Category: Asia Focus

China’s aluminium exports accelerated in May as overseas buyers turned to the world’s biggest producer to offset supply disruption triggered by the Middle East war, while crude oil imports dropped to their lowest level in eight years in a sign of strain across the country’s commodity flows.

Customs figures showed a sharp rise in outbound shipments of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products, extending the strong performance seen in April, when exports reached 598,000 metric tonnes. The increase underlined China’s role as

South Korea has moved to contain pressure on the won after the currency fell towards its weakest levels since the global financial crisis, with authorities warning that speculative trading and herd behaviour in the foreign exchange market would face firm intervention.

The response came after the won slipped past psychologically important levels against the dollar, intensifying concern among policymakers over inflation, capital flows and financial stability. Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol convened senior economic officials and signalled that Seoul would act quickly

Japan is preparing to replace as many as 14 ageing nuclear reactors by the 2050s, marking one of its clearest moves yet towards restoring atomic power as a central pillar of national energy security after more than a decade of post-Fukushima restraint.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has set out a policy proposal calling for the rebuilding of between two and five reactors by the 2040s and up to 14 by the 2050s. The plan would add about 16

Thailand’s richest man Sarath Ratanavadi is preparing a 140 billion baht expansion through Gulf Development Pcl over five years, placing data centres, digital infrastructure and power supply at the centre of one of Southeast Asia’s most ambitious corporate bets on artificial intelligence demand.

The plan, worth about $4.3 billion, reflects a sharp turn by Gulf from its traditional base as a power producer into a broader infrastructure group linking electricity generation, telecommunications, cloud services and industrial logistics. The investment push comes

Persistent dollar strength pushed the yen back towards 160 per US dollar on Wednesday, reviving concern that Tokyo may step into the foreign exchange market as renewed Gulf hostilities drove investors towards the US currency.

The yen traded near 159.92 per dollar in Asian dealings, close to the level widely viewed by traders as a possible trigger for official action. The move erased much of the currency’s rebound after Japan’s ¥11.7 trillion intervention campaign earlier this year, leaving markets alert to

Kioxia Holdings has moved within striking distance of Toyota Motor’s market value, underscoring how the artificial intelligence boom is reshaping Japan’s corporate hierarchy and lifting a memory-chip maker that listed in Tokyo less than two years ago into the country’s market elite.

The Tokyo-based maker of NAND flash memory and solid-state drives has become one of the most closely watched stocks on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after a sharp rally tied to demand for data-centre storage, AI servers and high-performance memory

Mainland Chinese investors have turned net sellers of Hong Kong-listed equities through Stock Connect, marking a rare reversal in cross-border flows as enthusiasm for onshore artificial intelligence shares draws capital back towards Shanghai and Shenzhen.

The shift reflects a sharp change in investor preference after months of underperformance by Hong Kong equities against mainland peers. Mainland investors sold about HK$3.6 billion of Hong Kong shares through the trading links last month, the first monthly net outflow since June 2023 and one

Tencent Holdings shares posted their strongest intraday gain in more than three years in Hong Kong after details emerged that the company is testing an artificial intelligence agent for WeChat, raising expectations that China’s most powerful consumer internet platform may become a launchpad for mass-market AI services.

The stock climbed about 6 per cent on Tuesday as investors reacted to signs that Tencent is moving closer to embedding a task-performing assistant inside WeChat, the messaging, payments and social platform used by

Beijing’s new trade secret rules have taken effect, bringing data, algorithms, computer programs and source code explicitly within the country’s administrative protection system as China moves to curb technology leaks during a sharper contest with the United States over artificial intelligence, advanced computing and strategic know-how.

The Provisions on the Protection of Trade Secrets, issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation under Order No. 126, came into force on 1 June 2026 and replace rules first introduced in 1995. The

SoftBank Group has overtaken Toyota Motor as Japan’s most valuable company, underlining a sharp shift in investor preference from the country’s traditional manufacturing champions towards businesses seen as central to the global artificial intelligence build-out.

Shares in Masayoshi Son’s technology investment group surged in Tokyo trading, lifting its market value to about ¥47.2 trillion, or roughly $296 billion, ahead of Toyota’s ¥45.7 trillion after the carmaker’s stock fell nearly 5 per cent. The move placed SoftBank at the top of Japan’s

Malaysia began enforcing new online safety rules on Monday that bar children younger than 16 from owning social media accounts, placing responsibility on major platforms to verify users’ ages and block underage account registration.

The measures apply to online platforms with at least 8 million users in Malaysia, bringing Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube within the scope of the rules. Companies must introduce age-verification systems for new users and checks for existing account holders, while strengthening safeguards against harmful content, cyberbullying,

Sri Lanka raised fuel prices by up to 6 per cent on Sunday, days after securing a $695 million instalment from the International Monetary Fund, as Colombo moved to align energy pricing with bailout conditions aimed at reducing subsidies and restoring fiscal discipline.

The state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation increased the price of 92-octane petrol to 434 Sri Lankan rupees a litre from 410 rupees, while auto diesel rose to 407 rupees from 392 rupees. The revision adds to household and transport

Malaysia has sharpened its criticism of Norway’s cancellation of export licences for Naval Strike Missiles, casting the dispute as a test of whether international contracts and security partnerships still carry weight when smaller states deal with stronger powers.

Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said Oslo’s decision had moved beyond a procurement setback and raised wider questions about trust in global relations. He argued that rules and agreements lose credibility when advanced economies can withdraw from signed deals after payments, integration work

Seoul’s push to turn humanoid robots into mainstream entertainers moved onto the fashion runway as Galaxy Corporation paired human models with Unitree G1 machines in a staged show of cowboy hats, silk dresses, metallic jackets and 1970s-inspired trousers.

The Mach33: Physical AI Fashion Show, held on 28 May at Galaxy Robot Park in Gangdong District, was presented as more than a novelty catwalk. Galaxy Corporation framed the event as an experiment in coexistence, asking how people and robots might share cultural

Jakarta has moved to accelerate one of Southeast Asia’s most ambitious renewable energy programmes, preparing a 100-gigawatt solar power project that officials estimate will require about $71.3 billion in investment and reshape Indonesia’s electricity strategy over the next several years.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is working with the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning, state electricity company PLN and other agencies to identify land, grid links and storage systems needed for the programme. About 24,000 hectares on

Super Micro Computer Inc. has sought to turn a Taiwan enforcement action into evidence of active cooperation with authorities after three suspects were arrested and 50 servers were seized over an alleged attempt to divert advanced AI hardware towards restricted China-linked markets.

The California-based server maker said the equipment had first been sold through an authorised reseller before being deceptively acquired and targeted for illicit diversion. Its statement framed the case as a successful intervention rather than a failure of internal

China’s Communist Party has named Guan Zhiou, the country’s natural resources minister, as Party secretary of Hubei, placing a cabinet-level official with land, forestry and planning experience in charge of one of central China’s most important industrial provinces.

Guan replaces Wang Zhonglin, who has been removed from the posts of Hubei Party secretary, standing committee member and provincial committee member, with a further assignment to be announced. The decision was conveyed at a provincial leadership meeting in Wuhan on May 30,

Sea Ltd has created a dedicated investment team to identify artificial intelligence opportunities, marking a deeper push by the Singapore-based technology group to find a new growth engine beyond online retail, gaming and digital financial services.

The unit sits under the president’s office and is evaluating AI start-ups globally, with long-serving executive Zhang Endong leading the effort. The move places investment activity closer to Sea’s top management at a time when the company is trying to convert its scale across Shopee,

Humanoid robots shared the catwalk with human models in Seoul as Galaxy Corporation turned a fashion show into a test of how artificial intelligence, entertainment and daily life may begin to overlap.

The Mach33 Physical AI Fashion Show, staged on May 28 at Galaxy Robot Park in Gangdong District, placed robots in coordinated outfits beside models wearing matching designs. The display was built around a simple proposition from the company: if robots are moving into public spaces, homes, workplaces and entertainment

Phuket’s private-island hospitality market has gained a sharper luxury edge as The Naka Island, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Phuket, rolls out upgraded villas, refreshed dining venues, expanded wellness facilities and a Michelin One Key distinction that places the property among Thailand’s recognised high-end stays.

The resort, located on Naka Yai Island off Phuket’s east coast, has completed a series of enhancements designed to strengthen its appeal to affluent leisure travellers seeking privacy, wellness and destination-led experiences. The upgrades cover

Binance has opened a supervised route back into the Philippines through a partnership with BlockShoals Technologies Inc., placing the world’s largest crypto exchange inside the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission’s Strategic Sandbox after two years of regulatory tension over unlicensed offshore platforms.

The arrangement makes BlockShoals the approved local intermediary under the SEC’s StratBox framework, while Binance supplies technology, security systems, operational support and compliance expertise developed across regulated markets. The sandbox phase is expected to begin in the second half

China’s e-commerce industry expanded steadily in the first four months of 2026, reinforcing its role as a major support for consumption even as the broader economy showed signs of uneven demand and weaker momentum in traditional retail channels.

Online retail sales of goods and services rose 6.6 per cent year on year in January-April, reaching about 6.53 trillion yuan, as digital platforms continued to draw shoppers through discounts, livestreaming, faster delivery and wider service offerings. Online retail sales of goods contributed

China’s artificial intelligence market is entering a faster and more expensive phase, with enterprise spending forecasts pointing to a surge that could reshape global competition in cloud computing, semiconductors, robotics and industrial automation.

Global enterprise AI expenditure is expected to reach about $940 billion in 2026 and climb to roughly $2.1 trillion by 2029, reflecting a shift from experimental deployments to large-scale use across manufacturing, finance, logistics, health care, energy and public services. China is emerging as one of the fastest-expanding

Hong Kong’s artificial intelligence market gained a locally built workplace automation product on Tuesday as Sentimento Technologies launched MonoClaw, a Mac-based AI secretary aimed at professionals and small and medium-sized businesses seeking tighter control over data, costs and daily administrative work.

The product, built around a personal AI assistant called Mona, is being positioned as a “local-first” alternative to cloud-based generative AI tools. Rather than routing most tasks through remote servers, MonoClaw runs large language models on a user’s own Apple