Big Take Asia
Episodes
How China Defied the Odds in 2025
30 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
China started 2025 with deflation, a property crisis and fears of a “lost decade” damping sentiment. By year’s end, it had stunned t...
Toymaker Battles Trump’s Tariffs in Stores and in Court
24 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since the start of his second term, President Donald Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs – especially on China, where most toys are made. O...
The $2 Billion Flood Control Scandal Rocking the Philippines
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Philippines is no stranger to typhoons, but this year’s storms exposed something far uglier: a vast corruption scandal. On today’s Big...
India Wanted to Become The World’s Toymaker. Then Tariffs Happened
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The US tariff war with China sent American companies scrambling to find alternative manufacturing hubs. India looked promising until the White House u...
Hong Kong's Deadly Fire Triggers Rare Public Outrage
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hong Kong’s worst fire disaster in decades has stirred up public anger over negligence, safety standards and official accountability. On today&r...
All Eyes on Japan and China Tensions After Taiwan Remark
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After a rare public comment on Taiwan from Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, relations between the two nations are at a historic low &...
Nvidia Silences AI Skeptics (For Now)
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nvidia released its third quarter earnings Wednesday, crushing estimates and easing Wall Street’s concerns about an AI bubble. On today’s ...
China Tests the Limits in the Race for Biotech Power
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
China is investing heavily in cutting-edge genetic experiments. It’s part of their quest to become a biotech superpower. On today’s Big Ta...
Wall Street Speeds Up India Expansion
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wall Street banks are on a hiring spree across India, recruiting workers for everything from software engineering to risk management as part of a deca...
How APEC Become a Battleground for US-China Influence
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Asian nations are walking a tightrope between Washington and Beijing – juggling trade, tech and security pressures as the heavyweights vie for i...
Trump Got an ‘Amazing’ Meeting. China Got Much-Needed Time
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Thursday, President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping of China announced a one-year truce in their trade war, capping six contentious months of...
An American Toymaker Struggles to Break Up With China
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The US-China tariff war has upended global manufacturing, forcing companies like Chicago-based Learning Resources to fundamentally change how and wher...
Xi’s Top Bargaining Chip Is a Trade War Game Changer
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
China’s dominance of rare earths has given Xi Jinping powerful leverage over Donald Trump ahead of their expected meeting next week. On to...
What’s Driving The Rush to Invest in Gold
17 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gold always shines during uncertain times, but escalating tensions between the US and China and signals from the Federal Reserve that the US could see...
Having a Baby? This Company Will Give You $72,000
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
South Korean companies are offering workers tens of thousands of dollars (tax free) to have babies. But are cash incentives enough to address the coun...
The Rise of Japan’s ‘Iron Lady’ and Its Political Shift to the Right
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For the first time in history, Japan’s ruling party has elected a woman as its leader. Sanae Takaichi, 64, is an unconventional figure — a...
Trump’s H-1B Visa Fee Dashes Indian Workers’ American Dreams
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump’s H-1B visa fee has sent shockwaves through India’s workforce, which makes up roughly 70% of recipients. On t...
Breaking Down the Proposed US-China TikTok Deal
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After months of negotiation, the US and China have reached a tentative agreement to secure TikTok’s future in the US. On today’s Big Take ...
The Gen Z Protestors Challenging Asia’s Ruling Elite
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Across South Asia, Gen Z protestors are flooding the streets, demanding change. These protests have resulted in some of the worst violence Nepal and I...
Xi’s Bromance Diplomacy Is Challenging Trump’s World Order
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The leaders of China, Russia and India shared smiles and handshakes, putting on a surprising show of unity in a striking moment that went viral earlie...
What Xi Jinping’s Military Purge Means for China and the World
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Beijing is holding its first military parade since 2019, showcasing the strength of China’s armed forces. Underneath the show of power, a Bloomb...
Trump Has a Shipbuilding Dream. Can South Korea Make It a Reality?
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
South Korean shipyards are busier than they’ve been in years. Seoul and Washington are working to finalize a new trade deal that will include a ...
From the Gobi Desert to Wall Street: a Conversation With Weijian Shan
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From a life of hard labor in the Gobi Desert to becoming a prominent Hong Kong investor, Weijian Shan's story is one of incredible contrasts. In...
The Rebel Army Behind One of the World’s Major Rare-Earth Supplies
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Myanmar is the world’s third-largest producer of rare earths and a critical supplier for neighboring China. But rebels have recently taken contr...
Why Trump Is Letting Nvidia Sell (Some) AI Chips to China
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In an unusual deal, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices have agreed to pay the US government 15% of their revenue from AI chips they sell to China. The ...
