CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Sahar Akbarzai, Xiaofei Xu, Jessie Yeung and CNN’s Beijing Bureau China will abolish its Covid-19 trace tracking service, the “Mobile Itinerary card,” on Tuesday, officials say. “Mobile Itinerary card inquiry channels such as text messages, web pages, WeChat extensions, Alipay extensions and app will go offline at the same time,” according to a statement

By Vedika Sud and Yong Xiong, CNN Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Dhaka on Saturday calling for the dissolution of parliament to make way for new elections, and demand the resignation of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The mass protest in the capital was organized by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist

By Wayne Chang, Rhea Mogul and Jessie Yeung, CNN A Hong Kong court on Saturday sentenced jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai to five years and nine months in prison for fraud, in the latest legal challenge against the pro-democracy tycoon. Lai was found to have breached the terms of lease for the headquarters of his

By Nectar Gan, Yong Xiong and Selina Wang, CNN The unprecedented protests that swept China late last month, posing the biggest challenge to leader Xi Jinping’s authority since he came to power, had a peculiar focal point: a Chinese Twitter account with a cat avatar. As people took to the streets to call for greater

By Brad Lendon, CNN The United Kingdom, Japan and Italy announced Friday they are teaming up to build a sixth-generation fighter jet, designed to rival or eclipse the best warplanes now employed by the likes of China and Russia — and possibly even the United States, the main ally of the trio. “We are announcing

By Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo, CNN South Koreans are about to get a year or two younger, thanks to a new law passed on Thursday that aims to standardize how age is calculated in the country. At present it’s common for South Koreans to have not just one age, but three — an “international

By Simone McCarthy and Cheng Cheng, CNN Workers across China have dismantled some of the physical signs of the country’s zero-Covid controls, peeling health code scanning signs off metro station walls and closing some checkpoints after the government unveiled an overhaul of its pandemic policy. But as many residents expressed relief and happiness at the

By Sahar Akbarzai, CNN The Taliban on Wednesday put an alleged murderer to death in the first public execution held in Afghanistan since the Islamist group returned to power. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the man was shot three times by the father of his alleged victim in an execution attended by senior Taliban officials

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN A critically-ill six-month-old baby will be placed under the temporary guardianship of New Zealand’s High Court after his parents refused to allow him to undergo lifesaving heart surgery using blood from people vaccinated against Covid-19. Handing down the judgment on Wednesday, Justice Ian Gault ruled that the boy, who cannot be

By Jessie Yeung and CNN’s Beijing bureau China announced sweeping changes to its national pandemic response on Wednesday, the clearest and most significant sign yet that the central government is moving away from its strict zero-Covid approach that prompted protests across the country. In a statement reported by state broadcaster CCTV, China’s State Council unveiled

By Yoonjung Seo, Sophie Jeong and Jessie Yeung, CNN Two former police officers were arrested in South Korea on Monday, accused of destroying evidence relating to the deadly Halloween crowd crush in Seoul, according to authorities in the country. The arrests of former intelligence officers Park Sung-min of the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Kim Jin-ho

By Nectar Gan, CNN China’s Xi Jinping on Tuesday called on the country to unite around his leadership as he addressed a memorial service for former leader Jiang Zemin, following an unprecedented show of dissent over his zero-Covid policy and authoritarian rule. At the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi led hundreds of

By Masrur Jamaluddin, Heather Chen and Angus Watson, CNN Indonesian lawmakers unanimously passed a sweeping new criminal code on Tuesday that criminalizes sex outside marriage, as part of a tranche of changes that critics say threaten human rights and freedoms in the Southeast Asian country. The new code, which also applies to foreign residents and

By Masrur Jamaluddin and Kareem El Damanhoury, CNN Indonesia’s Mount Semeru erupted on Sunday, blanketing roads and homes in volcanic ash and prompting evacuations of nearly 2,000 residents in East Java province, according to authorities in the country. A statement Sunday from Indonesia’s disaster management agency (BNPB) said no injuries or deaths have so far

By Masrur Jamaluddin and Manveena Suri, CNN An earthquake of 6.1 magnitude hit Indonesia’s West Java province on Saturday, the country’s geophysics agency BMKG said. According to the BMKG, the epicenter of the earthquake was on land and there is no potential for a tsunami. One person was injured while four houses and a school

By Nectar Gan and Yong Xiong, CNN Chinese authorities are using cellphone data to track down protesters who demonstrated against the government’s stringent Covid restrictions in Beijing, according to a recording of a phone call between a protester and police heard by CNN. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered along Beijing’s Liangma River on Sunday night, calling

By Rebecca Wright, Ivan Watson and Enwer Erdem, CNN For more than five years, Sharapat Mohamad Ali and her brother Mohamad had been unable to contact their family in far western China, where the government has been accused of incarcerating up to 2 million Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in internment camps. They believe

