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Asia - South China Morning Post

Breaking news, analysis and opinion from the SCMP"s Asia edition.

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In Indonesia, US and Canada, ‘online hoaxes’ fuel...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/20

Indonesia has launched emergency vaccination drives after measles outbreaks killed more than 20 children in two provinces, stoking fears of a wider epidemic amid a global resurgence of the virus.The scale and speed of the outbreak have alarmed health experts, who warn the crisis is not simply the result of faltering immunisation coverage, but also a symptom of growing vaccine hesitancy – fuelled by online misinformation, religious concerns and a legacy of public distrust. This erosion of...

‘Don’t trust the pension system’: why young South...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Kim Sung-ho, 38, an office worker, said he is increasingly open to the idea of raising the retirement age in South Korea. “A few years ago, I opposed extending the retirement age,” he said. “But now, living costs and housing prices are getting higher. I worry more about my own future. I think I will need a stable source of income until I get older. Extending retirement age isn’t about the older generation any more. It’s about preparing for the future for my generation too.” Similarly, An...

South Korean ferry runs aground, sparking Sewol ferry...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

A South Korean passenger ferry carrying 267 passengers and crew ran aground on Wednesday off the southwestern tip of the Korean peninsula, triggering a rescue operation and stirring memories of a major ferry disaster in 2014.President Lee Jae-myung, who is currently travelling in the Middle East, ordered a swift rescue of all on board to prevent casualties and for details of the operation to be made public as they occur, the Yonhap News Agency reported. Authorities were deploying all

Singapore PM hopes China, Japan ‘find ways to...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has voiced hope that China and Japan can de-escalate tensions, following a row sparked by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on the Taiwan Strait. At the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Wednesday, Wong said Singapore and fellow Southeast Asian states supported Tokyo stepping into a bigger role in the region, including on the security front, for greater stability. Takaichi earlier this month said Japan could deploy its military in the

Trump ‘uniquely consistent for decades’: Singapore’s...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Singapore’s top diplomat said on Wednesday that United States President Donald Trump had held the same views on free trade and immigration for decades, despite being widely seen as erratic and among the most unpredictable of American leaders. Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan was responding at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum to a question on how his country would navigate Trump’s less consistent, more freewheeling and unilateralist approach. Balakrishnan pointed to a 1988 interview with...

Chinese SOEs ask workers to cancel their Japan...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Amid a heated diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo which has shown no signs of cooling off, several employees of China’s state-owned enterprises have been advised to scrap their immediate travel plans to Japan, they told the Post on condition of anonymity. One of them, an engineer at a state-owned firm in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, received an unexpected phone call on Tuesday. It was his company’s administrative office, urging him to cancel his coming holiday. Like employees at

Fake labels on food trays plague Indonesia’s free...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Indonesia’s free meals programme has come under fresh scrutiny following reports that Chinese-made food trays used in the scheme may have carried falsified safety and halal labels.The tray controversy is the latest in a series of challenges to confront President Prabowo Subianto’s ambitious flagship policy, which aims to provide nutritious meals to more than 82 million Indonesian children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. Observers say the programme’s rapid scale-up has revealed...

Malaysia court charges 11 shipwreck survivors with...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Eleven survivors of a deadly boat capsize two weeks ago appeared in a Malaysian court on Wednesday, charged with illegally being in the Southeast Asian country, officials said. The accused – nine Myanmar nationals and two Bangladeshi citizens – were among 14 people rescued after the November 6 shipwreck off a Thai island near the Malaysian maritime border. They are said to be from a group of around 70 undocumented migrants, mostly from Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya community, who were trying

Singapore minister apologises for derogatory remarks...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Singapore’s acting sports minister has conceded he “should be more respectful” after calling Hong Kong football fans and players “idiots” in a locker room pep talk to his side, following the city state’s historic win on Tuesday night in Hong Kong. Singapore came back from a goal down to beat Hong Kong 2-1 in the Asian Cup qualifier match in front of a record 47,762-strong crowd in Kai Tak Stadium, sealing their qualification for a major football tournament on merit for the first time. The...

‘Surreal’: Australian journalist faces Thai trial for...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

An Australian journalist is set to face trial next month in Thailand after Malaysia’s internet regulator filed a criminal defamation complaint over his critical writing, a rare cross-border case in Southeast Asia that rights groups say could open the door to prosecutions of reporters across the region. Murray Hunter, a blogger and former academic based in southern Thailand, was indicted in Bangkok on November 17 over four Substack articles that accused Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia...

