Asia - South China Morning Post

Japan has voiced concern about the United States’ campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC), exposing a diplomatic bind for Tokyo as it seeks to defend a tribunal it has long championed without provoking its most important security ally.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday that Japan “places great importance on the eradication and prevention of serious crimes, as well as the upholding of the rule of law”.

He added that Japan, the...

On July 12, a coalition of 14 nations – the United States, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Britain, Japan, New Zealand, and seven European states including Germany, Italy and the Baltic nations – issued a statement marking the 10th anniversary of the South China Sea ruling at The Hague in 2016.

The document recycled familiar arguments, urging compliance with the ruling and framing it as a cornerstone of the rules-based international order. But beneath it lies a fundamental disconnect from...

Police in Vietnam said on Wednesday they had arrested three executives of a publishing house that released a book on Ho Chi Minh, the revered founder of the country’s Communist Party.

The author of Stories with Thanh - A New Account of Light, former telecoms executive Nguyen Thanh Nam, was arrested on anti-state charges in early July, along with an influencer who promoted the book on his social media channels.

The book, which has been recalled by its publisher under pressure from authorities,...

Thai police said on Wednesday they had arrested the manager of a boxing camp for trafficking underage boys for sex, and were searching for a Norwegian also believed to have been involved.

Police raided the day camp in Rayong province, southeast of Bangkok, on Tuesday and took 12 children into protection, the Central Investigation Bureau said in a statement.

The 28-year-old manager has admitted charges of trafficking minors under the age of 18 for sexual exploitation and soliciting sexual...

South Korea’s failed bid for Canada’s next-generation submarine fleet has exposed a growing problem for one of Asia’s fastest-rising defence exporters: price, speed and technology may no longer be enough.

Analysts said the loss of the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP) to Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems showed how Nato security ties and pressure on member states to favour allied industrial bases were increasingly outweighing commercial competitiveness in decisions over major...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has threatened to deport any Israelis found at a self-styled “start-up society” in Johor, after online claims about the tech commune triggered a national security investigation.

“We will not allow it,” Anwar told reporters on Wednesday. “If there are Israeli nationals, since we do not recognise Israel, they will be deported immediately.”

The Network School, a co-living compound founded by former Coinbase executive Balaji Srinivasan in Forest City, came...

Two tankers carrying Iranian oil are signalling Pakistan as their destination – an unusual move that may be an indication they are seeking a safe place to wait as the US blockade takes effect.

The Rani and the Amil, which are carrying a combined 1 million barrels of crude, switched their destination signals to Karachi on Tuesday, ship-tracking data show. The two vessels were already outside the Persian Gulf when Washington reimposed its naval blockade of Iranian shipping.

It is unlikely the...

Malaysia’s unity government is holding firm in Putrajaya, but its uneasy alliance is fraying at the state level after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) moved into opposition in Melaka, even as it reels from a rout by federal partner Barisan Nasional (BN) in Johor.

The split followed a constitutional amendment allowing Melaka’s government to appoint up to seven unelected assembly members with voting rights. PH’s five lawmakers opposed the bill, which passed 23-5 on Tuesday.

Four...

The Philippines has begun holding active school shooter drills after a rare act of violence in Tacloban City last month during which two teenage students opened fire, killing three schoolmates and injuring 20 others.

On Wednesday, at one educational campus in Manila, hundreds of students and teachers practised barricading classrooms with desks and chairs and staying silent as an armed actor wearing a black hoodie scoured the halls and rooms.

“We acknowledge the increasing number of violent...

The feud between Samsung Electronics’ device-making and chipmaking divisions is deepening, as employees in the smartphone and home appliance businesses are expressing anger over a nearly 100-fold compensation gap between them and employees in the chipmaking division.

Samsung Electronics Company Union (SECU), which is mostly made up of employees in the appliance-making Device Experience (DX) division, will hold a rally under a “same company, same rights” slogan at the company’s plant in Suwon,...