https://www.scmp.com/rss/323056/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 Last Christmas there was love in the air. Flying home from Afghanistan, Narendra Modi suddenly decided to stop over in Lahore to pay his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif a surprise visit, the first Indian prime minister to go to the estranged neighbour in nearly 12 years. The occasion for the unprecedented outreach: Sharif’s birthday and his granddaughter’s wedding. Sharif later hosted the wedding wearing a pink turban Modi brought as a gift. Pakistan happy to aid in China’s quest for land... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2022087/why-china-caught-india-pakistan-crossfire?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2022087/why-china-caught-india-pakistan-crossfire?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Sep 2016 02:00:30 +0000 Analysts have tried to interpret China’s rejection of the UN arbitration on the South China Sea dispute from Beijing’s strategic and regional security policy perspectives. What is missing in all such analyses is the increasing role of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), some of which may even be complicating China’s position in the dispute. But in addition to the defence industries, there are other less well known but active SOEs reaping benefits from the South China Sea disputes. Cruising... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2020096/welcome-conflict-tourism-how-chinese-state-firms-are-using?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2020096/welcome-conflict-tourism-how-chinese-state-firms-are-using?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Sep 2016 03:02:57 +0000 North Korea’s fifth nuclear test in defiance of international efforts has once again raised the question: why does a seemingly united world not stop the rogue nation from making trouble? Since it started testing missiles in 1993, the isolated state’s nuclear and missile programmes, though erratic and often failures, have stirred up one crisis after another, despite sanctions unanimously imposed by members of the United Nations Security Council since 2006. Over the past decade, Pyongyang has been... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2020093/if-world-united-why-cant-it-stop-north-koreas-nuclear-plans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2020093/if-world-united-why-cant-it-stop-north-koreas-nuclear-plans?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Sep 2016 12:04:01 +0000 Back in June when the Shangri-La Dialogue was in full swing in Singapore, no issue dominated the world’s top security forum like the territorial dispute over the South China Sea, as frenetic sessions drew dozens of defence ministers from the world’s most powerful militaries along with hundreds of officials, academics and corporate executives. Has North Korea already prepared for its next nuclear test? Completely overshadowed was a special session devoted to “Containing the North Korean Threat”,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2020077/why-its-time-us-china-think-outside-box-north-korea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2020077/why-its-time-us-china-think-outside-box-north-korea?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Sep 2016 03:00:00 +0000 The success of Aung San Suu Kyi’s latest trip to Washington may mark a new chapter in Myanmar’s relations with the United States but the ongoing civil war in the country gives China control over crucial levers of pressure on its neighbour that the distant superpower can hardly match. The warm welcome democracy icon Suu Kyi received in Washington reflects the US administration’s perception of Myanmar as one of its most significant foreign policy successes. US considers further easing or lifting... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2020076/why-us-no-match-chinas-carrot-and-stick-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2020076/why-us-no-match-chinas-carrot-and-stick-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Sep 2016 02:01:30 +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 East Asia is an extremely diverse region, not known to easily agree on many things. But nobody thought that the consequences, in particular the economic consequences, of Brexit could be anything but bad: bad for Britain, bad for the EU as a whole, and bad for the world. Official statements from, among others, China, Japan, the United States, Australia and India – and the last three are in a political sense East Asian countries, members of the East Asian Summit – displayed a rare unanimity in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2019360/real-reason-brexit-could-influence-east-asias-great-game?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2019360/real-reason-brexit-could-influence-east-asias-great-game?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Sep 2016 10:34:55 +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 Southeast Asian leaders divided over Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea will seek to paper over frayed ties and present a united front at a summit with world powers in Laos next week, observers say. China’s Premier Li Keqiang (李克強), Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are among delegates due to join US President Barack Obama for his swansong in Asia at the three-day Asean summit starting on Tuesday. The meeting of the leaders of the 10-member... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2013136/why-does-asean-pretend-be-united-when-its-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2013136/why-does-asean-pretend-be-united-when-its-not?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Sep 2016 06:02:15 +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 It’s 9.30am on a Tuesday morning and container trucks with North Korean number plates are lined up outside the customs checkpoint at the Chinese end of the 73-year-old Yalu River Bridge in this town of Dandong. A North Korean driver jumps from his cab and passes some paperwork to a Chinese official. As he gets back into the cab, Chinese customs inspectors put a small lock on the container’s doors. In a few minutes, his truck is on its way across the border. This part of the border between North... