https://www.scmp.com/rss/323057/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com For Samsung, the Galaxy smartphone was once an unlikely saviour. First released in 2009, this premium line brought the company out of a mud of obscure competitors and slung it into a duel with Apple. The world of tech entered a new epoch: these little supercomputers were its battleground, as were the giants that made them. Analysis: Samsung’s rush to beat Apple’s iPhone 7 backfires as burning Samsung 7s turn into nightmare Samsung had spent the previous years overtaking Sony in televisions and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2022102/why-samsungs-recall-galaxy-smartphones-threatens-its-universe?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2022102/why-samsungs-recall-galaxy-smartphones-threatens-its-universe?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Sep 2016 02:04:41 +0000 The international community of China-watchers is suffering one of its periodic flaps. China’s debt levels, we are told, are spiralling out of control, and the country is speeding towards its very own version of the Lehman crisis of 2008, except on an even bigger scale. Several things have come together to feed this latest flap. Last week, the Bank for International Settlements, often called “the central bankers’ central bank”, flashed a red light over something called China’s credit-to-GDP gap,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2022103/relax-chinas-banks-arent-about-have-meltdown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2022103/relax-chinas-banks-arent-about-have-meltdown?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Sep 2016 01:02:59 +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 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 Hong Kong must invest in digital technology and human development if it doesn’t want to lose its competitive edge to regional rivals, says leading American economist and management guru Michael Porter. Despite having a productive economy, good infrastructure and a dynamic business community, the city needs to continue innovating and strengthening its human development, Porter said, speaking to The Post, an international philanthropy forum organised by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2021690/how-hong-kong-can-keep-its-competitive-edge-over-rivals-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2021690/how-hong-kong-can-keep-its-competitive-edge-over-rivals-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Sep 2016 11:37:02 +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 Picture US$40 trillion. It’s a lot of money. It is, for example, bigger than the annual economic output of the United States, China, Japan, Germany and Britain combined. Well US$40 trillion is how much developing Asia needs to spend on infrastructure between now and 2030, says Danny Alexander, the former British cabinet minister who now fills the number two job at the Shanghai-headquartered Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Happily, adds Alexander, the AIIB is on hand to help raise the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2020095/asias-infrastructure-problem-not-what-you-think?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2020095/asias-infrastructure-problem-not-what-you-think?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Sep 2016 02:03:09 +0000 Perennial “frenemies” Singapore and Hong Kong have never shied away from an opportunity to slug it out – whether in the race to outdo each other as Asian hubs in finance, aviation or even street food. Now with London – until recently the world’s undisputed fintech, or financial technology, capital – in a quagmire following the Brexit vote, that sector could well become the new frontier for the two Asian cities to do battle not only for regional domination, but global supremacy. Total... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2020094/fintech-next-frontier-hong-kongs-battle-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2020094/fintech-next-frontier-hong-kongs-battle-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Sep 2016 01:00:00 +0000 When it comes to making a killing, you’d be hard pressed to find a business model more adept than the junket operators who procure, pamper and when required, punish the big-spending VIP gamblers who for decades have been the lifeblood of Macau’s casino industry. Junkets – often owned or run by individuals of questionable provenance – are the firms which source, lend money and provide “extras” to men – and women – willing to lose HK$100,000 on the turn of a card and come back for more in the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2020084/beijing-doesnt-want-them-what-would-macau-be-without-junkets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2020084/beijing-doesnt-want-them-what-would-macau-be-without-junkets?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Sep 2016 03:00:00 +0000 Almost a year has passed since the first woman to head Macau’s customs service was found slumped in a pool of blood inside a public toilet with a plastic bag pulled over her head, her wrists and throat slashed and an empty bottle of sleeping pills by her side. Despite their best efforts, doctors at the only public hospital in the city that has out-Vegased Las Vegas to become the most lucrative gaming destination on the planet could not save 56-year-old mother of two Lai Man Wa, who had been in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2020083/what-mysterious-death-tells-you-about-future-macau?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2020083/what-mysterious-death-tells-you-about-future-macau?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Sep 2016 02:00:30 +0000 While Jeff Bezos’ space travel company Blue Origin – with two turtles on its coat of arms – unveiled new rockets last week, a Chinese company in Shenzhen is preparing to launch an actual turtle into near-space possibly as early as this month. The reptile astronaut of Shenzhen-based Kuang-Chi Science, who is called Taigong Gui, or “Space Turtle”, is currently awaiting permission to board the Traveller II Beta that is expected to be launched this month from a remote location in Inner Mongolia... