Economy

The attack took place in southwestern Balochistan Province, the heart of the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. @AFP/Jiji
Belt and Road

Terrorist attacks show Pakistan's need to reassure China on security

Suicide bombing on key part of Belt and Road may make Beijing nervous

21 August 2018
A freight train bound for Tehran is pictured in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in May.
Belt and Road

Turkey crisis rattles Asian nations with rising Belt and Road debts

Costly Chinese projects could leave emerging economies with a hangover

19 August 2018
Pakistanis are unlikely to give Imran Khan much time to make good on his election promises.
Politics

Imran Khan faces economic tests in Pakistan's political caldron

Former cricket star to be sworn in as prime minister on Saturday

17 August 2018
Anger over road deaths in Bangladesh spilled over into violent protests.
Politics

Violent 'moral uprising' threatens Bangladesh government

Thousands of youths protest lax road safety and lagging job growth

13 August 2018
Pakistan barely has enough foreign reserves to finance imports for two months. This container is being loaded on to the first Chinese container ship at the port of Gwadar.
International relations

Pakistan economic crisis puts Chinese investments under spotlight

Loans from Beijing tied to secrecy but IMF would likely demand transparency

10 August 2018
Imran Khan, expected to become Pakistan's next prime minister, plans ambitious tax reform measures. 
Economy

Imran Khan walks tightrope to revamp Pakistan's tax collection

Reforms seen as essential to IMF assistance but face obstacles in parliament

6 August 2018
Imran Khan, who is expected to become the next prime minister, addresses the nation after the general election results were announced in Islamabad on July 26.
Economy

Belt and Road headache awaits Khan as Pakistan PM

Dwindling reserves and mounting debts to put new government in fiscal bind

31 July 2018
A supporter of Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, waves a flag during a campaign rally on July 22 in Karachi, Pakistan.
Politics

Pakistan goes to polls as debt reckoning looms

Islamabad likely to need bailout from IMF or Beijing

24 July 2018
A Chinese national flag is affixed to a buffer stop on a railway at a freight yard in the Kazakh border town of Khorgos.
Belt and Road

China's Belt and Road stirs up local anxieties

Loans and investments ignore profits and blur economics and security

24 July 2018
Soybeans being loaded at a port in China's Jiangsu Province. China, the world's largest consumer of soybeans, relies on U.S. imports for up to 30% of its needs.
Trade war

Soybean showdown: China removes tariffs in Asia

Beijing touts alternatives to US, but effect may be limited

27 June 2018
AIIB President Jin Liqun says the bank looks to finance quality projects that avoid pushing countries into the "debt trap" faced by some borrowers related to Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative. (Photo by Yuji Kuronuma)
Economy

No 'debt trap' with AIIB, president vows

India's Modi wants greater involvement with China-led development bank

27 June 2018
Laborers constructing a flyover in New Delhi, India in February. 
Economy

China-led AIIB to spend $3.5bn with focus on India

Bank says it is 'apolitical' and wants to connect Asia and Africa

25 June 2018
(© Nikkei montage/Source photos by Getty Images)
Asia Insight

China emerges as wild card in elections across Asia

Incumbents draw on Beijing's support as opponents tap resentment of its influence

5 June 2018
A jewelry shop in Peshawar: Pakistan has struggled to get the wealthy to pay income tax.
17 May 2018
Executives from the Dhaka, Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges attend Monday's signing ceremony in Bangladesh. Chinese investors may secure funding more easily for special economic zones that Beijing is building in Bangladesh. (Photo by Yuji Kuronuma)
17 May 2018
The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges teamed to buy a 25% stake in Bangladesh's main bourse. They also will provide $37 million in technical support. (Photo by A.Z.M. Anas)
International relations

China's Belt and Road builds trail of stakes in Asian bourses

Shanghai-Shenzhen group beats Indian bid for share of Bangladesh's main exchange

15 May 2018
The Bangladeshi government is promoting the launch of the country's first satellite, to be controlled from a ground station in Joydebpur, north of Dhaka, as a milestone ahead of national elections. (Photo by Mahmud Hossain Opu)
Economy

Bangladesh to join space age amid skepticism about costs

Government hopes satellite launch will help image ahead of elections

10 May 2018
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, and Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Oli during a ceremonial reception for the latter in New Delhi on April 7.
International relations

China's specter looms over Modi's Nepal visit

Indian PM faces diplomatic hurdles but could win votes back home

10 May 2018
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visits the Colombo Port City construction site on Jan. 2.
10 May 2018
Pakistan's government wants to make paying income tax a new test of patriotism. (Getty Images)
Economy

Pakistan promotes tax amnesty as it prepares to borrow abroad

Curbing evasion critical to combating money laundering and boosting revenue collection

7 May 2018
With his country's currency having lost nearly 20% of its value against the dollar since 2015, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visits a Chinese-funded reclamation project in Colombo in January.
Most read in 2018

Sri Lanka's currency suffers as debt trap deepens

China-financed infrastructure projects put country in vicious cycle

29 April 2018
A worker harvests sugarcane in a field in Thailand.
Politics

Thailand, Brazil, Australia join up to halt sugar exports from India and Pakistan

Export subsidies leading to price pressure will be raised at GSA meeting next month

28 April 2018
A new railway connecting Iran's Astara with Azerbaijan, which opened in late March, is a key link along the International North-South Transport Corridor. (© Nikkei montage)
26 April 2018
A new railway connecting Iran's Astara with Azerbaijan, which opened in late March, is a key link along the International North-South Transport Corridor. (© Nikkei montage)
Asia Insight

India and China jostle for influence in Iran and Central Asia

New Delhi's 7,000km transport corridor cuts across Beijing's Belt and Road

24 April 2018
With a big trade deficit between China and India, New Delhi is uncomfortable about Beijing using Nepal as a corridor to funnel more cheap goods in its direction. (Getty Images)
International relations

New Delhi wary of Beijing's India-Nepal-China corridor plan

India likely to object to China's one-way trans-Himalayan export traffic

20 April 2018