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2013134/sanctions-what-sanctions-china-north-korea-and-dandong-deals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2013134/sanctions-what-sanctions-china-north-korea-and-dandong-deals?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Sep 2016 03:17:51 +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 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 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 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 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 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 One of the world’s biggest yachts has quietly slipped into Hong Kong, its visit shrouded in secrecy. The 91.5 metre Equanimity – the 51st largest yacht in the world, according to Boat International magazine – has been linked to Jho Low, the Malaysian financier at the centre of the 1MDB scandal that has rocked the country. There have been speculation, notably in the newsletter Sarawak Report, that the yacht is to be sold. But the purpose of its stay in Hong Kong is unclear. And no one connected... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006261/hong-kongs-mystery-yacht-linked-jho-low-1mdb-fame?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006261/hong-kongs-mystery-yacht-linked-jho-low-1mdb-fame?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Aug 2016 07:00:45 +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 It happens every time. Each day, Indian sports fans following the news of the Olympics from Rio de Janeiro feel their hearts sink. The first week went by without a single Indian medal, while the United States racked up 25 by Friday and China was running a close second. This week, China’s total tally stands at 69 at press time while things have marginally improved for India, having won one bronze in women’s freestyle wrestling and a silver in women’s badminton. The two medals have come as a huge... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006254/65-2-what-rio-olympics-medal-tally-says-about-china-india?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006254/65-2-what-rio-olympics-medal-tally-says-about-china-india?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Aug 2016 02:00:30 +0000 CHINA When China sent 710 athletes, coaches and officials to the Rio Games – its largest ever delegation to an away Olympics – it expected a comfortable second place in the table of gold medals, as it achieved in London four years ago. After all, the delegation included 35 Olympic gold medallists – 27 from the London Games – and one of China’s biggest competitors, Russia, had seen its medal hopes seriously hit by the International Olympic Committee’s decision to ban many of its athletes on... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006255/why-chinas-gold-medal-count-rio-olympics-so-low?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006255/why-chinas-gold-medal-count-rio-olympics-so-low?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Aug 2016 02:00:30 +0000 No press packages, no cheerleading videos, no slick PowerPoint presentations and nary a pre-arranged interview with a bigwig. For a mega expo positioned as Kazakhstan’s coming-out party on the world stage, the arrangements for media familiarisation in the capital of Astana couldn’t have been more half-hearted. The three-month expo, due to open next June and meant to showcase Astana as the Dubai of Central Asia, was originally estimated to cost up to US$3 billion and attract five million... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006221/central-asias-answer-dubai-kazakhstans-astana-reality-bites?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006221/central-asias-answer-dubai-kazakhstans-astana-reality-bites?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Aug 2016 07:13:58 +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 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 By spending about RM16 billion ringgit (US$4 billion) on troubled Malaysian state investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), China has bought a lot of clout in the corridors of power in this Southeast Asian nation. Last month’s civil suit by US authorities against personalities tied to 1MDB and their assets comes as local leaders worry the global financial scandal will have a deeper impact. It is not just a question of whether Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak will serve out his term, or... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2004582/hidden-costs-chinas-lifeline-1mdb-scandal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2004582/hidden-costs-chinas-lifeline-1mdb-scandal?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Aug 2016 06:45:00 +0000 A strange-sounding edict has gone out from China’s authorities to the entertainment division of the nation’s broadcasters: no more South Korean soap stars or K-pop idols to appear onscreen. After a decade in which South Korea’s actors and singers such as Kim Soo-hyun (pictured) and ­G-Dragon achieved huge popularity in China, projects featuring them have been “postponed”. The reason for this near-ban is not hard to fathom. Recently, the South Korean government approved the deployment of the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2003035/k-pop-korean-soap-stars-and-secret-beijing-wont-learn?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2003035/k-pop-korean-soap-stars-and-secret-beijing-wont-learn?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Aug 2016 03:00:00 +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 Late one night in May, the commanders of five dormant militant factions affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban gathered for a rare meeting of their shura, or leadership council, in a crime-ridden slum of Karachi, a bustling Pakistani port city of more than 20 million people. Read more from This Week in Asia Grimly sipping hot tea around a low table in a dimly lit room, this was the first time the shura bosses had assembled since 2014, when the Pakistani military’s counter-terrorism... