Educational and cultural exchanges have become a new casualty of rising tensions between the Philippines and China. About 150 Chinese teachers have left the Philippines months after Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr renewed warnings that such people-to-people ties could pose security concerns. Families of volunteer instructors have expressed safety concerns. Beyond disrupting classes and potentially harming tourism in the Philippines, this could further narrow interaction between the two...

A Philippine bill expanding the country’s espionage law to cover peacetime activities is raising concerns among journalists and legal experts, who warn that its broad provisions could stifle free expression and restrict public scrutiny of national issues. The House of Representatives approved the measure on September 17, paving the way for a broader definition of espionage than under the current law, which dates to 1941 and focuses on wartime spying. The Senate is considering a similar...

The Philippines is “resigned” to managing its long-standing dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea and avoiding dangerous escalations, President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said on Thursday. At the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore, Marcos said: “I don’t know if we can find a resolution to the problem, but we are resigned to just being able to manage the problem, so that we do not have mistakes, we do not have misinterpretations. “My greatest fear is that some seaman, some soldier, just...

Chew Kin Wah spent seven seasons gracing Malaysian television screens as “Kee Tat” in the hit sitcom Kopitiam in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Now 61, the Malaysian actor is still working, albeit more selectively, taking projects when the right offers land on his table. “There is no thought of retiring when you are doing something you enjoy,” he told This Week in Asia, adding: “Money helps. Never fight with money.” For Chew, working beyond 60 is a choice. But for many Malaysians, the question...

A care scandal has erupted in Thailand after a nursing home was exposed for confining old and sick residents in beds covered by iron cages with barely a foot of space above their heads. Images of bedridden patients at the Sothornchai Nursing Home in Kanchanaburi, western Thailand, have shocked Thais since they were shared earlier this week on the television current affairs show Hone Krasae. Thailand is projected to be a super-ageing society in the coming years, with authorities warning of a care...

A legal challenge to the vice-presidency of Indonesia’s Gibran Rakabuming Raka could haunt his political future even though he has survived damning court findings on his educational qualifications. The Constitutional Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition to unseat the son of former president Joko Widodo, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing. But it also found no convincing evidence that Gibran’s overseas education met the minimum high-school qualification required for presidential...

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday said Malaysia would do “whatever is possible” to strengthen cooperation with Myanmar and fully reintegrate the diplomatically isolated nation into the Asean fold. The pledge came during an unusually high-profile official welcome for Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing, despite Malaysia’s position that such engagement does not amount to recognition of his government. Min Aung Hlaing inspected a guard of honour in Putrajaya before holding private talks with...