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Singapore's central business district in January 2023. The city-state’s supportive digital-asset environment has been credited with making it a "safe, long-term choice” for a regional hub.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 24, 2024

Singapore pulls ahead of Hong Kong in race to be crypto hub

The Southeast Asian city-state doled out 13 cryptocurrency licenses in 2024 to a range of operators, more than double its awards in 2023.
The headquarters of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China in Beijing in 2018
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 6, 2025

After year of big corruption crackdown, China promises more probes

Even the lowly "flies" and "ants" in China's vast bureaucracy will not be spared in the corruption fight, a state broadcaster television program showed Sunday.
China's Zheng Qinwen reacts after winning the first set of her first round match at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Sunday.
TENNIS
Jan 12, 2025

Rusty Zheng into second round as Grand Slam tennis returns to Melbourne

The fans were sent scurrying for cover inside the first hour when a dramatic thunderstorm swept across the area.
Competitors are interviewed after a women's esports event in Beijing last month.
MORE SPORTS / esports
Jan 12, 2025

China's women esports players defy sexism for love of the game

For female esports players in China, mastering the game is just the first hurdle to carving out a space for themselves in the male-dominated field.
Many of the economists noted the interest rate hike is likely unless Donald Trump jolts global financial markets, after he returns to the White House four days before the Bank of Japan’s policy decision.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 17, 2025

More than 70% of BOJ watchers expect a rate hike next week

BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda reinforced his deputy’s message this week that his board will consider a rate hike at the meeting, boosting the yen and expectations for action.
A tug boat assists an oil tanker to its berth at the Port of Long Beach in California on June 17, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 21, 2025

Oil tankers backlog grows at vital Russian port after sanctions

History shows that U.S. sanctions have bitten the tankers that move Russian oil hard.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 21, 2025

Trump withdraws from Paris climate agreement — again

The newly minted president removed the world's biggest historic emitter from global efforts to fight climate change for the second time in a decade.
Attendees inside the Congress Center at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. The annual Davos gathering of political leaders, top executives and celebrities runs from Jan. 20 to 24.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 23, 2025

China tones it down at Davos this time ahead of Trump tariffs

Donald Trump has warned that a 10% levy could be imposed on China as soon as Feb. 1.
Advertisements on Threads will come from a "handful of brands” and appear only in the U.S. and Japan to start, according to a post Friday from Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who called the move a "test.”
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 25, 2025

Meta’s Threads to show ads for the first time in U.S. and Japan

It’s not clear what the revenue potential for Threads will be long term, but the service will benefit from Meta’s existing pool of advertisers.
Madison Keys celebrates with the trophy after winning the Australian Open title on Saturday in Melbourne.
TENNIS
Jan 25, 2025

Sparkling Keys stuns Sabalenka to claim maiden Grand Slam title

The 29-year-old became the fourth-oldest first-time Grand Slam champion in the professional era with an upset of the two-time defending champion.
A coal terminal in China's Hebei province in February 2023. Electricity use in the country grew 6.8% last year, outpacing overall economic growth at the highest clip in at least 15 years.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jan 26, 2025

China’s surging power demand creates a climate conundrum

As the world’s largest polluter, China holds outsized sway over whether emissions can be reduced fast enough to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks at a news conference following the central bank's policy meeting on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 28, 2025

BOJ watchers think next interest rate hike will be in six months

The central bank is likely to pause a while before bringing the rate up to 0.75%, the highest rate since 1995.
Flue gas and steam rise out of chimneys and smokestacks of an oil refinery in the Siberian city of Omsk, Russia, in 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 29, 2025

Russia set to test New Delhi by sending sanctioned oil and tankers to India

At stake is Moscow's ability to keep barrels flowing following the U.S. sanctions, something that could ultimately dictate the country's ability to maintain output levels.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a letter to the U.N. stating the U.S.' withdrawal from the Paris Agreement during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena, in Washington, on Jan. 20.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 31, 2025

The global climate order teeters under a second assault from Trump

Inflation and threats to energy security have eroded the political strength of climate-forward leaders and emboldened Trumpian populists around the world.
Technicians at work in the clean room of a semiconductor manufacturing facility in Ibaraki Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 1, 2025

Japan plans to curb exports of chips and quantum-computing tech

The government is expanding its list of export-controlled items to include advanced chips, lithography equipment and cryocoolers needed for the manufacture of quantum computers.
A Good me tea store, operated by Guming Holdings Ltd., in Chongqing, China, on Saturday. The tea chain's shares began trading in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 12, 2025