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2020079/shenzhen-company-entering-turtle-tourisms-space-race?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2020079/shenzhen-company-entering-turtle-tourisms-space-race?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Sep 2016 07:30:00 +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 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 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 It’s best not to fake it too often. Global condom maker Durex’s hoax tweet this week that it was launching an “aubergine-flavoured” line of rubbers may have got it plenty of eyeballs online and shrieks of disbelief in India, but frequent spoofs like that may erode consumer trust, say marketing experts in Asia. Catherine Chai, a Singapore-based brand advisor with Broc Consulting, said publicity stunts that involve online hoaxes must ensure that “the consequences of finding out the ‘truth’ does... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2017240/aubergine-flavoured-condom-come-again?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2017240/aubergine-flavoured-condom-come-again?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Sep 2016 12:09:21 +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 We have heard so much over the last couple of years about how slowing Chinese growth has pushed global commodities into a long-term bear market that it can come as a shock to realise that the price of the most important commodity of all – oil – has risen 75 per cent since January. The latest surge was triggered by reports that all members of the oil producers’ cartel Opec plus Russia will agree to freeze production at a meeting in Algeria later this month. Speculative traders rushed to buy oil... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2013140/oil-may-be-75-heres-why-it-will-remain-cheap?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2013140/oil-may-be-75-heres-why-it-will-remain-cheap?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Sep 2016 02:00:15 +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 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 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 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 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 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 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 It’s been a long time coming, but last week China’s State Council finally signed off on the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Connect initiative that will let non-mainland investors buy and sell shares listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. What’s more, mainland regulators scrapped the upper limit on shares offshore investors can hold through the two-year old Shanghai-Hong Kong Connect, and said Shenzhen would have no such ceiling. A daily throttle will still limit the pace of purchases, but in effect Beijing... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2006055/shenzhen-hong-kong-stock-connect-party-open-anybody-coming?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2006055/shenzhen-hong-kong-stock-connect-party-open-anybody-coming?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Aug 2016 05:24:58 +0000 Hike Messenger became India’s newest internet unicorn after securing a round of funding at a valuation of almost US$1.4 billion from investors including Tencent and Foxconn Technology Group. The app, which seeks to compete with Facebook’s WhatsApp, raised more than US$175 million via a series D round in which existing backers Tiger Global, SoftBank Group and Bharti Enterprises also participated, founder and Chief Executive Officer Kavin Bharti Mittal said. Why Chinese investors think India’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2005196/indias-newest-unicorn-hike-wins-tencent-backing-valued-us14?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2005196/indias-newest-unicorn-hike-wins-tencent-backing-valued-us14?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Aug 2016 11:13:59 +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 As venture funding in the Indian tech sector slows to a trickle, anxious local start-ups may have found a new backer of their dreams – Chinese investors. Eager to invest in a market that is home to more than 12,000 start-ups and, they believe, at the tipping point for growth, a slew of Chinese investors are committing to new Indian ventures even as their American and European peers take a step back. Their ultimate aim? To pick a winner capable of emulating the Chinese Unicorns – firms worth more... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2003038/why-chinese-investors-think-indias-tech-sector-next-big-thing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2003038/why-chinese-investors-think-indias-tech-sector-next-big-thing?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Aug 2016 02:00:28 +0000 In the United States, a deep-seated sense of grievance about it has propelled Donald Trump all the way to the Republican presidential nomination. Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton has placed tackling it at the centre of her own White House campaign. In Europe, it has been blamed for Britain’s Brexit vote, as well as for the rise of both far-right and far-left political parties around the continent. There can be no doubt about it – in the West, rising economic inequality is the dominant... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2003037/asias-rise-gives-lie-inequality-myth-peddled-trump-and-clinton?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2003037/asias-rise-gives-lie-inequality-myth-peddled-trump-and-clinton?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Aug 2016 01:00:15 +0000 B ali is famous for terraced rice fields, surging surf, simmering volcanoes, striking temples celebrating the island’s dominant Hindu faith – and wine. Okay, Bali isn’t Bordeaux, but you can find Sababay Winery’s Moscato d’Bali in that French region’s wine museum and order Hatten Wines’ Pino de Bali at Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotel. This year, Bali will turn more than 1,250 tonnes of island grapes into hundreds of thousands of litres of white and red wines in the heart of Indonesia, the country... