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A worker from a firm collecting used cooking oil to produce sustainable aviation fuel pours oil from a Tempura Ten-ichi restaurant into a tank in Tokyo on April 22. Photo: Reuters
Aviation

Opinion | Economic realities threaten Asia’s green aviation ambitions

Even as pressure grows on airlines to adopt sustainable fuel, higher prices driven by the Middle East conflict are squeezing an industry operating on thin margins.

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Singapore

Opinion | In Singapore, does unhappiness go hand in hand with fewer births?

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Japan

Asian Angle | Asean’s Myanmar peace push needs Japan’s ‘silent diplomacy’

The Philippines

Opinion | Philippines’ ‘China-free’ manufacturing strategy is a high-risk bet

Despite support and progress on the Luzon Economic Corridor and Pax Silica initiatives, Manila faces many challenges and much competition.

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Illustration: Mario Cameira
Illustration: Mario Cameira
Artificial intelligence

As I see it | US tech bros are coming for Asia and Latin America’s power grids

While China builds its AI data centres at home, America’s hyperscalers are increasingly turning to the Global South for expansion – with Washington’s blessings.

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Energy

Opinion | Can China’s coal industry ride to the rescue of a world in oil shock?

China’s quick and efficient coal-fired power plants are a stopgap solution even as its coal chemical sector offers oil product substitutes.

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Japan

Opinion | Japan’s geopolitical predicament is partly self-imposed

Tokyo needs to recalibrate what constitutes true national dignity with respect to its relationships with the US and China.

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Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, on June 15. In Japan’s political tradition, national dignity has been about being accepted as a peer of the West and standing above other Asian countries. Photo: Reuters
Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, on June 15. In Japan’s political tradition, national dignity has been about being accepted as a peer of the West and standing above other Asian countries. Photo: Reuters
Ageing society

Opinion | Don’t leave Asia’s ageing debate until it’s too late

As the global gap between healthspan and lifespan widens to almost a decade, an ageing Asia’s health question is increasingly a business one.

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China-India relations

Opinion | Despite a China-India thaw, military relations are stuck in 2020

Xi and Modi have shaken hands, border trade has reopened and direct flights have restarted – but their armies are still not talking to each other.

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India

Opinion | In AI, India’s choice needn’t be between a US leash or Chinese hook

What matters most is the ability to take any AI model – American or Chinese – make it serve Indian needs, prove it works and keep it running.

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Workers wearing GoPro cameras on their heads to record actions in a factory in Tamil Nadu’s Karur district in India on May 13. Developers think feeding such footage into specialised AI models will help robots copy humans. Photo: AFP
Banking & finance

Opinion | Better protection needed as violent cryptocurrency robberies surge

A mature financial ecosystem must give cryptocurrency investors and their families credible ways to remain safe.

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Violent criminals have already extracted over US$30 million from cryptocurrency holders in the first half of the year. Photo: Getty Images
Violent criminals have already extracted over US$30 million from cryptocurrency holders in the first half of the year. Photo: Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

Opinion | Truth needs a treaty in this age of AI disinformation

When algorithmic lies threaten world peace, international law must step in to protect verified facts and defend reality.

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US-China relations

Opinion | US-Japan-Poland strategic triangle can encourage a ‘peaceful war’

The catalyst for this new architecture of deterrence in an age of fragmented interdependence lies less in China than in Russia.

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China-Philippines relations

Opinion | National security must not kill Philippines-China academic ties

Targeting educational exchanges in the name of security threatens an effective channel for Manila to understand and engage Beijing.

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Chinese business owners and students react as the convoy of President Xi Jinping drives near their location in Manila on November 20, 2018. Educational and cultural exchanges between the Philippines and China have dwindled in recent years amid increasingly frosty relations. Photo: AP
US-China relations

Opinion | How the ‘G2’ effect of Xi-Trump summit is reverberating through Asia

When the world’s two biggest powers speak of respecting each other and swap stories about a war against Japan, the message is clear.

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Illustration: Dennis Yip
Illustration: Dennis Yip
Malaysia

Asian Angle | PAS wants urban Malaysia’s vote. Can it win over urban Malays?

The Islamist party has been working to prove it has a sound economic agenda and the ability to carry it out.

Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | I’m 80. It’s not too late to reconnect with my Chinese roots

I received a colonial education and went on to raise global citizens. Then came the reckoning that only age and a changing world could bring.

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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.

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
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
China-Asean relations

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

The game-changing canal is a physical response to an economic reality: Asia’s growth is becoming more regional and more connected.

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Asia housing and property

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

As investors pile into alternative property sectors and seek more exposure to listed real estate, transparency becomes more important.

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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
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.

The Lynas Rare Earths processing plant in Gebeng, Malaysia. Photo: AFP
The Lynas Rare Earths processing plant in Gebeng, Malaysia. Photo: AFP
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.

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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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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The workshop of a wind power equipment maker at the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park in Qinzhou city, Guangxi autonomous region, on September 4. China’s partners must distinguish between genuine imbalances and the productive advantages that offer opportunities for cooperation. Photo: Xinhua
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