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2003041/karachi-kashgar-how-islamic-state-poses-threat-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2003041/karachi-kashgar-how-islamic-state-poses-threat-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Aug 2016 04:32:41 +0000 Military juntas with autocratic agendas do not promise elections to cede power. Instead, they fabricate an appearance of democratic change in order to avoid it. More specifically, by allowing civilian governments to come to the fore, they hope to legitimise their now indirect, but continuing, rule. Read more from This Week in Asia It is in this way Thailand’s recent referendum, and the new draft constitution it endorsed, must be seen. Sure, citizens were free to vote in this referendum. But no... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2002989/why-thailands-junta-feels-it-needs-veneer-legitimacy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2002989/why-thailands-junta-feels-it-needs-veneer-legitimacy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Aug 2016 02:00:30 +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 Democracy may be a casualty of Thailand's newly approved constitution, but the referendum's result may boost the country's struggling economy. Voters accepted the military-backed constitution in Sunday's referendum, with 61.4 per cent in favour with 94 per cent of the votes counted, Reuters reported. Aim Sinpeng, a lecturer in comparative politics at the University of Sydney, told CNBC's The Rundown that "the very foundation of the political system will be undermined by a number of undemocratic... https://www.scmp.com/cnbc/article/2000726/thailand-may-get-economic-boost-military-tightening-its-grip?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/cnbc/article/2000726/thailand-may-get-economic-boost-military-tightening-its-grip?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2016 02:30:30 +0000 When Wendy Ting splashed out S$4,000 (HK$23,000) renting a pushcart to sell Japanese cuddly toys in a busy suburban mall in Singapore, her hope was simply to eke out a small profit. Despite being parked in the middle of AMK Hub, a mall linked to the subway in one of the city’s most densely populated housing estates, Ting sold just S$1,000 worth of toys over two months. Read more from This Week in Asia “Lots of kids were interested but the parents kept saying, ‘so expensive, no money to buy’,”... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/1999505/singapore-heading-recession?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/1999505/singapore-heading-recession?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2016 01:00:00 +0000 Asia’s transformation in recent decades into the world’s most dynamic economy and chief engine for global growth has caused massive shifts in the region’s balance of power – but the most profound shift yet is still underway. Japan’s rise, from the ruins of the second world war, to become the world’s second largest economy by the 1960s had a dramatic impact on global politics. Over the next couple of decades, the economic miracles of the “Four Asian Dragons” – Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/1999115/during-chinas-rise-asias-peace-does-not-require-balancing-act?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/1999115/during-chinas-rise-asias-peace-does-not-require-balancing-act?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Aug 2016 08:00:45 +0000 Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is battening down the hatches amid strident criticism of his government at home and abroad as his country takes flak for putting its financially rewarding alliance with China above the wishes of the Asean states, and the rising political violence in the run-up to the elections stokes popular protest and spooks foreign investors. Read more from This Week in Asia His support for Beijing’s maritime claims at a recent Association of South East Asian Nations meeting... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/1999692/will-chinese-money-be-enough-ward-dissent-against-cambodian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/1999692/will-chinese-money-be-enough-ward-dissent-against-cambodian?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Aug 2016 04:00:30 +0000 Acabinet reshuffle in Indonesia by President Joko Widodo that puts his former chief security minister and right-hand man Luhut Panjaitan in charge of maritime affairs is more about striking a political balance in the coalition government than adopting a harder line with China over disputed fishing rights in the South China Sea. Read more from This Week in Asia Widodo’s July 27 reshuffle, in which 13 of his 34 ministers were either replaced or moved sideways, came weeks after he held a cabinet... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/1999595/indonesia-has-these-bigger-fish-fry-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/1999595/indonesia-has-these-bigger-fish-fry-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Aug 2016 08:02:36 +0000 After the major parties’ national conventions were done and dusted last week, Donald Trump as the Republican Party nominee has come under fire for saying Asian countries competed unfairly with American businesses and took a free ride on its defence strategy. He may have alienated many in the region, but “The Donald’ is not without Asian fans… Japan Trump’s claim that the Japan-US security alliance is “unfair” appears to have inspired Japanese YouTube star Yoko Mada (randomyoko), who claims many... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/asia-scan/article/1999538/long-distance-lovers-donald-trumps-asian-supporters?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/asia-scan/article/1999538/long-distance-lovers-donald-trumps-asian-supporters?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Aug 2016 04:00:15 +0000 BaĐDinh District, Hanoi, not far from the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the National Assembly. I’m visiting a 77-year-old widow, Cao Ngoc Diep and her family at their ancestral temple-home. Above one small shrine there’s a haunting photograph of the fallen soldier, Cao Minh Phi, killed in Nha Trang in 1968 by the Americans aged 28, leaving behind a sweet-faced widow and her four small children. Read more from This Week in Asia The English-speaking granddaughter Ngoc shows me around the other... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/1999202/how-vietnam-has-kept-china-bay-over-thousands-years?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/1999202/how-vietnam-has-kept-china-bay-over-thousands-years?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Aug 2016 03:00:30 +0000