Asia - South China Morning Post

For years, debates about US-China competition have defaulted to the obvious categories: ships, chips, tariffs and security pacts. Soft power was often treated as America’s home turf, the domain of Hollywood, top universities, global brands and a political ideal that still attracts even when it disappoints.

That assumption is getting riskier.

The world has entered a new emotional weather pattern: fatigue. It’s a structural condition shaped by overlapping shocks: pandemic after-effects, inflation...

For decades, North Korea’s most potent insurance policy has been the threat it poses to Seoul, guaranteeing that any US move against Kim Jong-un’s regime would first exact an unbearable toll on the South.

Now, a new Pentagon blueprint may have just offered that survival strategy Washington’s seal of approval.

The new National Defence Strategy, presented to a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, calls on Seoul to take “primary” responsibility for deterring North Korea, with...

Philippine lawmakers ordered Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio on Wednesday to respond to impeachment complaints against her after finding substance to allegations involving unexplained wealth, the misuse of public funds and making public threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr.

The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte is seen as a front runner for the 2028 presidential election, and has said she will run for the top post.

She survived a similar impeachment bid last year, which...

Thailand’s state-backed energy giant PTT will freeze pump prices for 15 days as war in the Middle East disrupts oil and gas shipments through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, spurring panic buying and some fuel rationing across parts of the Mekong region.

Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are heavily reliant on Middle Eastern oil and gas, whose flows have been choked since the weekend after the US and Israel attacked Iran. Tehran retaliated by striking tankers and energy facilities across the...

Muslims in a small town in northern Japan have been rattled by several suspected arson attacks, following months of online agitation targeting the community over purported construction violations.

Three fires in just over two weeks have damaged Pakistani-owned businesses and the Ebetsu Masjid, a mosque in Ebetsu, central Hokkaido, prompting police investigations and deepening anxiety among the city’s roughly 700 Muslim residents.

“We have women and children in the community, and I can tell you...

A Japanese high court on Wednesday upheld a dissolution order for the Unification Church in line with the central government’s request, with liquidation procedures beginning immediately.

Presiding Judge Motoko Miki of the Tokyo High Court said the decision was made as it is possible that the organisation is still engaging in unlawful solicitation of donations that financially ruin its members and others.

“One can hardly expect the church to voluntarily take measures to prevent its members from...

The founder of failed oil trading firm Hin Leong Trading, 84-year-old Lim Oon Kuin, had his jail term cut by four years after a partially successful appeal against his conviction and sentence in a criminal case.

Singapore’s High Court on Wednesday rejected his appeal against conviction but allowed his appeal against his sentence of 17½ years. Justice Hoo Sheau Peng said this sentence, when considering his age and the fact he was unlikely to reoffend, was crushing, even with remission.

She...

Seoul will offer its patented artificial intelligence system, which automatically detects and reports sexually exploitative content online, free of charge to institutions across South Korea.

The technology, first introduced in 2023, uses 24-hour real-time monitoring to automatically identify unlawful sexual images and videos on illicit websites and social media, request their removal and block re-uploads, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Tuesday.

City officials say the first...

A walled mansion in one of Kobe’s most desirable suburbs is heading for a court-ordered auction, but its murky past as a target of gang attacks may put off potential buyers.

The two-storey house, long the home of Kunio Inoue, head of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi – a breakaway faction of Japan’s largest yakuza syndicate – is being forcibly sold after judges held him liable for crimes committed by one of his subordinates, in a rare test of Japan’s anti-organised crime laws.

The Osaka High Court issued...

Men are almost twice as likely as women to be employed in the best-paid jobs in Australia, according to the country’s latest government gender gap report.

Male employees account for 64 per cent of roles in the nation’s upper quartile of compensation, jobs that have a total average annual pay of A$221,320 (US$155,000), the Workplace Gender Equality Agency said in a report on Tuesday.

Though female representation in the top category has increased slightly, women remain 1.4 times more likely than...