Hong Kong’s latest bubble tea IPO mints another billionaire

Guming Holdings' IPO has made founder Yun’an Wang a billionaire as China’s bubble tea market continues its rapid expansion.
The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson conducts routine operations in the South China Sea last August. The vessel, along with survey ship USNS Bowditch, carried out a “routine” transit through the Taiwan Strait from Monday to Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 12, 2025

U.S. warship sails through Taiwan Strait for first time since Trump inauguration

China's military said the move had "sent the wrong signals" and "increased security risks” in the strategic waterway.
A giant screen shows news footage of Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng during a symposium on private enterprises, at a shopping complex in Beijing on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 18, 2025

China's tech rally rests on 'hot money'

Hong Kong tech shares have surged 31% since the middle of January to hit three-year highs on Monday while President Xi Jinping sat down with top tech leaders in Beijing.
Taiwanese comic artist Rishiazao and interpreter Yun-wen Huang greet an attendee at the 2025 Angouleme International Comics Festival in France.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 1, 2025

Taiwan comics on the rise: Local storytellers, global aspirations

A supportive ecosystem and eager audiences — both domestic and global — are boosting the soft power of illustrated narratives from Taiwan.
Balboa Port, operated by Panama Ports Company, at the Panama Canal. Conglomerate CK Hutchison, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, has agreed to sell its ports network, including assets along the Panama Canal, to a U.S. consortium led by BlackRock.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 7, 2025

As Trump hails taking back of Panama Canal, Hong Kong Inc. walks tightrope

Firms in the former British colony are increasingly under pressure to shake off any connection with China amid tensions between Beijing and Washington.
A heron flies over the bustling Ver-o-Peso market, in Belem, Para state, Brazil, near the site of the COP30 Summit, which will be held in November.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 10, 2025

BRICS' climate leadership aims hang on healing deep divides

Diverging national interests among BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — may also prove sticking points.
A Bloomberg survey said almost three quarters of Bank of Japan watchers who responded said that U.S. tariffs could exert enough of a drag on Japan’s economy to delay the central bank’s rate hike path.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 12, 2025

BOJ watchers see gradual rate hikes with higher terminal rate

Economists now anticipate the terminal rate to be 1.25%, up from 1% in the previous survey.
BYD's large cylindrical cell batteries are pictured at Smart Energy Week in Tokyo on Feb. 19.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 18, 2025

How BYD’s five-minute charging stacks up against the competition

The Chinese firm is now staking claim to a system it says will make it as quick to charge an electric vehicle as to refuel a gasoline car.
Alex Miller, CEO of Alimentation Couche-Tard, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2025

Couche-Tard seeks to reassure investors on Seven & I approach

The parent company of the Circle K chain has been pursuing Seven & I for months, bidding almost $50 billion for it, but has been rebuffed.
Declining birth rates in China are driven by a myriad of causes, such as a shrinking childbearing-age population, lifestyle changes, the one-child policy’s lasting effects, an oversupply of men and high youth unemployment.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2025

Why China’s marriage crisis matters

According to China’s 2020 census, 61% of babies are born to women aged 20 to 30. But the number of women in this cohort dropped from 111 million in 2012 to 73 million in 2024.
Hong Kong's real estate sector is slumping, putting the government's development plans at risk and signaling a wider economic malaise that may become a spanner in the works of Beijing's plans to transform the territory's economy.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 7, 2025

Will China succeed in remaking Hong Kong in its own image?

Beijing can control Hong Kong politically, but to impose its economic vision on the territory it needs businesses to get on board as these face an economic and real estate plunge.
Shipping containers on the outskirts of Houston on Tuesday. China has vowed to "fight to the end" after Donald Trump further ramped up tariffs.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 9, 2025

Trump tariffs take effect, hiking trade levies to a 100-year high

The latest tariffs push levies imposed on China this year to as high as 104%, along with import taxes on roughly 60 trading partners that run trade surpluses with the U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrive prior to a meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, in July 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 12, 2025

Trump-Xi truce appears elusive as China prepares to dig in

Authorities in Beijing seem intent on proving that they can withstand even more trade pain from the Trump administration.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping waves as he arrives for a two-day state visit at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 14, 2025

Xi seeks to win with Southeast Asia trip as Trump pauses some tariffs

Xi arrived in Vietnam on Monday and was due to visit Malaysia and Cambodia later this week, just days after Trump raised tariffs on China but gave everyone else a 90-day pause.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kenyan President William Ruto attend a welcome ceremony at The Great Hall of The People on April 24 in Beijing.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2025

Xi is trying to turn world against U.S. as Trump cuts deals

Chinese officials are racing to turn foreign governments against the U.S.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic