East Asia

XI'AN (AFP) - China has a found a novel way to tackle its massive air pollution problem: Putting up a giant air purifier the size of an industrial smokestack in the middle of a smog-plagued city. Instead of pumping out billows of black smoke like the chimneys rising from factories in the northern province of ...

BEIJING (AFP) - China held live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday (April 18) but Taipei dismissed the exercises as “routine” after expected large-scale naval manoeuvres failed to materialise. Beijing had announced the drills last week, further ramping up tensions following stark warnings against ...

For all the talk about free trade and economic integration in the Asia-Pacific, there is still one big missing link: China and Japan. Mizuho Research Institute economist Junichi Sugawara said the world's second and third largest economies have not sealed any free trade deal - either bilateral or multilateral ...

BEIJING (REUTERS) - Tens of thousands of people have been detained in China's troubled far-western region of Xinjiang, a senior US State Department diplomat said on Wednesday (April 18), amid a deepening crackdown on Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China. Laura Stone, the Acting Deputy ...

SEOUL (AFP) - High-profile visits to reclusive North Korea are rare, but over the years it has hosted a handful of top US officials as well as the occasional religious leader and sporting star. Following reports of a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and incoming Secretary of State Mike ...

Author: Evan A Laksmana, CSIS, Jakarta. Following US Defense Secretary James Mattis' visit to Indonesia in late January 2018, military assistance programs have emerged as the centrepiece of the US–Indonesia relationship, both in terms of 'hardware' (arms sales) and 'software' (education and training ...

A The decline in marriage is a well-documented trend in most of the industrialised world. In East Asia, the proportion of single women aged 35 to 39 has increased considerably, reaching about one in five in Hong Kong and Japan by the mid-to late-2000s, compared with one in 20, at most, in 1970.

Authors: Pradumna B Rana and Xianbai Ji, RSIS. US President Donald Trump has taken a radically protectionist approach to trade. Trump has launched a series of unilateral moves including increasing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports on national security grounds and announcing plans to impose ...

Every year, tens of thousands of people worldwide die from opioid-related overdoses, many of which are linked to the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. Journalists and politicians have called on China, the primary source of fentanyl, to do more to stamp out production and interdict shipments of the drug.

TOKYO • One-third of central Tokyo could be left under water and nearly four million people affected if a super typhoon were to strike Japan's capital, causing storm surges, a new study has warned. The Tokyo metropolitan government unveiled on Friday its first estimate of the capital city's vulnerability to ...

Members of K-pop girl group Red Velvet at Gimpo International airport in Seoul, ahead of their departure for Pyongyang yesterday. South Korean singers and bands are in Pyongyang for two shows, one of which will be a joint performance with North Korean artists on Tuesday.PHOTO: REUTERS.

UNITED NATIONS • The UN Security Council has blacklisted dozens of ships and shipping firms over oil and coal smuggling by North Korea, adding to pressure on Pyongyang as its leader Kim Jong Un plans to meet his South Korean and United States counterparts. The council's North Korea sanctions ...

A man in Britain has contracted what has been described as the world's "worst-ever" case of super-gonorrhoea. The man reportedly picked up the bug after a sexual encounter in South-east Asia earlier this year. This is the first known example of a gonorrhoea infection that cannot be cured with first-choice ...

On 5 March 2018, the Sri Lankan government mandated a state of emergency for ten days following riots and a wave of targeted violence against Muslims in the city of Kandy. The latest episode took place after a Sinhalese Buddhist truck driver engaged in an altercation with some Muslim youths and ...

Lack of clean water facilities, roads in need of repairs, recurring power outages – these are the realities of many developing countries, including in the East Asia and Pacific region. The Status of Infrastructure Services in East Asia and Pacific, a report by the World Bank Group's Infrastructure, PPPs, and ...

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Australia and Vietnam upgraded their bilateral ties to a strategic partnership during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's visit to Australia from 14–18 March 2018. The move is not a surprise. As the Australian government states, this elevation 'reflects Australia and Vietnam's mature and diverse ...

The parent company of British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica (CA) may have been operating in South-east Asia as far back as two decades ago, managing civil unrest in Indonesia and paving the way for Thaksin Shinawatra to take power in Thailand, news website Quartz has reported.

BEING a commuter in much of South-East Asia requires reserves of patience. In city after city, bar Singapore, jams confine people in taxis for hours, or force them onto the back of motorbikes that weave precariously through traffic. These qualities of perseverance are not shared by Uber, an American ...

... hub in Singapore. Schneider Electric singapore hub French multinational company Schneider Electric launched its new East Asia and Japan headquarters in Singapore on Thursday (Mar 29). (Photo: Schneider Electric). By Eugenia Lim @EugeniaLimCNA. 29 Mar 2018 07:35PM (Updated: 29 Mar 2018 07:40PM ) ...

Bound by common resentment towards the overwhelming power of the West, China and Russia have grown increasingly close over the past decade. They enjoy compatible economies — Russia supplies hydrocarbons and other resources that fuel Chinese industry. They push back at the promotion of ...

The ASEAN–Australia special summit on 17–18 March 2018 concluded with the issuing of the grandly titled 'Sydney Declaration'. The joint statement nods to many of the issues raised at the summit including security, trade, investment, rights and people-to-people links. Yet there was something ...

Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He has accused the United States of violating international trade rules in its inquiry into intellectual property and declared that China would defend its national interests. He was speaking with US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in a phone call yesterday in which he also said the ...

