China – Daily Covid-19 cases at the Beijing Winter Olympics, showed a rise in the number of infections among athletes and team officials. The csesa surged to 19 from two a day earlier, while organizers warned that additional cases would be reported in the following days. There were a total of 36 people infected with the virus, including athletes and officials, according to the …

Japan – Japan’s ambassador to Indonesia has urged Jakarta to lift its recent coal export restriction, which he claims has had a “significant effect” on the world’s third-largest economy. Indonesia exports almost three-quarters of its coal production, with the primary customers being Asia’s economic powerhouses China, Japan, South Korea, and India. However, on January 1, it barred coal exports, citing …

ASEAN – According to her office, Ingrida Simonyte, who is the Lithuanian Prime Minister had a meeting with the Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday in order to have a dicussion on the topic of the United States’ assistance for Lithuania in the face of Chinese economic pressure. The Chinese government has downgraded its diplomatic relations with Lithuania last month …

Taiwan – Taiwan would develop economic relations with Lithuania in a “cycle of goodwill” despite pressure from Beijing, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the US said on Wednesday. Following Taiwan’s establishment of a representative office in Lithuania’s capital in November, Beijing severed relations with the Baltic state, and according to diplomatic sources, 19 Lithuanian embassy workers and their dependents had …

Indonesia – Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State of the United States, paid a visit in Indonesia, beginning off a tour to Southeast Asia aimed at boosting relations in a region that has emerged as a geopolitical battlefield between the United States and China. In his first trip to Southeast Asia since US President Joe Biden took office in January, Blinken will begin his …

Cambodia – Cambodian leader Hun Sen ordered the military to destroy or stockpile any US weapons, after Washington’s imposition of an arms embargo over human rights concerns and Phnom Penh’s strong connections with China. The US enforced a weapons embargo on Cambodia just recently, citing worries about the southeast Asian country’s human rights and corruption situation, as well as China’s …

Hong Kong – On Thursday, a Hong Kong court convicted three renowned pro-democracy activists of unlawful assembly in connection with a June 4 vigil last year to commemorate Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on protestors in and around Tiananmen Square. Hong Kong has long staged the world’s biggest annual June 4 vigils, as part of the broad freedoms granted when it reverted …

Laos – Laos is scheduled to launch a US$6 billion (RM25.4 billion) railway constructed by the Chinese on Friday, despite worries over the country’s debt and expectations that it would help to restore the country’s faltering economy. The construction of the 414-kilometer (260-mile) route, which is part of China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, took five years. The potential economic …

Taiwan – Following a heated visit to the island by a delegation of American congressmen, the Chinese army conducted a navy and air force combat readiness patrol in the Taiwan Strait, a spokeswoman said. Tensions between Beijing and Washington have risen significantly over the destiny of democratic self-ruled Taiwan, which China has pledged to reclaim one day, by force if …

China – Hong Kong and Chinese authorities said a meeting on Thursday moved them closer to partially reopening the border between them, as the two governments dig their heels in as among the last in the world pursuing a zero-Covid-19 strategy. The global financial hub has followed Beijing’s lead to implement some of the strictest travel restrictions in the world, …