Asia - South China Morning Post

In Thailand, elections do not necessarily decide who governs. Over the past few weeks, that paradox has played out once more, with a prime minister ousted, the country’s best-known political dynasty sidelined and a new leader taking the reins.

For young Thai activist Aitarnik Chitwiset, the endless chaos feels like it has no off-ramp.

“I’m disillusioned and exhausted by our politics,” she told This Week in Asia.

At just 28, Aitarnik is deeply invested in her country’s future. But like many young...

Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) has ordered the retraining of five lions that fatally mauled a veteran zookeeper at Safari World in Bangkok.

The case has since prompted the closure of the park’s predator zone and sparked a review of safety practices at wildlife attractions across Thailand.

Jian Rangkharasamee, a 58-year-old keeper who had worked with lions and tigers for two decades, was killed on Wednesday after reportedly stepping out of his...

Indonesia is seeking China’s help to build a US$80 billion giant sea wall along the northern coast of Java in a project that officials see as essential to protecting millions of residents and key industries from rising seas and sinking land, despite criticisms over its financial and environmental costs.

President Prabowo Subianto broached the project with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a meeting on September 3, on the sidelines of Beijing’s Victory Day parade, according to Indonesia’s...

The human rights situation in North Korea has deteriorated, the UN warned on Friday in a report describing a decade of “suffering, repression, and increased fear”.

The UN first published a scathing report against North Korea in 2014 detailing a wide array of crimes against humanity, likened by the inquiry chairman to those of Germany’s Nazis, South Africa’s apartheid and Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.

Information gathered since then by the UN human rights commissioner’s office shows that the situation...

Counterfeit bricks in MTR’s Tung Chung East station project, improperly sourced bottled water for government departments, substandard trainers for lifeguards – recent scandals in Hong Kong have aroused controversies rooted in the government’s public procurement process.

Few Hongkongers have the vaguest idea of the scale of government procurement, even though it is everywhere around us. The Government Transparency Institute, which tries to monitor government procurement worldwide, estimates it...

From sparking protests that toppled the prime minister to giving young people a platform to discuss their country’s political future, social media was key to Nepal’s extraordinary uprising this week.

Fuelled in part by anger over flashy lifestyles flaunted by elites, young anti-corruption demonstrators, mainly in their 20s, rallied on Monday.

The loose grouping, largely viewed as members of Gen Z - the loose umbrella title of the youth protest movement – flooded the capital Kathmandu to demand...

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has ordered the suspension of a proposed 700 billion won (US$503 million) infrastructure loan for a bridge-building project in the Philippines due to corruption concerns, even though Manila insists no such agreement was ever signed.

Seoul’s decision has raised questions about investor confidence in the Philippines, where a sprawling corruption scandal over flood control projects has already shaken public trust.

The optics of a key partner pulling back over...

A specially chartered flight carrying hundreds of South Korean workers detained in a US immigration raid last week landed at Incheon International Airport on Friday.

South Korean workers accounted for most of the 475 people arrested at a Hyundai-LG battery factory site in the state of Georgia, triggering a delicate effort to resolve the thorny situation between close allies.

The Korean Air Boeing 747-8I, with more than 310 South Koreans on board, departed from Atlanta and touched down on the...

A woman filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against a hospital in Japan that diagnosed and treated her Chinese mother with a brain tumour in 2022, claiming it illegally billed her mother three times the rate applied to uninsured Japanese patients.

In the suit filed at the Osaka District Court, the woman is seeking confirmation that she is not liable for around 4.5 million yen (US$30,506) in medical fees charged by the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Centre in Suita, Osaka prefecture.

According to...

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 gathering inside the plaza after Friday prayers.

The management of Suria KLCC shopping arcade – at the bottom of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur – made headlines after a scuffle broke out on Sunday between security and pro-Palestinian supporters who entered the venue at the end of a rally.

The...