Asia

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Indonesia’s plan for a rival to Singapore starts to take shape Indonesia wants to build a financial centre to rival Singapore, Hong Kong or Dubai, but analysts say the real work of persuading global investors has barely begun. 2. Japan voters ‘pretty angry’ with PM...

A Malaysian factory worker who had spent nearly seven years building a life in South Korea was killed after going to help a friend caught up in a late-night confrontation, his family said – prompting an online fundraiser that collected about 80,000 ringgit (US$19,600) within a day to bring his body home. Ahmad Shah Ahmad Ros, 26, died in the early hours of Sunday in Daeso-eup, Eumseong county, about 130km (80 miles) southeast of Seoul. Local police have arrested a Malaysian man in his forties on...

Australia will consider building its first new oil refinery in more than 60 years, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday, as war in the Middle East ‌squeezes supplies from overseas and underscores the urgency to improve energy security. Albanese said the project will help build Australia’s resilience and sovereign capability on fuel, potentially helping shield the country from future supply shocks. If the project proves feasible, the new large-scale oil refinery will be built by...

Malaysia once decided Formula One was too expensive to keep, but Bahrain’s displaced Grand Prix has given it an unexpected route back to the calendar, as well as a chance to test whether the sport can still deliver value without the full financial burden of a long-term comeback. Analysts say the one-off race, made possible by the war in Iran and the cancellation of April’s races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, offers Malaysia more than a nostalgic return to Sepang: it provides a timely tourism lift...

Watching the sun rise over Angkor Wat once meant fighting for elbow room, a hundred phone screens glowing in the dark as tour buses disgorged crowds chasing the same postcard-perfect shot These days, the 12th century temple complex is comparatively quiet, with operators reporting an emptying of Cambodia’s most recognisable landmark. “Angkor is as quiet as I have seen it in years,” said Akim Ly, founder of the Siem Reap-based tour company Adventures Cambodia and a member of the Cambodia Tourism...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr used his 2026 State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday to promise relief from taxes, electricity charges and high rice prices, while pledging to pursue corruption cases linked to a flood-control scandal that has battered his administration. But while analysts said the one-and-a-half-hour speech addressed issues Filipinos had expected Marcos to confront, they questioned how the government could afford the handouts and why he announced no austerity or...

A rare rebuke of Asean by the powerful sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un signals the bloc’s waning relevance to the nuclear-armed state, analysts say. Kim Yo-jong on Monday condemned a call by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the country’s denuclearisation, saying the statement “distorted the essence of the situation in the Korean peninsula”. At the annual Asean Regional Forum held in the Philippines last Thursday, Asean expressed “grave concern” over the ongoing development...

Singapore authorities said on Monday they had arrested three teenagers over separate plots to carry out shooting, stabbing and bomb attacks, warning of the threat of “youth radicalisation” in the security-conscious city state. The three boys, detained between April and June, had been “self-radicalised” online, adopting violent extremist ideologies, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said. They are held under the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial. One of them, a...

South Asia is undergoing a gradual but important shift. Smaller states now command a widening array of options, and India’s primacy is quietly giving way. The lesson is clear. Regional leadership can no longer rest on geography and must be sustained through credible and mutually beneficial engagements that compare favourably with the alternatives. China’s challenge begins at India’s border. Both countries fought in 1962, continue to dispute a frontier of roughly 3,500km and had their deadliest...

US criticism of Malaysia’s entry ban on Israeli nationals is unlikely to force a major shift in the country’s foreign policy, analysts have said, after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim rejected accusations that the move was antisemitic. The remarks escalated a dispute that has drawn in members of the US Congress, Malaysia’s long-standing refusal to recognise Israel and the widening international debate over where criticism of Israel ends and hostility towards Jewish people begins. “We are not...

A Singapore fitness instructor identified as allegedly linked to former acting minister-in-charge of Muslim affairs Faishal Ibrahim’s resignation has denied rumours that she was the woman with whom he had inappropriate interactions. Rasidah Caudal told This Week in Asia on Monday that she had filed a complaint with Singapore’s Online Safety Commission, which helps people deal with online harms such as doxxing and harassment, and intended to lodge a police report. She also rejected the...

Five young Pallas’s cats, dubbed the world’s grumpiest feline for their sullen facial expressions, went on display at a zoo in Japan on Thursday. Kobe Animal Kingdom put the four males and one female, all born in May at the facility, on public viewing last week. The animals are believed to be one of the oldest living cat species and are native to the dry, rocky areas of Central Asia. They are not commonly displayed at zoos as they are relatively more sensitive to infections, the Kobe zoo said...

Malaysia has won a small victory in Washington’s tariff wars, securing a 10 per cent rate that leaves it better placed than four of its Southeast Asian neighbours in the scramble for US orders. Economists warn the narrow advantage may prove fleeting, however, as it hinges on Kuala Lumpur fulfilling its promised trade reforms. The new duties, which fall under Section 301 of the US Trade Act and took effect on Friday, keep Malaysia in the lower tier of a new American tariff regime alongside...

Indonesian police are investigating the unexplained death of a man whom local media reported managed the household of detained former anti-corruption prosecutor Febrie Adriansyah, adding a new layer of scrutiny to one of the country’s most sensitive corruption cases. The man, identified only as Sutrimo, was found unconscious on Thursday on the grounds of Mordent Beauty Clinic in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, before being taken by ambulance to Muhammadiyah Taman Puring Hospital where he was...

A South Korean ⁠court on Monday sentenced former ⁠president Yoon Suk-yeol ⁠to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, after finding him guilty of violating the election law by making false statements during his 2022 presidential campaign. The sentence, if upheld through appeals, could force Yoon’s People Power ‌Party to return 39.7 billion won (US$27.1 million) in election expenses reimbursed by the National Election Commission following his presidential election victory. The Seoul...

