CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Nectar Gan and Selina Wang and CNN’s Beijing bureau For the first time in decades, thousands of people have defied Chinese authorities to protest at universities and on the streets of major cities, demanding to be freed not only from incessant Covid tests and lockdowns, but strict censorship and the Communist Party’s tightening grip

By Jessie Yeung and CNN’s Beijing bureau China has moved quickly to suppress demonstrations that erupted across the country against the government’s zero-Covid policy on the weekend, deploying police forces at key protest sites and tightening online censorship. On Tuesday, while defending the policy, top health officials appeared to acknowledge its impact and pledged to

By Eric Cheung, CNN Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has resigned as the leader of the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, after her party suffered heavy losses in mid-term elections. The DPP’s losses in Saturday’s vote come as a heavy blow for Tsai as she had tried to frame the election — technically a local affair

By Radina Gigova, Larry Register and Tara Subramaniam, CNN North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is planning to build “the world’s most powerful” nuclear force, state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday. The “ultimate goal” behind North Korea’s nuclear program was to possess an “absolute force, unprecedented in the century,” Kim said Saturday as part

CNN By Heather Chen and CNN’s Beijing bureau Chinese authorities said Saturday they would ease a months-long Covid lockdown in the country’s far western region of Xinjiang “in stages”, following protests over a deadly fire at an apartment building in the regional capital of Urumqi. At least 10 people were killed and nine injured when

By Heather Chen and CNN’s Beijing bureau Chinese authorities said Saturday they would ease a months-long Covid lockdown in the country’s far western region of Xinjiang “in stages”, following protests over a deadly fire at an apartment building in the regional capital of Urumqi. At least 10 people were killed and nine injured when the

By Wayne Chang, CNN A Chinese court in Beijing sentenced Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu, also known as Wu Yifan, to 13 years in jail after finding him guilty of sexual offenses, including rape, the court said in a post on its official Weibo account. Wu rose to fame as a member of popular Korean-Chinese

By Heather Chen, CNN It’s a political journey decades in the making — the transformation of a young student firebrand into an icon of democracy and eventually the leader of his country, via two stints in jail. Now age 75, Anwar Ibrahim has finally realized his dream by becoming the 10th prime minister of Malaysia.

By Selina Wang and Nectar Gan, CNN Zhou, an auto dealer in northeastern China, last saw his father alive in a video chat on the afternoon of November 1, hours after their home on the far outskirts of Beijing was locked down. At the time, they didn’t even realize the snap Covid restrictions had been

By Kathleen Magramo and Wayne Chang, CNN A 90-year-old former bishop and outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party was found guilty Friday on a charge relating to his role in a relief fund for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2019. Cardinal Joseph Zen and five others, including the Cantopop singer Denise Ho, contravened the

By Rhea Mogul, CNN A deadly earthquake that reduced buildings to rubble in West Java, Indonesia has once again exposed the dangers of living in poorly built homes in one of the most seismically active zones on the planet. Since Monday’s quake, survivors have been sleeping rough or in shelters away from homes vulnerable to

By Sophia Saifi, CNN Pakistan on Thursday named former spy chief Lt. Gen. Syed Asim Munir as chief of the South Asian country’s army, ending weeks of speculation over an appointment that comes amid intense debate around the military’s influence on public life. Munir, the country’s most senior general and a former head of the

By CNN’s Beijing Bureau and Kathleen Magramo China on Thursday reported a record number of daily Covid infections, as a nationwide surge in cases heaps pressure on the country’s increasingly unpopular zero-tolerance approach to the virus. The National Health Commission (NHC) recorded 31,444 locally transmitted cases on Wednesday — surpassing the previous peak of 29,317

CNN By CNN’s Beijing bureau and Nectar Gan Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday faced unprecedented dissent after thousands of demonstrators protested in cities across China over the weekend against his zero-Covid strategy — with some daring to openly call for his removal in the streets. “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!” some