https://www.scmp.com/rss/323061/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com More than 3,000 people have been killed since Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared the war on drugs that he believes is required to arrest his already threadbare country’s slide towards becoming a narco-state. About a third of that number died at the hands of police, with the rest presumed to have been extra-judicial executions as Duterte’s “shoot first ask questions later” strategy results in the sort of body count you might expect from a state-sanctioned spree of score settling,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022293/guns-ammo-and-aristocrat-how-hong-kong-bank-sting-connected?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022293/guns-ammo-and-aristocrat-how-hong-kong-bank-sting-connected?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Sep 2016 04:00:15 +0000 For Jennifer Liu, the founder and owner of The Coffee Academics, the humble coffee bean has come a long way. What began as a student hobby has since been cultivated as a passionate business and grown into a way of viewing the world. Liu was studying architecture at Cornell in the 1990s when she became taken with the question of what made a great cup of Joe. Soon she had decided it was her “intention to share my passion for coffee and its culture – to explain the coffee experience as a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022058/how-relax-when-your-office-cafe-coffee-academics-jennifer-liu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022058/how-relax-when-your-office-cafe-coffee-academics-jennifer-liu?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Sep 2016 12:16:59 +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 She is all of 25 and may have already made one of the most significant discoveries of our time. Scientists in Australia this week took a quantum leap in the war on superbugs, developing a chain of star-shaped polymer molecules that can destroy antibiotic-resistant bacteria without hurting healthy cells. And the star of the show is 25-year-old Shu Lam, a Malaysian-Chinese PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, who has developed the polymer chain in the course of her thesis research in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2020060/25-year-old-malaysian-chinese-who-may-have-just-solved-superbug?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2020060/25-year-old-malaysian-chinese-who-may-have-just-solved-superbug?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Sep 2016 09:33:59 +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 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 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 Christie’s Asia President Rebecca Wei never used to care about securing private time off work – until she became so overworked that she ended up in hospital for two weeks during her early thirties. It was back when Wei had just started her decade-long career at McKinsey & Company, where she would go on to become the first female partner elected at their Greater China Office. Having worked for six months without weekends or vacations, she developed a pain during a Christmas party and went to see... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2017997/how-hospital-cured-my-addiction-work-christies-asia-president-rebecca-wei?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2017997/how-hospital-cured-my-addiction-work-christies-asia-president-rebecca-wei?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Sep 2016 08:00:30 +0000 They chose the wrong time – and the wrong place. This was certainly not the time to launch a book critical of Mother Teresa – days before her canonisation in the Vatican on Sunday. Calcutta is readying itself, not to receive any such book, but to bask in the glory of its first-ever saint. It is not often it gets a chance to pat itself on the back. The book is not exactly new. It’s a translation into the local Bengali language of an English one, Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict, by Aroup... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2013138/how-mother-teresa-rose-above-criticism-sainthood?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2013138/how-mother-teresa-rose-above-criticism-sainthood?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Sep 2016 03:09:18 +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 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 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 Before settling down in his seat, celebrity chef Justin Quek turns to his wait staff and rattles off a list of dishes to serve for lunch. He decides to go Asian, starting with a tangy treat to whet the appetite – hot and sour soup. He’s supposed to be talking about what he does in his spare time, though given the frenetic pace of his trendy French-Asian restaurant Sky on 57 at the top of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, it’s a wonder he gets any. On this occasion, he juggles being interviewed with... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/2009567/how-singapores-celebrity-chef-justin-quek-spends-his-private-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/2009567/how-singapores-celebrity-chef-justin-quek-spends-his-private-time?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Aug 2016 03:02:28 +0000 To its fans it is a symbol of modesty and privacy, an expression of piety, a garment that liberates, integrates and guards against skin cancer. To its detractors it is oppressive and subversive, a fabric that separates society and affronts Western values. And it’s causing a political storm. The burkini – a swimsuit favoured by Muslim women because it gives full-body coverage, including legs, arms and hair – is making headlines across Europe after some French authorities banned it from beaches... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009576/unveiled-straight-talking-aussie-chick-behind-burkini?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009576/unveiled-straight-talking-aussie-chick-behind-burkini?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Aug 2016 15:45:30 +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 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 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 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 Haegue Yang has a rather unconventional idea of how to spend her private time. She wants to lock herself and a couple of friends in a room and fast for a day or two, surviving only on water. “We would be just lying around and slowly feeling weaker,” says the award-winning Korean artist. “We would be sharing an experience, focusing on being together and not getting distracted from it, without an expensive hotel, wine or food. What would happen between us? It is an intimate experiment. “For... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2002983/why-do-we-demonise-work-korean-artist-haegue-yang-defies-convention?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2002983/why-do-we-demonise-work-korean-artist-haegue-yang-defies-convention?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Aug 2016 18:00:45 +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 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 Luiz Felipe Scolari, who won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil, has had a dream run since arriving in China a year ago to coach Guangzhou Evergrande. Under “Felipão”, the club has won the Chinese Super League, the Asian Champions League and the Chinese Football Super Cup. Read more from This Week in Asia Scolari, 67, who has also coached Portugal and the English Premier League club Chelsea, spoke to Lourival Sant’Anna for This Week in Asia. What strikes you most about Chinese players? Their work... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/1999665/world-beater-who-conquered-china-guangzhou-evergrande-coach-luiz?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/1999665/world-beater-who-conquered-china-guangzhou-evergrande-coach-luiz?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2016 05:00:00 +0000