A popular far-right Australian politician failed on Monday to overturn a racial vilification finding that was handed down after she told a Muslim senator to go back to Pakistan. Senator Pauline Hanson has emerged as one of Australia’s most popular politicians, wooing voters with calls for strict immigration curbs, mass deportations of “illegal migrants” and enhanced free speech protections. Hanson took aim at Pakistan-born Australian lawmaker Mehreen Faruqi in 2022 over comments made in the wake...

Myanmar’s military has sharply escalated attacks on civilians since a new administration took office in the war-torn country, a conflict monitor said on Monday, even as regional governments ramp up diplomatic engagement. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) said the onslaught was a result of the tactics deployed by Myanmar’s ‌new military chief who took over in late March as his predecessor prepared to become the country’s president. “Since the ruling junta in Myanmar...

Singapore tightened monetary policy on Monday for the second time in three months, as the fallout from the US war against Iran keeps global energy markets volatile and inflation risks elevated. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it would increase the rate of appreciation of the local dollar’s trade-weighted value. The move comes as oil prices remain elevated owing to tensions in the Middle East, sparked by the US-Israel attacks on Iran that began on February 28, and continue to cast...

North Korea is rumoured to be sending tens of thousands more troops to Russia in support of its war in Ukraine, marking a deepening of the two countries’ defence ties and a major escalation of Pyongyang’s involvement in the conflict, if confirmed. Late on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that preparations had been under way in Russia’s Voronezh region to receive another 30,000 North Korean troops since last month. He also claimed Pyongyang was planning to send additional...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr heads into Monday’s State of the Nation Address facing a legacy-defining question: can he balance his anti-corruption drive with sustaining economic growth and the needs of ordinary Filipinos? The address, known locally as the Sona, opens the final two years of Marcos’ presidency. Analysts say his administration must show tangible results from its investigation into the alleged billions of pesos in discrepancies relating to flood-control projects while...

Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo has stepped down from his role, Indonesia’s State Secretariat Minister Prasetyo Hadi said on Monday, a surprise move analysts said could rattle investors worried about the central bank’s independence and ‌the country’s fiscal management. President Prabowo Subianto has accepted Warjiyo’s resignation, the minister said ahead of the opening of financial markets in Jakarta. Destry Damayanti, a senior deputy governor at BI, has been appointed as interim governor....

Tax breaks used to be enough. Not any more. Analysts say a new generation of investors is prioritising legal certainty and regulatory stability over incentives – and Asia’s most successful international financial centres will be those that successfully secure trust. All of which carries repercussions for Indonesia’s plans to build its first international finance centre, after lawmakers passed a law on Tuesday giving the project the green light. Enforceable contracts, predictable regulation and...

A centuries-old monastery in southern Thailand is the country’s latest cultural landmark to be inscribed on Unesco’s World Heritage List, which will aid in the site’s conservation, the government said on Sunday. Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan in Nakhon Si Thammarat province is Thailand’s ninth World Heritage site, but its first in the nation’s southern region, the Thai foreign ministry said in a statement. “Its inscription will further strengthen cooperation at both the national and local...

Each year on July 27, North Korea commemorates “Victory Day”, marking what it presents as its triumph in the Korean war. While few outside the country accept that characterisation, the date underscores a reality: the war never formally ended. The 1953 agreement was an armistice that left the peninsula in a state of suspended conflict. Responsibility for the resulting instability is widely distributed. North Korea’s missile tests, expanding nuclear arsenal and escalatory rhetoric have undermined...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia has sought an extra 30,000 troops and missile launchers from North Korea to fight his country. Preparations for the extra troops are being made in Russia’s Voronezh region near the frontier with Ukraine, Zelensky said in a social media post late on Saturday. North Korea sent thousands of troops to help Russia fight off a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kursk region in 2024. It has also provided arms to help Russia’s invasion since...

India’s ambition to grow its navy past 200 ships within the next decade has taken on fresh urgency as China expands the world’s largest naval fleet and Pakistan adds advanced Chinese-built attack submarines, heightening New Delhi’s anxieties in the Indian Ocean. Analysts see this month’s commissioning of the stealth frigate INS Mahendragiri and submarine hunter INS Malvan as a symbol of that effort: both domestically built warships presented as evidence that New Delhi can scale up its fleet...

Unesco decided on Sunday to add a group of ancient sites in Nara prefecture that show the formation of Japan’s centralised state to the World Heritage list, marking the country’s 27th such site. The decision on the Asuka-Fujiwara: Archaeological sites of Japan’s Ancient Capitals and Related Properties was made during a meeting of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation World Heritage Committee held in Busan, South Korea. The ruins are highly regarded for showing the...

In recent years, Southeast Asian governments have viewed the “China plus one” strategy as their best chance to escape the middle-income trap. As global manufacturers looked to diversify away from China because of rising costs, trade tensions and supply-chain vulnerabilities, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia seemed perfectly placed to benefit. The promise was simple and compelling: new factories would arrive, more formal jobs would be created, wages would rise in tandem with higher productivity...

As India picks up the pieces in the aftermath of a youth protest that deposed an education minister, questions linger over the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) failure to connect with younger generations. Analysts say the scale of youth participation in the protest suggests a loss of faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the real test coming at the ballot box in key state elections next year. Thousands of young people joined the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) march to parliament on...

A new wave of US tariffs that hit seven Southeast Asian countries is set to reinforce perceptions of Washington as an unreliable partner to the region, according to analysts. Citing what it said were forced labour practices uncovered in its latest investigations, the US on Thursday imposed levies ranging from 10 to 12.5 per cent on 60 economies – with the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam the hardest hit among Association of Southeast Asian Nations members. Malaysia, Indonesia and...