alt

January 7th, 2021

2021: ONWARD AND UPWARD

Vaccine rollouts, travel bubbles and surging markets

View all editions

Coronavirus

Five things Asia needs to know about new coronavirus variant

Mutation potentially 70% more infectious; countries bar entrants from Britain

A scientist conducts research on a coronavirus vaccine at a laboratory at biotechnology company BIOCAD in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on May 20. 
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison, pictured on Dec. 11: many countries are watching how his forthright approach to China plays out.
Opinion

Australia pays painful economic price for its China criticism

Business leaders jittery after Canberra's call for COVID inquiry

Alibaba's founder Jack Ma, pictured in October 2018: China's anti-monopoly drive is akin to a parent disciplining a badly behaved child.
Opinion

Jack Ma punishment a lesson for China's other tech bad boys

Correcting misbehavior also an attempt to spur innovation

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at an Oct. 23 event marking the 70th anniversary of the participation of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army in the Korean War, in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
The Nikkei View

Today's nonpolar world requires new international order

Multilateral framework should include China, rather than isolate it

The reality of 2020 represented a wild departure from the tidy predictions made last year. Rather than a turning point, however, the pandemic was more akin to a time warp.
The Big Story

Asia in 2021: through a screen darkly

Travel bubbles, Zoom calls, Big Tech and vaccines. Is it possible to top 2020?

Forecasting the main events of the Asian corporate world in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic is no easy task.
Business Spotlight

From Ant Group to Bitcoin: the questions for Asian business in 2021

SoftBank, Huawei and unicorns Grab and Gojek will be in the spotlight

Japanese startup Astroscale is building satellites that can clean space debris in orbit.
Startups

Asian startups defied COVID turmoil in path to unicorn status

Japan's satellite company Astroscale and South Korea's Socar gambled to expand

In the past year, COVID-19 decimated airlines, Beijing authorities halted Ant Group's expected $34.4 billion IPO, the Nikkei recovered its 1991 level, and China and the U.S. worked up their hostility toward Chinese tech companies.
Business Spotlight

The numbers of 2020, from grounded flights to soaring stocks

Our reporters recall the data that have illuminated the year of the pandemic

While the impact of the virus will be felt for decades to come, there are many reasons to be optimistic as we head into 2021.
Asia Insight

An optimist's guide to 2021 in Asia

The pandemic has been a catalyst for change in health, tech and working practices

RCEP is raising hopes for Asia's post-COVID economic recovery, as well as questions about how non-signatories India and the U.S. will respond.
Asia Insight

RCEP: China to gain as trade pact ripples across post-COVID world

Japan and South Korea also likely winners; outsiders US and India eye next moves

Built in Japan in 1953, Shofuso (Pine Breeze Villa) was dismantled and brought to the U.S. the following year. The striking blend of traditional and modern aesthetics continues to captivate visitors to the house's current site in West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. (Photo by Constance Mensh, courtesy of the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia)
Arts

Model Japanese house in US park offers cultural lesson

Philadelphia exhibition celebrates links over 150 years

Bangkok's Ong Ang Canal, once a hub for illegal electronics and junk vendors, has been transformed with colorful street art and a weekend flea market in the city's historic quarters. (Photo by Yukako Ono).
Tea Leaves

For Thais, nostalgia isn't what it used to be

In Bangkok, rapid development has triggered longing for the vanished past