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SEOUL • North Korea yesterday agreed to hold high-level talks with the South this week to discuss logistics for a rare inter-Korean summit, Seoul's Unification Ministry said, as a diplomatic thaw on the peninsula gathers pace. The two sides will each send a three-member delegation to the border truce ...

Mohamed Bouazizi is the Tunisian street vendor whose protest by self-immolation sparked the Arab Spring in December 2010. Bouazizi was a typical 'struggler'. In crude income terms, a struggler is a member of a group wedged between the world's poor (those living on US$1.90 a day or less, the World ...

Violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar's north-western Rakhine state has generated a massive influx of refugees to Bangladesh that will test bilateral relations. Between August and November 2017, the Myanmar military's 'clearance operations' forced more than 622,000 Rohingya to cross the border ...

Technical solutions mean that East Asian countries were likely to win their battle against agriculture pollution, according to a World Bank report. "Agricultural growth has played a significant role in increasing food security, and lifting millions of people out of poverty in East Asia over the last three decades," ...

BEIJING (REUTERS) - China's Defence Ministry said on Friday (March 23) the United States had seriously harmed the country's sovereignty and security after a US Navy destroyer carried out a “freedom of navigation” operation in the disputed South China Sea. Provocative behaviour by the United States ...

Although Yahoo! Inc. went down in flames in North America—Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) bought its core assets at firesale prices—Yahoo! Japan (TYO:4689) maintains a strong presence in East Asia. Now the platform is looking to leverage its popularity by opening a cryptocurrency exchange ...

OCBC economist Selena Ling said South-east Asia and Singapore will see some spillover impact. "Singapore, as a small open economy, is heavily dependent on trade and investment flows, and any protectionist hurdles would generally be adverse," she said. "The risk of further escalation cannot be ...

Asia News Network commentators reflect on Russian President Vladimir Putin's return for another six-year term and its implications on their ties with Moscow. Putin 4.0. Editorial The Statesman, India. The Russian President's re-election was a settled fact long before the first vote was cast. Nonetheless, the ...

Mr John Bolton (above), a former US ambassador to the United Nations, replaces General H.R. McMaster as national security adviser. Mr Bolton, who has advocated the use of military force against North Korea, has previously been rejected as a negotiating partner by Pyongyang.PHOTOS: REUTERS ...

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[SINGAPORE] Singapore's economic destiny lies in South-east Asia but Singaporeans are not sufficiently equipped for this future, a visiting international business expert said yesterday. University of Michigan professor Linda Lim said Singapore will become less relevant as a bridge connecting China to ...

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BEIJING • China has warned that it was ready to retaliate as the United States prepared to announce sanctions against Beijing for the "theft" of intellectual property, and experts say it could hit back with measures against America's US$140 billion (S$184 billion) of annual exports to the Asian powerhouse.

What was once a fledgling lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka is now destroyed. In 2014 and 2015 the Bangladeshi gay scene was cautiously becoming more open. 'Rainbow Rally' pride parades were held and a gay magazine called Roopbaan ...

[SINGAPORE] Singapore's economic destiny lies in South-east Asia but Singaporeans are not sufficiently equipped for this future, a visiting international business expert said yesterday. University of Michigan professor Linda Lim said Singapore will become less relevant as a bridge connecting China to ...

Jakarta: For millions of people across south-east Asia, their smart phone and Facebook are their only interaction with the people who govern them and shape their society. And that is unlikely to change any time soon, according to Australian National University lecturer Ross Tapsell, even as the social ...

Mention study abroad and not often would one think of higher education institutions in Asia's eastern or southeastern parts but recent numbers indicate the trend may well be changing. More and more, schools in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia in the southeast, and South ...

... for a relationship already mired in geopolitical discord. But Russia has much to lose by allowing THAAD to derail Moscow's pursuit of close working relations with Seoul — its economic gateway to Asia. Anthony V Rinna is an analyst on Russian foreign policy in East Asia for the Sino-NK research group.

The Japanese public are gripped by daily developments in the Moritomo Gakuen scandal. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife are at the centre of allegations surrounding the heavily discounted sale of state-owned land to an ultra-conservative school operator with whom they previously had close ...

SINGAPORE - Their country's economic destiny lies in South-east Asia, but Singaporeans are not sufficiently equipped for this future, said a visiting international business expert Wednesday (March 21). In a public lecture, University of Michigan professor Linda Lim said Singapore will become less relevant ...

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HONG KONG • Mr Li Ka Shing's rise from penniless immigrant in 1940 to billionaire tycoon is the consummate success story in Hong Kong, a city which progressed alongside him from trading outpost to become one of the world's biggest financial centres. A factory apprentice at 13, Mr Li, who announced his ...

BEIJING • China has called on the United States to "correct its mistake" after President Donald Trump approved new rules allowing top-level US officials to travel to Taiwan to meet their Taipei counterparts. U S representatives can already travel to Taiwan while Taiwanese officials occasionally visit the ...

Malaysian shares edged 0.1 per cent higher with gains in financials and telecom services stocks. — Picture Ahmad ZamzahuriSINGAPORE, March 19 — Most South-east Asian stock markets were subdued today, in line with broader Asia, as investors waited for clues on the US Federal Reserve's policy ...

The 19th Party Congress set out the principles that will define the approach to what Deng Xiaoping described as the third phase of China's modern economic development. This is the phase when China seeks to achieve income levels on par with the OECD average. The National People's Congress last ...

Bank of East Asia, which has teamed up with internet giant Tencent Holdings and online travel provider Ctrip, is seeking more tech partners to develop its virtual banking services, according to deputy chief executive Adrian Li Man-kiu. Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city's central bank, which is ...