Podcast appearances and mentions of asia correspondent

Asia correspondent Erin Hale spoke to Lisa Owen about Thailand deporting dozens of Uyghurs to China in a move that has attracted global criticism, Donald Trump wanting to slap yet more tariffs on Chinese goods and how in almost a decade South Korea's birth rate is on the rise.

Ed discusses the three Chinese naval vessel sailing east of Sydney and a trend that is worry many Asian countries - a shrinking middle class.

Elizabeth discusses a sinkhole in Japan, an impeachment in the Philippines and Thailand cuts power to parts of Myanmar in a move to stop scammers. 

Ed White is a correspondent with the Financial Times based in Shanghai.

The sentencing of 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong has sparked international outrage. The group is made up of political activists, academics and former lawmakers - with sentences of up to 10 years handed down. They were arrested in 2021 under the National Security Law which had been imposed by China after months of pro-democracy protests across Hong Kong. Asia Correspondent, Erin Hale spoke to Lisa Owen.

Ed explains how Xi Jinping's administration is preparing for a new era of trade hostilities and geopolitical tension with the US under a Donald Trump presidency.

North Korean troops appear to be preparing to fight in Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine. 

There are big changes emerging from China as Xi Jinping's administration looks to stimulate the economy after years of slowing growth. 

It was fun seeing Fox Butterfield, the first New York Times correspondent in China since 1949, in Portland, Oregon back in July. I last visited Portland in 2022, and you never quite get over the sight of Mount Hood dominating the horizon on a clear summer day in its awesome fashion.Fox welcomed me to his home, perched on a small hill in a modestly upscale suburb. A history enthusiast, he has lived through and witnessed some of the most pivotal moments in modern history: from meeting Harry Truman as a teenager with his grandfather, to studying under John Fairbank, the progenitor of Chinese studies in America, to reporting on the Vietnam War and helping expose the Pentagon Papers, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize. Though trained as a China specialist, he only began his reporting inside China in the late '70s, culminating in his book China: Alive in the Bitter Sea. This bestseller set a benchmark for generations of China correspondents. Later in his career, Fox shifted his focus to domestic issues of race and crime, writing acclaimed works like All God's Children and In My Father's House.Talking to Fox was a breeze. I was pleasantly surprised that his spoken Chinese remains impressively sharp — his tones and pronunciations are still spot-on. Of course, we did most of our chatting in English. This piece will explore his early experiences, particularly his family background, his time at Harvard, and his reporting during the Vietnam War. While the bulk of the piece may not focus directly on China, it offers a glimpse into the intellectual formation of one of America's most prominent China watchers and how both domestic and global forces shape U.S. perceptions of China.Enjoy!LeoIndexSeeing China with Joe Biden and John McCain in the 70sCyrus Eaton, Lenin Prize and family legacy in Cold War“Rice Paddies”, and studying under John Fairbank at HarvardFrom Pentagon Papers to VietnamReporting on the frontlines in Vietnam Seeing China with Joe Biden and John McCain in the 70sCould you talk about your first trip to China?I was the Hong Kong correspondent for The New York Times from 1975 to 1979 because that's where we covered China in those days. I couldn't go to China until 1978, when I attended the Canton Trade Fair. That was my first trip to China; I can barely remember it.My second trip to China was much more memorable. In 1979, when the U.S. and China were about to normalize relations, China invited the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to visit, and I was invited as a New York Times correspondent. In those days, China had a shortage of hotel rooms, at least for foreigners, so they made everybody room with somebody else. The Chinese government assigned me to room with the naval liaison to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who was a Navy captain named John McCain.For two weeks, John McCain and I were roommates. We had breakfast, lunch, and dinner together and traveled everywhere. McCain's best friend on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was Joe Biden. So, the three of us did almost everything together for two weeks. That one is easy to remember. What was your impression of Joe Biden?Joe Biden was a nice man, very earnest, but he was a typical career politician that when he approached somebody, he always grabbed them by the hand. He was tall, had a strong handshake, and would give them a big smile and grab their hands. He kept doing this to the Chinese, who didn't really know what was going on because they're not used to being touched that way, especially not somebody almost breaking their hand.So I finally said to him, “Senator.” And he'd say, “No, call me Joe.” I said, “Okay, Joe, please don't grab Chinese by the hand. It's kind of rude and offensive to them, and they don't understand it.” He would say, “Well, why not?” And I said, “Because that's not their custom.” He'd say, “Okay, thank you very much.” And then, five minutes later, he'd do the same thing over and over again.John McCain and I became good friends, especially because I had seen McCain in prison in Hanoi when I first started working for The New York Times, and we bonded over that shared history during our trip to China. They allowed me to go into his prison in 1969, and I was the first reporter to find out that John McCain was still alive when his jet fighter was shot down over Hanoi.I saw him then and as roommates 10 years later in China. We had a great time, and I would take him out and say, “Let's sneak away from our handlers and see how Chinese really live and what they really say.” We just went out and talked to people, and he thought this was a lot of fun.