https://www.scmp.com/rss/323055/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The nine Singaporean armoured cars that the Hong Kong government seized and impounded for more than two months returned to the city state on Monday, ending an episode that seriously soured the Lion City’s relations with Beijing. The Singapore Defence Ministry said in a statement: “The nine Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Terrex infantry carrier vehicles and other equipment arrived in Singapore today at 1440hrs and will be transported to an SAF camp for post-training administration.” The vehicles... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2066533/hong-kongs-singaporean-armoured-vehicle-saga-finally-comes-end?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2066533/hong-kongs-singaporean-armoured-vehicle-saga-finally-comes-end?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Jan 2017 11:11:58 +0000 The ex-judge running for Hong Kong’s top job says he would have joined the city’s Occupy protests if he were “50 years younger”, claiming teenagers thought their peers would look down on them if they did not join. Woo Kwok-hing also dismissed as “laughable” Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s suggestion that a change in leadership might not solve the city’s problems. Watch: retired judge announces bid to lead Hong Kong Commenting on the pro-democracy Occupy movement of 2014 that failed to gain... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2040955/id-have-joined-occupy-protests-my-youth-new-chief-executive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2040955/id-have-joined-occupy-protests-my-youth-new-chief-executive?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Oct 2016 05:20:11 +0000 “Guolaosi, we are working ourselves to death!” I looked at my interlocutor, a young graduate from a prestigious university in Beijing, and asked what she meant. “Imagine. Tens of millions of young graduates compete for only several millions of decently paid jobs. We easily work eleven hours a day, spend another three hours in traffic and then retreat to a studio that we share with four others because we still cannot pay the rent. On top of that, our work is not even interesting. We are slowly... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2022099/longer-hours-worse-jobs-are-asians-turning-working-machines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2022099/longer-hours-worse-jobs-are-asians-turning-working-machines?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:00:30 +0000 When 3,000 of China’s most influential people gathered at the Great Hall of the People in March 2013 for the pageant known as the National People’s Congress to approve a new set-up of state leadership, the world already knew Xi Jinping would be “elected” state president, Li Keqiang premier, Zhang Dejiang parliamentary chief, etc. While the NPC is constitutionally charged with as much power as its ilk in the West, China’s communist authoritarian rule ensures the party decides everything, and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2022093/chinese-vote-rigging-scandals-raise-question-why?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2022093/chinese-vote-rigging-scandals-raise-question-why?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Sep 2016 08:02:17 +0000 Hong Kong likes to think of itself as a liberal, pluralistic and diverse society. But dig a little deeper and the picture is not so pretty. Our city’s racial harmony is not achieved through tolerance. Rather it’s mostly because our minorities rarely make noise or cause trouble. Instead of being integrated, they have been socially marginalised and politically underrepresented. Public policies promoting integration range from inadequate to non-existent. But most of all, the attitude of many... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2022091/polls-apart-how-hong-kongs-minorities-free-election-politics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2022091/polls-apart-how-hong-kongs-minorities-free-election-politics?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Sep 2016 01:01:33 +0000 To unsuspecting outsiders, the camaraderie among Singapore’s multiracial population is just a happy, unplanned circumstance. But suggest that to the tiny island-state’s long-time rulers and you are likely to get a strong reaction. The People’s Action Party (PAP), in power since 1959, never shies away from trumpeting that racial harmony in the majority-Chinese country is an outcome of its vigilant and almost paranoid management of ethnic sensitivities in all areas of life, from politics and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2022077/whats-behind-singapores-move-boost-presidential-chances-ethnic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2022077/whats-behind-singapores-move-boost-presidential-chances-ethnic?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Sep 2016 00:00:15 +0000 Michael Chong, who wants to be the new leader of Canada’s Conservative Party and the country’s first ethnic Chinese prime minister, says his story starts in Hong Kong. At a conference in February, Chong illustrated the point to a roomful of conservatives by showing two photos. He was sketching a vision for the party that would later see him launch his bid to replace ex-prime-minister Stephen Harper, who stepped down after losing last year’s federal election. Canada’s former Tory PM Stephen... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2020074/could-be-canadas-first-chinese-prime-minister?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2020074/could-be-canadas-first-chinese-prime-minister?