Month: August 2017

China hit back this week against fresh North Korea-related sanctions by the United States, which targeted six Chinese firms and one individual for supporting Pyongyang’s weapons programme.
It called on Washington to “immediately correct its mistake” of enacting these sanctions, opening Beijing to renewed criticism that it has been reluctant to exert greater pressure on its authoritarian neighbour.
China has increasingly had to contend with its complicated relationship with the…

Religion, political manipulation and preferential policies are widening the cultural divide between Malaysia’s ethnic groups and could be hindering the nation’s chances of unity as the next general election looms.
That’s according to a new research paper – “Fault Lines and Common Ground in Malaysia’s Ethnic Relations and Policies” – that found despite general interethnic goodwill, each race tended to stick to itself when it came to forming…

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry on Friday said that Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif will soon visit China and Russia for consultations over the new US policy for Afghanistan and South Asia.
Nafess Zakari, a spokesman for the ministry, told a weekly briefing that no date has been fixed for the visits.
“You have already seen the emergence of our new partnership,” he said, referring to Islamabad’s tilt toward Moscow and its strategic partnership with China under the China-…

Uber said on Saturday it expects to resume operations in the Philippines “soon” after regulators agreed to lift a ban slapped against the American ride-sharing giant in exchange for a fine.
The government meted Uber a one-month suspension on August 14 following a tussle over driver permits, sparking public outrage as some 66,000 vehicles were forced off the streets.
Hundreds of thousands of Manila commuters find Uber and its ride-sharing rivals welcome alternatives to the country…

The leaders of China and India are expected to meet on the sidelines of an emerging markets summit next month, but simmering border tensions mean the talks will be low key, observers say. The BRICS summit – involving leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – in the coastal Chinese city of Xiamen from September 3-5 could give President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a chance for some behind-the-scenes interaction amid the two countries…

Technology that could help heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) travel in close proximity to one another is to be trialled in live trials on major UK roads before the end of 2018, the government has announced.

The UK government has called on the EU to recognise the UK’s data protection framework as aligned with its own before the UK leaves the trading bloc.

German economy minister Brigitte Zypries has written to European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker asking for proposals on how to strengthen member countries’ rights to block Chinese takeovers of European companies.

The parents and lawyers of a Philippine high school student shot dead last week filed a murder complaint on Friday against three anti-narcotics policemen amid rare public outrage about the country’s war on drugs. The death of 17-year-old Kian Loyd Delos Santos on August 16 in a rundown area of Manila has drawn huge domestic attention to allegations by activists that police have been systematically executing suspected users and dealers, a charge the authorities deny. The head of the…

The US could impose billions of dollars in regulatory fines against large Chinese banks that fail to limit alleged financial ties with North Korea and its nuclear and missile programmes, a former US Treasury official said on Thursday.
The US would use the fines as a bargaining chip to press Beijing to do more on its own to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, instead of enacting economic sanctions to freeze the banks’ assets or cut them off from the American market – moves that…