Asia Pacific

The “right to be forgotten,” which surfaced in May when the Court of Justice of the European Union ordered Google to ensure personal data related to a Spanish man no longer appears in search results, has travelled to Asia.

China’s anti-corruption drive has turned up 162,629 people who don’t exist. The phantom workers are all on government payrolls, but their salaries have been slipped into the pockets of other, very real officials.

The question of Hong Kong’s diminishing value to the Beijing government, and what it may mean for the territory’s future as the gateway for China trade, has come into focus again with the mass demonstrations demanding political reform.

Much has been made of China’s recent slowdown in economic growth, but the chief economist of the Asian Development Bank wants to remind Canadian companies that the country is forecasted to reach growth rates upwards of 7% in 2014 and 2015.

Import barriers keep B.C. producers at bay – even those specializing in Indian products

Canadian diplomats and other prominent visitors to Japan in recent months have noted the regularity with which their Japanese counterparts raise security issues, whatever the central topic of conversation

Farmers in Laos have won a bitter fight with China over Beijing’s use of food safety rules to block the importation of Laotian farm products. Beijing has agreed to allow the importation of Laotian bananas, cassava, sweet corn and watermelon.

Cambodia’s minister of mines and energy, Suy Sem, says hundreds of threatened species of birds, mammals, reptiles and fish will have to be relocated when the Stung Cheay Areng hydroelectric dam is built.

The market remains confident that India’s new prime minister, Narendra Modi, will follow through on his policies to reform and stimulate the country’s economy.

When South Korea signed a free trade deal with the European Union three years ago, the expectation was that German cars would become cheaper. But the prices of Volkswagen and BMW cars have risen instead of dropping.