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Sep 2016 01:00:15 +0000 Wing flap found in Tanzania confirmed to be part of MH370 A wing flap that washed ashore on an island off Tanzania has been identified as belonging to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australian officials said Thursday. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island, off the coast of Tanzania. Officials had previously said it was highly likely to have come from the missing Boeing 777. An analysis by experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2020071/asia-3-minutes-new-evidence-search-mh370-shocking-revelations-ex?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2020071/asia-3-minutes-new-evidence-search-mh370-shocking-revelations-ex?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Sep 2016 11:15:15 +0000 Malaysia’s largest civil action group Bersih 2.0, also known as the Coalition for Clean Elections, will hold its fifth national rally on November 19 calling for Prime Minister Najib Razak’s resignation over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. But while past demonstrations have largely been well-received by activists and ordinary Malaysians critical of the Najib administration, Bersih is facing questions over its continued relevance and efficacy. Hisommuddin Bakar, from the Illham Centre... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2020028/another-rally-malaysia-suffering-1mdb-fatigue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2020028/another-rally-malaysia-suffering-1mdb-fatigue?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Sep 2016 09:00:00 +0000 Two years ago, Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia, visited Hong Kong. At the time, the Umbrella Movement was in full swing. Mahathir had been invited to address a pro-establishment gathering of political figures and business elites at the convention centre in Wan Chai. Few in the audience seemed to know much about Malaysia. But they knew about Mahathir. And in appreciating the managerial fist that he had wielded during his long tenure, they paid high fees to come and take... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018060/what-handshake-between-mahathir-and-anwar-really-means-malaysia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018060/what-handshake-between-mahathir-and-anwar-really-means-malaysia?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Sep 2016 02:02:42 +0000 Almost four years after Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched “Abenomics” to revitalise the country after 20 years of economic stagnation, most have judged it a dismal failure. But to dismiss Abenomics out of hand would be to misread Abe’s true objectives. Admittedly, first glance shows the policy’s “three arrows” have all fallen far short of their targets. The idea was that by pursuing radical monetary, fiscal and structural reform all at once, Abenomics would succeed where previous... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2018059/hidden-agenda-behind-japans-abenomics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2018059/hidden-agenda-behind-japans-abenomics?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Sep 2016 01:00:52 +0000 While it is always topsy-turvy and unwieldy, Thailand’s political environment has rarely been as tumultuous as in the past decade, characterised by recurrent street protests along pro- and anti-establishment lines. At issue has been a fragile and contested democracy whereby election winners were inevitably ousted by the powers-that-be who eventually proved unable to win a poll. But Thailand has now reached a new political plateau in the wake of the military government’s successful constitutional... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2018057/why-no-one-wants-rule-thailand-other-military?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2018057/why-no-one-wants-rule-thailand-other-military?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2016 04:03:59 +0000 From a high-profile public spat between two leading television journalists to a media clampdown in a troubled region and the sacking of a top editor known for his disdain for the ruling dispensation, one of Asia’s most vibrant media sectors is facing scrutiny over the degree of freedom it really enjoys. “Bring them to trial! Shut them up!” India’s most-watched anchor Arnab Goswami, told his audience on a recent show. Goswami is the editor-in-chief of English-language news channel Times Now,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018054/indian-media-how-free-it-really?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018054/indian-media-how-free-it-really?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2016 03:02:19 +0000 China’s long journey to an international yuan will mark a milestone on October 1 with the currency’s advent as a global reserve currency. It is also a landmark on China’s journey from a command economy into a free one. The International Monetary Fund accepted the yuan as the fifth reserve currency in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket last December, a vote of confidence in Beijing’s determination to push difficult financial and monetary reform. Joining SDR will not bring any immediate... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018053/why-yuans-status-means-less-china-imfs-demands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018053/why-yuans-status-means-less-china-imfs-demands?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2016 02:00:46 +0000 She is poised, elegant and has both an easy smile and a degree of empathy that are rare in a Japanese politician of any hue. But even if Renho – half-Taiwanese and a former swimsuit model – wins the election to head the Democratic Party, all her attributes are unlikely to be sufficient to lift the nation’s largest opposition to power in the immediate future. Such has been the damage inflicted on a political organisation that deposed the Liberal Democratic Party in 2009; the political capital was... