Rebecca Liao is the co-founder of Skuchain, a currency agnostic blockchain platform for global trade, and served as a policy adviser to the Biden and Clinton presidential campaigns.

When China banned all cryptocurrency transactions in late September, it continued to move full steam ahead on its digital yuan and Blockchain-Based Service Network, known as BSN.

Is this another example of China's fondness for implementing contradictory policies, or is Beijing attempting to pull off a technical impossibility? Perhaps a bit of both.

While blockchain technology underlies

SINGAPORE -- Southeast Asia's tech giants are in an intensifying battle with large conventional banks over the region's burgeoning digital banking services.

As "superapp" providers such as GoTo and Grab look to bolt banking onto their expanding range of services, and existing players use the region as a sandbox for digital experimentation, long neglected rural populations may soon have access to some of the most technologically advanced financial services in the world.

According to research conducted by Google, Temasek Holdings and Bain & Co., about half

TOKYO/NEW YORK -- Members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue -- the U.S., Japan, Australia and India -- wrapped up joint defense drills in the Indian Ocean on Thursday, further strengthening their security partnership amid China's growing military clout in the region.

The second phase of the annual Malabar exercise, which included all four Quad members for the second straight year, had begun Monday, according to the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.

On the final day, Chief of Naval Operations Adm

TOKYO -- Muji operator Ryohin Keikaku expects operating profit to approach a record this fiscal year thanks to a successful rollout of food items that complement its distinctive lifestyle goods.

The black ink is projected to rise 6% to 45 billion yen ($396 million) in the year ending August 2022, the company said Thursday. This would close in on the all-time high of 45.2 billion yen earned in fiscal 2017.

The Japanese retailer has devoted more sales

TOKYO -- As Japan looks to subsidize up to half the cost of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s new factory in the country, the government faces the challenge of striking the right balance between economic security and fair competition.

The world's leading contract chipmaker announced Thursday that it will build its first-ever Japanese plant, responding to years of calls by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to set up shop.

The move is expected to strengthen Japan's domestic supply of chips, a key component

TOKYO -- Southeast Asia seems to be establishing itself as a major ecosystem for startup growth, side by side with India, as China loses some of its luster as an investment destination following its harsh crackdowns on internet giants.

According to figures compiled by DealStreetAsia, this year through Oct. 12 as many as 15 venture-capital-backed startups in the region had freshly succeeded in fundraising at a valuation of $1 billion or more, gaining the title of "unicorn."

When one considers the fact that

BEIJING -- Tesla is expected to earn about $390 million this year from automobile emissions credits in China, while Volkswagen looks to be the biggest loser in the carbon trading scheme.

Automakers and auto importers operating in China are required to manufacture and sell a certain ratio of new-energy vehicles, which include electric cars and plug-in hybrids. Companies receive credit points for surpassing the goal, set at 12% of total sales volumes in 2020. Trading of those credit points started this

MUMBAI -- Tata Sons' acquisition of troubled national carrier Air India for 180 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) last week is not only expected to face a political storm but could be a daunting task for the group, which has a checkered history in turning around companies.

Sale of the airline, which lost 97 billion rupees in the pandemic-hit fiscal year ended March, is already taking flak from India's opposition parties. Thomas Isaac, former finance minister of the southern state of

TOKYO -- Planted forests are aging noticeably across Japan, with more than half now 50 years or older, making the country more vulnerable to typhoons and other natural disasters and also undermining its decarbonization efforts.

In 2019, Chiba Prefecture was hit by widespread blackouts as a result of Typhoon Faxai, which toppled trees in neglected forests, bringing down electrical wires and utility poles. If thinning is neglected, trees in a forest cannot get enough sunlight to grow sturdy and there is not enough undergrowth whose roots hold