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2002371/how-balis-winemakers-are-battling-islamisation-and-sour-grapes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2002371/how-balis-winemakers-are-battling-islamisation-and-sour-grapes?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Aug 2016 03:00:53 +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 Asia is in the midst of a running boom. According to Run Society, Asia’s leading online running magazine, there were just 53 official running events in Singapore in 2012. This year, there will be 112 – enough for every Saturday and Sunday for the whole year. The running calendar has doubled in size in just four years. For Malaysia, there will be 153, Thailand, 69 and Hong Kong, 38. More from This Week in Asia The definition of what it means to be a runner has changed. Alternative running events,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2001287/tough-mudders-colour-runs-how-asian-brands-gain-ground?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2001287/tough-mudders-colour-runs-how-asian-brands-gain-ground?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Aug 2016 04:30:09 +0000 Liu Chaoyang and his friends dodging flag poles in the sleepy outskirts of the small Brazilian town of Porto Feliz on this windy mid-winter afternoon are not training for the Olympics. The dozen or so Chinese boys breaking sweat in dribble drills are, in fact, not even interested in the world’s greatest sporting event, unfolding in Rio de Janeiro this summer. Read more from This Week in Asia About 120km from Brazil’s bustling commercial capital of Sao Paulo, the 17-year-old striker from Shandong... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/1999663/boys-brazil-how-china-became-soccers-new-el-dorado?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/1999663/boys-brazil-how-china-became-soccers-new-el-dorado?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2016 06:00:00 +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 France is at the crux of a European Union-wide battle for business and finance from China. It has been a little slower than Germany and Britain to ratchet up trade with Beijing, but Chinese interest in French aerospace, alcohol, cosmetics and luxury goods is growing. A major priority for the French government in recent years has been balancing out the large gap between French investment in China and vice-versa. China is the second-biggest goods trading partner outside the EU for France, after... https://www.scmp.com/cnbc/article/2000693/france-battles-neighbors-chinese-business?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/cnbc/article/2000693/france-battles-neighbors-chinese-business?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2016 01:30:30 +0000 Since a battered Uber sold its business to rival Didi Chuxing in China last week , the ride-hailing sector in India has been abuzz with anticipation of a similar deal in Asia’s other giant market, where ride-hailing companies are reeling from an unending price war. Industry sources say the fierce price war between the two top players – Ola Cabs and Uber India – has been bleeding the sector in India just as badly as the Didi-Uber rivalry in China, where Uber is estimated to have lost a billion... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/1999699/does-china-exit-signal-end-road-uber-india?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/1999699/does-china-exit-signal-end-road-uber-india?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2016 01:30:00 +0000 Chinese and Brazilian football go back a long way. All the way to 1997, when famed Brazilian coach Edson Tavares moved to the country to coach Guangzhou Matsunichi. Tavares, who played a major role in modernising football in China, went on to coach Shenzhen Ping An, Guangzhou Apollo, Chongqing Lifan and Shenzhen Ruby. Read more from This Week in Asia In 2000, the Chinese Football Association asked him to draft a plan to make the sport more professional. Tavares responded with a 78-page dossier... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/1999666/how-man-kicked-chinas-love-affair-brazilian-football?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/1999666/how-man-kicked-chinas-love-affair-brazilian-football?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Aug 2016 00:01:38 +0000 Facing a deep slowdown after years of investment-fuelled growth that culminated in a huge property and stock market bubble, the leaders of Asia’s largest economy come up with a cunning plan. By launching an initiative to fund and construct infrastructure projects across Asia, they will kill four birds with one stone. Read more from This Week in Asia They will generate enough demand abroad to keep their excess steel mills, cement plants and construction companies in business, so preserving jobs... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/1999544/why-chinas-one-belt-one-road-plan-doomed-fail?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/1999544/why-chinas-one-belt-one-road-plan-doomed-fail?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Aug 2016 07:00:30 +0000 As English soccer’s Premier League sides Leicester City and Manchester United prepare for tonight’s FA Community Shield match at Wembley Stadium, it is not only the silverware that will be glinting in Asian eyes. Read more from This Week in Asia For King Power, the Thai duty-free conglomerate closely entwined with minnows-turned-champions Leicester, the match represents a triumph of exposure regardless of which team wins. So too for the various Asian sponsors of 20-time champions United, from... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/1999543/guess-how-many-asian-brands-have-deals-english-premier-league?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/1999543/guess-how-many-asian-brands-have-deals-english-premier-league?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Aug 2016 05:22:36 +0000