Asia

Vietnam has introduced a raft of incentives to encourage couples to have more children as the Southeast Asian nation seeks to reverse a fast-declining fertility rate. Gone is the country’s long-standing two-child policy, scrapped last year. In its place is a new population law, which took effect on July 1, offering a suite of sweeteners designed to nudge Vietnamese couples towards larger families. These include seven months of maternity leave for second children, subsidised prenatal and newborn...

A video showing a Chinese tourist berating hotel staff in Malaysia for not flying China’s flag has gone viral after viewers pointed out the flags belonged to the nations competing in the Fifa World Cup finals. The man, who was reportedly in Kuala Lumpur on business, confronted a staff member at his hotel’s breakfast restaurant after noticing flags from dozens of countries but not China’s. In the clip, he can be seen interrogating a visibly confused worker for an explanation before telling her:...

No further action was necessary by Singapore’s parliament against Workers’ Party (WP) politicians Sylvia Lim and Faisal Manap over their lying under oath, as the case fell outside a legal time bar, Leader of the House Indranee Rajah said on Tuesday. “Had the timelines been different, I would have proposed a different course of action,” she told parliament while delivering a ministerial statement on a “determination” of the Committee of Privileges’ (COP) findings on Lim and Faisal. Lim is a...

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. US touts regional ‘balance’ in missile sale to Singapore. What does it mean? Washington has recently approved a proposed US$22.3 million sale of additional Hellfire missiles to Singapore, with the US State Department declaring that the transfer and associated arms...

Japan is facing mounting calls to decide whether its long-frozen development aid to Myanmar should stay that way, as rights advocates warn that any resumption could ease pressure on a regime accused of widespread abuses. The decision is a delicate one for Tokyo, which has tried to retain influence in Myanmar without appearing to legitimise the junta that seized power in 2021 – all while watching China deepen its own engagement with the country. Human Rights Watch has urged Japan to resist...

Singapore is the world’s most expensive city for luxury spending for a fourth consecutive year, as prices on items such as watches and jewellery surge around the globe. Zurich climbed to second place, edging out London, while Monaco entered the top three for the first time since the survey began in 2020, according to an annual report by Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer Group. Hong Kong and London rounded out the top five. Zurich’s three-place rise was propelled by the strengthening of the Swiss...

A man ⁠scaled the 140-metre-high (460 ⁠foot) tower of ⁠a cantilever bridge in the Australian city of Melbourne on Tuesday and painted a giant cartoon bird on it, disrupting morning commuter traffic. The man demanded ‌a peanut butter sandwich be delivered by drone before he would come down, causing a stand-off with police and closing a lane on the Bolte Bridge. “A man has scaled the bridge and remains in a restricted area ⁠on the eastern tower. He is refusing to follow police direction ‌and come...

At Carousell’s Singapore office, a red tunnel greets employees with the company’s mission to “make second-hand the first choice” – a slogan its leaders say is moving closer to reality as the platform for buying and selling used goods recorded its first positive adjusted operating profit. The Singapore-headquartered company, last valued at US$1.1 billion in 2021, said on Tuesday it had achieved positive Ebitda – earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation – for the first time,...

New Zealand’s flood-prone homes are outperforming the rest of the country’s moribund housing market, as buyers chase lower prices and shrug off climate risks. Properties facing the highest flood risk have gained 26.1 per cent in value since January 2020, compared with 19.8 per cent for homes with no exposure, property consultancy Cotality said in Wellington on Tuesday. Discounts of as much as NZ$100,000 (US$60,000) on some houses were proving too tempting for cost-conscious consumers, it...

Lynas Rare Earths said on Tuesday it had signed a partnership deal with South Korea’s JS Link to develop a magnet factory in Malaysia. The Australian rare-earths producer will also supply materials to JS Link’s magnet factory in South Korea and the planned factory in Malaysia until January 2038. The partnership follows a magnet manufacturing deal between the two companies ⁠last year. Under the latest deal, JS Link will establish a magnet factory in ‌Kuantan, Malaysia, with an operating capacity...