“He said something straightforward and obvious, but I had never thought about it. He said China is the oldest country in the world with by far the largest population. It's a big, important place.”That's a wonderful tale. What made you initially interested in China?When I was a sophomore at Harvard as an undergraduate in 1958, there was a fear that the United States was going to have to go to war with China over those two little islands, which Americans call ‘Quemoy' and ‘Matsu' and Chinese people call ‘Jinmen' and ‘Mazu'.America's leading sinologist and Harvard professor of Chinese studies, John Fairbank, decided to give a public lecture about the danger of the United States going to war for those two little islands.I attended his lecture. He said something straightforward and obvious, but I had never thought about it. He said China is the oldest country in the world with by far the largest population. It's a big, important place. Why would the United States want to go to war with China over those two little islands? It made no sense logically. And we had just finished the war in Korea. As I listened to him, I realized, “Gee, I don't know anything about that place.”So I began to audit his introductory class on the history of East Asia. And in the spring, I decided to take a second class in Chinese history that Fairbank was teaching. As a Harvard undergraduate, I would find out my exam grades at the end of year from a postcard you put in the exam booklet. When I received my postcard back from the final exam, it said: “please come to see me in my office, tomorrow morning at 10.” “Oh no,” I thought I really screwed up my exam. So I went to see John Fairbank. I was nervous, especially because he was a great man, a big figure on campus, and the Dean of Chinese studies in the United States. So I went in, and he said, “Fox, you wrote a wonderful exam. Have you considered majoring in Chinese history?” I went, “oh, no, I had not considered it.” I was so relieved that I had written a good exam.He said, “Well, if you are, you must immediately begin studying Chinese.” At that time, Harvard did not teach spoken Chinese, only classical written Chinese, and there were just about 10 people, all graduate students.So Fairbank said, “here's what you do. Going down to Yale, they have a special program that teaches spoken Chinese in the summer because they have a contract with the Air Force to teach 18-year-old Air Force recruits how to speak Chinese so they can listen to and monitor Chinese air force traffic.”So I spent the summer at Yale studying Chinese with air force recruits. I took classical written Chinese classes when I returned to Harvard that fall. Luckily, I got a Fulbright Fellowship to go to Taiwan after I graduated, so I studied in the best spoken Chinese program at the time run by Cornell University.Cyrus Eaton, Lenin Prize and family legacy in Cold WarI wonder whether there's any family influence on your China journey. Your father was the historian and editor-in-chief of the Adams Papers, and your maternal grandfather, Cyrus Eaton, was one of the most prominent financiers and philanthropists in the Midwest. Could you speak on the impact of family legacy on your China journey?My father certainly instilled a love of history in me. That was always my favourite subject in school and the one I did best in. Eventually, my major at Harvard was Chinese history. My father didn't know anything about China and never went. My mother visited Taiwan and stayed with me for ten days in the 60s.My maternal grandfather, Cyrus Eaton, would fit the Chinese notion of a rags-to-riches success story. He grew up in a small fishing village in Nova Scotia, Canada, and went to college in Toronto with the help of an older cousin. This cousin went on to become a Baptist minister in Cleveland, Ohio, across the lake. Among the people in his parish was a man named John D. Rockefeller — yes, the original John D. Rockefeller.The cousin invited my grandfather and said he had a job for him. So my grandfather started off as a golf caddy for John D. Rockefeller and then a messenger. Ultimately, he founded his own electric power company in Cleveland — Ohio Electric Power — and became quite influential. He had multiple companies but then lost everything in the Great Depression.During World War II, my grandfather heard about a large iron ore under a lake in Ontario through his Canadian connections. By then, he had already formed connections with President Roosevelt and then Truman, so he said, “If you can give me some money and help underwrite this, I can get Canadian permission to drain the lake for the iron ore deposit,” which became the world's richest iron ore mine, Steep Rock Iron Ore. That's how he got back into business. Truman and my grandfather ended up having a close connection, and he used my grandfather's train to campaign for re-election in 1948. My grandfather was an unusual man. He had a real vision about things.He was trading metals with the Soviet Union as well.I don't know the details, but when Khrushchev came to power, my grandfather became interested in trying to work out some arrangement between the United States and Russia, which is where the Pugwash movement came from. He was inviting Russian and American scientists to meet. They couldn't meet in the U.S. because it was against American law, but he arranged for them to meet in his hometown of Pugwash, Nova Scotia. We had American and Russian nuclear physicists meeting to discuss nuclear weapons in this little village. Eventually, he invited some Chinese people to come.At one of these conferences, I met Harrison Salisbury, an editor of The New York Times and the first NYT Moscow Correspondent. I was just starting out as a stringer for The Washington Post, but Salisbury saw something in me and suggested I send him a story. That connection eventually led to my job at The New York Times.He must have known people pretty high up in China too.I don't know the China connections; he didn't know Mao or Zhou Enlai. He did have a close relationship with