Asia - South China Morning Post

Across social media, a curious phrase has been circulating: “You met me at a very Chinese time in my life.” It appears under videos of hotpot dinners, DHGate hauls, Chinese streetwear fits and users joking about switching their phone interfaces into Chinese “for the aesthetic”.

It has even spawned an ecosystem of spin-offs: “Chinamaxxing”, “you will turn Chinese tomorrow” and countless posts where people half-joke about becoming “more Chinese” by the day.

But beneath the humour of what looks...

North Korea’s claim that Japan has crossed a diplomatic “red line” by deepening its security partnerships is less about Tokyo’s defence policies than Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s decisive election victory, analysts say, as a weaker mandate may have pushed her towards negotiations with Pyongyang.

With a commanding majority secured in Sunday’s poll, Takaichi now faces fewer domestic constraints as she signals plans to expand defence cooperation with Western partners and potentially push ahead...

Japanese authorities seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its skipper, authorities said on Friday, in a move likely to further heighten tensions with Beijing.

In November, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi enraged mainland China by suggesting that Japan would intervene militarily if Beijing sought to take Taiwan by force.

“The vessel’s captain was ordered to stop for an inspection by a fisheries inspector, but the vessel failed to comply and fled,” Japan’s fisheries agency said.

“Consequently,...

Human trafficking syndicates operating across Southeast Asia are increasingly laundering their profits through cryptocurrency, a shift that reflects how swiftly these networks are scaling up and exploiting the ease of moving funds across borders, according to findings by a US blockchain analysis firm.

Crypto transactions linked to suspected trafficking operations surged 85 per cent in 2025 to hundreds of millions of dollars, Chainalysis said in its 2026 crypto crime report, which tracked illicit...

Tributes to a secondary school teacher poured out across Thailand on Thursday after she died from gunshot wounds while defending students from a teen gunman who attacked her school in Hat Yai.

The horror unfolded on Wednesday afternoon when the 17-year-old, who was armed with a stolen gun, entered the Patongprathankiriwat School in Songkhla province and took a pupil hostage. Head teacher Sasiphat Sinsamosorn, 54, negotiated the release of the pupil in exchange for herself.

During the long...

Vietnam has kicked off the new tourism year by shattering records. According to the national tourism authority, VNAT, almost 2.5 million international visitors arrived in January – the highest number ever recorded in a single month and an 18.5 per cent jump over the previous year.

While these figures represent an economic triumph, they also highlight a shifting geopolitical map.

Travellers are increasingly bypassing the smouldering border disputes between Thailand and Cambodia in favour of the...

Despite US President Donald Trump having congratulated Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on her recent election triumph, Tokyo is under pressure to deliver on colossal investments promised in the United States.

Ahead of the possible announcement of the first projects this week and Takaichi’s scheduled visit to the White House next month, what exactly has Japan pledged, what uncertainties remain, and what is at stake?

What was agreed?

In July, Japan agreed to invest US$550 billion through...

Singapore expects a surplus of S$15.1 billion (US$12 billion) or 1.9 per cent of gross domestic product for the 2025 financial year, more than double an initial projection of S$6.8 billion, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has said as he unveiled an aggressive bid to pursue AI ambitions in his annual budget speech.

The higher revenues came from corporate income tax and asset-related revenue collections, including stamp duty and vehicle quota premiums, Wong said on Thursday.

For the 2026 financial...

For many decades, Australia was known as the “lucky country”. Its long period of uninterrupted growth stretching back to the 1990s was a rarity among advanced economies. Yet even before the Covid-19 pandemic erupted, Australia’s luck was running out amid stagnant productivity, a housing affordability crisis and the slowdown in China’s economy.

Another developed country that has had luck on its side is Japan. Having endured more than three “lost decades” in a prolonged struggle against deflation,...

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has brushed aside calls to suspend or remove Malaysia’s anti-corruption chief, asking critics to “read his explanation”, after fresh reports about his shareholdings reignited public anger against the official.

Citing corporate filings, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Azam Baki, chief commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), was a key shareholder in an investment holding company.

Azam told local media on Wednesday that the report was...