How China Is Bringing Hong Kong’s IPO Market Back to Life
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After a years-long slump, Hong Kong’s IPO market is roaring back to life, thanks to a growing number of Chinese companies that are raising billi...
India Won’t Stop Buying Russian Oil. Now It’s Paying the Price.
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump has been cranking up the pressure on India, a country the US has courted as a strategic counterweight against China. Last week, Trump ...
China Bets Big on a $167 Billion Tibetan Dam
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
China is building the largest power plant the world has ever seen, in a very remote corner of Tibet. But the $167 billion hydropower dam has environme...
Trump’s Tariffs Force Europe to Rethink Ties With China
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, top European Union leaders are traveling to Beijing for a high-level summit which could set the tone for the relationship between the EU an...
What Is Jane Street? And Why Are Regulators Watching It?
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Street is one of Wall Street’s most profitable and secretive firms. And when Indian regulators accused it of market manipulation earlier th...
The Leaked Phone Call that Plunged Thailand Into Crisis
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A leaked phone call between Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Cambodia's Hun Sen has ignited a significant political crisis in Thai...
Bloomberg’s Interview With Malaysia’s Longest-Serving Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, turned 100 this week. Bloomberg Weekend Editor-at-Large Mishal Husain sat down with...
China's Plans to Make AI a Utility
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a remote part of China's northwestern Xinjiang region, dozens of data centers rise from the desert. A Bloomberg analysis of investor and tax docume...
The American Toymaker Suing Trump Over Destructive Tariffs
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trump’s trade war has thrown American businesses, which source everything from aircraft parts to baby strollers from China, into chaos. Now some...
What the Israel-Iran Conflict Means for China
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Tuesday morning, in a series of posts celebrating the fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel, Donald Trump touched on one of Iran’s most s...
How China Is Building a Powerful Army of Hackers
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Teams from China used to dominate international hacking competitions, until Beijing ordered them to stop attending and take part only in domestic tour...
The US and China’s High-Stakes Diplomacy
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump said a trade framework with China has been completed after two days of talks in London. He said Beijing would supply rare earth...
Wall Street Banks Are Battling for Japan’s Top Young Talent
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Japan’s hottest banking talent is in high demand as Wall Street goes all out to woo new hires with fancy dinners, strong-arm tactics and higher ...
Nintendo's Big Bet on Switch 2
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Nintendo Switch has generated some $100 billion in sales for the Japanese gaming giant since its launch in 2017, propelling the company’s sh...
The Dollar’s Dominance Is Unwinding in Asia
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As Donald Trump tries to remake global trade, the dollar’s historic dominance in Asia is under pressure. After Taiwan’s currency saw the b...
What It Takes to Negotiate With China
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The trade war between the US and China is on pause, with both sides hoping to agree on a new trade deal by early August. But questions remain about ho...
Who Is the Mysterious Founder of China’s DeepSeek?
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the global hype around China’s DeepSeek, very little is known about the man behind it – Liang Wenfeng. On today's Big Take Asia Po...
Is the US-China Trade War Over?
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a stunning turn of events, the US and China announced a dramatic reduction in tariffs, which President Trump portrayed as a “total reset&rdqu...
How India and Pakistan Averted War
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, India and Pakistan saw the worst fighting in half a century — and came close to an all-out war. But the conflict came to an uneasy an...
How a CEO’s Faked Results Led to a $300 Million Wipeout
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In late 2018, five years after launching fish-feeding company eFishery, Gibran Huzaifah found himself all out of cash. To save his business, the CEO s...
The Human Egg Trade: Episode 3 - The Journey
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A new series from the Big Take podcast investigates the booming market for human eggs. In this episode, host Sarah Holder and Bloomberg’s Jessic...
The Human Egg Trade: Episode 2 - The Theft
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A new series from the Big Take podcast investigates the booming market for human eggs. It’s a global and opaque market where demand is so great,...
The Human Egg Trade: Episode 1 - The Lie
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A series from the Big Take podcast investigates the booming market for human eggs. It’s a global and opaque market where demand is so great...
How a Chinese Toy Company Is Defying the Trade War
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chinese toy company Pop Mart is one of the hottest stocks this year thanks to the wild popularity of its Labubu dolls and other blind box toys. On tod...
Who Will Blink First in the US-China Trade War?
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As the trade war between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping continues to escalate, economists around the world are asking who will blink first. On this episo...
Inside the Explosive Feud That Rocked Singapore’s Richest Family
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, Singapore’s Kwek family, owners of one of the city’s biggest developers, looked to be the model of a successful family-run bu...
