• OPINION

  Is the age of Asian sweatshops coming to an end?

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 07/09/2016

  » For 30 years, the word "sweatshop" has conjured up a very specific image: low-wage Asian workers making branded clothes in crowded, unsafe factories for consumers overseas. The power of that image has launched human rights campaigns, altered how major companies source their products and informed (often incorrectly) how politicians in rich countries shape their trade policies.

• OPINION

  Despite anger, Beijing isn't in the mood for protests

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 15/07/2016

  » Chinese didn't waste any time venting their anger at The Hague's ruling against their country's territorial claims in the South China Sea. Within minutes of the news, Chinese social media was flooded with thousands of comments parroting a testy, often profane nationalism.

• OPINION

  China should care about privacy

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 18/05/2016

  » For a few days last week, China appeared to have its own, slow-motion Wikileaks. Via Twitter, someone using the handle @shenfenzheng leaked personal information -- such as home addresses and ID numbers -- of some of China's most powerful commercial and government figures, including Alibaba's Jack Ma, Wanda Group's Wang Jianlin and Tencent's Pony Ma.

• OPINION

  Chinese company wants to turn the world's lights on

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 05/04/2016

  » China's State Grid Corporation, the world's biggest power company, is on an impressive buying binge. As Bloomberg News reports, the company is "actively in bidding" for power assets in Australia, hoping to add them to a portfolio of Italian, Brazilian, and Filipino companies. The goal isn't simply to invest, however. State Grid's Chairman Liu Zhenya has a plan that he believes will stall global warming, put millions of people to work and bring about world peace by 2050.

• OPINION

  Why China muzzled an internet sensation

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 26/04/2016

  » Last autumn, Papi Jiang, a 29-year-old graduate student in Beijing, began posting short, satirical and occasionally profane monologues about daily life in urban China to social media. Within a couple of months, she'd racked up tens of millions of views, earned nearly US$2 million (70 million baht) in private funding and raised hopes that online celebrities might offer a new revenue stream for China's internet companies. Then, last week, it all ended: Papi Jiang's videos abruptly disappeared.

• OPINION

  Beijing could use a stronger, more connected Taiwan

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 14/05/2016

  » Next week's inauguration of Tsai Ing-wen as Taiwan's new president has got China agitated.

• OPINION

  Why China's glass ceiling is harder than Taiwan's

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 14/01/2016

  » If, as many expect, the Democratic Progressive Party's Tsai Ing-wen is elected as Taiwan's next president this weekend, she'll become the island's first female leader. Given that Taiwan granted suffrage to women less than a decade before the 59-year-old Ms Tsai was born, that in itself would be a remarkable achievement. What's equally striking is the contrast to mainland China, which regards the island as a renegade province. Not only has modern China never had a female leader, but unless deeply ingrained cultural and bureaucratic barriers are lifted, it's also unlikely ever to do so.

• OPINION

  A strange thing at Chinese New Year

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 26/01/2016

  » Every year, tens of millions of China's 246 million migrants return home to celebrate the Chinese New Year. It's the world's biggest annual migration, and it typically goes off smoothly. This year, however, something's amiss.

• OPINION

  What's good for China isn't always good for Alibaba

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 16/12/2015

  » Late on Friday night, Alibaba's Jack Ma joined Amazon's Jeff Bezos as the latest tech billionaire to acquire his own newspaper, by purchasing Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) for US$266 million (9.6 billion baht).

• OPINION

  How to fight Asian slavery, one supplier at a time

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 23/12/2015

  » As you dig into your shrimp cocktail this holiday season, spare a thought for the men and women who peeled those tiny crustaceans. According to a six-month Associated Press investigation, there's a chance the workers were modern-day slaves in Thailand, exploited by shadowy suppliers who have been linked to some of the biggest US supermarket and restaurant chains, from Wal-Mart to the Capital Grille.

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