Asia - South China Morning Post

In 2021, while China-born businessman Chen Zhi was building a multibillion-dollar empire now enmeshed in multiple criminal allegations, staff at his family office in Singapore ran into seemingly minor technical glitches.

At first, some of them struggled to connect to the office copier. Days later, the door badges stopped working. After they regained access, staffers quickly realised they had a much bigger problem: millions of dollars had been siphoned from Chen’s bank accounts.

While the founder...

Dozens of disgruntled customers have come forward after claiming they were duped by a Malaysian influencer who sold them lab-grown diamonds instead of the real deal.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Michael Chong said that at least 30 of the victims had lost a collective amount of around 1 million ringgit (US$239,569) since 2023 to the influencer.

He explained that the influencer offered jewellery and good fortune trinkets to her customers but had used misleading terms to...

Indonesia is intensifying a crackdown on illegally imported second-hand clothing blamed for battering its domestic textile industry, a move that has been welcomed by manufacturers but rattled thrift sellers and shoppers struggling with shrinking purchasing power.

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa announced plans to issue a new regulation reinforcing a 2022 Trade Ministry ban on used clothing imports. The measure would allow authorities to blacklist importers caught smuggling in used...

North Korea has denounced new US sanctions targeting its cybercrime networks, accusing Washington of harbouring “wicked” hostility, but analysts have said Pyongyang’s unusually restrained response suggests it is leaving the door open to future dialogue.

“Now that the present US administration has clarified its stand to be hostile towards the DPRK to the last, we will also take proper measures to counter it with patience for any length of time,” read a statement by North Korean Vice-Foreign...

Japan and the United States are preparing to jointly tap deep-sea rare earth deposits near Minamitorishima, in what analysts see as a strategic bid to insulate their hi-tech sectors from China’s grip on critical minerals and fortify supply chains amid rising geopolitical rivalry.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi confirmed Tokyo’s intention to cooperate with Washington on seabed exploration and resource development after meeting US President Donald Trump in Tokyo on October 28.

The two sides agreed...

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu is scheduled to speak in a fireside chat on Friday during the third Family Business Summit in Hong Kong, as the city burnishes its role as the offshore fundraising hub and ‘superconnector’ between the Chinese mainland and the rest of the world.

The speech is the highlight of the conference, curated by the South China Morning Post and Blue Pool Capital, with UBS as the presenting partner. The attendees – by invitation only – comprise about 150 private business...

Economist Paul Samuelson famously quipped that stock markets accurately predicted nine of the last five recessions. The same could be said of financial economists. So-called leading indicators like market sentiment swing with the daily news. Optimism is the default option but bull markets die hard. Still, most seasoned financial economists now recognise that stock markets are becoming more fragile.

And so does the crowd. The frequency of online searches for “stock market bubble” has surged since...

The latest deadly typhoon to tear through the Philippines has killed more than 100 people, raising fears among experts that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense, and harder to prepare for.

Typhoon Kalmaegi – the most recent in a string of late-season cyclones to batter the country in recent years – left a trail of devastation across the central Visayas region this week.

The storm follows a worrying pattern of high-impact tropical cyclones that have struck the Philippines...

The United States has given South Korea the green light to build nuclear-powered submarines – a landmark decision that could significantly boost Seoul’s naval capabilities and place it among a select group of nations with such assets.

Analysts say the move could reshape Northeast Asia’s strategic landscape in ways that not only strengthen deterrence but also reduce the risk of open conflict, as Washington recalibrates its alliance priorities under President Donald Trump.

Trump announced the...

The Malaysian government will appeal against landmark high court rulings ordering authorities to pay millions of ringgit in damages to the families of missing activists Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat.

In two statements on Thursday, the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) said it would challenge rulings that found the government and police liable for the enforced disappearances of Koh and Amri, two notorious cases which campaigners claim reflect Malaysia’s embedded culture of impunity.

Koh, a...