Kim Jong-un stood on a cliff top and watched his navy come of age. As the North Korean leader looked on, 10 cruise missiles tore off the deck of the Kang Kon in rapid succession in a display of naval power Pyongyang could once only dream of staging. Analysts say the weapons test on Friday was no accident of timing – coming just days before Russia and China would begin their Joint Sea 2026 maritime exercise off Qingdao – and North Korea wanted to make sure everyone was watching. “North Korea is...

Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio did not attend the opening of her impeachment trial on Monday, leaving her lawyers to fight charges that, if upheld, could remove her from office, permanently bar her from politics and reshape the 2028 presidential race. Legal experts told This Week in Asia they expected Duterte-Carpio to be difficult, though not impossible, to convict despite the gravity of the charges because prosecutors would need at least 16 senators – two-thirds of the chamber –...

A 20-year-old Indonesian woman was stabbed to death in her flat in Hamamatsu, central Japan, police said on Monday as they investigate whether a man who was fatally hit by a train nearby was involved in the case. The woman, identified as Keiko Altaira Hanafi, was found stabbed and in a critical condition by a police officer at around 11.40am in the flat where she lived with her parents. She was later confirmed dead at a hospital. According to the police, a neighbour made an emergency call after...

India and Japan have agreed to jointly develop technology that makes Indian warships harder to detect, in a move that analysts say takes their defence partnership to a new level and reflects growing unease in both capitals over how far they can rely on Washington. The project involves fitting Indian warships with Japan’s Unified Complex Radio Antenna (Unicorn) system, which lowers a vessel’s radar profile by combining multiple antennas into a single, compact structure and reducing the exposed...

Indonesia and Singapore vowed on Monday that the Strait of Malacca, a critical oil transit chokepoint in the region, will remain “accessible” even as Iran imposes fees on ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto discussed the matter with Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in Jakarta as Southeast Asia reels from the effects of oil prices pushed sky-high by the Middle East war. The Strait of Malacca, surrounded by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and...

Singapore’s decision to open more labour channels to workers from East Timor could give the city state an “early-mover” edge in an emerging Asean market, though the economic gains are expected to take years. Analysts also say both countries, whose leaders met last week in the capital of Asean’s newest member, are looking at a “win-win” situation, with the deal set to ease Singapore’s structural manpower shortage while giving Dili a chance to better utilise its young and growing population. On...

Clashes in a Sri Lankan jail have killed 26 people, including seven guards, and wounded more than 100 in the worst prison riot in more than five years, officials said on Monday. Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries were rushed to Negombo Hospital, north of the capital Colombo following overnight fighting between inmates from two drug gangs, police said. Hospital director Pushpa Gamlath said 23 bodies were brought to her state-run health facility, and more than 100 wounded inmates and guards...

A spate of seizures of Thai cannabis in the United Kingdom, Germany, Indonesia and Hong Kong has cast a shadow over the Southeast Asian nation’s decriminalisation of the plant. Thailand became the first Asian country to decriminalise cannabis in 2022, promising a lucrative new cash crop for a market intended strictly for medicinal use. But four years on, with lawmakers still wrangling over cannabis control legislation, high street dispensaries have proliferated for recreational sale, while...

Indonesia has deported 92 Chinese suspected scammers and barred them from the country for life in one of the biggest mass exercises in recent years. The Chinese nationals had been arrested in May in connection with an alleged online gaming and investment fraud syndicate operating from a flat complex in the holiday island of Batam, the Jakarta Globe reported. Others arrested came from Vietnam and Myanmar. Galih Kartika Perdhana, head of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport’s immigration...

Six people including five children were killed when a building collapsed in Mumbai, officials said on Monday, as monsoon rains pounded India’s financial capital, flooding roads and leading to school closures. A dilapidated residential building collapsed on Sunday in the megacity’s east, trapping residents under the debris, Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde said in a statement. The deaths came as heavy rainfall paralysed parts of the city, with the India Meteorological Department recording more than 200mm...