By Wayne Chang and Xiaofei Xu, CNN China’s most senior official in charge of its Covid response told health officials Wednesday that the country faced a “new stage and mission” in pandemic controls, state media Xinhua reported — potentially indicating an adjustment to Beijing’s “zero-Covid” strategy which has sparked days of nationwide protests. “With the

By Steven Jiang, CNN Jiang Zemin, the Chinese communist leader who paved the way for the country’s emergence as a global superpower, has died, state-run Xinhua news agency announced Wednesday. He was 96. The former chief of the ruling Communist Party and state president died of leukemia and associated multiple organ failure on Wednesday in

By Nectar Gan and Philip Wang, CNN China’s vast security apparatus has moved swiftly to smother mass protests that swept the country, with police patrolling streets, checking cell phones and even calling some demonstrators to warn them against a repeat. In major cities on Monday and Tuesday, police flooded the sites of protests that took

By Simone McCarthy and Wayne Chang, CNN China’s top health officials have pledged to rectify Covid-19 control measures to reduce their impact on people’s lives, while deflecting blame for public frustration away from the policy itself, in their first press briefing since protests erupted against the government’s stringent zero-Covid policy over the weekend. Lockdowns to

By Brad Lendon, CNN The United States and Chinese militaries exchanged harsh words Tuesday after a US Navy warship performed the first freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea since the leaders of the two powers met earlier this month in an attempt to ease tensions. In a statement, the Chinese military

By Kathleen Magramo and Wayne Chang, CNN Hong Kong’s leader said he’ll ask Beijing to determine whether foreign lawyers can work on national security cases in the city, a move with repercussions for the upcoming trial of jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai. The announcement came Monday, hours after the Court of Final Appeal (CFA),

By Nectar Gan and Selina Wang and CNN’s Beijing bureau For the first time in decades, thousands of people have defied Chinese authorities to protest at universities and on the streets of major cities, demanding to be freed not only from incessant Covid tests and lockdowns, but strict censorship and the Communist Party’s tightening grip

By Jessie Yeung and CNN’s Beijing bureau China has moved quickly to suppress demonstrations that erupted across the country against the government’s zero-Covid policy on the weekend, deploying police forces at key protest sites and tightening online censorship. On Tuesday, while defending the policy, top health officials appeared to acknowledge its impact and pledged to

By CNN’s Beijing bureau and Nectar Gan Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday faced unprecedented dissent after thousands of demonstrators protested in cities across China over the weekend against his zero-Covid strategy — with some daring to openly call for his removal in the streets. “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!” some protesters

By Eric Cheung, CNN Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has resigned as the leader of the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, after her party suffered heavy losses in mid-term elections. The DPP’s losses in Saturday’s vote come as a heavy blow for Tsai as she had tried to frame the election — technically a local affair

By Radina Gigova, Larry Register and Tara Subramaniam, CNN North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is planning to build “the world’s most powerful” nuclear force, state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday. The “ultimate goal” behind North Korea’s nuclear program was to possess an “absolute force, unprecedented in the century,” Kim said Saturday as part

By Heather Chen and CNN’s Beijing bureau Chinese authorities said Saturday they would ease a months-long Covid lockdown in the country’s far western region of Xinjiang “in stages”, following protests over a deadly fire at an apartment building in the regional capital of Urumqi. At least 10 people were killed and nine injured when the

By Brad Lendon, Gawon Bae and Paula Hancocks, CNN With a blinding yellow flash and a concussion that shakes bones, K9 self-propelled howitzers launch artillery shells onto a hill that’s just been hit by rockets fired from helicopters. Then K2 tanks roar in, speeding up roads and firing as they go. This is part of

By Heather Chen, CNN It’s a political journey decades in the making — the transformation of a young student firebrand into an icon of democracy and eventually the leader of his country, via two stints in jail. Now age 75, Anwar Ibrahim has finally realized his dream by becoming the 10th prime minister of Malaysia.

By Selina Wang and Nectar Gan, CNN Zhou, an auto dealer in northeastern China, last saw his father alive in a video chat on the afternoon of November 1, hours after their home on the far outskirts of Beijing was locked down. At the time, they didn’t even realize the snap Covid restrictions had been

By Kathleen Magramo and Wayne Chang, CNN A 90-year-old former bishop and outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party was found guilty Friday on a charge relating to his role in a relief fund for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2019. Cardinal Joseph Zen and five others, including the Cantopop singer Denise Ho, contravened the

By Rhea Mogul, CNN A deadly earthquake that reduced buildings to rubble in West Java, Indonesia has once again exposed the dangers of living in poorly built homes in one of the most seismically active zones on the planet. Since Monday’s quake, survivors have been sleeping rough or in shelters away from homes vulnerable to

