Tag - china

 
 

CHINA

Hong Kong's commercial real estate sector is going through one of its worst slumps in history.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 27, 2025
Hong Kong’s property distress is catching up with city’s banks
Banks with soured loans and mortgages have been reluctant to sell the underlying real estate assets at a loss — but that is changing.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance (left) swears in Pete Hegseth (center) as U.S. secretary of defense during a ceremony in Washington on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 26, 2025
New U.S. defense chief pledges to work with allies in message to Pentagon
Pete Hegseth appeared to try and dispel concerns in allied capitals that the U.S. could again see a more transactional approach to foreign policy under President Donald Trump.
Jeffrey Andrews (L), a social worker, and Uzma Naveed (R), an outreach coordinator, speak to "John" (C) at the Christian Action Center for Refugees in Hong Kong on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 26, 2025
U.S.-bound refugees in Hong Kong despair as Trump halts arrivals
Many asylum seekers in Hong Kong — some waiting years — now fear being sent back to square one.
A coal terminal in China's Hebei province in February 2023. Electricity use in the country grew 6.8% last year, outpacing overall economic growth at the highest clip in at least 15 years.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jan 26, 2025
China’s surging power demand creates a climate conundrum
As the world’s largest polluter, China holds outsized sway over whether emissions can be reduced fast enough to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.
The U.S. head office of TikTok in Culver City, California
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 26, 2025
White House in talks to have Oracle and U.S. investors take over TikTok
Under the deal, ByteDance would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle.
U.S. President Donald Trump attends an event about the economy at the Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 26, 2025
Trump’s frenzied debut delights base as thornier decisions await
The honeymoon is hardly assured to last, with the U.S. president so far avoiding drastic steps that would tempt backlash from his party, Wall Street or both.
The P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, in April 2020
WORLD
Jan 26, 2025
CIA now favors China lab leak theory to explain COVID’s origins
A new analysis that began under the Biden administration is released by the C.I.A.’s new director, John Ratcliffe, who wants the agency to get “off the sidelines” in the debate.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on as he meets with his "Quad" counterparts at the State Department in Washington on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 25, 2025
Rubio clashes with Chinese top diplomat on Taiwan
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, over Taiwan, with the top U.S. diplomat denouncing Beijing's "coercive" moves.
A woman lays a bouquet of flowers outside Shenzhen Japanese School following the murder of a 10-year-old Japanese child who was on his way to the school, in Shenzhen in September.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 24, 2025
Chinese court gives death penalty to man who killed Japanese boy
Friday’s sentence was pronounced on the same day the trial opened in an unusually quick decision.
Hokkaido Railway temporarily suspended train services after a 61-year-old Chinese tourist was fatally struck by a train in the city of Otaru, Hokkaido, on Thursday morning.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2025
Chinese tourist fatally struck by train in Hokkaido
The woman entered the Hakodate Line tracks near Asari Station in Otaru to photograph the ocean with her phone.
TikTok boasts 170 million monthly U.S. users and has become a major driver of culture and politics among young Americans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 24, 2025
TikTok’s possible buyers, from Elon Musk to MrBeast
There will be no shortage of interested acquirers for the popular video service, which boasts 170 million monthly U.S. users.
Shipping containers at an industrial port in the Keihin Industrial Zone in Kawasaki. Japanese businesses see a larger role for Japan if global trade breaks down and multilateral trade institutions become less effective without U.S. participation.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2025
Japan contemplates global free-trade leadership as U.S. goes protectionist
Tokyo could find opportunity in the turmoil while avoiding direct confrontation with Washington.
The bus stop in Suzhou, China, where a bus used by a Japanese school came under attack from a man, since identified as Zhou Jiasheng, in June last year
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 23, 2025
China sentences man to death over Japanese school bus attack
A Chinese court deemed the death penalty as appropriate in view of the "extremely heinous" nature of the crime, which resulted in the death of a bus attendant.
Then-U.S. President-elect Donald Trump addresses the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, in November. REUTERS
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2025
'America First' didn't just return — it has always been there
The Trump administration is no different from previous administrations and remains as inherently "America First" as ever.
Attendees inside the Congress Center at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. The annual Davos gathering of political leaders, top executives and celebrities runs from Jan. 20 to 24.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 23, 2025
China tones it down at Davos this time ahead of Trump tariffs
Donald Trump has warned that a 10% levy could be imposed on China as soon as Feb. 1.
Chinese actor Wang Xing shakes hands with a Thai police officer after being assisted in his return to the country, after being kidnapped into one of the telecom fraud centers, at a police station in Thailand-Myanmar border's Mae Sot district, Tak province, Thailand, on Jan. 7.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jan 22, 2025
China families appeal to free relatives held by scam gangs in Myanmar
Chinese law does not consider men as potential victims of human trafficking.
People walk in front of billboards in a subway station in Shanghai on Jan. 16.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 22, 2025
China's frugal young adults accelerate saving, raising economic risks
Some economists warn entrenched saving could hollow out demand just as policymakers are counting on domestic consumption to bolster China's GDP.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya at the State Department in Washington on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 22, 2025
Top diplomats agree to take U.S.-Japan alliance to 'new heights'
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and new U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also agreed on the importance of trilateral cooperation with South Korea and others.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a video conference meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 22, 2025
Xi and Putin discuss relations with Trump, Ukraine and Taiwan
In a video call, Xi and Putin proposed a further deepening of the strategic partnership between their countries that worries the West.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew (center) and Donald Trump's nominee to be the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard (right), attend the presidential inauguration in Washington on Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2025
How Trump's TikTok ban reprieve could work
While a U.S. president can't legally suspend a law aimed at banning TikTok, Trump can use prosecutorial discretion, following a long line of past executives.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan