Asia - South China Morning Post

Trade tensions between the US and China have made companies around the world less keen to invest in either country, with the United States almost twice as unpopular, according to a new report from Allianz Trade.

The report, based on an annual survey by the Paris-based international insurance company, said US-China decoupling had not materialised, but investment intention towards China had dropped “significantly” to 24 per cent of survey respondents, down from 53 per cent a year ago.

The survey...

The quiet conclusion of US and Iranian backchannel engagements in Islamabad left more than diplomatic ambiguity. It crystallised a striking image: a financially strained, politically volatile Pakistan briefly positioning itself as a facilitator in one of the world’s most combustible rivalries. Substantive or symbolic, the episode underscores a deeper churn in West Asian geopolitics – one in which agility trumps credibility.

Pakistan’s role was not incidental. Islamabad offered itself as a...

Malaysia and Australia pledged on Thursday to keep oil and gas flowing between them as the Iran war’s continuous squeeze on global fuel supplies compels regional countries to deepen energy trade cooperation.

Across Asia, governments have been scrambling for alternatives after crude oil and gas shipments from the Middle East were disrupted following Tehran’s move to choke access to the Strait of Hormuz in response to US-Israeli strikes against Iran that began on February 28.

The disruption has...

The recent discovery of a Chinese underwater drone in Indonesia’s waters serves as a wake-up call for Jakarta to strengthen its undersea defence capabilities, analysts have said.

Indonesia, however, is likely to remain silent on the find and resolve the issue through “quiet diplomacy”, according to observers.

Last week, an Indonesian fisherman found a Chinese unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) in the Lombok Strait, a key waterway leading to Australia.

Marked with the letters “CSIC”, the drone is...

Indonesia’s push to bring thousands of unlicensed tourist stays into the legal fold is running into a familiar administrative obstacle in Bali, with operators saying the government wants faster compliance than the bureaucracy could allow.

In December, the Ministry of Tourism said unlicensed accommodation providers in Bali, Yogyakarta, West Nusa Tenggara and West Java had until March 31 to register their hotels, guest houses, villas and homestays, in a move meant to improve service quality,...

A man was charged in Australia on Tuesday with sexually assaulting a female passenger on board a Scoot flight from Singapore to Perth on Monday.

The 52-year-old Indian national committed “non-consensual sexual acts” on a woman he was seated next to during the flight, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Western Australia Police Force said in a joint statement on Monday.

The woman sought help from airline staff members and was later moved to another seat, the police said in the...

At first glance, the rupee is staging a recovery. India’s battered currency has gained around 1.5 per cent since March 27, making it the best-performing currency in Asia, according to Bloomberg data.

However, the recent bounce belies vulnerabilities in India’s economy that have been exacerbated by the energy shock emanating from the war in Iran. India is one of the most exposed among Asia’s leading economies, importing 90 per cent of its oil and more than half its liquefied petroleum gas....

South Korea welcomed a record 2.06 million foreign visitors in March, led by Chinese arrivals, government data showed on Thursday, with tourism spending lifted ‌by the comeback tour of K-pop supergroup BTS after a years-long hiatus.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said the monthly record helped lift first-quarter arrivals by 23 per cent from a year ago to 4.76 million, also a record for a first quarter.

It attributed the trend to the “worldwide popularity of [Korean] culture”,...

Thai police arrested seven French tourists after a viral Songkran confrontation in Phuket in which revellers surrounded a van, sprayed its driver with water and later ignored police orders to disperse.

The incident came during Thailand’s annual new year festival, whose street water fights draw huge crowds across the country but have also sparked complaints this year about more aggressive behaviour in some tourist hotspots.

Video shared on social media showed a crowd in Patong, a beach town on...

With the rise of social media and generative AI, how much of what we see online is true? In this series, SCMP Fact-Check, the South China Morning Post investigates claims circulating online and debunks viral misinformation impacting the daily lives of Hongkongers.

A video circulating online amid the US-Israel war on Iran falsely claims to show a downed American pilot captured alive by Iranians.

“Iranians Captured F35 Pilot alive,” read the caption of a Facebook reel.

The video appeared to show a...