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018051/former-swimsuit-model-hoping-lift-japans-wobbly-opposition?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018051/former-swimsuit-model-hoping-lift-japans-wobbly-opposition?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2016 01:00:15 +0000 “The road to world revolution”, Lenin supposedly predicted, lay through “Peking, Shanghai and Calcutta”. Like so many of his other predictions, this too proved wrong. In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, however, it looked as if Calcutta was living up to that promise. The city walls were plastered with Mao Zedong (毛澤東) graffiti, proclaiming, “China’s chairman is our chairman”. Maoists, it seemed, were staging the final rehearsal for the communist revolution in India. The party that was to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2018040/outside-china-these-places-are-where-maoism-alive-and-kicking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2018040/outside-china-these-places-are-where-maoism-alive-and-kicking?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Sep 2016 03:02:58 +0000 By all accounts, the G20 summit was a resounding success for China. Over the past week, state media has basked in the glory of the summit that showcased China’s rising influence and gave it the leading role in the international arena in forging broad consensus over ways to fix the fragile global economy. Now the party is over and the hard work begins. For many keen observers, the most important question is whether China will truly rise to the challenge thrown down by its own president, Xi... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2017670/what-if-chinas-leaders-were-keen-reform-they-are-fighting-graft?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2017670/what-if-chinas-leaders-were-keen-reform-they-are-fighting-graft?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Sep 2016 02:02:02 +0000 For half a century, Mao Zedong ( 毛澤東 ) has stared down at the throngs who visit Tiananmen Square. In what is one of the world’s most recognisable portraits, his gaze meets visitors straight on – as it has ever since October 1, 1967, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Over the years the portrait has become an archetypal image of the former chairman of the Communist Party of China, yet what many of those who visit today may not appreciate is its subtle difference to an earlier portrayal... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018050/can-china-ever-move-mao-zedong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018050/can-china-ever-move-mao-zedong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Sep 2016 01:02:25 +0000 Three months ago, on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, I climbed some 500 metres to the top of Hong Kong’s Lion Rock. Made famous by a song from the 1970s, it embodies what locals call the “Lion Rock spirit” – a tendency for Hongkongers to persevere through hardship for a brighter future. It had seemed fitting, to scale the summit on a date that marked such sacrifice for political change. I remember that moment clearly because I remember looking down at the city and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2017960/election-woke-hong-kongs-lion-rock-spirit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2017960/election-woke-hong-kongs-lion-rock-spirit?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Sep 2016 05:45:11 +0000 Malaysians have been rocked by the arrests of various high-powered government officials and corporate captains in recent weeks, even as Prime Minister Najib Razak battles worldwide graft allegations regarding state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Though the arrests by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission have been praised, critics say the authorities continue to drag their feet on 1MDB. This is despite a US probe claiming that a “Malaysian Official No1” received US$700 million... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2017127/are-malaysia-arrests-bid-divert-attention-1mbd-scandal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2017127/are-malaysia-arrests-bid-divert-attention-1mbd-scandal?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Sep 2016 07:57:18 +0000 President Barack Obama’s arrival in Laos for the Asean leaders’ summit this week coincides with a struggle by Laos’ communist party leadership to emerge from the shadow of China’s influence. China plays a key role in Laos’ economic transformation, with current investments in 760 projects worth US$6.7 billion. Laos’ annual growth rate has soared to 7.8 per cent, lifting per capita income to US$1,730 last year, helped in large part by Chinese investment. Barack Obama’s trip to Laos coincides with... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2013142/can-obama-help-laos-emerge-chinas-shadow?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2013142/can-obama-help-laos-emerge-chinas-shadow?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Sep 2016 06:02:16 +0000 In February 1980, Wang Shouxin, the party secretary of a local fossil fuel company in Heilongjiang, was executed on the same day she was convicted of bribery to the tune of 530,000 yuan (HK$615,000). Her show trial, billed as the largest corruption case since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, took place in a stadium filled with more than 5,000 people and was faithfully documented by reporters and photographers. To put the scale of her offence in context, the average monthly salary... