• OPINION

  India, China key to ending region's haze

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 19/10/2015

  » The thick haze that's blanketed much of Southeast Asia for the last month carries the ashy remains of Indonesian forests and peatlands -- burnt in many cases to clear land for producing palm oil, the world's most popular edible oil.

• OPINION

  Plans for big science face big hurdles

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 10/11/2015

  » As in so many other things, China's seeking to play a leading role in 21st century science. And it's using a familiar weapon: money.

• OPINION

  China is key to preventing an antibiotic apocalypse

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 24/11/2015

  » Last week scientists announced they'd discovered a gene spreading among bacteria in China that renders them resistant to some of the world's most powerful, "last resort" antibiotics. If such invulnerable bugs spread, doctors may soon lack the tools needed to combat infections, whether contracted through chemotherapy, surgery or even simple cuts. Indeed, the post-antibiotic "apocalypse", as this scenario has been known for a decade, may already be upon us: There's evidence that the resistant genes have made their way to Laos and Malaysia.

• OPINION

  Introduction of two-child policy is too little, too late

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 27/10/2015

  » When Chinese leaders convene this week for a four-day meeting on the future of the country's economy, the biggest news might have to do with babies. According to reports in Chinese media, the government may be ready to relax the notorious "one-child" policy, in existence since the late 1970s, and allow Chinese parents to have two kids.

• OPINION

  Indonesia refuses to be railroaded into China deal

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 10/09/2015

  » It was a deal that a developing nation such as Indonesia wasn't supposed to refuse. In return for a $5.5 billion (199 billion baht) Chinese loan to be repaid over 50 years, Indonesia would receive its first high-speed rail line, a 150-kilometre high-tech bauble to run from the capital, Jakarta, to the country's third-largest city, Bandung. But late last week, President Joko Widodo's government did the unexpected and refused it -- and a less-attractive Japanese proposal -- in favour of soliciting bids to build a slower train that will cost about 40% less. According to Bloomberg News, the high-speed line was not considered "commercially viable".

• OPINION

  Behind the Great Firewall, China poisons the internet

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 13/10/2015

  » For years now, China's elaborate efforts to censor and control the internet -- collectively known as the Great Firewall -- have restricted what the world's biggest population of netizens can see and how fast they can download. Until now, that hasn't been much of a problem for anyone besides locals and companies such as Facebook and Google hoping to sell to them.

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