Japan’s planned deployment of long-range surveillance drones on remote Pacific islands would mark a significant expansion of its ability to monitor Chinese naval activity, as Beijing’s warships operate more frequently beyond the first island chain. The drones are to be stationed on Iwo Jima and Chichijima Island in the Ogasawara chain south of Tokyo, according to a report by the Yomiuri newspaper published on Monday. The airfield on Minamitorishima, about 1,950km (1,211 miles) southeast of Tokyo...

The end of the Cold War was supposed to deliver a long peace. For a while, that was working, until it wasn’t. We might now be entering another period when the breakdown of a world order leads to war. It was no accident that President Xi Jinping cited the “Thucydides Trap” during his summit in Beijing with his US counterpart Donald Trump, putting it forward as something for both superpowers to avoid. The theory, popularised by Harvard political scientist Graham Allison, digs deep into an episode...

The zoo housing the viral Japanese macaque Punch said on Tuesday it is considering a complete ban on photography and filming around the monkey enclosure after two men were recently arrested over an intrusion incident. The Ichikawa City Zoo in Chiba prefecture has already expanded the buffer zone around the enclosure and installed anti-intrusion netting following Sunday’s incident involving two men claiming to be US nationals. The monkey went viral, attracting international attention, for...

China has rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin for his 25th visit to the country, underscoring a frequency of head-of-state diplomacy that far outpaces Beijing’s engagement with Washington. Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday night for a two-day state visit, less than a week after US President Donald Trump wrapped up his own closely watched trip to China. This marks the first time China has hosted the leaders of Russia and the US in the same month outside a multilateral...

A man in China with only one arm and one leg who took part in a bodybuilding competition, attracting thunderous applause at site and massive admiration on social media. The muscular Liu Xinju, 32, joined The 20th Bodybuilding Competition in Jinan, the capital city of eastern Shandong province, which was held on May 10. Videos of his performance on stage went viral on mainland social media. Many people were moved and inspired by Liu, who consequently earned the nickname Encouraging Brother, the...

US President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring ‌the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump. Massie, who angered Trump by leading a push to release Justice Department files tied to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was defeated by Ed Gallrein, a former US Navy Seal backed by the president and bolstered by heavy outside spending by pro-Israel groups, according...

Kazakhstan aims to deepen its financial services cooperation with Hong Kong, viewing it as an ideal fundraising hub to access renminbi capital through bond issuances, according to the country’s top envoy in the city. In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Bauyrzhan Dosmanbetov, Kazakhstan’s consul general in Hong Kong, also said the Central Asian country’s community in the city had grown over the past decade to about 1,000, driven by the local government’s Belt and Road...