The Big Story

Ground down by almost two years of overtime, low pay and discrimination, health workers throughout Southeast Asia are reaching the breaking point. 
The Big Story

Seen and not heard: health workers in Asia bullied into silence

Brutal hours, poor conditions, low pay -- from Indonesia to the Philippines, the region's carers have learned to keep quiet

24 November 2021
Strict travel restrictions and Xi Jinping's national security law are forcing overseas bankers out of Hong Kong in droves.
The Big Story

So long, Hong Kong: Asia's business hub loses its luster

City's rigid quarantine rules appease mainland but risk alienating foreign bankers

17 November 2021
Sarath Ratanavadi, Thailand's new energy king, built his fortune via his power company, Gulf Energy. A man of mystery, he is rarely photographed and keeps his affairs private. 
The Big Story

Thailand's billionaire boom: the rise of Sarath Ratanavadi

How the energy tycoon shot to fortune in Asia's most unequal country

10 November 2021
A grandmother prays for her grandson, Mohammed, who is being treated for liver failure at Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul. U.S.-led sanctions and severe drought have contributed to a financial crisis in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August, plunging many Afghans into hunger and poverty.  (Photo by Paula Bronstein)
The Big Story

Afghanistan nightmare: a humanitarian crisis that threatens to dwarf all others

Following the U.S. withdrawal, desperation amid food and medicine shortages

3 November 2021
A farmer tends vegetables in a field near a coal-fired power plant in China's Anhui Province. As the U.S. and EU continue to phase out coal-fired power generation to curb climate change, Asia's share of global coal consumption has doubled in the last 20 years. 
The Big Story

Asia's self-destructive coal addiction

Burning coal is a dirty and expensive habit, so why can't Asia quit?

27 October 2021
Three decades after gaining independence from the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan find themselves pawns in a power game among the U.S., Russia and China. 
The Big Story

The new Great Game: Central Asia struggles to balance three powers

China, Russia and the U.S. vie for influence in the post-Afghanistan era

20 October 2021
After 10 years of a mining-led economic boom, many Mongolians still struggle to make ends meet.
The Big Story

Mongolia's missing millions: What happened to a decadelong mining boom

Striking it rich with huge mineral deposits. What could go wrong?

13 October 2021
Japan's new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, hopes to use his listening skills and moderate approach toward leadership to get the nation back on track after the COVID-19 pandemic. 
The Big Story

Leading by listening: Kishida offers Japan a traditional style of politics

New prime minister's election is a victory for the party machinery of previous decades

6 October 2021
Ultraleftists call Xi Jinping's policy upheaval a new revolution that takes a harder line on everything from runaway capitalism to effeminate male pop stars.
The Big Story

Bombard the headquarters: Xi Jinping's crackdown keeps growing

The new 'common prosperity' doctrine hearkens back to the Mao era

29 September 2021
The world's population is on the precipice of decline and possible extinction.     
The Big Story

The new population bomb

For the first time, humanity is on the verge of long-term decline

22 September 2021
A flash protest in Yangon on May 2. Opposition to Myanmar's military government continues to swell.  (Photo by Berry)
The Big Story

Myanmar, a violent tale of two governments

A failed state plunges toward civil war

15 September 2021
For three centuries, faraway empires have come to conquer Afghanistan -- the British in the 19th, the Soviets in the 20th and now the Americans in the 21st -- before retreating in humiliation.
8 September 2021
Criminal networks linked to online gambling and fraud are further burnishing Cambodia's reputation for endemic corruption. (Photo by Vann Soben)
The Big Story

Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs

Illicit industry traffics thousands of victims from China through Southeast Asia

1 September 2021
In the 20 months since Makoto Uchida took the reins of Nissan, the executive has struggled to rejuvenate the troubled automaker. (Photo by Ken Kobayashi)
The Big Story

Restarting Nissan: Makoto Uchida takes corporate Japan's toughest job

Finally on track to profitability, the carmaker navigates the post-Ghosn era

25 August 2021
America’s 20-year effort to remake Afghanistan in its own image has given way to a humanitarian and political crisis.
The Big Story

Taliban triumph: anatomy of a disaster in Afghanistan

Washington's humiliation will be felt throughout Asia

18 August 2021
China could be waging its biggest attempt yet to threaten dollar hegemony and the monetary system that emerged after World War II.
The Big Story

Will China's digital yuan vanquish the dollar?

50 years after the 'Nixon shock,' a new era in international finance is dawning

11 August 2021
Childhood for many Chinese children is an unending drumbeat of extracurricular classes that has become an expensive time management nightmare for parents and has put many off the idea of larger families.
The Big Story

Leave them kids alone: Parents tire of China's world-beating education system

Cram schools and private tutoring curtailed to level the field and lower anxiety

4 August 2021
As the world’s largest social media platform looks to the prodigious numbers in Asia to combat its decline in the West, it finds itself walking a tightrope.
The Big Story

Losing Face: the perils of Facebook's Asia strategy

Compromises with regional governments speed access to growth markets

28 July 2021
Going ahead with the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to open on July 23, reflects not so much a decision as the lack of one. 
The Big Story

Athletes upstaged by political drama as Japan's COVID Olympics open

Strict regime of isolation, masks and testing has not prevented outbreaks

21 July 2021
The surge in anti-Asian violence has brought sympathy from immigrants' home countries, prompted diplomatic rebuke, and handed Chinese state media a potent set of talking points with which to criticize the U.S.
The Big Story

Anti-Asian attacks erode US image as Biden rebuilds Pacific ties

Trump's China rhetoric cited as source of bias against Asian Americans

15 July 2021
The generation born after 9/11 has created the outlines of a country that is visibly, materially and philosophically different from the Afghanistan the U.S. invaded in 2001. 
The Big Story

No exit: A generation of young Afghans faces the end of the US era

Chaos beckons as government forces collapse before Taliban onslaught

14 July 2021
The pandemic continues to teach a harsh lesson: optimism is often not just wrong, but fatal. 
The Big Story

Asia's new COVID waves

Nikkei Recovery Index shows overconfidence can be deadly

7 July 2021
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7 July 2021
As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its centennial, not a single challenger is on the horizon, not to the general secretary nor the system itself.
The Big Story

The lives of the party: The Chinese Communist Party turns 100

Xi is the strongest leader in a generation. But is his strength the CCP's greatest weakness?

30 June 2021
The decades Japan spent experimenting with massive government borrowing and spending offer the world a cautionary tale.
The Big Story

The money pushers: The world is embracing Japan-style economics

While central bankers watch for inflation, the real danger in many countries may be stagnation

23 June 2021