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2013135/what-happened-billions-yuan-seized-chinas-anti-graft-campaign?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2013135/what-happened-billions-yuan-seized-chinas-anti-graft-campaign?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Sep 2016 05:00:37 +0000 China today boasts one of the most capable foreign services in the world. I have learned to appreciate its young diplomats as remarkably diligent, perceptive, and acculturated. Yet, even those bright officials struggle with an increasingly pressing challenge: to reconcile China’s promise of mutually beneficial foreign relations with a reality of unequal economic partnerships. China’s New Silk Road, also known as One Belt, One Road, is set to make that problem much worse as it is, in reality, not... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2013133/why-tensions-are-inevitable-chinas-new-silk-road?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2013133/why-tensions-are-inevitable-chinas-new-silk-road?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Sep 2016 06:02:07 +0000 Karl Marx once said a capitalist is a rational miser. Perhaps few fit that bill better than 19th century American financier George Peabody. Born a poor orphan in Massachusetts with little education, Peabody worked his way up in the British-American financial world to become the country’s leading banker. He amassed a stunning personal fortune and financed everything from the silk trade with China to iron rail exports. By the time he retired, Peabody was one of the richest men in the United States... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2013127/miser-turned-worlds-biggest-giver-and-his-lesson-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2013127/miser-turned-worlds-biggest-giver-and-his-lesson-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Sep 2016 02:00:00 +0000 The abrupt cancellation of a series of concerts in Australia commemorating the life of Mao Zedong has not only left in its trail a divided community but also exposed the limitations of Beijing’s soft power push. When the concerts were called off at the last minute in Sydney and Melbourne last week, the decision left more fissures in the community than the original announcement of the controversial programmes had. While ethnic Chinese who have migrated to Australia or were born overseas heaved a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2013178/mao-concerts-hit-wrong-note-australians-and-chinese-soft-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2013178/mao-concerts-hit-wrong-note-australians-and-chinese-soft-power?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Sep 2016 14:30:00 +0000 Can China and Japan, the second- and third-largest economies in the world, ever set aside their historical enmity and work together closely for the collective good of all in this part of the world? This is not an idle or naive question. In fact, it is quite apposite in view of the escalating tension between them over territorial disputes in the East and South China Sea, with each sending more and more fighter aircraft and warships to those contentious waters to test the other’s resolve, thus... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2011647/how-japan-and-china-can-put-past-behind-them-and-move?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2011647/how-japan-and-china-can-put-past-behind-them-and-move?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 31 Aug 2016 05:30:30 +0000 It is as if Hamlet, the confused prince of Denmark, has taken up residence in Beijing. Like the famed-prince, Chinese officials are wrestling with seeming and being. They seem to be relaxing their control over financial markets, but are they really? Are they tolerating market forces because they approve of what they are doing, such as driving interest rates down or weakening the yuan? If so, what happens when the markets do something of which they don’t approve? Much of what seems like the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2011173/sinification-hong-kong-not-same-internationalisation-yuan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2011173/sinification-hong-kong-not-same-internationalisation-yuan?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Aug 2016 06:45:45 +0000 On Monday, a week after he stunned Singapore when he nearly fainted while giving an annual policy speech live, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is due back at work. Following medical leave of seven days, it may be business as usual for him. But the incident has drawn attention to the unusual level of uncertainty around leadership succession. Regardless of the state of the premier’s health, Singapore’s ruling party likes to identify successors many years in advance. Lee himself broached the subject... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009583/who-can-step-singapores-next-leader?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009583/who-can-step-singapores-next-leader?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Aug 2016 02:00:00 +0000 A full month after the British government decided to review Chinese involvement in the Hinkley Point C nuclear power project, the howls of outrage just won’t die down. Insisting any security concerns over Chinese involvement are groundless, China’s state news agency, Xinhua, warned Britain would be “foolish” to jeopardise its relations with Beijing by suspending the project. China’s ambassador to London declared the delay had brought bilateral relations between the two countries to “a crucial... