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A woman walks past a money exchange shop decorated with banknotes from different countries in Central, Hong Kong, in 2019. Financial de-dollarisation may be less about the end of dollar dominance than about the gradual expansion of choice around it. Photo: AP
Banking & finance

Opinion | Saudi Arabia’s mBridge exit shows the limits of financial de-dollarisation

Riyadh’s choice is practical, not ideological. Countries seeking payment diversification aren’t abandoning the dollar – they want efficient, cost-effective alternatives.

China-Asean relations

Opinion | How China’s new Pinglu Canal will transform Asia

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Asia housing and property

The View | How transparency drives property investment in Hong Kong and mainland China

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China-Asean relations

Opinion | How Chinese firms can avoid a Europe-style backlash in Southeast Asia

If Beijing’s tech expansion ends up undercutting local economies, Asean partners will soon ask whose prosperity it actually serves.

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Visitors watching Mornine, a Chery AiMOGA sales assistant robot, at the Malaysia Autoshow in Kuala Lumpur, on May 10, 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE
Visitors watching Mornine, a Chery AiMOGA sales assistant robot, at the Malaysia Autoshow in Kuala Lumpur, on May 10, 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE
US-China relations

Asian Angle | Southeast Asia faces a false binary in US-China mineral trade

The real question for rare earth exporters is how to turn global mineral competition into higher-value industries.

Asean

Opinion | In a US-China world, Asean must do more than avoid choosing sides

Following the uneasy truce at the Xi-Trump summit, Asean must go beyond passive hedging and forge middle-power partnerships to secure its autonomy.

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Asean

Opinion | How Chinese firms can optimise their ‘going out’ strategy in Southeast Asia

While local partners gain valuable technical and marketing skills, Chinese companies must navigate vastly different regulatory and cultural landscapes to succeed.

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An exhibitor chats to visitors at the 23rd China-Asean Expo in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on September 21. Bilateral trade exceeded US$1 trillion in 2025. Photo: Xinhua
An exhibitor chats to visitors at the 23rd China-Asean Expo in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on September 21. Bilateral trade exceeded US$1 trillion in 2025. Photo: Xinhua
China trade

Opinion | China’s industrial strengths must also benefit its trading partners

By shifting towards domestic consumption and exporting industrial know-how, Beijing can give global partners a genuine stake in its growth.

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Chinese diaspora

Opinion | China is leveraging its diaspora to boost the economy, unlike India

While Beijing has turned its diaspora into an extension of its domestic economy, New Delhi has largely allowed its diaspora to strengthen other economies.

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Banking & finance

Opinion | Bad money decisions are coming home to roost for the US and Japan

For major economies that have relied on debt to maintain living standards since 2007, high inflation might be one way out.

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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks during a press conference as finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 countries meet in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 1. Photo: Reuters
North Korea nuclear crisis

Opinion | Why Trump-Xi summit must put Korean peninsula back on the agenda

US and Chinese indifference risks reinforcing North Korea’s calculation that the world will settle for merely managing its nuclear threat.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, accompanied by his daughter Kim Ju-ae, attends the commissioning ceremony of the destroyer Kang Kon, at Wonsan Port, North Korea, on September 6, in this picture released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. Photo: KCNA via Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, accompanied by his daughter Kim Ju-ae, attends the commissioning ceremony of the destroyer Kang Kon, at Wonsan Port, North Korea, on September 6, in this picture released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. Photo: KCNA via Reuters
US-China relations

Opinion | Success of Xi-Trump summit lies in what happens afterwards

The real value of the Washington meeting between the presidents of the US and China is whether its understandings survive the next bilateral dispute.

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Pacific nations

Opinion | Pacific island states are trapped in Cold War 2.0

Geopolitically, it’s like a feudal hierarchy: small island nations as vassals, Australia and New Zealand as local lords and the US as king.

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China-North Korea relations

Opinion | New North Korea-Russia bridge delivers a powerful message to China

The Yalu bridge remains unused years after completion – a reminder that despite economic reliance on Beijing, Pyongyang still decides where to invest its political attention.

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Illustration: Dennis Yip
Diplomacy

Opinion | Middle powers don’t have to wait for a Trump-Xi-Putin summit

Rather than waiting for great powers to reshape the world, middle powers can find agency by deepening connections between hubs of cooperation.

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People pass a themed installation at a business district in Shenzhen on August 10. Moscow has suggested that Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could hold a trilateral meeting at the Apec summit. Photo: Xinhua
People pass a themed installation at a business district in Shenzhen on August 10. Moscow has suggested that Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could hold a trilateral meeting at the Apec summit. Photo: Xinhua
Vladimir Putin

Opinion | Why the Global South keeps its doors wide open to Russia

Far from being isolated, Moscow’s relationships across the non-Western world are a geopolitical constant the West cannot break.

2026 China-Nepal flash floods

Opinion | What the China-Nepal floods teach us about crisis communication

In an unfolding disaster, families need quick, practical updates and journalists need access the moment safety allows.

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North Korea nuclear crisis

Opinion | A new Trump-Kim summit would be a nightmare for everyone but Pyongyang

A bilateral deal that is acceptable to both Washington and Pyongyang would come at a steep cost to US allies and the region as a whole.

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North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un walks to greet US President Donald Trump at the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea in the Joint Security Area of Panmunjom in the demilitarised zone on June 30, 2019. Photo: AFP
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un walks to greet US President Donald Trump at the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea in the Joint Security Area of Panmunjom in the demilitarised zone on June 30, 2019. Photo: AFP
Banking & finance

Macroscope | Who’s in control of Japanese monetary policy? Tokyo or Washington?

Bessent’s intervention could have adverse implications for Japan’s economy, the BOJ’s credibility and tech-heavy stock markets in Asia.

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Asean

Opinion | As the global order fragments, at least Asean is still talking

A modest lesson in a multipolar world is that sometimes the achievement is simply that disagreement does not end the conversation.

United States

Opinion | The world is not so much embracing China as recoiling from Trump’s US

The US is haemorrhaging goodwill around the world, but China will have to build up its own trustworthiness and credibility to win hearts and minds.

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US President Donald Trump speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, US, en route to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on August 21. Photo: Reuters
China economy

Opinion | Western businesses need to crack the new CIA: China, India and Asean

The businesses that adapt early to engage China, India and Asean will help draft Asia’s next chapter and profit from it.

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The Huaihai Road commercial district in Shanghai, China, seen on March 6. Photo: AFP
The Huaihai Road commercial district in Shanghai, China, seen on March 6. Photo: AFP
Education

Opinion | The classic Chinese parenting playbook won’t survive the AI age

Controlling and achievement-oriented parenting stifles creativity, autonomy and critical thinking – qualities that will be needed more than ever.

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China technology

Opinion | China’s J-10CE has foreign buyers, but not yet a market

In service in Pakistan and Uzbekistan and on Bangladesh’s radar, the fighter jet is not yet a threat to Western market dominance.

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Vietnam

Asian Angle | Politics aside, young Vietnamese are warming to China

Hit dramas, trendy consumer brands and economic opportunity are drawing a new generation into China’s cultural orbit.

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Young Vietnamese women in Hanoi wave Chinese and Vietnamese flags ahead of state visit by China's president in 2001. Photo: AFP
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