Why Asia Was Hit Hardest by Trump’s Tariff Onslaught
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump shocked the world -- and global markets -- with tariffs that exceeded expectations last week. But there was one region that ...
As India’s Stock Market Surged, So Did Investment Scams
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
India’s historic stock market surge sparked a retail-investing frenzy that minted millionaires. But the boom also became a breeding ground for f...
The World Is Paying for Trump’s China Tariffs
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trump's tariffs on China are causing a lot of pain around the world. Products that would've gone to the US are now pouring into other countries, leadi...
US-China Rivalry in the Trump Era: A Discussion
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If US-China relations could be compared to a dish, what would it be? Sichuan hotpot? Sweet and sour pork? In a special episode of the Big Take Asia po...
Can’t Get Enough Of Matcha? Too Bad – Japan Is Running Low
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Japan has a matcha shortage despite record levels of production. Shops are selling out of the green tea powder as soon as they hit the shelves. On tod...
China’s Power Play In the Indian Ocean
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mauritius and neighboring islands in the Indian Ocean are at the center of a great-power chess match involving the US, China and India. All want to us...
Xi’s Big Challenge Is Getting People to Spend, Spend, Spend
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A crippling property crisis, mounting debt, weak consumer spending… and now a trade war. Despite the headwinds, China has set an ambitious econ...
Xi Has Embraced China’s Tech Titans Once Again. Will It Last?
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Four years after launching a regulatory crackdown that plunged the tech sector into turmoil, China’s President Xi Jinping sat down publicly with...
How Amazon Rival Temu Got Sucked Into Trump’s Trade War
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since its US launch in 2022, Chinese marketplace Temu has rapidly risen to become America’s biggest e-commerce platform after Amazon, thanks to ...
What Thailand's Same-Sex Marriage Victory Means for the Economy
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize same-sex marriage last month. And to mark the occasion, nearly 2,000 couples tied the...
China’s New Game Plan for Dealing With Trump Tariffs
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As US President Donald Trump imposes new tariffs on China, Xi Jinping's government has had a far more muted response than it did during the trade war ...
Why Are Chinese Consumers So Keen on Gold?
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Shuibei, in southern China, is home to one of the world's biggest retail markets for gold. Over the past year, it's seen a boom in demand for the jewe...
Americans Flocked to RedNote as the TikTok Ban Loomed. Will the Party Last?
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The US ban on TikTok saw millions of users – predominantly Americans – flock to another Chinese social media platform: Xiaohongshu, also k...
South Korea Has Plenty of Botox But Not Enough Doctors
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A record 600,000 people traveled to South Korea for medical procedures in 2023, with roughly half of those visiting dermatology and plastic surgery cl...
Why Millions of Young Chinese Are Refusing to Make Pension Payments
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
China’s pension system is in danger of running out of cash within a decade due to severe underfunding. Now it faces a new threat: Tens of millio...
The Coffee Shop That's Been Eating Starbucks' Lunch in China
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
China’s Luckin Coffee is the nation’s top coffee retailer, overtaking even Starbucks. That would be notable itself, but less than four yea...
Netflix’s Big Bet On ‘Squid Game’
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The gory, dystopian South Korean thriller Squid Game is the most popular series Netflix has ever released. This week, it drops season two — in t...
China Had a Plan to Rescue Its Housing Market. It’s Not Working
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
China’s property crisis has become a massive headache for the world’s second-largest economy. Tens of millions of newly built apartments l...
The Most Powerful Families in South Korea Brace for the Next Revolt
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
South Korea’s family-run conglomerates – or chaebols – have been big drivers of economic growth, and because of that they’ve l...
The Six Hours of Martial Law That Stunned South Korea
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In an address broadcast live on Tuesday night, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in a move that shocked the nation – and the...
The $250 Million Bribery Charges Rocking the Adani Empire – and India
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
India’s Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men, was charged last week by US prosecutors over his alleged involvement in a $250 million bribe...
The Shadowy Fleet of Tankers Moving Iranian Oil to China
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every year, billions of dollars of sanctioned Iranian oil finds its way to China, even though on paper the country hasn’t imported a single drop in ...
Another Trump Term Is Coming. Is Asia Ready?
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Higher tariffs. Geopolitical flare-ups. Inflammatory comments. All across Asia, countries are bracing for the return of Donald Trump. On today’s Big...
Pakistan Is Getting Too Expensive For Its Middle Class – So They’re Leaving
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A record number of Pakistanis are leaving at a rapid speed. Among them are some of the country’s top talent including doctors, engineers, accountant...