Khrushchev, to the extent you could. It started with the Pugwash movement.He just sent a telegram to Khrushchev and became friends?Yes. What do you call that, guanxi?I guess so. Do you remember when he won the Lenin Peace Prize?I do. I think I was in Taiwan at the time. I didn't go to the ceremony.How did you feel about his activities growing up?I was never too sure what was going on. My mother had the intelligence of her father—in fact, she looked remarkably like him—but she was skeptical because she always felt that he was making all these big deals but wasn't looking out for his own family.What was your mom like?My mother was a smart woman. She went to Bryn Mawr during the Depression, but my grandfather refused to let her take a scholarship because it would signal he had no money. She worked full-time while in school and graduated near the top of her class. She was angry at him for making her life difficult for his own pride.My mother worked all her life. By the time I reached college, she was working at Harvard University, which was unusual for the time. She started as a secretary but eventually became the registrar in charge of all the records. When she died in 1978, the Harvard Crimson published a tribute saying she had been the most helpful person to many undergraduates.What did you want to become as a teenager?I wanted to be a baseball player. Yes, for a long time my life revolved around baseball. I thought I was pretty serious. Some time in college, I realized I wasn't going to become a major league baseball player, and I became much more interested in the life of the mind.“Rice Paddies”, and studying under John Fairbank at HarvardDid you think of Asia growing up?There was really almost nothing until I mentioned, in my sophomore year, when I was 19, beginning in 1958 as an undergraduate at Harvard studying with John Fairbank. No courses offered at high school that I could have gone to. Even at Harvard, the Chinese history class was almost all graduate students. Harvard undergraduates could take an introduction class to the history of East Asia, which included China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Harvard students nicknamed this course “Rice Paddies.”That's the famous course by Fairbank and Reischauer. What was it like studying with those two legends?Well, they were both significant people in every way. Fairbank helped start the field of Chinese history in the United States. Reischauer certainly started studying Japanese history.In my first year, they had just finished a textbook for the Rice Patties course. It had not been published as a book yet, just a mimeograph form. They gave us these big books you had to carry around, like carrying one of those old store catalogues with hundreds of pages printed on one side. You would bring these things into class. One was called East Asia: The Great Tradition, and the other East Asia: The Modern Transformation.What was John Fairbank like as a person?Intimidating. He was a tall, bald man, always looking over his glasses at you. But he was charming and friendly, and if he sensed that you were interested in his field, he would do almost anything for you. He reached out to students in a way that few other faculty members did.“He was an academic entrepreneur and missionary for Chinese studies, and was creating the field of Chinese history in the United States. Before him, Chinese history didn't exist for most Americans to study.”And he had regular gatherings at his house.Yes. His house was a little yellow wooden house dating back to the 18th century, right in the middle of the campus. Harvard had given it to him, and every Thursday afternoon, anybody interested in China who was in Cambridge that day was invited. You never knew who you were going to meet. Fairbank was a kind of social secretary. When you walked in, he'd greet you with a handshake and then take you around to introduce you to some people. He did that all the time with people. He was an academic entrepreneur and missionary for Chinese studies and was creating the field of Chinese history in the United States. Before him, Chinese history didn't exist for most Americans to study. I always wanted to major in history. That subject appealed to me and was my strongest area of study. I took some American history and intellectual history classes, but the Chinese history class became the one that I really focused on. I couldn't tell you exactly why, but it was interesting to me. The more I read, the more I liked it. After that first Fairbank class, I signed up for the more intensive modern Chinese history class and whatever else Harvard had. I signed up for a Japanese history class, too. At the end of my senior year, John Kennedy named my professor Edwin Reischauer his ambassador to Tokyo. So, on my way to Taiwan as a Fulbright scholar, I stopped in Tokyo to meet Reischauer at the US Embassy, and two of Reischauer's grown children took me around Tokyo. I reported in Tokyo later in my career.Was Ezra Vogel working on Japan at the time?Yes, Ezra had. Ezra was in my Spanish class in the first year. He hadn't yet decided what he would focus on then. We sat next to each other. We were always personal friends even though he was a bit older. He was a nice man and became a professor later. I sat in the same classroom with several other older people who went on to teach about China, including Dorothy Borg. Even then, she had white hair. She worked for the Council on Foreign Relations in New York but was taking classes at Harvard. When I first went to China, she was still involved with China.So, from that group of Americans studying China at Harvard at that time, many went on to do things related to China, including Orville Schell, Andy Nathan and me. I did not know Perry Link while in Harvard.Many major figures in China studies today were at Harvard with you.Yale had Mary and Arthur Wright, but they were graduate students at Harvard with me and went on to become full professors at Yale. This must be because that was a place where Fairbank was an evangelical figure that people gravitated towards, and he was preaching this new faith of