Big Take Asia
Episodes
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 – ...
The Rise of Modi, Part 1: Why India’s Leader Is So Popular – and Polarizing
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Narendra Modi is arguably the world’s most popular politician. With nearly 1 billion Indians eligible to vote in a six-week election that concludes ...
Introducing: Big Take Asia
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A deep dive into understanding Asia and how it impacts the global economy and world of business.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.