Asia

Australian police have opened an investigation into explosive claims by a self-styled Chinese spy who defected Down Under with an apparent trove of sensitive intelligence. The Australian Federal Police announced the probe and is expected to interview Wang Liqiang over his claims that Chinese intelligence tried to interfere with Australian politics. Wang fled to Australia […]

Hong Kong—The residents of Hong Kong sent a clear message to Beijing at the elections on Sunday, November 24, with an overwhelming majority of votes going to pro-democracy candidates after more than five months of protests that have rocked the city. Voters turned out in droves, with over 70 percent trooping to the polls, in […]

by Catherine MARCIANO / Hiroshi HIYAMA Pope Francis on Monday urged renewed help for victims of Japan’s 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima disaster, warning “nobody can start over alone” as he noted “concern” over nuclear power. On the penultimate day of his Japan trip, the pontiff heard the stories of those who survived the so-called […]

by Yan ZHAO / Xinqi SU Hong Kong’s deeply unpopular leader vowed Monday to “listen humbly” to voters after the pro-democracy camp scored a crushing victory in community-level elections that revealed broad public support for a protest movement that has stirred months of violence. In a rout that stunned the semi-autonomous territory, candidates seeking to […]

Hong Kong— The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that while demonstrators have faced off against the police in different universities in Hong Kong since earlier this month, quotes from Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew have been circulating on Whats App, with some speculating on what Mr Lee would have done concerning the […]

by Miwa SUZUKI As Pope Francis, the head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, prepares to visit Japan, AFP looks at the religions the Japanese have followed for centuries. What’s the main religion? There is no state religion in Japan but the nation’s principal religions are Shinto and Buddhism. The two are closely intertwined — […]

by Catherine MARCIANO / Richard CARTER Pope Francis arrives in Japan on Saturday, where he is expected to deliver a robust anti-nuclear message of peace in the only country to have suffered an atomic bomb attack. The 82-year-old Argentine is fulfilling a long-cherished ambition to preach in Japan, where years ago he hoped to be […]

A Chinese defector involved in spying operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia has provided a trove of intelligence on China’s political interference operations to Australian officials, according to a media report Saturday. The Nine network newspapers said the defector, named as Wang “William” Liqiang, had given Australia’s counter-espionage agency the identities of China’s senior […]

The former CIA officer who may have devastated US intelligence collection in China by giving up its network of informants to Beijing agents was sentenced on Friday to 19 years in prison. Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a naturalized US citizen who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1994 to 2007, was arrested in January […]

Hong Kong — Thursday, November 21, saw the youngest person in the months-long demonstrations in Hong Kong plead guilty to two counts of criminal damage which occurred last month, four months after the increasingly violent protests started in June. The boy reportedly sprayed obscene graffiti at an exit at Prince Edward MTR as well as […]

Several Indonesian ministries are banning pregnant, disabled, or LGBT job hunters in favour of what one called “normal” applicants, the Ombudsman said Friday, slammed as “arbitrary and hateful restrictions” by a rights group. The report comes as the world’s biggest Muslim majority country takes applications from millions of candidates who are applying for some 200,000 […]

by Laurent Thomet and Helen Roxburgh President Xi Jinping said Friday that China wants to reach an initial trade deal with the United States but is “not afraid” to fight back when necessary. It is rare for Xi to speak so directly about the trade war, and his comments come two days after US President […]

Sri Lanka’s divisive Rajapaksa clan consolidated their grip on power on Thursday as newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa swore in his brother Mahinda as prime minister. The siblings are credited with destroying in brutal fashion ethnic Tamil separatists to end Sri Lanka’s civil war a decade ago when Mahinda was president and Gotabaya effectively ran […]

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger warned Thursday that an armed conflict could break out between the United States and China if they fail to resolve their trade war. The sober remarks from Kissinger, who was instrumental in normalising diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing, came at a conference in Beijing on the future […]

Singapore—Alex Yeung, a restaurant owner who held a gathering in October to discuss the situation back in his native Hong Kong, was repatriated and will not be permitted to return to Singapore without prior permission from the Controller of Immigration. In connection with Mr Yeung’s case, Philip Chan, the Singaporean businessman in whose establishment the […]