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2009502/why-britains-hinkley-nuclear-reactor-horror-show-or-without-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2009502/why-britains-hinkley-nuclear-reactor-horror-show-or-without-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Aug 2016 01:00:30 +0000 From the sunny balconies of middle-class suburbia to the dusty street township corners, South Africans have a new obsession – and it was made in India. They’re called the Guptas, immigrants from a down-at-heel town north of Delhi who have reached the apex of the country’s business world, and the centre of its politics. A Gupta TV channel, a Gupta newspaper, Gupta coal mines, Gupta-sponsored cricket stadiums – the family’s footprint extends far and wide. Zuma’s controversial friends the Guptas... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2010215/how-one-indian-family-killing-africas-oldest-political-party?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2010215/how-one-indian-family-killing-africas-oldest-political-party?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Aug 2016 07:49:13 +0000 Reforming the country’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has been at the centre of China’s transition from a command economy to a free-market one since the launch of the capitalist reforms of the late 1970s. And now it lies at the heart of the current leadership’s strategy for reviving the world’s second largest economy to restore China to greatness, which was named the government’s central task at a party plenum in 2013. In a keynote policy statement, the leadership also called for, as well as... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009501/why-does-china-say-and-do-opposite-things-state-firms?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009501/why-does-china-say-and-do-opposite-things-state-firms?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Aug 2016 05:01:17 +0000 As Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak becomes increasingly besieged by revelations in a US civil suit alleging fraud in his brainchild 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), his supporters are hitting back with a textbook tactic straight from classic psychological warfare manuals. Over the past several days leading up to Malaysia’s 59th Independence Day on August 31, senior leaders and operatives of Najib’s party, United Malays National Organisation or Umno, are claiming that the suit by the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009577/american-conspiracy-oust-malaysias-najib-or-propaganda-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009577/american-conspiracy-oust-malaysias-najib-or-propaganda-war?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Aug 2016 04:00:30 +0000 The South China Sea disputes have severely challenged Asean. At the Asean-China meeting held in Kunming (昆明) in June 2016, a senior Chinese official, sitting beside Foreign Minister Wang Yi (王毅), bluntly told Asean foreign ministers that, as far as China was concerned, Asean (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) was not central to the issue. In 2012, the 45th Asean Ministerial Meeting, under Cambodia’s chairmanship, failed to issue a joint statement for the first time in Asean’s history... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009574/lesson-hong-kong-must-learn-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009574/lesson-hong-kong-must-learn-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Aug 2016 02:03:34 +0000 PACHAKA LO, Shan State, Myanmar – It is the middle of the rainy season in Myanmar, when planting begins in the poppy fields of Shan State. Days can go by before the sun briefly appears, only to be quickly obscured again by grey clouds and the steady rain that helps the crops flourish. For the farmers of one such crop, it takes a two-hour trek through dense forest to reach their field. Hidden in the mountains, it is accessible only by way of winding, slippery footpaths, near-vertical climbs and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009572/will-myanmars-economy-ever-kick-its-opium-habit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009572/will-myanmars-economy-ever-kick-its-opium-habit?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Aug 2016 09:02:56 +0000 When Rodrigo Duterte warned people, “don’t vote for me because it will be bloody”, he won the Philippine presidency by a landslide with 16.6 million votes. He had tapped into public anger, fear and helplessness against rising crime. After two months in office, Duterte’s drug war has resulted in 1,900 deaths – 750 of them caused by policemen who said they acted in “self-defence” during “buy and bust” operations. The rest of the dead, murdered by unidentified men, are considered “deaths under... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009569/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-saviour-or-madman?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009569/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-saviour-or-madman?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Aug 2016 04:00:15 +0000 North Korean missile launch earns rebuke from unusual bedfellows On Wednesday, North Korea launched a missile, said to have had a range of 1,000km, from a submarine. It only managed half that distance, but that was enough to rattle the usual critics of Pyongyang’s missile, space and nuclear programmes. The launch coincided with more US-South Korean war games, which the North regularly describes as rehearsals for an invasion of its own territory. Within hours, representatives of Japan, China and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2009487/asia-3-minutes-north-koreas-missile-test-indias-ban-commercial-surrogacy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2009487/asia-3-minutes-north-koreas-missile-test-indias-ban-commercial-surrogacy?