Simon Denyer

“We had doubts every day,” Bach said Tuesday. “We deliberated and discussed. There were sleepless nights. Like everyone else in the world, we did not know — I did not know — what the future would hold.” If Bach indeed had sleepless nights in the…

TOKYO — Officials in Seoul said they found their first case of covid-19 in a cat on Monday shortly after offering free tests to pets in the South Korean capital. Experts say there’s no evidence cats or dogs can transmit the coronavirus to humans, but…

TOKYO — It is one of the many mysteries of the coronavirus pandemic: Why has the death toll from covid-19 apparently been lower in Asia than in Western Europe and North America? Even allowing for different testing policies and counting methods, and…

A South Korean heiress-slash-business executive crash lands in North Korea after her paraglider is caught in a typhoon, and ends up falling out of a tree, straight into the arms of a strait-laced and taciturn North Korean army captain. But, in South…

KABUL — Unknown gunmen killed six people Wednesday in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, including a prominent Japanese doctor recognized by Afghanistan’s government for his service to the nation, local officials said. Tetsu Nakamura, head of…

China’s organ-transplant system was once a cause of international scorn and outrage, as doctors harvested organs from prisoners condemned to death by criminal courts and transplanted them into patients who often paid dearly for the privilege. After…

BEIJING — When President Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in January, critics said he was leaving a vacuum at the heart of the Asia-Pacific region, ceding the United States’ role as regional economic leader. On Sunday,…

This week, the Chinese government’s lack of confidence was on display as reports emerged that a state-run bookstore in Shanghai had opened the plastic wrapping around a batch of Merriam-Webster's English dictionaries and had torn out the page…

BEIJING — It was an idea born in Beijing and, at least initially, greeted with some suspicion in Washington. But this weekend, the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) holds its first annual meeting to finally prove to doubters that it is…

This video is currently not available LONDON — People around the world held vigils Monday to honor the victims of the Orlando shooting, with Sydney’s Harbour Bridge and Auckland’s Sky Tower bathed in rainbow colors as night fell in Australia and New…

BEHIND THE FIREWALL: How China tamed the Internet | This is part of a series examining the impact of China’s Great Firewall, a mechanism of Internet censorship and surveillance that affects nearly 700 million users. BEIJING — First there was the…

It was, by any stretch of the imagination, a stunning exercise in electoral democracy. Taiwan’s elections at the weekend have cemented this island’s standing as one of Asia’s most progressive and tolerant places. Not only did Tsai Ing-wen become…

BEIJING — India is under attack, virtually. A sophisticated cyberespionage group, probably based in China, is taking advantage of India’s weak cyberdefenses to burrow into government bodies and academic institutions to steal sensitive diplomatic…

BEIJING — "Je suis Charlie," Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote as he made a passionate defense of free speech this month, arguing that extremists would never be able to silence other voices and opinions on his social media platform. But…

BEIJING – He presides over a one-party state that jails more journalists than any other on the planet, silences its critics ruthlessly and censors the Internet extensively. But China’s President Xi Jinping is not only wildly popular in his own…

SHACHE COUNTY, China – The month of Ramadan should have been a time of fasting, charity and prayer in China’s Muslim west. But here, in many of the towns and villages of southern Xinjiang, it was a time of fear, repression, and violence. China’s…

URUMQI, China — On a rocky hilltop close to the city of Urumqi in China’s troubled Xinjiang region, five men appear on a video wearing black bandanas decorated with Arabic writing. A black flag used by jihadist groups across the world flutters behind…

BEIJING — Attackers in two SUVs plowed through crowds of shoppers in a busy street market in the capital of China’s restive western Xinjiang region Thursday, setting off multiple explosives, killing 31 people and wounding more than 90, the government…

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — China released a new image of a “suspected floating object” in the Indian Ocean on Saturday as Australians spotted debris in the search area, bringing fresh hope to the massive hunt for a missing Malaysia Airlines…

BEIJING — Armed with tens of billions of dollars in investment deals and romantic tales of ancient explorers, Chinese President Xi Jinping has spent much of the past month promoting his vision of two new “Silk Roads” to connect his country to the…