Singapore Tightens the Rules on Crypto — Again Singapore has long positioned itself as a serious jurisdiction for digital assets — welcoming to institutions, unwilling to become a haven for regulatory shortcuts. In 2026 that stance is being tested by fast-moving markets, and MAS is responding with another round of tightening. In May 2026, MAS…

China’s Overhauled Cybersecurity Law: A New Compliance Burden for Foreign Firms On 1 January 2026, the compliance picture for companies operating in China changed substantially. Amendments to China’s Cybersecurity Law — the foundational statute governing digital infrastructure and data security — entered into force, bringing obligations that are more demanding and more specific than what…

The China+N Strategy: Southeast Asia Wins the Supply Chain Sweepstakes “China plus one” has described a cautious corporate strategy for several years: keep China as the core manufacturing base, add one alternative location as a hedge. In 2026, that framing is starting to date. The reality now is China plus many — and Southeast Asia…

Japan and South Korea Draw Closer: A New Economic Alliance Takes Shape Japan and South Korea have spent much of the past decade making their relationship harder than the industrial logic suggests it should be. Historical grievances, territorial disputes, and periodic trade fights have repeatedly damaged what is, on paper, a natural partnership between two…

Vietnam Leads the Way: Southeast Asia’s First AI Law Enters Force Vietnam has become the first country in Southeast Asia to move AI governance from aspiration to law. The AI Law, adopted by the National Assembly in December 2025, came into force in March 2026 under a four-year phased implementation schedule. It takes a risk-based…

China’s Record Trade Surplus and the New Five-Year Plan: What It Means for Asia China’s trade machine has not blinked. Despite US tariffs reaching effective rates above 30 percent on Chinese goods by early 2026, the trade surplus hit a record $1.2 trillion in 2025. In January and February alone, the combined surplus came in…

South Korea’s Stock Market Leapfrogs the UK — and What’s Driving It South Korea’s equity market has had a remarkable year. The benchmark KOSPI surpassed 5,000 in 2026 — a target President Lee Jae-myung had set publicly when he took office — and total listed market capitalisation has surged more than 45 percent to $4.04…

ASEAN’s Digital Economy Pact: A $2 Trillion Milestone Within Reach After more than two years of negotiations and fourteen formal rounds of talks, Southeast Asia’s ten-nation bloc is close to signing what may be its most significant trade agreement in recent history — one with nothing to do with tariffs on physical goods. The ASEAN…

Digging the ore is the easy part. Processing it is where China has built a near-unassailable lead — and the rest of the world is scrambling to respond. Introduction Rare earth elements (REEs) — a group of 17 metals with names like neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium — are foundational to the technologies defining the 21st…

Singapore’s Variable Capital Company has been a magnet for global fund managers. Now regulators are warning it has also attracted something less welcome. Introduction When Singapore launched the Variable Capital Company (VCC) framework in January 2020, it was widely hailed as a landmark reform — a flexible, internationally competitive fund structure designed to attract asset…