Chinese studies.From Pentagon Papers to VietnamWhat did you do after Harvard?I spent a year in Taiwan when I graduated. I wanted to stay, but Fairbank hurried me up to get back to graduate school.Did you listen to Fairbank?I was going to get my PhD at Harvard and teach Chinese history, but after five years, I became less interested in actually studying Chinese history.During the 1960s, the Vietnam War happened. Vietnam is kind of a cousin of China, so I started reading everything I could about Vietnam. I even started a course on Vietnam so that Harvard undergraduate and graduate students could learn about Vietnam.I got a fellowship to return to Taiwan to work on my dissertation about Hu Hanmin. At that time, many American GIs were coming to Taiwan on what we call R&R — “rest and recreation.” The U.S. government made a deal with the American military that anyone who served in Vietnam for a year had an automatic R&R, a paid week leave to go anywhere in Southeast Asia. Many chose Taiwan to chase pretty young Chinese girls. So, GIs would show up in Taiwan and didn't know what they were doing. I would see them on the street, go up and talk to them.I became more interested in Vietnam over time. A friend told me, “You're spending so much time reading newspapers about Vietnam, you should become a journalist.” It hadn't occurred to me. By chance, I met a correspondent from The Washington Post, Stanley Karnow, who was the Hong Kong correspondent for the Post and covered Vietnam for quite a while. He asked me to be his stringer, a part-time assistant. So I would send my story to him, but he'd never do anything with it.I was discouraged, and that's when I met Harrison Salisbury through my grandfather in Montreal. Salisbury asked me to send stories to The New York Times. I thought I was a traitor to my job with The Washington Post. But it wasn't really a job; it was in my imagination. When I sent Salisbury my first story, I received a cable from the foreign editor of The New York Times saying they had put my story on the front page and given me a byline. My parents at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts saw it that morning, and they wondered, what is Fox doing?” They thought I was working on my PhD dissertation.“Oh, that looked like our son there.”The story was about Chiang Kai-shek's son, Chiang Ching-kuo, who was becoming Chiang Kai-shek's successor. I wrote about how he was going about it. That was a good news story, so The New York Times sent me a message and said, “If you'd like to work for us, we'll be happy to take more stories.”So I started sending them stories once or twice a week, and after four or five months, they gave me a job offer in New York. That was just one of those lucky breaks. I guess The New York Times correspondent who made that initial contact with me, Harrison Salisbury, who had won several Pulitzer Prizes, must have seen something in me.What's your relationship with your editors over the years? Generally pretty good. They certainly intimidated me at the beginning. The person who actually hired me was the foreign editor at The New York Times, James Greenfield. When I returned to New York, it was New Year's Day, the end of 1971. James asked me about my training and asked me to spend the next couple of months sitting at the foreign desk to watch how they do things. I couldn't even write stories for a while; I just handed them the copy that came up. I later got promoted to news assistant and was asked to find something interesting and write one story a week. I wrote some stories about Asia for the newspaper. They wouldn't give me a byline at first as I wasn't a reporter. My first assignment was to Newark, New Jersey, which had gone through a series of terrible race riots in the late 1960s. I was going to be the correspondent in Newark.This was after they hired you and during those two years of training? Yes. One day, I was covering a story. The new mayor of Newark — the first black mayor of a major American city — called a meeting in city hall to see if he could stop the riots.He was trying to bring people together: white, black and Hispanic. Within ten seconds, everybody was having a fistfight. People were knocking each other out with the police and mayor in front of them. The mayor yelled at people to stop, and they still kept punching and hitting each other with big pieces of wood right in City Hall. And I was there. Two very large black men grabbed my arms behind my back. The nasty term for white people in those days was “honky”. They said, “What are you doing here, honky?” They began punching me in the stomach and hitting me in the head. I thought I was going to die right there before I finally broke free. I got to my office to send my story of the city hall by telephone across New York City. And they put that story on the front page.Your second front page at The New York Times. So the editor of The New York Times was a very intimidating man, Abe Rosenthal, a gifted correspondent who'd won several Pulitzer Prizes. He won a Pulitzer Prize in Poland and Germany. I got this message saying, “Mr. Rosenthal wants to see you in his office immediately.”I thought, “oh jeez I'm getting fired.” I just got beaten up in City Hall and they're going to fire me. So I walked in, and he said, “Fox, that was a really nice story.” He said, “you did a really good job on that story. We have another assignment for you. I want you to go over to the New York Hilton Hotel”, which was about ten blocks away.He told me that one of our correspondents, Neil Sheehan, had gotten a secret government document, the Pentagon Papers, which were boxes and boxes of government documents. Neil couldn't read all that by himself, so I had to go and read it with him. Besides, I knew about Asia. By that point, I had read as much as I could about Vietnam. I also knew Neil Sheen because I had helped him come to Harvard to give a talk about Vietnam while I was a graduate student. So we actually had a good relationship. I spent the next two months in Neil's hotel room reading documents, but two of us were not enough, so a third and eventually a fourth