By Sophia Saifi, CNN Pakistan on Thursday named former spy chief Lt. Gen. Syed Asim Munir as chief of the South Asian country’s army, ending weeks of speculation over an appointment that comes amid intense debate around the military’s influence on public life. Munir, the country’s most senior general and a former head of the

By CNN’s Beijing Bureau and Kathleen Magramo China on Thursday reported a record number of daily Covid infections, as a nationwide surge in cases heaps pressure on the country’s increasingly unpopular zero-tolerance approach to the virus. The National Health Commission (NHC) recorded 31,444 locally transmitted cases on Wednesday — surpassing the previous peak of 29,317

By Masrur Jamaluddin and Rhea Mogul, CNN A six-year-old boy was pulled alive from the wreckage of a property Wednesday after surviving for more than two days under debris, bringing hope to those waiting for news of loved ones after a powerful earthquake struck a populous area of Indonesia’s West Java province. Indonesia’s National Agency

By CNN’s Beijing Bureau A fire at a factory in central China killed dozens of people on Monday, according to Chinese state-media, the latest in a string of fatal industrial accidents to hit the country in recent years. State run-newspaper Henan Daily reported Tuesday that two people previously reported missing had been found dead following

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN The Philippines and China tussled on Sunday over Chinese rocket debris in the disputed South China Sea, raising tensions ahead of a scheduled visit by US Vice President Kamala Harris. A Chinese vessel allegedly blocked a Philippine naval boat twice before taking the debris it was towing off Thitu Island, which

By Masrur Jamaluddin and Rhea Mogul, CNN Rescuers were digging through debris on Tuesday to find survivors of a powerful earthquake that toppled homes and buildings in a highly populated area of Indonesia’s West Java province, killing at least 268 people. A further 151 people remain missing and more than 1,000 were injured, the country’s

By Tara Subramaniam and Nectar Gan, CNN China has reported its first deaths of Covid-19 patients in nearly six months as the country struggles to contain a surge in cases across multiple cities that’s testing the limits of its tough zero-Covid strategy. On Monday, China’s National Health Commission reported two deaths of Covid-19 patients in

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN A Philippine archipelago known for tropical vacations will become the focus of political attention this week when Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the highest ranking US official to visit its main island. Palawan is home to dive resorts as well as a Philippine military base that Harris will visit on Tuesday,

By Heather Chen and Alex Stambaugh, CNN Malaysia is facing a hung parliament for the first time in its political history, after a divisive, tightly-contested general election left major parties unable to secure enough votes to form a new government. The result has thrust the Southeast Asian country into fresh political turmoil, as rival leaders

By Simone McCarthy, CNN The three major summits of world leaders that took place across Asia in the past week have made one thing clear: Vladimir Putin is now sidelined on the world stage. Putin, whose attack on Ukraine over the past nine months has devastated the European country and roiled the global economy, declined

By Heather Chen, CNN Malaysians will head to the polls on Saturday to vote for a new government following years of political turmoil. Three prime ministers have governed the Southeast Asian country since a febrile election with a record turnout was fought four years ago on the key issue of corruption. This time around, the

By Tara Subramaniam and Sophia Saifi, CNN Award-winning movie “Joyland” opens in cinemas in parts of Pakistan Friday, after authorities in the South Asian nation overturned a ban imposed following complaints the homegrown film was unsuitable for viewing. Directed by Saim Sadiq, “Joyland” tells the love story between the youngest son of “a happily patriarchal

By Simone McCarthy, CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping has stressed the need to reject confrontation in Asia, warning against the risk of cold war tensions, as leaders gather for the last of three world summits hosted in the region this month. Xi began the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit in Bangkok by staking out

By Gawon Bae, Junko Ogura, Brad Lendon, Rhea Mogul and Larry Register, CNN North Korea said that it conducted a “test firing of a new kind” of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday, according to the government-run KCNA news agency. Japan warned on earlier on Friday that the missile had the potential range to reach

By Simone McCarthy, CNN Hong Kong leader John Lee has arrived at a regional economic summit in Bangkok in the first appearance by the city’s chief executive at an international event in nearly three years — as the Asian financial hub angles for a comeback. Lee, a US-sanctioned official who has guided Hong Kong through

By Simone McCarthy, CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Bangkok Thursday for the last of three back-to-back international summits held over the past week in Asia — this time for a gathering where the leaders of the United States and Russia will both be absent. That leaves Xi primed to enter the two-day Asia

By Alex Stambaugh and Heather Chen, CNN A former British ambassador, an Australian economist and a Japanese journalist are reportedly set to be released by Myanmar’s ruling military junta under an amnesty — along with more than 6,000 other prisoners. Vicky Bowman, Sean Turnell and Toru Kubota are among 5,774 male and 676 female prisoners