Trump’s tariffs to endure beyond his presidency,...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Former US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are likely to outlive his administration, sustained by political fears that removing protectionist barriers will alienate workers who fear losing their jobs to offshoring and AI. Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, Raimondo argued that the political cost of unwinding tariffs is too high for any future administration, regardless of party. “Tariffs, once they’re put on, are hard to take

Japan’s largest urban fire in decades devastates 170...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

A fire ripped through more than 170 buildings and killed one person in a southern Japanese coastal city on Wednesday, with military and firefighting helicopters scrambling to extinguish the country’s largest urban blaze in almost half a century. Aerial footage from broadcasters showed houses reduced to rubble and thick plumes of smoke rising from the hilly Saganoseki district of Oita city, which overlooks a fishing harbour renowned for its premium Seki-brand mackerel. The flames had also

South Korean teen dies after 8 hospitals refuse to...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

A South Korean high school student died in an ambulance after eight hospitals refused to treat him over the space of an hour, in a case that has reignited concerns over a growing shortage of doctors and specialists in the country. The 18-year-old was found convulsing near a high school by a teacher at about 6.20am on October 20, The Chosun Daily reported, quoting the Busan Fire and Disaster Headquarters on Tuesday. The teacher called for an ambulance, which arrived about 15 minutes later. The...

Isis-linked group used video games to radicalise...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Indonesian police have dismantled an Islamic State-linked network that used online video games and social media to radicalise more than 100 children, arresting five suspects including a convicted terrorist. The elite counterterrorism unit Densus 88 revealed on Tuesday that the cell had targeted 110 minors aged between 10 and 18 across 23 provinces this year alone – a figure authorities described as a “massive” spike compared with previous decades. “In the years 2011 to 2017, we secured about

Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai: the rise of the ‘family...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Family offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai are redrawing the global map of private capital. Each hub combines favourable tax and regulatory regimes with strong local networks of banks, advisers and deal makers. Together, they now rival Western centres in deploying private equity across the Global South. Drawing inspiration from family offices in the United States – where private equity has represented a major share of assets – these Asian hubs are scaling rapidly, positioning themselves

Riding on jet success, South Korea chases US$15...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

South Korea is stepping up its outreach to Middle Eastern buyers as it pursues potential weapons contracts worth US$15 billion in the United Arab Emirates, seeking to build on its success in Europe and solidify its reputation as a dependable arms supplier. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung flew to Abu Dhabi for a summit with the UAE counterpart Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Tuesday, coinciding with the Dubai Air Show where Korea Aerospace Industries showcased its KF-21 fighter...

Japan’s renewed sovereignty push over disputed islets...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

A Japanese cabinet minister has reiterated his country’s claim to Liancourt Rocks, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, after Seoul protested against a new museum wing promoting Tokyo’s sovereignty over the islets. “Under international law, Takeshima is clearly an inherent part of Japan’s territory,” Japan’s Minister in Charge of Territorial Issues Jiro Akama said at a press conference on Tuesday, according to Kyodo news agency. “We will work to strengthen the dissemination

India’s debt-backed stablecoin challenge to US dollar...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

As governments worldwide debate the merits and dangers of digital currencies, India appears poised to launch its own state-backed stablecoin that uses government debt as collateral. Proponents argue that the Asset Reserve Certificate (ARC) could hasten the global drive towards de-dollarisation, lower India’s borrowing costs and create a “virtuous cycle” for public funding by diversifying the country’s investor base. By tying the token to sovereign debt, developers aim to create a transparent...

Crypto power theft drains US$1.11 billion from...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Malaysia’s national utility firm Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has incurred losses of more than US$1 billion from illegal power usage by cryptocurrency miners between 2020 and August this year, the energy ministry said. TNB found that 13,827 premises had illegally used power to mine cryptocurrency over the period, the energy and water transformation ministry said in a written parliamentary reply dated Tuesday. The illegal use of electricity for cryptocurrency mining, particularly for bitcoin, has...

Drop in Chinese tourists could cost Japan US$9.59...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

The Japanese economy could lose about 1.49 trillion yen (US$9.59 billion) over the next year if travellers from mainland China continue to avoid Japan over a row that has derailed the growth in arrivals seen earlier this year, an economist at the Tokyo-based Nomura Research Institute has projected. Takahide Kiuchi, the institute’s executive economist, made the calculation after Beijing told Chinese citizens last week to refrain from travelling to Japan following comments about Taiwan by new...

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