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Aug 2016 14:00:30 +0000 By Day 65, even the most fervent followers of the Occupy protests of Hong Kong knew defeat was nigh. But student leaders had called on protesters to besiege the government headquarters in Admiralty in one last push. So on that autumn evening of November 30, 2014, having donned helmets and protective gear, undergraduate Edward Leung Tin-kei and more than a dozen classmates rallied thousands to march to the government compound. As expected, clashes broke out between protesters and police,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009538/why-beijings-headache-over-calls-hong-kongs-independence-has-only?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009538/why-beijings-headache-over-calls-hong-kongs-independence-has-only?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Aug 2016 13:45:30 +0000 China’s increasing assertiveness in the East China Sea and a growing threat from North Korea’s missile development programme are pushing Japan to ramp up its own military capabilities, independently of the United States. Last week, Japan announced plans to accelerate the deployment of the US-made anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) following the landing of a North Korean Rodong intermediate-range ballistic missile 250km off its coast on August 3. That was followed by reports... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006258/why-japan-boosting-its-missile-defences?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006258/why-japan-boosting-its-missile-defences?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Aug 2016 06:03:17 +0000 The plush green hills and winding streams of Seongju present visitors with a tranquil beauty that betrays the intensity of recent events. A small agrarian town, Seongju is known for its yellow melons, natural scenery – and for being the place Seoul has chosen to install a US-built antiballistic defence system. The system, known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence, or THAAD, has triggered a massive dispute and pushed the region to the brink of war. After Seoul announced its installation,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006227/seoul-wants-thaad-do-koreans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006227/seoul-wants-thaad-do-koreans?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Aug 2016 04:00:34 +0000 In the summer of 2000, Jiang Zemin (江澤民) found himself waiting at one of the cavernous halls within the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Chinese leader was on hand to receive the former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew who was visiting the capital. A short but respectful distance away stood a pack of Singapore journalists. In a gallant attempt to make small talk, Jiang remarked at how similar Singaporeans and Chinese, zhong guo ren, were in appearance. It was almost impossible to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006266/there-may-be-trouble-ahead-china-and-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006266/there-may-be-trouble-ahead-china-and-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Aug 2016 01:00:45 +0000 The recent arbitration ruling on the South China Sea will go down as a textbook example of the limitations of international justice. Even if the vast majority of countries swung behind the tribunal in The Hague, China just told them to get lost. The resumption of so-called freedom of navigation patrols by the American navy will not change this. They could even be strategically convenient to Beijing and create a misplaced sense of security among its neighbours. As America flexes its muscle, China... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006225/why-us-policy-south-china-sea-only-helps-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006225/why-us-policy-south-china-sea-only-helps-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Aug 2016 09:01:39 +0000 Travel guides describe it as “a place on the edge”. Ironically, participants at a meeting between China and Southeast Asian nations last week in Manzhouli were also on edge. And yet the dusty little city could not have been more appropriate. Sitting at the edge of China, Russia and Mongolia, it is about as far away as one can get from the choppy waters of the South China Sea that have bedevilled relations between China and the regional grouping of Asean. How South China Sea ruling can be a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006260/can-manzhouli-work-its-magic-south-china-sea-disputes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006260/can-manzhouli-work-its-magic-south-china-sea-disputes?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Aug 2016 06:02:49 +0000 China’s drive to become a major player in the global electricity industry has hit its second stumbling block in less than a month, raising questions over its ambitions in other areas of the global market. Just weeks after a new British government’s decision to delay a decision on building the Hinkley Point nuclear plant – which was to have been part-funded by China – Australia announced it would block a US$7.7 billion deal to lease its biggest electricity grid to China’s state-owned State Grid... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2006223/why-no-one-gains-australia-and-britains-treatment-chinese-investment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2006223/why-no-one-gains-australia-and-britains-treatment-chinese-investment?