By Yoonjung Seo, Gawon Bae and Kathleen Magramo, CNN North Korea tested a ballistic missile on Thursday as it warned the United States of a “fiercer military counteraction” to Washington’s bolstered defense ties with South Korea and Japan amid rising regional tensions. In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North

By Xiaofei Xu and Tara John, CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping was captured by Canadian broadcasters in a rare candid moment on Wednesday, where he was filmed chiding his Canadian counterpart, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, over what he described as “leaked” discussions. On the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia, Xi chatted with Trudeau

By Nectar Gan and Rhea Mogul, CNN Russia’s international isolation grew Wednesday, as world leaders issued a joint declaration condemning its war in Ukraine that has killed thousands of people and roiled the global economy. The Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, concluded Wednesday with a leaders’ statement that “deplores in the strongest terms

By Tara Subramaniam and Sophia Saifi, CNN Pakistan’s government has blocked the nationwide release of “Joyland,” the first Pakistani movie shown at the Cannes Film Festival, just one week before it was due to hit theaters in the South Asian country. “Joyland” tells a love story between the youngest son of “a happily patriarchal joint

By Simone McCarthy and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Residents under Covid lockdown in China’s southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou have torn down barriers meant to confine them to their homes, taking to the streets in defiance of strictly enforced local orders, according to video and images circulating on social media. Some of the images show large

By Sahar Akbarzai, Shafi Kakar and Rhea Mogul, CNN The Taliban has ordered judges in Afghanistan to fully impose their interpretation of Sharia Law, including potential public executions, amputations and flogging, a move experts fear will lead to a further deterioration of human rights in the impoverished country. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghanistan’s Supreme

By Nectar Gan, CNN After a near three-year absence from the world stage, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has embarked on a whirlwind of face-to-face meetings with Western leaders at the Group of 20 summit in Bali, as he looks to reassert China’s global influence. Following a three-hour meeting on Monday with US President Joe Biden

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By Yoonjung Seo, CNN A court in South Korea has approved the extradition of a woman facing murder charges in New Zealand in connection with a case in which the remains of two dead children were found in abandoned suitcases. The Seoul High Court told CNN Friday it had ruled that the woman could be

By Yoonjung Seo, Rhea Mogul and Jessie Yeung, CNN A senior South Korean police inspector who was being investigated in connection with the deadly Halloween crowd crush in Seoul has been found dead in his home. The inspector was found lifeless by his family at around 12:45pm on Friday, according to South Korean police. The

By Simone McCarthy World leaders are converging in Phnom Penh this weekend for the first in a series of international summits in Southeast Asia over the coming week, where divisions between major powers and conflict threaten to overshadow talks. The first stop is the Cambodian capital where leaders from across the Indo-Pacific will meet alongside

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN A woman who waved a British colonial-era flag to celebrate Hong Kong claiming Olympic gold has become the first person in the city to be jailed on a charge of insulting the Chinese national anthem. Paula Leung, a 42-year-old online journalist, admitted the charge and was given a three-month jail sentence

By Kathleen Magramo An Australian man already sentenced to life in prison in the Philippines for human trafficking and rape has been given an extra 129-year sentence for sexually abusing children as young as 18 months, according to prosecutors. Peter Gerard Scully, his Filipina girlfriend Lezyl Margallo, and two accomplices were charged with 60 offenses

By Mayumi Maruyama and Nectar Gan, CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend in person a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 nations in Bali next week, the Russian embassy in Indonesia told CNN on Thursday. Putin will be represented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said Yulia Tomskaya, the chief of

By Nectar Gan, CNN China’s southern metropolis of Guangzhou has locked down more than 5 million residents, as authorities rush to stamp out a widening Covid outbreak and avoid activating the kind of citywide lockdown that devastated Shanghai earlier this year. Guangzhou reported 3,007 local infections on Wednesday, accounting for over one third of new

By Azaz Syed, Sophia Saifi and Bethlehem Feleke, CNN A Pakistani journalist shot dead by police in Kenya last month was the victim of a “targeted killing,” a senior member of Pakistan’s government said on Tuesday, without offering any evidence to support his claim. Television journalist Arshad Sharif — a vocal critic of the Pakistani

By Sugam Pokharel and Philip Wang, CNN A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit western Nepal on Wednesday morning local time, killing at least six people, according to local officials. The epicenter of the quake was in Seti Zone, at a depth of 15.7 kilometers (9.7 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It was

By Heather Chen, Jake Kwon and Yoonjung Seo, CNN A pair of dogs gifted by North Korea are the center of a political dispute in South Korea after the country’s former President said he was giving them up over an apparent lack of legal and financial support from his successor to care for the animals.