Glow-in-the-dark rabbit ears, pulsating beats and a flexible attitude to masks: Nightlife in China’s Wuhan is back with a vengeance almost a year after a lockdown brought life to a standstill in the city of 11 million. As the rest… Read More ›

COVID-19
China defends Covid-19 response after criticism
China defended its handling of the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday, but said it would “strive to do better” after independent experts criticized the speed of its response to a virus that has now killed more than two million people worldwide. Beijing… Read More ›
Chinese doctor: Sinopharm coronavirus jab “most unsafe in the world” with 73 side effects
A Chinese doctor has dubbed the Wuhan coronavirus vaccine candidate from a state-owned drugmaker as the “most unsafe in the world.” Dr. Tao Lina posted in the Chinese social media platform Weibo Jan. 5 that the jab made by Sinopharm… Read More ›
China’s Covid smokescreen with jail for dissenters
Just over a year has gone by since Covid emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and the world still has many questions about where and how it originated. The World Health Organisation sent a team to China this week to investigate… Read More ›
Hong Kong urged to curb numbers in public spaces due to COVID-19
Medical experts have urged the Hong Kong government to cap the number of people in shopping malls, country parks and wet markets to curb virus transmissions in public areas. The government should step up enforcement of social distancing rules at… Read More ›
China says WHO experts to visit from Thursday
Ten World Health Organization scientists will visit China from Thursday to probe the origins of Covid-19, authorities said, more than a year after the pandemic began and amid accusations Beijing delayed the investigation. The WHO team “will conduct joint research… Read More ›
A year after first death in China, coronavirus source still a puzzle
It is the world’s most pressing scientific puzzle, but experts warn there may never be conclusive answers over the source of the coronavirus, after an investigative effort marked from the start by disarray, Chinese secrecy and international rancor. Jan. 11… Read More ›
Singapore shines the way to a post-pandemic 2021
Once a cautionary tale of the pandemic era, Singapore is beginning 2021 boasting a comeback story. Having once had the highest Covid-19 caseload in Southeast Asia when daily infections were at their peak in April, the city-state has nearly eradicated… Read More ›
Has COVID-19 killed Asia’s growth miracle?
For decades, most Southeast Asian economies climbed the income ladder by pursuing a growth strategy based on ramping up investment in export-oriented manufacturing and services, relentlessly upskilling their domestic workforces, and leveraging technological advances. Today, the ASEAN+3 countries — the… Read More ›
2020 – A year when distancing became social
These days, many argue that our Covid (C-19) response is a planetary fiasco, whose size is yet to surface with its mounting disproportionate and enduring secondary effects, causing tremendous socio-economic, political and psychosomatic contractions and convulsions. But, worse than our… Read More ›
China jails journalist for four years over Wuhan coronavirus reporting
A Chinese court handed down a four-year jail term on Monday to a citizen-journalist who reported from the central city of Wuhan at the peak of last year’s coronavirus outbreak in China. The journalist stood accused of “picking quarrels and… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, December 28, 2020
Anymore, it’s not only bad news about China, but continued action in both military and trade. The pressure Washington puts on Beijing keeps finding new ways to keep turning up. Sanctions continue to increase. Military attention rises. And, Japan puts… Read More ›
Living antifascism: There is no health without freedom
These days, many argue that our Covid-19 (C-19) response is a planetary fiasco, whose size is yet to surface with its mounting disproportionate and enduring secondary effects, causing tremendous socio-economic, political and psychosomatic contractions and convulsions. But worse than our… Read More ›
Hong Kong suspends flights from United Kingdom
Hong Kong is suspending all flights carrying travelers from the United Kingdom after a mutated coronavirus was identified in London. From Tuesday, people who have stayed in the UK for more than two hours will not be allowed to board… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, December 14, 2020
Hit pieces against China are coming out as if from an avalanche. More dangerous, they are coupled with Western plans of military expansion in China’s back yard. From Xinjiang teens to disappearing journalists to Australian wine to spies in America… Read More ›
China says it’s been vaccinating doctors and border workers since July
China has been using an experimental coronavirus vaccine on people who work in “high risk” professions since July, including front line medical professionals and border inspectors, a senior official from the national health commission revealed over the weekend. Zheng Zhongwei,… Read More ›
COVID-19 and the new world order
On 1 July 2020, the first real-time conference in Europe past the early-spring lockdown took place at the Diplomatic Academy Vienna. This highly anticipated event, entitled From the Victory Day to Corona Disarray 75 years of Europe’s Collective Security and… Read More ›
ASEAN, Covid-19 and Vietnam’s chairmanship
COVID-19 (C-19) event is posing serious challenges for the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2020. But Vietnam, as current ASEAN chair, is trying to make the best of the situation and demonstrate leadership. As 2020 marks a… Read More ›
America and China: A possible post COVID-19 future
“Americans performed three very different policies on the People’s Republic: From a total negation (and the Mao-time mutual annihilation assurances), to Nixon’s sudden cohabitation. Finally, a Copernican-turn: the US spotted no real ideological differences between them and the post-Deng China…. Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, May 11, 2020
China must brace itself for war. Regardless of any plot from America being true or false, how Beijing handled Wuhan—or rather mishandled—will not be overlooked by the free world. Regardless of how different governments handled the outbreak, the West will… Read More ›
UK Lancet Editor: ‘unfair to blame China for COVID-19’
Richard Horton, the editor-in-chief of the renowned medical journal The Lancet said on May 1 Friday during an interview by CCTV that “China isn’t responsible for this pandemic. It’s happened.” “… saying that while it is important to understand the… Read More ›