent this year, after gradually rebounding since 2023 and reaching a better-than-expected 5.4 per cent growth last year. The megacity, whose economic size is comparabl...

Two men are set to be charged with murder in Malaysia following the discovery of the charred skeletal remains of six people – including three young children – in a remote, abandoned house in Johor state. Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad confir...

The sudden death of a top fund manager in Shanghai – the latest in a string of similar cases – has raised alarm in China’s financial sector, as worries grow over the health risks posed by the industry’s intense work culture. Shen Xianbing, a ...

I pay far less attention to China’s growth numbers today. What matters more is where fiscal capacity is flowing. China has entered a phase where population ageing, security needs and industrial upgrading all draw on the same budget. This shift foll...

A social media warning to transnational scam networks by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has ignited backlash from Cambodians accusing him of tarnishing their country’s image, prompting the post’s deletion amid diplomatic clarifications. On ...

Data leakage cases recorded by Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog increased 21 per cent last year, with hacking being the primary cause. But the number of doxxing cases had dropped significantly since legislation criminalising the act was passed in 2021,...

Uber Technologies is rolling out its ride-hailing service in the Chinese gambling hub of Macau, expanding into a new Asian market for the first time in years. Riders from Tuesday would be able to book and pay for taxis in the city using multiple lang...

The US defence secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term, James Mattis, repeatedly warned that China would revert to a Ming dynasty-style model, projecting its strong military, technological and economic influence globally. At the time, ...

The sultan of Pahang in Malaysia has urged the public to view royal pardons with “calmness of emotion” and not as “a political gift”, in what analysts describe as a pointed reminder that clemency is a constitutional process, amid a furore ove...

In a move to bolster the stability of the property market, Shanghai unveiled a plan to buy second-hand homes for use as public rental housing, with the move timed to coincide with the opening of the city’s annual “two sessions” meetings. With t...

US President Donald Trump said on Monday his administration would seek US$1 billion in damages from Harvard University after a New York Times report said the college had won some concessions in ongoing settlement negotiations with the government. “...

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Singapore begins ba...

Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp defended the firm’s surveillance technology as it reported a big jump in sales on Monday, ‍saying it has safeguards to prevent government overreach, without mentioning US immigration enforcement efforts in Minn...

Some parents in China are embracing a new way to motivate their children by printing giant homework papers, sparking laughter across the internet. In January, a mother from Hubei province, central China, said that she printed oversized test papers fo...

Any decision by Australia to regain control of Darwin Port is likely to differ from Panama’s move to nullify a contract on its geostrategically vital canal, as fears of Chinese retaliation and a limited security consensus limit Canberra’s options...

Pakistan says it has fielded requests for its JF-17 fighter jet from five countries in recent months – a surge of interest that could overwhelm its capacity to jointly produce the jet with China. In the past month, Iraq, Bangladesh and Indonesia ha...

Hong Kong authorities will allow up to 1,000 restaurants to welcome pet dogs in the initial stage, with the first group of approved eateries expected to receive licences by June. The Environment and Ecology Bureau said on Tuesday that it aimed to sub...

Japan’s exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products rose 12.8 per cent to an all-time high ‌in 2025, lifted by stronger shipments to the United States despite ‍new tariffs, and by a rebound in exports to China from the previous year�...

A Hong Kong resident has lost more than HK$4 million (US$512,148) to scammers after trying to sell a rug for HK$100 on online marketplace Carousell, according to police. The force also said on Monday that more than 110 cases of online shopping scams ...

Japan is reeling from a Russian espionage scandal that has laid bare how easily industrial secrets can slip through the country’s grasp, just as Tokyo is pushing to strengthen its laws against spying. Police in the Japanese capital referred a case ...

Leading brain development and gene regulation researcher Gao Zhonghua has joined a newly established university in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen after more than two decades working in the United States. Gao became a full-time research profess...

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The sudden and catastrophic collapse at a major bridge construction site in China’s eastern Jiangsu province has left five workers dead, after the bodies of three missing people were recovered on Tuesday morning. At 5.46pm on Monday, a significant ...