correspondent were brought in. Did you understand the risk you were taking working with the classifieds? You could be arrested. Right, yes. I had to tell my parents, “I can't tell you anything about what I'm doing.”When we finally started publishing, I wrote three of the seven installments, which was amazing because I was a junior person. Abe Rosenthal called me back into his office after we finished, and said, “Fox, you did a nice job on this, so we're sending you somewhere. We're sending you to Vietnam.” He said, “I want you to go immediately.” So I went from the Pentagon Papers to Saigon. That was a surprise. That was not where I wanted to go. In fact, what I really wanted was to go to cover China, but that would have meant Hong Kong. But Vietnam turned out to be fascinating. There was always something happening.Reporting on the frontlines in VietnamCan you talk about your Vietnam experience?It was an experience at many levels. Intellectually, it was seductive because there was so much going on, people getting shot every day. The only way to truly understand it was to be there.You could divide the correspondents into those who stayed in Saigon and those who went out to the field. I wanted to be in the field as much as possible. I spent time on Navy ships and even in a fighter plane, hitting what appeared to be factories.The GIs, or “grunts”, wanted to know what we wrote about them, and some would come to our office in Saigon. Sometimes they were angry. A few correspondents received threats, but we mostly had a good relationship. The more you were willing to go out into the field, the more respect you earned. I was out there from the beginning.Vietnam was more complicated than I initially thought. If you were strictly anti-war or pro-government, you missed the full picture.You had been against the war before. How did you feel once you were there?I was part of the anti-war movement and then found myself in the middle of the war. I got to know many ordinary Vietnamese who were actually happy to have Americans there because the communist soldiers would threaten to confiscate their property. Vietnam was more complicated than I initially thought. If you were strictly anti-war or pro-government, you missed the full picture.What was the relevance of the Pentagon Papers then?The Pentagon Papers showed that the U.S. government was deceiving the public, but we were also helping some people. It was more complex than the extreme positions made it seem.Were you at risk of being arrested for the Pentagon Papers?Possibly, yes. My name was on the case, but by that time, I was in Vietnam. I put it out of my mind.How long were you in Vietnam?I was in Vietnam from 1971 to 1975, with breaks in Japan. The New York Times didn't let anyone stay more than two years at a time because of the exhaustion of war. But I kept going back and stayed until the last day of the war in 1975 when I left on a helicopter to a Navy ship.I took the place of a brilliant female correspondent, Gloria Emerson. I inherited her apartment, and Vietnam was as exciting a place as it could be. There was always something to do, something to see, something that you shouldn't see but wanted to see. Vietnam was all that I talked about for four years. I stayed until the last day of the war, April 30th, 1975.Did you get hurt during the war?I was hit by mortar fragments and lost my hearing for almost a month. Once, I was left behind after the unit I accompanied ran into an ambush. I had to walk three hours to get back to safety.Vietnam absorbed all parts of your brain, your mind, your body, and your psyche. It just took over.How did the war experience change you?It depends on the individual. Some correspondents loved Vietnam and never wanted to leave. Others were terrified and left without a word. Even today, I still belong to an online Google group of ex-correspondents in Vietnam, and I still get dozens of messages every day. They always want to discuss Vietnam.Back in the day, some got afraid and just left. I had several friends who would literally just leave a message at their desk saying, “Please pack my belongings and send them back to New York.” It's hard to generalise and have an ironclad rule about. It was different from regular assignments in most other countries.Well, Vietnam was certainly special.Vietnam absorbed all parts of your brain, your mind, your body, and your psyche. It just took over. When the war ended, I came out on a helicopter that landed on a Navy ship. The captain said I could make one phone call. I called my editor in New York and said, “I'm out, I'm safe.” He replied, “Good, because we're sending you to Hong Kong.”Recommended ReadingsFox Butterfield, 1982, China: Alive in the Bitter SeaJohn Fairbank, Edwin Reischauer and Albert Craig, 1965, East Asia: The Modern Transformation, George Allen & UnwinEdwin Reischauer & John Fairbank, 1958, East Asia: The Great Tradition, Houghton MifflinAcknowledgementThis newsletter is edited by Caiwei Chen. The transcription and podcast editing is by Aorui Pi. I thank them for their support!About usPeking Hotel is a bilingual online publication that take you down memory lane of recent history in China and narrate China's reality through the personal tales of China experts. Through biweekly podcasts and newsletters, we present colourful first-person accounts of seasoned China experts. The project grew out of Leo's research at Hoover Institution where he collects oral history of prominent China watchers in the west. Peking Hotel is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Lastly…We also have a Chinese-language Substack. It has been a privilege to speak to these thoughtful individuals and share their stories with you. The stories they share often remind me of what China used to be and what it is capable of becoming. I hope to publish more conversations like this one, so stay tuned!Correction note: An earlier version of this piece incorrectly referred to sinologists Mary and Henry Wright as "Fords." We thank reader Robert Kapp for bringing this to our attention. Get full access to Peking Hotel at pekinghotel.substack.com/subscribe