The US Pledged to Contain China’s Tech Ambitions. It’s Not Working
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
China is making steady progress in its quest to dominate key industries of the future, despite years of US tariffs, export controls and sanctions. O...
How China’s BYD Became King of the Affordable EV
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Started as a battery company in the 1990s in Shenzhen, BYD is now one of the best-selling EV brands in the world. Once mocked by Elon Musk, the compan...
How an Infamous Vietnamese Businesswoman Engineered a $12 Billion Fraud
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vietnamese real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was convicted in April of orchestrating a $12.3 billion fraud. She was sentenced to death by lethal inject...
Inside the Succession Drama at a Hong Kong Property Dynasty
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Adrian Cheng, the third-generation scion of property dynasty New World Development, seemed poised to take over his family’s $20 billion empire. But ...
Tim Walz’s Deep China Ties Could Spell Trouble for Democrats
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With relations between Washington and Beijing at a critical point, US Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz’s time in China has come under...
Could the Chinese Yuan Ever Replace the US Dollar?
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Talk of de-dollarization has been gaining momentum among China, India, Brazil, Russia and South Africa in the wake of significant US led sanctions on ...
China’s Crackdowns Are Crushing the Dreams of a Generation
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
China’s drive to upgrade its struggling economy has left millions of people facing job losses or pay cuts, fueling an existential crisis among some ...
Indonesia Is Building a New Capital. It’s Not Going Well
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Indonesia has embarked on an ambitious project to build a new capital city from scratch because Jakarta is overcrowded, polluted and sinking, fast. Bu...
Carry Trades, Explained
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
They caused global markets to seize up – and raised serious questions about just how much money was at stake. No, we’re not talking about Nvidia’...
Humans and AI Bots Blur in the World's Call Center Capital
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Call centers in the Philippines, the world’s second-biggest outsourcing center after India, are embracing artificial intelligence - and it’s radic...
Inside Southeast Asia’s Most Notorious Crime Hub
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Chinese businessman persuaded officials to establish a special economic zone in a remote part of Laos. The gamblers arrived first. Then came the dru...
After a Deadly Student Uprising, Bangladesh Starts Over, Again
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After weeks of protests and a brutal crackdown that led to several hundred deaths, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to step down...
$200 Billion, Four Heirs And One Mighty Indian Empire
04 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gautam Adani, the controversial Indian billionaire, gathered his two sons and two nephews for a family lunch one day and asked them a bombshell questi...
Japan’s Small Businesses Have a Problem. They Don’t Know How to Raise Prices
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Costs are rising in Japan and small businesses risk being squeezed into oblivion if they don’t figure out how to raise their prices. After decades o...
K-Pop's Big Bet on Becoming Less Korean
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is K-pop even K-pop without the K? A Bloomberg analysis of song lyrics shows that for the first time, almost half of K-pop songs released this year ha...
Why This Nobel Prize Winner Faces Life Imprisonment in Bangladesh
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus pioneered micro loans as a tool to fight poverty. Now prosecutors in Bangladesh have linked him and...
The Chinese Coffee Chain Beating Starbucks
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
China’s Luckin Coffee is the nation’s top coffee retailer, overtaking even Starbucks. That would be notable itself, but less than 4 years ago the ...
Why China’s Investment Bankers Are Breaking Up With Capitalism
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One after another, bankers at China International Capital Corporation — China’s premier investment bank – are pledging loyalty to th...
Hong Kong: Five Years After Anti-China Protests
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Four years after Beijing imposed a national security law on the city, Hong Kong continues to serve as an important financial hub connecting mainland C...
The Dirty, Deadly Price We Pay for Clean Cars
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Indonesia’s nickel business is booming. The metal is a key component in electric car batteries, but its success has a dark side: the country’s nic...
A New Breed of Scammer Is Targeting Asia's Ultra-Rich
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Reports of alleged imposters are cropping up more and more in the family office frenzy in Singapore and Hong Kong. The ultra wealthy use family office...
A Stunning Election Result in India as Modi and BJP Fall Short
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party lost its majority in India’s parliament. The stunning blow is forcing Modi to rely on allies to form a gove...
Will the World’s Biggest Nuclear Power Plant Get a Restart?
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
All of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors were shut down after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. As the country's energy needs soar, debate is heating up over...
What Does China’s Economic Slowdown Mean For the Communist Party?
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After four decades of unparalleled gains in income and wealth, China’s 1.4 billion have been hit by a series of blows: a real estate collapse, a tra...
The Rise of Modi, Part 2: How India’s Leader Came Back From the Brink
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2002, Narendra Modi was facing the biggest political crisis of his career. But in the aftermath of riots that left more than 1,000 people dead – ...