https://www.scmp.com/rss/314660/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com May Day in the Four Thousand Islands, a riverine archipelago that dots an especially wide stretch of the Mekong. On a public holiday to celebrate workers across the ever-shrinking communist world, a very different sort of ritual is being held here, at the southernmost tip of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Villagers gather in a clearing in the woods on the outskirts of Nakasang, a small market town on the banks of the river, bringing with them flowers, candles and eggs. They leave the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2103274/demonic-possession-laos-it-real-or-pretext?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2103274/demonic-possession-laos-it-real-or-pretext?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Jul 2017 09:47:45 +0000 Landlocked Laos, the poorest member of Asean, may be taking a page from Beijing’s playbook with a new set of restrictions for NGOs operating in the country, which have alarmed both non-profit groups and Western diplomats. Foreign and local NGOs play a crucial role guiding development strategy and leading discussions about land redevelopment in the small communist nation, whose civil society is still embryonic after two decades of isolation that ended in the 1990s. The new set of restrictions... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1594490/laos-ngo-restrictions-threaten-development-say-non-profit-groups?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1594490/laos-ngo-restrictions-threaten-development-say-non-profit-groups?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Sep 2014 03:43:52 +0000 A foreigner collapsing on the Shanghai metro caused passengers to flee the carriage and triggered a stampede to the exits, in a bizarre incident captured on camera. Filmed on the evening of August 9, the video – released this morning by CCTV – shows a white man slumping over sideways in his seat and then rolling onto the floor of the subway car. As he hits the floor, passengers start running away from the man, leaving the carriage almost empty. At the next stop, passengers are seen scrambling... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1577655/look-passengers-run-their-lives-all-because-foreigner-fainted-shanghai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1577655/look-passengers-run-their-lives-all-because-foreigner-fainted-shanghai?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Aug 2014 06:30:00 +0000 Weekly visits and random questioning by local police officers are not unusual for the Shenzhen Chunfeng Labour Disputes Centre in Guangdong province. This summer, though, has been different, says Zhang Zhiru, the centre’s director. The centre provides legal training and advice for workers in countless factories in and around the economic powerhouse of Shenzhen. It teaches migrant workers how to negotiate with employers and organise, and for this reason it has regularly provoked the ire of local... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1576613/what-beijing-summer-increased-harassment-surveillance-leaves?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1576613/what-beijing-summer-increased-harassment-surveillance-leaves?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Aug 2014 01:25:46 +0000 The parents of Ye Mengyuan, a 16-year-old victim of last year’s Asiana crash in San Francisco, have launched a wrongful death lawsuit against San Francisco City and County. The civil lawsuit was filed under both state and federal law, and seeks damages over the death of Ye, a Chinese teen who survived the July 6 crash last year – only to die after being hit by an emergency vehicle rushing to the scene, according to the coroner’s report. The suit also names 16 individuals, including San... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1574299/parents-teenage-asiana-crash-victim-sue-san-francisco-officials-over?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1574299/parents-teenage-asiana-crash-victim-sue-san-francisco-officials-over?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Aug 2014 10:00:00 +0000 Seven patients who underwent medical procedures in Hong Kong in the first quarter of the year had surgical objects left inside their bodies - the most since 2010, according to new figures. The items included a 12cm drainage tube left in a patient's abdomen, a 4.5cm catheter tip left in a kidney and the 1cm end of a drill bit that snapped during hip surgery. In another case, the spiral metallic tip of a fetal scalp electrode was left embedded in the head of a newborn baby. It was not discovered... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1564094/number-surgical-objects-left-bodies-hong-kong-patients-hits-four-year?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1564094/number-surgical-objects-left-bodies-hong-kong-patients-hits-four-year?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Aug 2014 03:00:15 +0000 Link to the timeline On Tuesday, China announced that former security tsar Zhou Yongkang is being investigated for graft, making him officially the target of the country's highest-profile corruption inquiry in modern history.  The South China Morning Post first reported the decision by the Communisty Party leadership to investigate Zhou last year. A look at recent corruption investigations shows that dozens of Party and government officials with ties to Zhou have been sacked prior to the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1562507/timeline-zhou-yongkangs-fall-grace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1562507/timeline-zhou-yongkangs-fall-grace?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Jul 2014 05:45:45 +0000 Over breakfast at a sandwich place in Kowloon Tong, three of Hong Kong’s most famous student activists are talking about their roles in Occupy Central. Like all students, Joshua Wong Chi-fung and Agnes Chow Ting, both 18, and Alex Chow Yong-kang, 23, talk about problems within the government and the need for greater social justice.  They draw on philosophical arguments as justification, but unlike their counterparts in the West, who might quote left-wing thinkers like Noam Chomsky and Slavoj... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1555279/unlike-world-peers-hong-kongs-young-activists-are-inspired-american?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1555279/unlike-world-peers-hong-kongs-young-activists-are-inspired-american?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Jul 2014 02:47:42 +0000 State broadcaster CCTV ran footage of US cable televsion channel Fox News on Monday showing a co-host making a racial slur against Chinese people, sparking an outcry on social media across China. The footage ran on news channel CCTV-13 showing an excerpt from last Thursday’s episode of the Fox News programme The Five, where co-host Bob Beckel said: “Chinese are the single biggest threat to the national security of the US … we bring them over here and teach a bunch of Chinamen – er, Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1554070/fox-news-hosts-racial-slur-sparks-online-backlash-across-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1554070/fox-news-hosts-racial-slur-sparks-online-backlash-across-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Jul 2014 09:15:15 +0000 Hong Kong has seen its fair share of political protest from annual Tiananmen Square vigils to outright clashes with police over the last 17 years as a Special Administrative Region of China. Grievances vary from year to year, but calls for universal suffrage, freedom of speech and the protection of the rule of law remain constant. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1543549/july-1-short-history-hong-kongs-march-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1543549/july-1-short-history-hong-kongs-march-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Jul 2014 01:00:00 +0000