Tokyo based journalist Elizabeth Beattie with news from Asia.

The fight against deepfake pornography in South Korea;  the son of the outgoing Indonesian president questioned about his recent use of a private jet, and Typhoon Shanshan is descending on Southwest Japan.

Japan is set to get a new Prime Minister, and in Tokyo names are already being floated about who might take over from Fumio Kishida. Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, Owen Chow has been jailed for three days after he allegedly passed a complaint to his lawyer, without authorisation. And North Korea is gearing up to open its borders to tourists later this year, in what may be the end of the hermit country's imposed Covid-related border controls.

Asia correspondent Elizabeth Beattie covers the Supreme Court in Bangladesh scrapping quotas on government jobs, Myanmar's military dictatorship extending a state of emergency, and Hong Kong Pizza Hut promoting pineapple pizza.

 Elizabeth Beattie with news from Asia.

The Myanmar civil war has been raging on for over three years now. Over 50,000 people have been killed, including 8,000 civilians, as the military junta that took over fights a multitude of militias. Recently, an important area along the Thai-Myanmar border changed hands.The Globe's Asia Correspondent, James Griffiths, traveled there and explains how resistance forces have gained so much ground, what happens now that the military junta doesn't control the border and how China is involved.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

A group of young environmental activists have been jailed in Cambodia on charges, while Japan finally takes the plunge to ditch floppy disks.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was in Japan this week meeting with fellow PM Fumio Kishida, agreeing on a new security agreement and speaking about boosting economic security cooperation. Russian president Vladimir Putin has jetted off to Vietnam. And heatstroke is already claiming lives in India as the brutal summer heat sets in, with more than 40,000 suspected cases so far.

Asia correspondent Erin Hale speaks to Lisa Owen about four Americans being stabbed in a park in Northern China, a heatwave in India claiming numerous lives and the resignation of mutliple foreign justices in Hong Kong.

Narendra Modi has been voted back in for a third term as India's Prime Minister - but it was not quite the landslide victory he would have hoped for. A new report from the world's biggest refugee camp in Bangladesh highlights the plight of around one million Rohingya from Myanmar. And North Korea been sending balloons filled with trash and human waste across the border to its enemies in South Korea. Ed White is a correspondent with the Financial Times based in Shanghai.

Taiwan has a new president - who is William Lai, and how is Beijing responding to his election and inauguration? The US-China trade war is back in full-swing after Joe Biden's latest comments on green technology exports. And researchers in China are developing a new AI chatbot based off the thoughts of the country's leader, Xi Jinping. Ed White is a correspondent for the Financial Times, based in Shanghai.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has made his first trip to Europe since the Covid-19 pandemic, where he was met by varying receptions across different countries. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ramping up the rhetoric against Muslim people as he vies reelection. And a popular Hong Kong anthem has been banned for its ties to pro-democracy demonstrations. Ed White is a correspondent for the Financial Times, based in Shanghai.

Welcome back to season 2 of Proof-of-PR, your passport into the world of Public Relations for Bitcoin and Web3.  This week, Kelley Weaver, CEO at Melrose PR, sits down with DL News Asia Correspondent Callan Quinn to discuss reporting on the APAC landscape, how interviews differ in the West, trends she's seeing across Asia, and much more!  To stay up-to-date on upcoming guests and news follow us on Twitter at @ProofOfPR.   

The marathon Indian election is underway with Prime Minister Narendra Modi eyeing up his third five-year term in power. Also: espionage arrests in China, and Taiwan debates the death penalty.

The government in Hong Kong recently voted to pass a new national security law, referred to as Article 23. It includes seven new offences related to sedition, treason and state secrets, and is expected to have a chilling effect on protest. A number of countries, including Canada, denounced the law before it was passed, saying it's too broad and risks undermining human rights.James Griffiths, The Globe's Asia Correspondent, is on the show to discuss Article 23 – what it is, how it's affecting people in Hong Kong and who is most at risk.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Let's get to Asia now and we're joined by our correspondent in India, Per Elinder Liljas

Ed White is a correspondent for the Financial Times, based in Shanghai. Ed discusses the delegation China is sending to North Korea - the highest-level visit in five years, South Korea's election and Japan's Prime Minister has been in Washington this week.

South Korea and Japan have both sunk to record low fertility rates despite their government's attempts to drop incentives and implore young people in have babies. And Philippines President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr has addressed parliament in Australia to speak about security and regional stability. However not everyone was pleased he received the invite.

Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto has declared victory in the presidential election. Ed White looks at what his presidency will bring. 

Indonesia's election on Wednesday will mark the country's first change in leadership in a decade. The current president, Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, has already served the maximum two terms in office... and now his main competitor is widely considered to be 72-year-old former military leader Prabowo Subianto. I spoke to SBS Asia Correspondent Aaron Fernandes who is currently in the capital Jakarta as Indonesians prepare to head to the polls.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been handed a 14-year jail sentence in a case related to illegal selling of state gifts, just days after being given another 10-year sentence. 

