https://www.scmp.com/rss/14033/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com There was time when the “Made in China” brand was generally associated with cheap, poor quality knock-offs of recognised global consumer products. From trainers to simple electronics, it was often associated with substandard items. That the nation has been able to surmount that image and become a global economic superpower in its own right, producing globally sought after goods and services in innumerable industries is a testament to the resolve, skill and dedication of the whole country. It’s a... https://www.scmp.com/sport/football/article/3181141/chinese-football-poor-imitation-global-product-why-didnt-they-follow?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/sport/football/article/3181141/chinese-football-poor-imitation-global-product-why-didnt-they-follow?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Jun 2022 02:40:30 +0000 Imagine swimming in a plastic ocean. As horrible as that may sound, we are not far from that dystopian scenario. Early in March, a major United Nations conference resolved to work towards better recycling and for “enhanced international collaboration to facilitate access to technology, to allow the revolutionary plan to be realised” – whatever that means. The aim is to have a legally binding agreement by 2024. But, we know how these things work. We can certainly get ready for more talking, more... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3170807/covid-19s-collateral-damage-plastic-pollution-our-oceans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3170807/covid-19s-collateral-damage-plastic-pollution-our-oceans?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Mar 2022 00:45:09 +0000 It’s been a big few weeks for protesters in Hong Kong. The combination of a hugely successful local election result, the denouement and subsequent ending of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University siege and the enactment of the US Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act represent a hat-trick of watershed events that may define this long year in Hong Kong. While each development may seem to constitute a win, the movement needs to navigate the meaning of these moments. Firstly, the passing of the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3040513/hong-kongs-street-protests-are-hard-work-yet-taking-movement?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3040513/hong-kongs-street-protests-are-hard-work-yet-taking-movement?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Dec 2019 01:00:14 +0000 We can probably agree that we have reached “Peak Greta Thunberg”. November 30 marks the first anniversary of her real introduction to the global stage, via the School Strike for Climate protests that rippled around the world. By now though, the Swedish teenager has become a parody of herself, and her “How dare you!” speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York in September has become a global meme alongside Homer Simpson’s famous “D’oh!” and US President Donald Trump’s “fake... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3038816/understand-climate-change-better-we-need-more-greta-thunbergs-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3038816/understand-climate-change-better-we-need-more-greta-thunbergs-not?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Nov 2019 05:00:15 +0000 In 1997, Subcomandante Marcos, leader of the Chiapas revolt in the jungle of southern Mexico, wrote the following: “Towards the end of the cold war, capitalism created a new military horror: the neutron bomb, a weapon which destroys life while sparing buildings. But a new wonder has been discovered as the fourth world war unfolds: the finance bomb.” The subsequent two decades, with the global financial crisis of 2008 planted like a flag in the middle of it, seemed to have proved his warning... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3035552/why-are-people-protesting-hong-kong-and-elsewhere-99-cent-are-still?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3035552/why-are-people-protesting-hong-kong-and-elsewhere-99-cent-are-still?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Nov 2019 23:30:05 +0000 New laws said to keep Australia safe from foreign meddling are preventing the media from reporting on Canberra’s own interference in one of its closest neighbours, according to critics, who argue the draconian regulations damage the country’s image and status in the region. In 2004, an Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) agent raised concerns internally about techniques Australia was using to get an advantage over East Timor. At the time, prime minister John Howard’s government was... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/2155464/has-australian-media-been-muzzled-new-national-security-law?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/2155464/has-australian-media-been-muzzled-new-national-security-law?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Jul 2018 08:11:15 +0000 Every four years, around this time, I buy a World Cup preview and start looking for the most interesting games. I look for those games that carry some potential to momentarily stop the world and to use the unique facility soccer has for bringing goodwill to a tense or troubled situation. Many will recall the World Cup match between Iran and the United States in 1998, for instance. Tensions between the two countries had been simmering since the shah was deposed in 1979. The Iranian players had... https://www.scmp.com/article/716759/united-we-stand-90-minutes-least?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/716759/united-we-stand-90-minutes-least?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:00:00 +0000 Today, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visits Burma in a long-awaited mission to attempt to negotiate a democratic process with the recalcitrant regime. While his broad agenda, including a meeting with junta leader Senior General Than Shwe and a call for the release of all political prisoners, is apt, the success of Mr Ban's time in Burma will depend on three things: the level of his meetings, his position on Aung San Suu Kyi and his plan for the future. Failure on any of these fronts will... https://www.scmp.com/article/685594/un-must-lay-its-burma-cards-table?