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The volume of China’s railway cargo to Europe has set records last year. China State Railway Group said 12,400 China-Europe freight train trips were made in 2020, up 50 per cent compared to the previous year. The train service is also used to transport medical supplies from China to Europe amid the Covid-19 pandemic…
Companies entering China's market need to accept the notion of “Westphalian sovereignty”, according to Paul Romer, co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Romer said acknowledging along with acknowledging state sovereignty, companies get in step with the …
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Beijing and Wellington signed a deal to upgrade their existing free-trade pact on January 26, 2021. The pact eliminated almost all trade tariffs on New Zealand’s exports, giving the nation greater access to the world’s second-largest economy. China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade now val…
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Property prices have been skyrocketing in many Chinese cities to the point that many young Chinese say they can't afford to buy a home. That's what attracted some people to the city of Hegang in the northeastern Heilongjiang province along China’s border with Russia. Home prices in the city are significantly lower t…
Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, 2021 in a dramatically scaled down, socially-distanced inauguration ceremony. Kamala Harris also became the first black American, first woman and first person of Indian descent to reach the office of US vice-president. The event was att…
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China’s pandemic-hit economy recorded a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 2.3 per cent in 2020. The lowest annual growth rate in 45 years was announced on January 17, 2021, by the National Bureau of Statistics. After contracting by 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, the country’s economy expanded by a s…
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on January 13, 2021, that the UK should avoid falling into “unthinking sinophobia” amid tensions with China over human rights abuses and access to Britain’s 5G telecommunications market. Johnson was speaking a day after British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced fines …
Mukesh Ambani earns US$31,202 every minute and is worth more than Tanzania’s GDP – plus 9 more crazy facts about Asia’s richest person
Each winter, it is common for rich hunters from Gulf countries to travel to Pakistan’s vast deserts to partake in falconry. Arab sheikhs are known for being enthusiastic hunters, falconry is considered a treasured tradition and the birds are used in lavish hunts. However Pakistan is also a major hotspot for falcon p…
Tokyo's Toyosu fish market held its first tuna auction of 2021 on January 5. Previously held in the Japanese capital’s Tsukiji district, the world's biggest fish market is now located in Toyosu after moving there in October 2018. During the first auction of the year, a single tuna sold for 20.8 million yen (US$202,0…
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2020 is a year unlike any other. It left the world a starkly different place than the year before. The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 1 million lives worldwide, wreaking havoc on the economy and leaving millions of people jobless and struggling to survive.
China has achieved “major progress” in negotiations for a recently proposed investment deal with European Union (EU) member states, according to Beijing officials who said they expect an agreement to come soon. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin spoke about the talks on December 29, 2020, saying the deal…
Hundreds of low-income workers gather at a roadside in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at 4am each morning, waiting for employers to come and offer them odd jobs. Most are looking for construction work. But eight months after the city lifted lockdown measures put in place to stop the spread of Covid-19, many worke…
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is reportedly set to open a massive ruling Workers’ Party congress in January 2021. The meeting is expected to give him a chance to try and muster stronger public loyalty and lay out new economic and foreign policies amid the Covid-19 pandemic. North Korea has not officially confirmed…
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The State Administration of Market Regulation, China’s antitrust watchdog agency, officially started investigating Alibaba Group Holding over alleged monopolistic business practices on December 24, 2020. Separately, the country’s central bank said it would summon executives of Ant Group — Alibaba’s fintech affiliate…
Elephants dressed in Christmas costumes were seen distributing face masks in Thailand’s ancient capital, Ayutthaya, on December 23, 2020. A recent cluster at a seafood market in Samut Sakhon has seen Covid-19 infections in the country surge, with more than 1,000 linked cases reported.
The Huanan Seafood Market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan is where the first cluster of Covid-19 cases emerged in December 2019. Nearly a year since the first known cases were found there, the seafood market remains closed up and deserted.
