Asia News fra SCMP

The second trial of Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1MDB state investment fund was on Monday delayed by a week to allow his first trial to end.Najib, who lost a general election last year, has been hit with 42 criminal charges of corruption and money laundering at the state fund. Najib, 65, denies wrongdoing and accuses the new government under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of seeking political vengeance.Chief prosecutor Gopal Sr […]

Two months of increasingly chaotic protests in Hong Kong are driving investment money out of the city and into Thailand’s ultra-luxury condominiums, according to one of the biggest developers in the Southeast Asian country.Some 40 per cent of the condos in a 52-storey Bangkok tower that opened last week have already been sold to buyers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, according to Keerin Chutumstid, an executive at Bangkok-based Magnolia Quality Development Corp, which owns […]

Japan’s exports slipped for an eight month in July, while manufacturers’ confidence turned negative for the first time in over six years as slowing global growth and the prolonged China-US trade war took a toll on the world’s third-biggest economy.The gloomy data adds to the challenge for Japanese policymakers worried that a prolonged downturn in external demand will drive a sharp economic downturn at home.Exports in July fell 1.6 per cent from a year earlier, Ministry of Finance data showed on […]

The latest round of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing earlier this month ended badly, with both sides firing a broadside – US President Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs of 10 per cent on US$300 billion of previously untouched Chinese goods, while Beijing responded by lowering the value of the yuan.Weakening the Chinese currency to seven to the dollar, its lowest level in 11 years, knocked down financial markets and global commodities. Trump responded in kind by labelling […]

VinFast’s ambition to become the national car brand of Vietnam has gone up a gear with the first deliveries of its two luxury models to customers.With the recent roll-out of the Lux A2.0, a sedan that retails for US$65,000, and the Lux SA2.0 SUV that starts at US$86,000, the automobile company owned by Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest private corporation, hopes to avoid the fate of other Southeast Asian car companies, such as Malaysia’s Proton, that have launched with much fanfare only to sta […]

The Philippines’ defence secretary has rubbished counterclaims by Beijing’s envoy that Filipino workers in China could also be accused of espionage, days after he expressed security concerns over Chinese workers in the country.Delfin Lorenzana on Sunday called for online casinos operating near military camps to be relocated over fears Chinese nationals working in such companies could be tapped to gather intelligence for Beijing.According to government estimates, a majority of the 138,000 […]

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday said the city state would resolutely stick to its policy of maintaining good ties with the United States and China even as the two major powers remained at loggerheads.He acknowledged the difficulty the Lion City was facing in maintaining that neutral position because of pressures for the Chinese-majority country – which has significant security ties with Washington – to pick a side.“Being a Chinese-majority country can at times put us in a […]

When Tracy Goh moved from Malaysia to San Francisco in 2012, she didn’t know anyone in her adopted city, so she began hosting pop-up dinners in her flat to make friends.But what started as small social gatherings soon grew into events with 20 to 60 diners, as her food – especially her laksa – started winning fans. Goh soon decided to leave her marketing job to take up cooking full-time.In 2017 and 2018, she served more than 1,000 bowls of laksa in rented restaurants and shared kitchens, hoping […]

A suspected Islamic militant in Indonesia has launched an attack on a police station, slashing one officer with a sickle, before being shot and taken into custody, officials said on Sunday.The 30-year-old suspect entered the police station in Surabaya in East Java on Saturday afternoon – Indonesia’s Independence Day – and attacked the officer on duty, according to a police intelligence report.A second officer suffered a bruised face during the incident, said the report.Why a resurgent Jemaa […]

Thousands of people have demonstrated this weekend in Canada, Britain and Australia in support of the Hong Kong democracy movement.In Vancouver, Toronto and London, demonstrators faced off against vocal pro-Beijing rallies.The gatherings came as Hong Kong protesters demonstrated for the 11th week running, with both pro-democracy and pro-Beijing rallies held in the city over the weekend.A massive Hong Kong rally was under way Sunday at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.Water cannon trucks on standby […]