18 m. ago China toy platform refund policy requires parents slap child for unapproved spending

A major Chinese second-hand platform has sparked online controversy after allegedly requiring a mother to submit an uninterrupted five-minute video of herself slapping her child as a condition for processing a refund. The case drew public attention when Li Yun, the mother of an unidentified 11-year-old girl, tried to get a refund after discovering that her daughter had secretly spent over 500 yuan (US$70) on trading cards on the Qiandao app. Qiandao is widely regarded as China’s leading platform...

Society

1 hour ago Opinion | Why China should stop worrying and embrace ‘Japanification’

Opinion | Why China should stop worrying and embrace ‘Japanification’  South China Morning Post

Politics

4 h. ago NX China Places 15th in China's International Forwarder Rankings for FY2024: Top

NX China Places 15th in China's International Forwarder Rankings for FY2024: Top-ranked Japanese Company in China's Logistics Market  Yahoo Finance

Events

6 h. ago Exclusive interview with UNICEF representative to China: Piloting and scaling up — working together to address emerging challenges in child development

Exclusive interview with UNICEF representative to China: Piloting and scaling up — working together to address emerging challenges in child development  ecns.cn

Politics

8 h. ago Japan Post stops forcing delivery staff to ride bicycles as punishment

Japan Post has scrapped a controversial practice of forcing delivery workers involved in minor accidents to complete their rounds by bicycle – even in extreme heat – after admitting the measure “could be perceived” as workplace harassment. The decision followed an internal investigation into an incident involving a delivery worker who was instructed to continue his rounds by bicycle for two weeks during a summer heatwave, despite daytime temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees...

Politics

9 h. ago Naked China boy running on all fours raises concerns over child welfare and safety

A Chinese boy was spotted running on all fours naked and behaving like a dog, while his parents dismissed government inquiries, claiming it was a form of “natural parenting.” On October 15, a video was posted online showing a naked boy running on all fours in a highway service area in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. Social media users were shocked to see the boy acting like a dog, picking up food from the ground with his mouth and sniffing it before eating. His parents were nearby,...

Politics

9 h. ago China's Innovent signs $11.4 billion cancer therapy deal with Japan's Takeda

China's Innovent signs $11.4 billion cancer therapy deal with Japan's Takeda  Reuters

Economics

12 h. ago Colombia court overturns Uribe’s conviction for bribery, witness tampering

An appeal court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of Colombian former president Alvaro Uribe for bribery and witness tampering for which he had been sentenced to 12 years of house arrest. Uribe, 73, has denied any wrongdoing. He was sentenced in August following a nearly six-month trial in which prosecutors presented evidence that he attempted to influence witnesses who accused the law-and-order leader of having links to a paramilitary group in the 1990s. The court on Tuesday said the...

Events

17 h. ago Why China Is Worried About Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s New Prime Minister

Why China Is Worried About Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s New Prime Minister  Forbes

Politics

19 h. ago Hong Kong’s John Lee champions Shaw Prize vision, pays tribute to late physicist

Hong Kong’s leader has said late entertainment mogul Run Run Shaw’s vision of celebrating education and the pursuit of knowledge with his prestigious science prize is central to the city government’s own aspirations. Speaking at the award ceremony for the prestigious Shaw Prize on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu also paid his respects to late Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Chen-ning Yang, who was one of the local award’s founding council members. The award, dubbed the “Nobel...

Politics

22 h. ago ‘Stealth husband’: Japan PM Takaichi’s spouse shuns the spotlight

Taku Yamamoto, husband of Japan’s first female Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, said he hopes to support his wife as a “stealth husband”, adding, “Unlike in the West, it is better for the partner to stay out of the spotlight here.” A former fellow Liberal Democratic Party member in the House of Representatives, Yamamoto said he was initially “drawn to the contrast” between Takaichi’s tough exterior and her femininity. The couple, who married in 2004, divorced in 2017 over political differences but...

