Asia Pacific

Beijing has had enough trouble over the past couple of decades easing the Chinese currency, the renminbi, into the global market without causing fiscal upheaval.

Singapore has for decades been the home of social engineering, designed in part to prevent the rise of ghettos dominated by the city-state’s Malay and South Asian minorities.

Hong Kong revels in being a free port with a minimum of rules and regulations under the canopy of British-style rule of law. One downside to the joys of freedom, however, is that Hong Kong can be the scam artist's nirvana.

India’s ruling Congress Party has been given a grim glimpse into the future as national elections approach next year.

In some circles South Korea has earned the dubious title of “plastic surgery republic” because of the booming popularity of procedures.

Narendra Modi, the controversial premier of India's Gujarat state, who may lead the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in New Delhi in next year's national elections, is accused of misusing Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to artificially boost his party's popularity.

North Korea's Kaesong industrial complex, where 123 South Korean firms employ 53,000 local workers, is a barometer of the volatile relations between Pyongyang and Seoul.

The Asian Development Bank has produced a pessimistic report on the likely economic effects in the Pacific region of rising sea levels.

A survey of 100 British companies with enterprises in Indonesia has found a sharp drop in their overall confidence in the business climate in the Southeast Asian nation.

Most tourists visiting Cambodia want to see the ancient temple at Angkor Wat and nothing else. Thus, of the 2.8 million visitors to Camodia this year up to August, 766,000 arrived at Angkor’s airport at Siem Reap, while only 541,500 landed at Phnom Penh.