The liquidation of Evergrande is not a done deal yet, but if it leads to economic stimulus from the Chinese government, could it help the Australian economy?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Battle Lines, Senior Foreign Correspondent Sophia Yan and Middle East Correspondent Natalia Vasilyeva bring us updates from the region as Iran and Pakistan trade missile strikes and the war in Gaza continues. Plus Senior Foreign Correspondent Roland Oliphant looks at the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen, and explains where they come from and who their friends are.Finally, we go to our Asia Correspondent, Nicola Smith, who analyses the continuing civil war in Myanmar as a rebel alliance pushes back the military junta's troops. Contributors:David Knowles (Host). @djknowles22 on X.Nataliya Vasilyeva (Middle East Correspondent). @Nat_Vasilyeva on X.Sophia Yan (Senior Foreign Correspondent). @sophia_yan on X.Roland Oliphant (Senior Foreign Correspondent). @RolandOliphant on X.Nicola Smith (Asia Correspondent). @niccijsmith on X.ReadPakistan cuts ties with Iran after missile attack kills two children, by Sophia YanThe Houthis: inside the powerful militia's enigmatic mindset, by Roland Oliphant, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Sophia YanFor 3 months access to The Telegraph for just £1: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/audio |Email: battlelines@telegraph.co.uk | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Taiwan is preparing to hold its general election on 13 January to determine who will lead the country as the next president. It is the island's eighth presidential election since democratisation - and comes amid increased geopolitical tensions in the region. The democratically self-governed Taiwan sees itself as distinct, but China says it continues to see the island as part of its territory. SBS Asia Correspondent Aaron Fernandes in Taiwan told Biwa Kwan that this year's contest is the country's most unpredictable election in recent years

Arrests have been made in Nepal after a gang was accused of smuggling people and forcing them into the Russian military to fight in Ukraine. The people trapped in the scheme and extorted were young unemployed Nepalis, who thought they were being granted a travel visa, but instead they were being trafficked to fight for Russia. And Elizabeth has details of a family's dramatic escape from Covid-era North Korea. Elizabeth Beattie is based in Tokyo.

Tokyo based journalist Elizabeth Beattie gives us the latest on deteriorating relationships at the North and South Korean border, Taiwan's presidential election campaign heats up, and the Philippines government cancels Christmas for soldiers in the South China Sea.

Extreme smog in India and Pakistan is causing disruption to the Cricket World Cup and causing school closures. Annually in November severe pollution is a worrying issue in India fuelled by agricultural burning and factory pollution. In Myanmar, there's been a significant development in the long drawn out fight for the country's political future. And Elizabeth talks to Kathryn about a joint NASA and Japan space agency venture involving a wooden space satellite. Elizabeth Beattie is a journalist based in Tokyo.

South China Sea tensions are rising with Chinese vessels ramming Philippine boats near a Manila-controlled shoal that John says Beijing want to get its hands on. This as China's top foreign policy official goes to Washington and the country's Defense Minister, Li Shangfu is formally ousted.

Elizabeth Beattie discusses an artillery strike in Myanmar which has killed at least 29 people, including women and children, at a refugee camp near the border with China. It is one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the country since the military seized power in a 2021 coup. Also, Australian Cheng Lei has been freed from detention in China and arrived in Melbourne. She previously worked at Chinese state-owned media, CGTN, and was accused in 2020 of "supplying state secrets overseas". Her charges were never made public.

Asia correspondent Emily Feng has been following the story of embattled property developer Evergrande, as the chairman is placed under police surveillance, with the exact reasons unclear. The developer has been at the centre of a liquidity crisis in China's property sector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the economy. And in Taiwan, tensions are rising amid questions of disinformation in the run-up to the January presidential elections. Emily Feng is an international correspondent for NPR covering China, Taiwan and beyond.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un is in Russia, where he has vowed "full and unconditional support" for President Vladimir Putin. He is expected to remain in Russia for several days. And in Tokyo, the mayor of the Shibuya Ward is urging people to stay away this Halloween, citing safety concerns over the large crowds of partygoers it usually attracts. Ken Hasebe cited the crowd crush in South Korea's Seoul last year.

Treated radioactive water from Japan's severely damaged Fukushima power plant has been released into the Pacific Ocean sparking a Chinese boycott of Japan's seafood products. The UN nuclear watchdog has found the release is safe and China has been accused of hypocrisy given its own track record of dumping nuclear waste. A group promoting Cantonese language in Hong Kong has shut down after authoriites raided the family home of the founder under the National Security Law. And with India set to play host to G20 summit this month, officials in Delhi are concerned about uninvited guests - monkeys. Elizabeth Beattie is a journalist based in Tokyo

Asia correspondent Ed White discusses US soldier Travis King, who fled mysteriously across the demilitarised zone separating South and North Korea, as North Korean media finally comment on it. And three years after being detained in China, Australian journalist Cheng Lei has managed to get a message out from a Beijing jail. And worryingly there is a case of disappearing data in China as Beijing stops reporting key information including youth unemployment and Covid-19 death rates. Ed White is a correspondent with the Financial Times.

Asia Correspondent Ed White discusses the mysterious disappearance and shock replacement of a foreign minister which has turned into an embarrassing episode for Chinese president Xi Jinping. Also violence in India's north-east is flaring again between the Hindu majority and a Christian minority group. What is behind this, and will Narendra Modi, the prime minister, be forced to act?

Vietnam has banned the new Barbie movie because the American movie is said to feature a scene with a South China Sea map showing the nine-dash line. This is used on Chinese maps to illustrating its claims to parts of the South China Sea. After years of testing and negotiations Japan has finally won international approval to release treated nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean. And Beijing has a new foreign relations law designed to strengthen Xi Jinping's hand in responding to western technology and trade sanctions.

