Asia - South China Morning Post

Vietnam and the Philippines have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, but as Vietnamese President and Communist Party leader To Lam heads to Manila next week, analysts say the two neighbours are increasingly focused on what they can do together rather than what divides them.

Lam’s two-day state visit on Sunday and Monday comes as both countries mark 50 years of diplomatic relations and a decade of strategic partnership, with Manila and Hanoi seeking to deepen cooperation on trade, food...

Asian technology firms are facing a “costly paradox” as they try to navigate an increasingly uneven global AI rule book, with divergent compliance requirements in the European Union and the United States threatening to blunt their competitive edge.

Analysts say the challenge is acute for Asian companies. While the EU has a single, comprehensive and legally binding artificial intelligence framework based on the landmark EU AI Act, US technology-related laws are decentralised at the state...

There seems to be no end to the harm arising from US President Donald Trump’s madcap war on Iran. Go beyond the direct tragic impact across Iran itself, the collateral damage from Tehran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and its ad hoc assaults on US allies in the region: beyond the burgeoning impact of shortages of oil, gas, hydrogen, helium and sulphur, and the prospect of food shortages arising from the collapse in fertiliser supplies; beyond the hardships of tens of thousands of...

Malaysia’s religious authorities can ban teachings they consider deviant, send followers to rehabilitation classes and take group leaders to court.

But they have not stopped banned or fringe Islamic movements from finding new followers online, according to officials, as some groups move abroad, rebrand or use social media to keep reaching Malaysians beyond the immediate reach of state enforcement.

The concern has been raised most recently in Selangor, Malaysia’s richest and most populous state,...

Japan’s parliament on Friday passed an immigration control law revision to raise the maximum fee for residence status applications by foreigners and introduce an online pre-entry travel authorisation system for overseas arrivals.

Once the fee changes are implemented later this financial year, the upper limit will be set at 100,000 yen (US$630) for visa renewals and 300,000 yen for permanent residency applications, marking a sharp increase from the existing threshold of 10,000 yen.

The fees are...

The US indictment of Singapore-based shipping tycoon Teo Siong Seng in a price-fixing scandal has raised questions about Washington’s determination to pursue prominent figures from friendly countries, though legal experts say the case conforms to established American antitrust practice.

Teo, the 71-year-old chief executive of Hong Kong company Singamas Container Holdings, has several prominent executive roles, including sitting as chair of the Singapore Business Federation and on the...

The Philippines is banking on its Asean chairmanship to elevate the country’s tourism through “warmth and authenticity”, despite facing accessibility hurdles and stiff competition from holiday heavyweights such as Thailand and Indonesia.

Famous for its white-sand beaches, the archipelagic state drew just 2.1 million of the 48.5 million tourist arrivals recorded by countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the first four months of this year.

The Philippines received 5.9 million...

An ex-police officer who disguised himself as a woman to sexually prey on teenage boys in Singapore was sentenced on Friday to three years’ jail and four strokes of the cane.

While dressed in a dress and headscarf, Sharizal Shafi’ee, 40, approached three boys, asking them to help adjust his bra.

The first two declined. The third agreed, believing Sharizal was genuinely a woman in need of assistance, but was later molested by him.

Sharizal was a police officer at the time of the offences but has...

As BTS concert tickets go on sale on June 3, Malaysian fans are already gearing up for what many describe as the ultimate online battlefield, one filled with scalpers, bots and eye-watering resale prices.

For countless Armys, the official fandom of the global K-pop phenomenon, the excitement of finally seeing BTS return to Kuala Lumpur this December has quickly turned into anxiety over whether genuine fans will once again lose out to profiteers.

BTS last performed in Malaysia in 2015.

Diehard...

Japan is often seen as one of Asia’s most stable democracies, with a sophisticated media industry and constitutional protections for free expression, yet one of the world’s leading press freedom indexes has once again rated the country’s media environment as “problematic”.

Analysts and journalists say the label points to a contradiction at the heart of Japan’s press system – reporters are rarely subject to the overt repression seen in authoritarian states, but political pressure, access...