Hong Kong authorities on Saturday strove to stop any public commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, with police warning gatherings could break the law as Beijing vies to remove all reminders of the events of 4 June. On that day in 1989, the government sent troops and tanks to break up peaceful protests, crushing a weeks-long wave of demonstrations calling for political change and curbs on official corruption.Hundreds, by some estimates more than 1,000, were

For the first time in 33 years, church services to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown will not be held in Hong Kong, erasing one of the last reminders of China's bloody suppression of the 1989 protests.Since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020 to snuff out pro-democracy demonstrations, once-packed candlelit vigils have been banned, a Tiananmen museum has been forced to close, and statues have been pulled down.The annual Catholic masses were one of the last ways for

Exactly one year ago, Myanmar's military seized power on 1 February, ousting the civilian government and arresting its de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.Nearly 1,500 people have since been killed and thousands of others arrested as the junta wages a bloody crackdown on dissent.Here is a look back at the year since the coup, which ended a decade-long experiment with democracy after half a century of military rule.Pre-Dawn Raids Soldiers detain Suu Kyi and her top allies during pr

Beijing high schooler Chen Zhichu used to spend 30 minutes a day boosting actor Xiao Zhan online as one of a legion of superfans, before the practice fell afoul of the government for promoting "unhealthy values".State regulations last month banned "irrational star-chasing" – online celebrity rankings, fundraising and other tools used by China's fandoms to get their idols trending on social media – in the latest of a series of crackdowns across Chinese society.&nbs

Is there a larger purpose to the Chinese government’s recent actions against the country’s largest corporations, and does its clean-up of the financial sector fit into its economic strategy? China has sought for at least 15 years to rebalance its growth from exports and fixed-asset investment to greater domestic consumption – efforts that have assumed a new urgency, owing to conflicts with the United States (US) and other countries. As long as its domestic market expands, Ch

China's central bank on Friday said all financial transactions involving cryptocurrencies are illegal, sounding the death knell for the digital trade in China after a crackdown on the volatile currencies.The global values of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin have massively fluctuated over the past year partly due to Chinese regulations, which have sought to prevent speculation and money laundering."Virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities,"

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte hailed his signature drug war policy Monday, but lamented there was a "long way" to go in the controversial crackdown that has killed thousands of people.In his last State of the Nation address before stepping down next year, Duterte frequently went off script and struggled to follow the autocue as he railed for nearly three hours against communists, child abusers and corrupt officials.As expected, Duterte used the annual speech to boast about th

United States (US) politicians from both congressional parties are worried that China is overtaking America as the global leader in science and technology. In a rare display of bipartisanship, the normally gridlocked Senate passed a bill in early June to spend close to US$250 billion in the next decade to promote cutting-edge research.

It was only when he boarded the plane that would fly him to Europe that Mratt Kyaw Thu finally felt safe for the first time since Myanmar's military coup on 1 February.It had been an arduous few months for the journalist who quickly found himself on the military junta's wanted list for his reporting of its deadly crackdown on anti-coup protesters."I felt safe when I was on the plane, after passing immigration in Thailand, that was the moment when I felt a little bit freer,&quot

Thousands of police were deployed in Hong Kong on Friday and the organiser of the territory’s now-banned annual vigil of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown arrested, as the authorities tried to prevent people from gathering for any kind of remembrance of the events of 1989.Hong Kong usually holds a mass vigil to remember those killed when soldiers stormed the square, which was packed with protesters calling for democracy, but police have banned the events for the past two years blaming the co