Few people (in my age bracket, anyway) aren't familiar with the perennial bestseller, Tuesdays with Morrie. Published in 2002, the book highlights the lessons passed down from Morrie Schwartz (a college professor) to his student, Mitch Albom. Morrie passed away before the book was released (before a word of it was written, in fact). And years after his death, Rob discovered a manuscript in the drawer of his father's desk. That manuscript would become The Wisdom of Morrie: Living and Aging Creatively and Joyfully, released April 18, 2023 (Blackstone Publishing). On this episode of the Write the Damn Book Already podcast, Rob and I talked about his discovery of the manuscript, and the decision for him to edit it and seek a publisher who would help continue to spread Morrie's timeless insights. INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS How Rob discovered the manuscript (and the surprising condition it was in) How "easy" it was to find an agent and then publisher for the book given the success of Tuesdays with Morrie (this will surprise you) What Rob most appreciates about his publisher (it's not one of the Big 5!) Why “waiting” so many years between discovery and publication might have hurt (and, more importantly, might have helped!) ABOUT ROB SCHWARTZ Rob Schwartz is a writer, producer, and entrepreneur. His work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Interview and Melody Maker, among many others. He was a script editor at NHK World TV in Japan for fourteen years and has been an Asia Correspondent for Billboard magazine since 2008. In 2005 he founded the electro-rock crossover label Dynastic Records in Japan. Rob produces feature films, including Putty Hill (2010) and Bernard and Huey (2017); actively invests in tech-based startups; and is currently a partner in the virtual concert-creation platform Moshpit (www.Moshpit.Live). Rob is one of the producers of Onetopia, a benefit festival for mental health slated for May, 2024 (onetopia.com) CONNECT WITH ROB Website: WisdomOfMorrie.com Upcoming Benefit Music Festival: Onetopia.com Rob's Instagram: @rob_schwa Purchase The Wisdom of Morrie MORE ABOUT ELIZABETH'S WRITING & PUBLISHING PROGRAMS Follow Elizabeth on Instagram: @elizabethlyonsauthor All Programs: Elizabeth's book writing, publishing, and marketing programs & resources

Fears are mounting that Manipur, in North East India, is on the brink of civil war. The state, which boarders Myanmar, is strategically significant, but tensions have long brewed with different armed separatist groups forming in across the state. There are reports groups have looted thousands of weapons from police armouries. In Japan, a parliamentary report released this week has found that 25,000 people were forcibly sterilised in Japan under its post-World War Two eugenics law. The law which targeted people with physical disabilities or those with mental illness challenges, was repealed in 1996. Two nine-year-olds were among those who were victims, And in Singapore, police are rolling out more patrolling robots, as the force continues to "augment frontline officers" as part of its strategy to boost police presence. Elizabeth Beattie is a journalist based in Tokyo.

What a lively, heartwarming conversation with Rob Schwartz! We chatted about Rob's late father, Morrie, his childhood memories, and the indelible impact of Morrie's wisdom on his family and the world. The book Tuesdays With Morrie touched my heart in the 1990s and has stayed there ever since. Rob Schwartz is a writer, producer, and entrepreneur. His work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Interview and Melody Maker, among many others. He was a script editor at NHK World TV in Japan and has been an Asia Correspondent for Billboard magazine since 2008. In 2005 he founded the electro-rock crossover label Dynastic Records in Japan.In today's episode, we chatted his father, childhood memories, and the layers of loss. We discussed how Rob discovered his father's manuscript, written before Morrie was diagnosed with ALS that became the book Rob just edited/published—The Wisdom of Morrie: Living and Aging Creatively & Joyfully.Rob's journey is inspiring, fascinating, and a life well lived.

As the death toll from a three train collision in Odisha, India, Ed talks to Kathryn about the reprisals and political fallout from the tragedy. Also, reports this week have suggested that the head of the CIA made a secret visit to China in May in an urgent bid to get relations between the two superpowers back onto a more stable footing. And in South Korea Seoul residents were told to evacuate the city in a false alarm after a failed North Korea satellite launch. Ed White is a correspondent with the Financial Times.

Asia correspondent Ed White talks to Kathryn about a comedian in Beijing has found himself in serious hot water after joking about the Chinese military, and Joe Biden signaling a 'thaw' in relations between the US and China 

In this week's episode of the ArtTactic Podcast, Lisa Movius, the China Bureau Chief and Asia Correspondent for The Art Newspaper, joins us to recap this year's edition of Art Basel Hong Kong. First, Lisa shares expectations from the local art scene ahead of this iteration of the fair. Then, she shares what the ambience was like, being the first COVID restriction free edition of the fair since pre-pandemic. Also, Lisa recaps the overall sales at the fair this year and how much the local economy and politics had an impact. After, Lisa reveals if other Asian art hubs are catching up to Hong Kong. Finally, she explains to what extent mainland China's art scene is back to normal compared to Hong Kong.