Events

24 h. ago Hong Kong will lead push for green fuel to elevate status as aviation hub: minister

Hong Kong will play a pivotal role in pushing for the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in an effort to raise the city’s status as an international aviation hub, the city’s transport chief has pledged. Speaking at the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s World Sustainability Symposium hosted in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan also said the government’s green fuel usage target of 1 to 2 per cent by 2030, announced after Chief Executive John...

Politics

25 h. ago Chipmaker CXMT eyes US$42 billion Shanghai listing, sources say

Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) plans an initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai as soon as the first quarter of next year, eyeing a valuation of up to 300 billion yuan ($42.12 billion), according to two sources briefed on the matter. Founded in 2016 with government backing, CXMT leads China’s strategic push to build a foothold in a global DRAM market long dominated by companies from Japan, South Korea and the United States. China’s leading manufacturer of dynamic...

Economics

27 h. ago Palace and UK government under pressure to strip Prince Andrew of titles and home

He won’t call himself a duke any more, but that is not enough for many of Prince Andrew’s critics. Buckingham Palace and the British government were under pressure Monday to formally strip Prince Andrew of his princely title and sumptuous home after new revelations about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. After discussions with his elder brother King Charles, Andrew agreed on Friday to stop using titles including Duke of York. It was the latest effort to insulate the...

Politics

28 h. ago 4 smugglers arrested for bringing gold into Japan from Hong Kong in underwear

Four people have been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle about 8kg of gold worth around 98.7 million yen (US$650,000) from Hong Kong to Japan by concealing gold powder in underwear, sources familiar with the matter revealed on Tuesday. Masamori Nishimura, 34, is believed to have orchestrated the smuggling attempt by instructing three women in their 20s and 30s to wear underwear with concealed gold powder on a flight in July last year, the sources said. The four admitted to the charges,...

Events

29 h. ago Takaichi becomes Japan’s first female PM, ending political crisis

Japan’s parliament elected ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi as the country’s first female prime minister on Tuesday after her governing party secured a crucial coalition partner. Takaichi, 64, replaced Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tuesday’s parliamentary vote, ending Japan’s three-month political vacuum and wrangling since the coalition’s loss in the July parliamentary election. The moderate centrist Komeito party had split from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after a 26-year-long...

Politics

32 h. ago Is Japan making tourism more expensive to deter unruly visitors?

Japan’s proposed increase in visa fees and departure tax is an attempt to balance between dealing with overtourism and deterring misbehaving visitors at “the bottom of the pyramid”, according to industry observers. The government believes the present fees for visas and departure taxes are low in comparison with international standards, with the Asahi newspaper reporting that the additional funds would be used on improving tourism infrastructure and the education sector. If implemented, the...

Politics

33 h. ago Outrage in China as reports surface of human teeth found in sausages, dim sum

Multiple instances of diners discovering human teeth in food have reignited food safety concerns in China. On October 13, a woman reported finding a row of three artificial human teeth in a sausage she bought for her child in northeastern China’s Jilin province. She bought the grilled sausage from an outdoor stall. Initially, the vendor denied that the teeth were present when the sausage was sold but later apologised after local market supervision authorities became involved. On the same day,...

Politics

35 h. ago US man who faked death and fled to UK gets at least 5 years for rape

An American who faked his own death and fled to Scotland to evade justice was sentenced Monday to five-years-to-life in prison for raping his ex-girlfriend 17 years ago. Nicholas Rossi, 38, who potentially could spend the rest of his days behind bars, went to great lengths to conceal his identity and flee after committing the rape in the western state of Utah in 2008, authorities said. State Judge Barry Lawrence pointed to this as an “aggravating factor” as he handed down the sentence in a Salt...

Events

46 h. ago China’s Unitree Robotics unveils latest humanoid ahead of US$7 billion IPO

Unitree Robotics has teased a new humanoid model in a short video on its social media channels, its most humanlike model to date. In the video, the H2 model performed a series of dexterous dance moves – including perfectly executed pirouettes and arabesques – and sported a strikingly human face modelled in silver with well-defined eyes, lips and nose. Standing at 180cm – the tallest humanoid robot the company has yet developed – and weighing 70kg, the H2 featured the tagline: “Destiny Awakening...

Economics