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Aug 2016 06:01:52 +0000 Near my childhood home in Kunming (昆明), Yunnan (雲南) province, is a park dedicated to its most famous son: Admiral Zheng He. Our teacher would take us to pay tribute to the great eunuch of the Ming dynasty, recounting his legendary seven expeditions that brought glory to the motherland. The marble bust of Zheng He shows the face of a typical Chinese, with a square chin, brushy eyebrows and a flat nose. My father joked it more resembled comrade Lei Feng than the admiral. Not until years later did... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2006222/chinese-admiral-who-spread-islam-across-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2006222/chinese-admiral-who-spread-islam-across-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Aug 2016 04:00:30 +0000 Why would a young Hindu man working in Japan turn to militant Islam and plan a terror attack in Bangladesh? Nearly two months after a bloody hostage drama at an upmarket Dhaka cafe and a bomb attack on an Eid congregation, police in Bangladesh are still grappling with questions like this as they unearth fresh proof daily of a silent radicalisation that has in sucked hundreds of young men and women across the nation. 20 ‘foreign’ hostages killed after Islamic State militants storm Bangladesh... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006226/militant-islam-and-missing-boys-bangladesh?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006226/militant-islam-and-missing-boys-bangladesh?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Aug 2016 02:01:53 +0000 While diplomats from the West, Japan and India paid regular visits to Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound in Yangon during the August-September 1988 uprising for democracy, their Chinese counterparts stayed away. But one day, a car from the Chinese embassy came, and an official handed over a box full of books about Tibetan Buddhism – “to Doctor Aris”, her British husband and a renowned Tibetologist. It was a subtle way of telling her and her supporters that China was not an enemy. Long before he died in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006156/why-its-suu-kyis-turn-mend-fences-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006156/why-its-suu-kyis-turn-mend-fences-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Aug 2016 11:30:00 +0000 During his reign, Japanese Emperor Akihito, now 82, has done unprecedented things. He has addressed his subjects by means of a television twice. He has married a “commoner”, Michiko. He has travelled abroad extensively. And he has publicly expressed “feeling a certain kinship” with Korea, by acknowledging blood ties that go back fifteen centuries with the former royal house of the nearby peninsula. Nobody occupying the Chrysanthemum Throne had ever been quite so humble and relatable. Read more... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2003034/real-reason-japans-emperor-wants-abdicate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2003034/real-reason-japans-emperor-wants-abdicate?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Aug 2016 05:00:00 +0000 In the Malay language, the phrase sakit hati means “pain in the heart”. Sakit hati, both literal and figurative, summed up a day in the life of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad last week. He was in hospital for a heart-related ailment when his new political vehicle – Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia – was wheeled out. The new party is the outcome of the emotional heartache caused by current Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is mired in the scandal over the troubled state fund... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2003024/malaysias-comeback-king-mahathir-mohamad-gambling-his-legacy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2003024/malaysias-comeback-king-mahathir-mohamad-gambling-his-legacy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Aug 2016 02:00:19 +0000 When Fidel Ramos, the former Philippine president, arrived in Hong Kong on Monday pledging to find “common points of interest” between Beijing and Manila in their territorial dispute in the South China Sea, he opened the latest chapter in a seven-decade career marked by savvy and achievement. Ramos, a special envoy for Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte in the maritime controversy, visited the city one month after a ruling by the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands that rejected... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2002984/fidel-ramos-dutertes-ice-breaker-south-china-sea-row?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2002984/fidel-ramos-dutertes-ice-breaker-south-china-sea-row?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Aug 2016 13:30:30 +0000 Tianjin ( 天津 ) seems to have put last year’s deadly explosions in the Binhai New Area behind it after reporting robust growth in economic output. But the question remains: Can businesses really be immune to such a scandalous accident – one that claimed 173 lives and devastated 10,000 homes? Cao Ye, a senior manager with German shipping firm Rickmers’ Beijing branch, said the city government’s subsequent ban on hazardous goods being loaded or discharged at the port was “painful” and it continued... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2002358/how-tianjins-economy-proved-immune-one-chinas-worst-industrial?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2002358/how-tianjins-economy-proved-immune-one-chinas-worst-industrial?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Aug 2016 13:03:40 +0000