Thailand started testing more than 10,000 people for the coronavirus on December 21, 2020, after the country recorded an outbreak at a shrimp market in Samut Sakhon. The number of cases, mostly among migrant workers in the province southwest of Bangkok, is considered the country’s worst outbreak so far during the pa…
Fa paai or flower plaques have traditionally been used at weddings, birthdays, festivals and other celebrations such as store openings. Most common in rural areas of Hong Kong, the colourful boards decorated with artificial flowers can be several metres wide and high, and are often hand-painted with dragons and phoe…
Australia will launch a formal appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) seeking a review of China’s decision to impose hefty tariffs on imports of Australian barley, Australia Minister for Trade Simon Birmingham said on December 16, 2020. China is the Australian barley growers' largest market. China effectively …
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on December 10, 2020, there was "a strong possibility" the UK and the European Union would fail to safeguard free trade past the end of the year. Johnson urged businesses and the public to “get ready” for a no-deal Brexit as Britain leaves the EU single market and customs ar…
A Buddhist monk in Yangon, Myanmar, has turned his monastery into a sanctuary for snakes which are in danger of being killed or smuggled overseas as food or for use in traditional Chinese medicine. After he started rescuing the reptiles from the black market five years ago, 69-year-old Wilatha has collected dozens o…
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has accused former lawmaker Ted Hui of lying to Hong Kong courts over his reasons for leaving the city while on bail. Speaking at a press conference on December 8, 2020, Lam was commenting on Hui announcing he has gone into self-imposed exile in the UK after facin…
Malaysian goldsmiths and businesses enjoy an unexpected boom as demand for gold soars under the pandemic as buyers seek to invest in what is considered one of the safest commodities.
John Legend and Chrissy Tiegen put Rihanna’s old home up for sale – sprawling Beverly Hills house with Thai detailing on the market for US$23.95 million
Will China finally allow private firms more market access?Private firms and foreign investors in tandem with the overhaul of the state economy have transformed China into an economic powerhouse, but the playing field is still tilted in favour of state-owned enterprises
Indian farmers burned effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shouted slogans on November 28, 2020, as thousands of protesters blocked roads around the capital New Delhi including one of the nation’s busiest highways. They were protesting against new agricultural laws that passed in September, many fear that it…
A growing number of people in the US are seeking food handouts as the nation’s Covid-19 cases continue to rise. The Meadowlands YMCA in the state of New Jersey has partnered with a local food bank and other organisations to help people in need. Many of those seeking free food were struggling because they have lost j…
A growing number of international coffee shop chains are setting their sights on the Chinese city of Shanghai. The market is being explored by the likes of Tim Hortons, a Canadian chain coffee shop brand, that has now opened its first esports themed cafe in Shanghai in collaboration with the Chinese conglomerate Ten…
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Sony’s PlayStation 5 finally went on sale in Hong Kong on November 19, 2020. Gamers who pre-ordered a console were able to pick it up, but those who weren't able to pre-order will have to wait until Sony gets stock for walk-in sales, or pay twice the price to get a console on the resale market at local game stores.
A small factory on the outskirts of the Iraqi city of Karbala has since 2004 been employing about 100 women who sort dates for export. They work for about seven months after the dates are harvested each year. The jobs provide critical income for the female workers, who are often single mothers struggling to provide …
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Like much of Europe, Germany has seen a resurgence in Covid-19 cases, with over 14,000 new coronavirus infections reported each day over the second week of November 2020. That’s despite a nationwide, one-month partial lockdown imposed on November 2. But one innkeeper in the town Landshut, northeast of Munich, is ref…
China’s live-stream retail market is projected to grow to be worth 961 billion yuan (US$145 billion) in 2020, up from 433.9 billion yuan the previous year, according to iiMedia Research. The increase has been linked to a surge in online activity during the coronavirus pandemic. But Chinese retailers are eager to exp…
Protests have broken out in several cities around the US as states continue to count up ballots from Election Day. The South China Morning Post's Political Economy team senior editor John Carter spoke with North America Bureau Chief Robert Delaney for an update on poll results, including the still-undecided race for…
US President Donald Trump has told supporters at the White House that he has won the 2020 presidential election, even though vote counting was still under way in a handful of states and after his Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden said he was “on track to win” at the polls. John Carter, the Post's Politica…
US stocks closed sharply higher on November 3, 2020, as Americans voted in one of the country's most rancorous presidential elections and investors bet it would lead to a swift deal on more fiscal stimulus to fight the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden's lead over Republican P…
At a time when Covid-19 has severely interrupted international air travel, Hong Kong airlines are operating “flights to nowhere” in hopes of finding at least a small solution to some of their financial woes at the same time as they give grounded travellers a chance to scratch their itch to get on the road as they wa…
As China enters its autumn 2020 harvest season, agricultural produce from staples such as rice and corn, to fruits and seaweed are rolling into the consumer market. Beijing authorities say the country can expect a bumper harvest this year, with 650 million tonnes (717 million tons) of grain harvested, according to o…