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/685594/un-must-lay-its-burma-cards-table?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:00:00 +0000 It was all in the applause. It rang around Parliament House in Canberra and around big TV screens across the country in response to a 330-word apology to Australia's maligned indigenous population from the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, for past policies which encouraged one of the most dedicated and concerted acts of state-sponsored bigotry conducted in the last century. What happens next will be the true test of Australia's national maturity. For now an important battle has been won. In the... https://www.scmp.com/article/626218/rudds-apology-are-mere-words-enough?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/626218/rudds-apology-are-mere-words-enough?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:00:00 +0000 The incidences of political leaders cheating their constituents, or worse, murdering them for political or other inexplicable reasons abound today. The death of former Indonesian president Suharto gives pause to consider if the global justice system lives up to its name. It's time for a legal mechanism to nip despots in the bud. The case of deposed Liberian leader Charles Taylor, which resumed last month in The Hague, is significant for being among the first occasions when the... https://www.scmp.com/article/624730/can-world-really-deal-despots?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/624730/can-world-really-deal-despots?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:00:00 +0000 Buddhist monks and nuns are by and large pretty special people. Perhaps they don't get enough credit for being a political force, especially in certain parts of Asia. In Myanmar, Buddhist monks and nuns have been at the forefront of what might be a significant moment in the history of their country, the region and the world. The timing of the latest rallies for democracy was significant and seems chosen specifically. This is no robed rabble. This is smart politics. The last time there was... https://www.scmp.com/article/612574/buddhist-solution-myanmars-woes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/612574/buddhist-solution-myanmars-woes?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Buddha - A Story of Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra Hodder, HK$176 The past few decades haven't been among the most spiritually attuned in history, especially in western countries. Rarely has the spiritual element of life been so under fire. As such, Deepak Chopra sets a bold agenda when he seeks to delve into the life of Buddha. But this is no epic treatment of a cosmic giant. Chopra approaches the being many see as a god as a mere mortal who achieved something we all have the... https://www.scmp.com/article/597995/buddha-story-enlightenment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/597995/buddha-story-enlightenment?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Citizen One by Andy Oakes Dedalus, HK$165 In Citizen One, the second of Andy Oakes' Sun Paio series, the detective emerges from the state detention system bruised and battered, both physically and mentally. It is, perhaps, the pain of his incarceration that drives Sun into one deadly situation after another, leaving his career and often his life hanging by a thread, as he takes on the big boys in China's warped power structure. A death wish is just one of the many sad results of his ... https://www.scmp.com/article/595295/citizen-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/595295/citizen-one?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Jun 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Former US president Bill Clinton has made a few mistakes. His biggest in office, he says, was failing to intervene earlier during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. It's a fair call. The errors of humanity hang heavy in the air in downtown Kigali, capital of Rwanda. There's a ripple in the eyes of the locals, an inexorable atmosphere of death amid the living. You look into faces and wonder what they've seen. Travelling in Israel evokes a similar feeling, perhaps when you spot an elderly... https://www.scmp.com/article/582356/human-scale?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/582356/human-scale?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:00:00 +0000 It might seem incongruous that our United Nations World Food Programme vehicles are part of a 12-car motorcade, bristling with Pakistani military and clusters of guns pointing skywards like malevolent hedgehogs. But this is Kashmir and, in this part of the world, army and aid are forced to go hand in hand, generally with great discomfort. Some US$6.2 billion of funding has been pledged to Pakistan since the earthquake in October tipped the Richter scale at 7.6, killing more than 70,000 people,... https://www.scmp.com/article/547802/bumpy-road-recovery?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/547802/bumpy-road-recovery?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 May 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Poverty has a smell and it hits you like a fist at the rubbish tip in Phnom Penh's Stung Meanchey district. The visuals are no less shocking. Puddles of bubbling ooze waft toxic air into the grey sky and sticky maws of mud threaten to consume your foot at every step. Then there are the residents. Human figures, clad in rags, move through the detritus. A crowd, including many children, chase a rubbish truck as it moves in to dump its latest load. Soon they are picking through its cargo to... https://www.scmp.com/article/541299/saudi-aid-helps-lift-cambodias-children-out-dump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/541299/saudi-aid-helps-lift-cambodias-children-out-dump?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Mar 2006 16:00:00 +0000