In the town of O’Smach, along Cambodia’s northern border with Thailand, stands a compound of abandoned buildings that were battered by shelling during recent weeks of armed clashes. The site, now occupied by Thai troops, had served as one of Camb...

Rescuers praised a teenage boy’s “superhuman” survival instincts after he swam four hours through choppy waters off Australia to find help for his family. The 13-year-old boy swam 4km (2.5 miles) back to shore to raise the alarm after his mothe...

China’s chief builder of commercial aircraft is displaying its full product line – including its home-grown narrowbody C919 as well as a full surgical cabin on board its regional jet – at the Singapore Airshow as it seeks to widen its footprint...

Bill and Hillary Clinton will testify in a US House investigation surrounding deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a spokesman for the ex-president said, heading off a potential vote to hold the couple in contempt. They had originally refused to ap...

China’s energy-drinks giant Eastroc Beverage neither rose nor fell in its debut in Hong Kong on Tuesday amid investor caution following regulatory scrutiny of poor-quality listing applications. Shares of the Shenzhen-based company, which makes an a...

Japan’s government plans to revive the military ranks used by its armed forces before and during World War II, in a symbolic gesture to please conservatives that analysts warn could stoke regional tensions. The plan, first floated in November after...

China’s commercial space sector has entered a new frontier. In January, a private Chinese aerospace company unveiled the test capsule of what is set to become the country’s first commercially developed crewed spacecraft, with plans for crewed fli...

The only full-time delivery rider in a remote county in the Tibet region of southwestern China delivers up to 200 orders a day while juggling multiple roles. Huang Kaihong, 24, who is known as “China’s loneliest rider”, works in Medog, a county...

Hong Kong’s tourism sector is bracing for a 6 per cent rise in mainland Chinese visitors during the Lunar New Year holiday, as travel to the city regains momentum. Tickets for high-speed trains from major mainland cities to Hong Kong have been sell...

Chinese open-source artificial intelligence models are being adopted by OpenClaw, the global hit AI agent, for their favourable balance of cost and performance, according to industry experts. OpenClaw, which has been a runaway success since its late ...

South Korea is bracing for prolonged US tariff pressure after last week’s emergency talks in Washington failed to yield a breakthrough, exposing the growing uncertainty that has come to define trade ties under US President Donald Trump. Korean Trad...

Cuba and the United States ‍are in communication, a Cuban diplomat said on Monday, although he said the exchanges have not yet evolved into a formal “dialogue”. Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, told Reuters the US g...

Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence ‍start-up xAI in a record-setting deal that unifies Musk’s AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok chatbot. The ...

The US Congress has teed up a Tuesday vote on a spending bill to end the government shutdown, following a House committee vote late on Monday. The shutdown followed a breakdown in spending negotiations amid Democratic anger in response to federal imm...

When the first cohort of elite foreign captains parachuted into Chinese airlines in the 2000s, their sky-high pay – sometimes reaching 1 million yuan a year – raised eyebrows among their Chinese counterparts. These hotshot aviators, with their in...

Central Asia’s water insecurity may seem a distant concern. But its rivers underpin Eurasian trade corridors, sustain global food markets and power regional energy systems. As water stress worsens, this is no longer just an environmental issue but ...

Queen’s University Belfast on Monday cut ties with former US senator George Mitchell over his links to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, saying it was no longer appropriate to remain associated with the key figure in the Northern Ireland peace d...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced backlash over his trip to China amid claims that the UK government has been “tricked” by Beijing. Conservative former security minister Tom Tugendhat raised the issue of Chinese sanctions on British p...

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered the start of nuclear talks with the United States, local media said, as his counterpart Donald Trump threatened “bad things” if no deal with the Islamic Republic was struck. Following the Iranian au...

China’s state-owned aluminium giant Chalco and Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto have agreed to buy a controlling stake in Brazil’s Companhia Brasileira de Aluminio (CBA) in a deal valued at US$886 million, marking one of the most significant fore...

After more than a year of haggling, US President Donald Trump on Monday announced a major trade deal between Washington and New Delhi that significantly de-escalates economic tensions between the two nations. A White House official confirmed to the S...