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A customer at an internet cafe in Seoul, South Korea in December 2013. For years, internet cafes appeared destined for extinction. Instead, the industry reinvented itself. Photo: AP
Hong Kong society

Opinion | How East Asia’s internet cafes became a cheap urban refuge

An informal safety net, these cafes offer gig workers and those between jobs crucial breathing space.

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Asian diaspora

Opinion | Why global migration data should recognise subgroups like the Teochew

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India

The View | Affordable housing a critical gap in India’s real estate boom

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2025 Cambodia-Thailand conflict

Asian Angle | Cambodia and Thailand must define the border to achieve lasting peace

Without boundary demarcation, all Cambodia-Thailand ceasefires are on borrowed time.

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Thai soldiers stand guard near the Thailand-Cambodia border in Pong Nam Ron district, Chanthaburi province, on July 22. Photo: Reuters
Thai soldiers stand guard near the Thailand-Cambodia border in Pong Nam Ron district, Chanthaburi province, on July 22. Photo: Reuters
Artificial intelligence

Opinion | America and China can be allies against AI catastrophe

Rival powers have contained nuclear and cyber threats before. AI safeguards demand the same instinct for survival.

South China Sea

Opinion | How China and the Philippines can avert clashes over a crumbling ship

Amid fresh clashes over the rusting BRP Sierra Madre, both sides accuse each other of infringing their 2024 agreement. But what did they actually agree to?

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Technology

Opinion | In an era defined by AI, can work still be measured by the clock?

From Seoul to Taipei, Tokyo to Beijing, Asia is running a 21st century economy on a labour contract designed for the 20th century.

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Students majoring in semiconductor engineering demonstrate an aligner at Korea University in Seoul on June 11. South Korea, aims to supercharge its chip industry. Photo: Reuters
Students majoring in semiconductor engineering demonstrate an aligner at Korea University in Seoul on June 11. South Korea, aims to supercharge its chip industry. Photo: Reuters
India

Opinion | India’s ‘cockroach’ protests reveal a deeper social mobility crisis

Promises of economic abundance alone can’t sustain public trust when Asia’s younger generations value fairness of opportunity over growth.

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India

Opinion | How China and the US are sidelining India in its own neighbourhood

India is being denied the uncontested dominance it once held. The task ahead is not to restore the old hierarchy but to find a new path.

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North Korea

Opinion | America’s North Korea strategy needs a dose of reality

Washington’s dogged insistence on denuclearisation first has led to a prolonged deadlock that has only widened Pyongyang’s options.

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Illustration: Huy Truong
Asean

Asian Angle | Decades of talk, zero barrels stored: why can’t Asean stockpile oil?

The Iran war energy crisis revived Asean’s joint reserve plans. To avoid another shelved ambition, the bloc needs swift, binding action.

Southeast Asia is projected to account for one-fifth of global energy demand growth through 2035. Photo: Reuters
Southeast Asia is projected to account for one-fifth of global energy demand growth through 2035. Photo: Reuters
Climate change

Macroscope | Who pays when overheated roads melt and rails buckle?

Costs are mounting from the damage caused by extreme weather on roads, railways, bridges and other basic infrastructure.

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Cambodia

Asian Angle | Cambodia’s war on scammers needs a blueprint built to last

Rounding up foot soldiers is easy. The hard part is tracing cash, exposing high-level enablers and protecting coerced victims.

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Stocks

Macroscope | Emerging markets have a concentration problem. Investors will have to live with it

Investors nervous about the dominance of South Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers can’t afford to ignore them.

Currency traders pass by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index and the foreign exchange rate between US dollar and South Korean won at Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on June 5. Photo: AP
Diplomacy

Opinion | How China and Indonesia can build a truly sturdy partnership

From handling business friction to aligning long-term goals, three practical steps can elevate ties beyond economic convenience.

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting in New York on May 26. Photo: Xinhua
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting in New York on May 26. Photo: Xinhua
Asia housing and property

The View | Asian property: A thin line separates strength from vulnerability

As Hong Kong, India and Japan show, sharp divergences within a market defy broad-brush generalisations.

Vietnam

Asian Angle | Vietnam’s economic miracle has a made-elsewhere problem

The numbers dazzle, but Vietnamese companies are losing ground in their own export boom as the middle-income trap looms.

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Japan

Macroscope | Why Japan should be able to weather a US market crash

Successive Japanese governments have spent decades building financial infrastructure that other Asian countries can emulate.

A woman walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan’s Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo on July 15. Photo: AP
A woman walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan’s Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo on July 15. Photo: AP
Asean

Opinion | Southeast Asia must write its own trade rules for China’s ‘flying geese’

As Chinese manufacturers migrate south, Asean has the leverage to dictate terms on local sourcing and skills training.

South China Sea

Opinion | Path to South China Sea stability doesn’t run through US, UK or the EU

The statement by 14 countries is a geopolitical exercise, amplifying the flawed 2016 Hague arbitral ruling to try to drive a wedge between China and its neighbours.

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Asean

Opinion | Cambodia aspires to shed its dependencies while staying connected

As it seeks connectivity, Phnom Penh must build diplomatic bridges with as much effort as it constructs ports and canals.

People arrive at the construction site of the Funan Techo canal along the Prek Takeo channel in Kandal province, Cambodia, on August 5, 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE
China-Asean relations

Asian Angle | Why a second ‘China shock’ is good for Southeast Asia

Fear of Chinese imports is misplaced. Roughly 90 per cent of what the region buys is inputs and machinery driving local manufacturing.

Shipping containers are seen at the port in Nanjing, China’s eastern Jiangsu province, last month. Photo: AFP
Shipping containers are seen at the port in Nanjing, China’s eastern Jiangsu province, last month. Photo: AFP
Pacific nations

Opinion | Panic over China’s missile test is born of Western bias

Every nuclear power routinely tests its arsenal. The outcry over Beijing’s launch reveals a glaring double standard.

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War and conflict

Outside In | How AI is changing the nature of war and conflict

Latest Global Peace Index reflects a world progressively less peaceful as AI enables armies to kill more people more quickly and more cheaply.

Japan

Macroscope | 3 reasons behind the Japanese yen’s persistent decline

The continued slide in the yen has raised concern, but what happens in the bond market will determine whether the bearishness extends far beyond Japan.

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A local hunter touches a bear dummy during an emergency response drill for bear and other wildlife intrusions in Isehara, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan on July 3. Photo: AFP
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