At the beginning of his satirical novel China Dream, which has a cover designed by the dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Ma Jian expresses his gratitude to George Orwell, author of 1984 and Animal Farm. Orwell, he says, “foretold it all.”Ma, whose work is banned in China and who lives in exile in London, is of course reflecting on Orwell’s warnings about the threat of a totalitarian future in which dictatorships brainwash people.

A Philippines legislator said Tuesday she has asked the senate to conduct an inquiry into the potential threat of China shutting off the country's electricity supply.A Chinese state firm has a substantial stake in the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, which has been operating power transmission facilities since 2009.Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros, the sponsor of the resolution calling for a senate inquiry, alleged there are reports Chinese engineers are illegally operatin

China wants to reach an initial trade deal with the United States (US), President Xi Jinping said Friday, but is "not afraid" to fight back when necessary and will enact economic reforms at its own pace. It is rare for Xi to speak so directly about the trade war and his comments come two days after US President Donald Trump complained that Beijing had not made sufficient concessions so far, making him reluctant to conclude a bargain.The world's two biggest economies ha

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s ambitious ‘Build Build Build’ infrastructure program is coming under increasing pressure after claims that only nine of the planned 75 projects have started construction. Drawn up at the start of his presidency in 2016, Duterte’s US$180 billion infrastructure construction campaign of roads, railways, airports and bridges has been plagued by poor planning, red tape, right-of-way issues, engineering problems and cost overruns.Senate Minority Leade

Pro-democracy demonstrators holed up in a Hong Kong university campus set the main entrance ablaze Monday to prevent surrounding police moving in, after officers warned they may use live rounds if confronted by deadly weapons.The violence extended a dangerous new phase of the nearly six-month crisis, which over the weekend saw Chinese soldiers briefly leave their local barracks to clean up streets. China has refused to budge on any of the protesters' key demands, which include f

Vietnam is struggling to curb fraud in exports destined for America, custom officials said Thursday, as manufacturers seek to dodge punishing tariffs due to the US-China trade spat by illegally using "Made in Vietnam" labels.Exporters have started shifting production from China to Vietnam to avoid steep tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods.The move has also prompted concerns on a rise in manufacturers illegally claimi

Chinese drug police are working with Mekong countries to strike at the heart of a mega-rich meth syndicate, a senior Beijing drugs tsar said, as the region targets top-level drug traffickers instead of street dealers.The porous lawless border areas of Myanmar, Thailand and Lao have for decades been a hub for heroin production, but the so-called "Golden Triangle" drug trade is now pumping unprecedented quantities of synthetic drugs into the global markets – fuelling a US$61 billion d

The unveiling of the United States’ (US) Blue Dot Network raises several questions about the country’s commitment to ASEAN after signs of fading interest in the region.Seen as a counterbalance to China’s extensive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Blue Dot Network aims to promote sustainable infrastructure development in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

Chinese technology giant Alibaba on Friday confirmed plans to list in Hong Kong in what it called a US$13 billion vote of confidence in the turbulent city's markets and a step forward in its plans to go global.The enormous IPO, which Hong Kong had lobbied for, will come as a boost for authorities wrestling with pro-democracy protests that have tarnished the financial hub's image for order and security and hammered its stock market.Alibaba will offer 500 million shares at a maximum o

Aung Gyi is forced to fish covertly under the shroud of night in western Myanmar waters as China bids to transform the strategically key region into a shipping and industrial hub, squeezing out locals who fear being left behind in the gold rush.Myanmar has declared Rakhine state, associated by many worldwide with the military’s 2017 bloody crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, open for business – but locals fear they are being left out of the gold rush as new rules restrict traditional practises.Pad