From Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s to Xi Jinping today, China’s leaders have long said the country practises a unique type of socialism – “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Framed as an adaptive, flexible socialism, it’s tailored specifically to China’s conditions and problems. Initially, the phrase meant an embrace of free markets, free enterprise and trade, to reverse the economic stagnation of the Mao Zedong years. However, current leader Xi Jinping has declared the start of a “new era”, requiring a new type of socialism with Chinese characteristics – with the clearest continuity being that the Communist Party remains large and in charge. 

The Post’s Cliff Buddle writes that Hong Kong must do all it can to keep foreign residents from leaving and continue attracting others like them if it's to make good on its claim to be an international city. Last week, an American Chamber of Commerce survey of 325 people found that 42 per cent of respondents were planning or considering leaving, as politics and the pandemic pushed expats to weigh up their options.

After delays and speculation, China has released the initial results of its once-in-a-decade population census, which reported that the country’s population increased to 1.412 billion in 2020. South China Morning Post political economy editor John Carter and reporter Sidney Leng unpack the news that China has recorded its slowest population growth in decades amid a falling birth rate.

India is grappling with the world's worst Covid-19 outbreak, with nearly 370,000 new infections and over 3,700 deaths on May 10, 2021. More than 30 per cent of those caught up in India’s Covid-19 crisis are under the age of 30. Sanghamitra Acharya, professor at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, describes how Covid-19 is affecting not only the physical health of young people but also their mental health and job opportunities.

It has been 27 years since the South China Morning Post’s Harry Harrison moved to Hong Kong, where he began work as a cartoonist for the publication. Through the years, his illustrations depicted the many changes the city has undergone, most recently, the 2019 Hong Kong protests and the Covid-19 pandemic. Harry recaps his “roller-coaster” journey in a new collection of cartoons titled Add Ink: Cartoon chronicles of life in Hong Kong.

India is in the grip of a spiralling Covid-19 crisis, with more than 20 million infections and 220,000 deaths recorded across the country. Dr Abbas Ali Khatai is on the front line of the pandemic fight at a hospital in New Delhi. He spoke with South China Morning Post reporter Alkira Reinfrank about the mental strain created by the second wave of coronavirus in India, where he and his colleagues have to contend with a lack of beds and oxygen for their patients.

All foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong must be vaccinated before they can renew their work contracts, according to the government which announced the new measures on April 30, 2021. It has also ordered all helpers to undergo mandatory Covid-19 testing by May 9, 2021, after a 39-year-old domestic worker was confirmed to be the first untraceable local case of a mutated strain of Covid-19. The compulsory testing and vaccination order have caused an uproar among the city’s 370,000 foreign domestic helpers, with some accusing the arrangement as “discriminatory”.

Thakhin Kai Bwor has been publishing the Myanmar Gazette – the only Burmese-language newspaper in the US – for nearly 15 years. The 54-year-old edits and lays out the paper, and hand-delivers it to California neighbourhoods with a large Burmese-American presence. The paper, and its popular online edition, target around 300,000 Burmese speakers living in the US, and are offered for free, with advertising support from mostly Burmese-owned businesses. Its coverage is highly critical of Myanmar’s military coup in February, informed by Bwor’s own experience taking part in anti-government protests in 1988.

Japan entered its third state of emergency on April 25, 2021, in an effort to bring the country's largest spike in Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations since January under control. New restrictions were imposed in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures from April 25 to May 11. Large shops, establishments serving alcohol and cinemas have been closed. While people have been asked to work from home, schools remain open. The order comes ahead of “golden week”, one of Japan’s largest public holidays that normally sees extensive travel. It is also happening three months before the start of the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which Japan says it is determined to carry forward.
 

Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have been around in some form for decades, but started booming during the Covid-19 pandemic. And the SPAC boom has been sensational. The shell companies designed solely to raise money from investors to buy assets – usually private, unlisted firms – raised more money in 2020 alone than they had over the previous 15 years. The trend continues in 2021, with SPAC fundraising blowing past the previous year's record in the first four months alone. By April 2021, a Southeast Asian tech company was set to take part in the largest SPAC deal ever, leaving regulators across the region trying to decide whether to allow the vehicles into their market. SCMP senior business reporter Chad Bray explains what's behind one of the hottest capital-raising trends of the year. 

A small silver seal has unveiled the likely owner of Xuewei Tomb No 1, a 1,250-year-old tomb in China’s northwest Qinghai province. Discovered in November 2020, scans on the seal revealed the Tibetan saying “seal of nephew Azha King” carved into it. Researchers said this identifies the likely owner as Mohe Tuhun Khan, the son of a princess of the Tibetan Tubo Kingdom (618-842), who became the king of the “Azha” tribe. “Azha” is the name used by the Tubo Kingdom for the Tuyuhun, a Chinese minority tribe that ruled Qinghai for 350 years from the 4th to 7th centuries.