South China Morning Post

Asked on the campaign trail this week how Australia could balance its relations with the United States and China, Prime Minister Scott Morrison replied there was no need to choose between a “friend” and a “customer”.

The remarks by the leader of the center-right Liberal Party – hoping for a return to the top office in Australia’s federal election on Saturday – tanked with Chinese-Australian social media users.

The comments served to remind Chinese-Australians of how they have long been…

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has met with Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy activists, who are appealing for Washington to help stop Hong Kong’s controversial extradition bill.

The city’s pro-Beijing lawmakers are pushing to enact a law that will allow residents and visitors to be extradited to territories that now lack formal extradition agreements with Hong Kong, including mainland China.

Pro-democracy legislators in Hong Kong say the law would further erode freedoms in the former British…

Taiwan’s legislature voted to legalize gay marriage on Friday in a landmark move that sees the self-ruled island become the first in Asia to recognize same-sex partnerships.

From next Friday, gay couples in Taiwan can enter official wedlock after registering their marriage with government agencies – a result following an article-by-article review of a government bill widely debated by supporters and opponents.

The result drew thunderous applause from some 40,000 supporters waiting outside the…

The trade talks between China and the United States collapsed because Beijing removed details outlining the obligations it was required to meet as part of reaching a deal to end the trade war, according to a former senior US official.

Susan Thornton, former acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said both sides had agreed on a time frame to gradually implement changes as they worked towards a final settlement.

The Americans, however, wanted to set benchmarks…

Alabama’s move to ban nearly all abortions in the state has shaken a country divided over women’s right to terminate a pregnancy.

But in China, there is no debate.

On Twitter-like Weibo, social media users have overwhelmingly slammed the American state’s sweeping abortion ban.

“You cannot even have abortions if you are impregnated by rape or incest? Are these people crazy?” said a top comment.

The stark contrast underscores how a history of population control policies has helped shape views…

For decades, scientists have believed the moon has a mantle, just like the Earth. Now, China’s lunar rover, Yutu, has discovered the first evidence.

“Now we have it,” said Professor Li Chunlai, deputy director of the National Astronomical Observatory of China and a lead scientist on the Chang’e-4 mission that put Yutu, or Jade Rabbit as it is known in English, on the moon.

Scientists have long suspected that the moon has a mantle under its crust. But previous lunar explorations, including…

China has presented itself as a defender of “Asian civilizations” as it engages in an intensifying trade and military rivalry with the United States.

At the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Asian countries to stand by their cultures and political systems in what analysts said was an oblique rebuttal to Washington.

“We should have more confidence in our civilizations … work hard to continue the glory of Asian civilizations,” Xi…

Chinese tourists are shunning the United States amid the trade war and opting for destinations in Europe, said Jane Sun, chief executive of Ctrip, Asia’s largest online travel platform.

The US slid to 10th spot in the list of China’s top overseas destinations in a week-long national holiday in October known as the “golden week” from fifth in the previous year, according to Ctrip.

During the recent Labor Day holiday earlier this month, the US ranked as the ninth-most popular travel destination…

The production of a key ingredient in batteries for electric cars has become easier and cheaper, thanks to a technological breakthrough – just as US concerns about Chinese dominance in the supply chain are on the rise.

The cost of extracting lithium has been slashed to a “record low” of $2,400 per ton by the new process, a Chinese ­government report said.

That compares to an international price for lithium ranging from $13,000 to $22,000 per ton – and a long-term contract price of about $18…

As a deadly pig virus continues to spread globally, China and several other East Asian countries have turned to the mass slaughter of pigs as a way to contain the epidemic.

But the culling poses another urgent challenge to the world’s largest pork producing country: what do you do with the bodies of millions of pigs?

Proper disposal of the carcasses is key to prevent the infectious disease from spreading further and the remains from causing secondary pollution.

In China, the job falls on…