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. ‘Do you want a boycott?’: Malaysia’s top mall rolls dice with flag ban Malaysia’s most famous shopping centre edged closer to a damaging boycott after threatening to throw out a second group of pro-Palestinian protesters carrying flags, prompting calls for a mass...

Visitors to the Osaka-Kansai Expo 2025 in Japan have been warned to be on alert for redback spiders, following the discovery of a nest in a public area and more than 70 sightings since April. It marks the latest in a string of setbacks that have plagued the high-profile international event since its launch, from bomb scares to power outages. In a notice posted on the organiser’s website on Thursday, visitors were urged to report any sightings of the spiders – easily identified by the distinctive...

Raden Igun Wicaksono has a warning for Indonesia’s leaders: the fight is just getting started. The chairman of one of the country’s largest motorcycle taxi associations has promised “greater and greater escalation”, warning that millions of drivers are ready to ignite what he calls the ojol revolution, “ojol” being a shorthand for motorcycle taxi drivers booked through apps like Gojek or Grab. Just weeks ago, Wicaksono and his fellow workers joined students and labourers and helped force...

Chavalit Frederick Tsao’s family fortune dates back to the 1800s in China, but like the tributaries of the winding Yangtze River, along which his great-grandfather built a shipping and logistics empire, another branch of the business has caught the eye of the fourth-generation leader of the Tsao Pao Chee (TPC) group – wellness. Tsao is one of the biggest proponents of the well-being economy, which prioritises human and environmental health over traditional economic growth by shifting business...

The Australian government has unveiled a plan to improve domestic exporters’ access to the Chinese market after Beijing’s removal of trade barriers that previously affected A$20 billion (US$13.3 billion) worth of the country’s goods. The two-year Accessing New Markets Initiative will provide A$50 million of funding in an attempt to “build on” China’s recent scrapping of several trade restrictions affecting Australian products, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement on...

Japan is set to deploy advanced drones to intercept unidentified aircraft and vessels in a move designed to reduce the burden on fighter pilots and modernise its military response protocols amid an increase in air and maritime incursions. Operational testing of the US-manufactured MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones for this purpose is expected to begin next year, according to a report by the Yomiuri newspaper, citing sources within the defence ministry. Analysts say Japan’s military is playing catch-up....

Earlier this month, Anthropic, the American artificial intelligence company, entered the US-China fight. It barred companies from using its AI services if they were more than 50 per cent owned by Chinese entities. This was a double punch – China’s access to American technology hit another obstacle, and the global business world was prodded again to reject Chinese investment. Just a few months ago, Anthropic’s move would have knocked the wind out of China. But the recent Shanghai Cooperation...

JPMorgan Chase will cut the weight of the largest bond issuers in its flagship emerging-market index, diverting investor flows from the likes of China and India towards smaller nations. The Wall Street bank will gradually lower the issuer cap on its GBI-EM Global Diversified index in the first half of 2026, according to a client notice seen by Bloomberg. The limit will fall to 9 per cent from 10 per cent currently, with the implementation to be phased over a period of several months, the...

Aziz Voitov was found guilty but won't serve prison time, reportedly on account of having paid "full compensation."

Even the most limited form of people-to-people contact, which in the past was treated as a confidence-building measure, is now being met with outrage and political exploitation.

Geedge Networks has commercialized China’s Great Firewall for export, and Astana was an ideal customer.

It's another worrying sign that the Trump administration is shifting its military strategy away from deterrence – and increasing the likelihood of nuclear war.

Hungary may be the first U.S. ally in Europe for whom decoupling from China is not simply difficult, but virtually impossible.

From modest beginnings, India has now built one of the world’s largest renewable energy markets, with solar leading the way.

North Korea’s hawkish statements over the annual military drills will likely work as justification for upcoming missile tests.

The fundamental question remains whether this revolution will produce genuine systemic change or fade into another cycle of instability.

In addition to the increasing frequency and complexity of naval cooperation, India and the EU are growing closer politically.

Coup rumours swirled in the Philippine capital over the weekend, with the military placed on “red alert” and all leave for its personnel cancelled, ahead of planned protests against corruption in state-funded flood control projects. Sources close to and within the military confirmed to This Week in Asia that certain private individuals, former generals and groups were trying to persuade active-duty officers to withdraw their support for Commander-in-Chief and President Ferdinand Marcos...

The recent youth-dominated protests in Indonesia brought forth a surge of support from young people across the region.

In Asia’s real estate sector, South Korea is a star performer. In the first half of this year, the region’s fourth-largest economy recorded the second-highest volume of commercial real estate transactions after Japan. Moreover, Seoul experienced the strongest growth in prime residential prices in annualised terms in the second quarter among 46 markets tracked by Knight Frank. Singapore is another top performer. Office vacancy rates are among the lowest in the region while the city state was one...

Indian security forces killed a top Maoist commander and two other rebels in a gun battle on Monday, officials said, as the government intensifies efforts to crush the decades-long conflict. India is waging an all-out offensive against the last remaining traces of the Naxalite rebellion, named after the village in the foothills of the Himalayas where the Maoist-inspired guerrilla movement began nearly six decades ago. More than 12,000 rebels, soldiers and civilians have been killed since a...

North Korea has threatened military retaliation in response to joint drills by South Korea, the United States and Japan, with the powerful sister of ruler Kim Jong-un and a top military official issuing parallel statements. Both denounced the ongoing drills and signalled that Pyongyang was prepared to answer with its own show of force. “Reckless muscle-flexing by the US, Japan and South Korea in the wrong location, in the surrounding areas next to the DPRK, will definitely bring unfavourable...

Nearly a quarter of a million people were left without electricity over the weekend in Malaysia’s Sabah state after torrential rain triggered landslides that killed at least one person and took out a transmission tower that cut power across a large area. Footage shared widely on social media showed the tower leaning precariously after it was hit by a landslide in the district of Penampang on the state’s west coast on Saturday evening. The incident cut power supply to six districts in Sabah’s...

Australia and Papua New Guinea’s defence forces will be integrated under a new security pact that will be signed this week, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said. Albanese said on Monday that he and his Papua New Guinean counterpart, James Marape, would sign the pact on Wednesday, a day after celebrating the South Pacific island nation’s 50th anniversary of independence from Australia. US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau will also be in PNG capital, Port Moresby, for...

“It always starts with trilateral cooperation, and it often ends the same way – chaos, power grabs, and foreign money trying to fix the mess.”

With significant lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, zircon, and beryllium deposits, Pakistan’s untapped mineral wealth is estimated to be worth $6 trillion.

The influx of new state-of-the-art aircraft over the remainder of the decade will complete the “progressive drawdown” of the RSAF’s ageing F-16 fleet.

Authorities in Malaysia are hunting the suspect behind a blackmail attempt on at least 10 lawmakers who received emails demanding US$100,000 payments to avoid the release of deepfake sex videos using their likenesses. Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the members of parliament were sent similar emails over the weekend demanding that they pay the ransom via a QR code or the clips would be released to the public. The emails included screenshots of videos that the government believes were...

A suspected North Korean state-sponsored hacking group used ChatGPT to create a deepfake of a military ID document to attack a target in South Korea, according to cybersecurity researchers. Attackers used the artificial intelligence tool to make a fake draft of a South Korean military identification card to create a realistic-looking image meant to make a phishing attempt seem more credible, said the research published on Sunday by Genians, a South Korean cybersecurity firm. Instead of including...

During September 11-13, the Philippines, Japan, and the United States took part in a "maritime cooperation activity" inside the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.