A 15-year-old student was stabbed multiple times at a secondary school in Malaysia on Monday, in an attack that sent students fleeing and prompted a police investigation. The suspect, also 15, has been arrested and was set to be remanded on Tuesday, with the case being investigated under Section 307 of the Penal Code for attempted murder. Kuala Langat district police chief Superintendent Mohd Akmalrizal Radzi said police received a report at about 9.50am on Monday that a female student had been...

A ⁠Philippine senator who is ⁠an ally of Vice-President Sara ⁠Duterte-Carpio was arrested on Monday on a plunder charge, hours before the Senate begins a high-stakes impeachment trial that could determine Duterte’s political future. Senator Rodante Marcoleta was due to sit as a senator-judge on Monday at the impeachment trial ‌against Duterte-Carpio. If convicted by a two-thirds majority in the 24-member Senate, Duterte-Carpio could be barred from running in the 2028 elections, where she remains...

For decades, the Philippine Air Force hunted communist rebels and Islamist militants in the country’s forests and southern islands. Now, amid seemingly intractable tensions in the South China Sea, it is being reshaped into an armed service meant to defend one of Asia’s most contested maritime frontiers – even as analysts rank it the weakest air arm among Southeast Asia’s six largest militaries. “Because we are an archipelago, we really need to strengthen our air assets,” air force spokeswoman...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has promised durian growers in Johor that he will raise their falling prices with his “good friend” Chinese Premier Li Qiang during a visit to Beijing next month, as a nationwide glut leaves farmers struggling to sell the famously pungent fruit at sustainable prices. Speaking during a political campaign stop in Johor, where a state election will be held on Saturday, Anwar said growers had complained to him during his two-day swing through the southern state...

A 24-year-old man has died after he was reportedly struck by lightning in Singapore. The man was among a group of people, aged between 13 and 54, who were taken to hospital on Sunday afternoon, the police said on Monday. The police said they had received a call for help on Sunday at about 4.50pm from 131 Pasir Ris Road, just off Pasir Ris Beach. The incident reportedly involved a lightning strike. Two people were taken to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, while five others were taken to...

Australia signed a new defence alliance with Fiji on Monday, bolstering ties with its South Pacific island neighbour as it seeks to outmanoeuvre China in the region. The Ocean of Peace alliance elevates Fiji to one of Australia’s few treaty allies and binds each nation to come to the other’s “mutual defence”. China sent waves through the region in 2022 when it signed a secretive security pact with the Solomon Islands, stoking fears it could one day lead to a permanent military...

A prefecture in western Japan is drawing attention for a unique bear management programme that uses microchips implanted in captured animals to estimate population levels and guide culling decisions, as rising sightings across the country fuel calls for more effective countermeasures. Hyogo prefecture says it is the first in Japan to use information gathered from microchipped bears to determine an appropriate population size and maintain a balance between conservation and population control. The...

The South Korean won was stable against the dollar after inching higher as the currency began its first day of 24-hour trading, marking a milestone in Seoul’s push to open its financial markets to global investors. The won eased 0.1 per cent to 1,531.40 against the US dollar, after rising as much as 0.2 per cent when it started trading at 6am. Other major currency pairs were little changed. The launch of 24-hour trading is the centrepiece of a years-long effort to improve foreign access to local...

Three months after moving from China to Japan, Alisa Lin has yet to buy a single drink from Mixue – the Chinese ice cream and tea giant – despite being a frequent customer back home, where a cup costs under five yuan (73 US cents) during promotions. “It’s not a very popular brand here. Only one of my friends in Japan has ever bought it,” Lin said, adding that value for money was the main consideration behind her own consumer choices in Tokyo. While Mixue’s basic teas are cheap, a plain bubble...

In the Philippine capital, 85 pesos (US$1.40) is barely enough to buy a meal for one, let alone a family of five. Yet that modest sum, roughly the price of 1½kg of premium imported rice, is the largest single wage increase ever approved for Metro Manila’s minimum-wage earners. The government called it “historic”. Labour groups called it an insult. The increase, to be rolled out in two stages, was confirmed by the Department of Labour and Employment on Tuesday. Non-agricultural workers will see...