In Focus



On August 25, 2017, the Myanmar military and militia groups launched a crackdown so brutal against Rohingya Muslim communities that it has since been declared a genocide. Five years later, with little prospect of being repatriated, they reminisce about the homes and communities they once enjoyed.

The Philippines Votes

Elections will take place at the national, provincial and municipal levels across the archipelago nation on May 9, but all eyes are on the race to succeed President Rodrigo Duterte.

Life in the Saltlands

In southwestern Bangladesh, fiercer cyclones and rising sea levels have broken down natural barriers that keep salt water at bay..

Borneo Bound: Inside Indonesia’s Big Plan to Move its Capital

A law slated for passage in early 2022 could put relocation in motion and line the pockets of Jakarta’s elite.

Bangladesh at 50: Land of Joy, Land of Tears

Fifty years ago, “Joy Bangla!” was a cry that rallied the people of what was then East Pakistan to break free through a war that birthed a new nation, Bangladesh. In English, these words mean “Victory to Bengal!”

Filipino Fishermen Feel Effects from Beijing’s Expansionism in South China Sea

China has made it harder for local fleets to access prime fishing grounds, Philippine fishers say.

Lawyer Urges New Legal Case 5 Years after Landmark South China Sea Ruling

On the fifth anniversary of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling, the lawyer who advised the Philippine government against China’s excessive claims in the South China Sea suggests there should be renewed international efforts and a “new legal case.” But countries in the region are treading carefully.

Remembering Their Names

On July 1, 2016, five Bangladeshi youths steeped in extremist ideology targeted a café in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter, singling out foreigners and non-Muslims for slaughter in an attack that left 29 dead, including five attackers.

Unmasking China’s Maritime Militia

China has long denied that it uses maritime militia forces to assert its maritime and territorial claims in the South China Sea, often describing the Chinese vessels clustered around disputed reefs and islets as just fishing boats..

Raising the Nanggala

Indonesian and Chinese salvagers will face significant challenges in their attempt to raise the sunken submarine KRI Nanggala 402.

How China is Leveraging Foreign Technology to Dominate the South China Sea

Cutting edge technology from the United States and other foreign countries is helping China assert its sweeping maritime and territorial claims in the contested South China Sea, a Radio Free Asia investigation has found.

Arrested in Bangladesh

This is the story of Ahmed Kabir Kishore, a cartoonist jailed for 10 months under Bangladesh’s Digital Security Act, after he published cartoons criticizing the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

2020: The Year of Contagion in Our Interconnected World

In December 2019, few people realized that a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, would morph into a contagion, which would kill at least 1.7 million people – and counting – around the world a year later.

Shadow Force: Small but Deadly, Indonesia's MIT Eludes Capture

For years, Indonesian security forces have combed the jungles of Central Sulawesi in a bid to root out the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), a ragtag band of militants known for decapitating suspected informants and being the first Indonesian outfit to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.

Troubled Waters: The South China Sea

Asia's destiny could depend on the South China Sea. Its busy sea lanes are crucial for international trade. Its waters and coral reefs support fish stocks that feed millions. And it is fast becoming a cauldron of rivalry between powers great and small, as China asserts rights to land and sea also claimed by Southeast Asian neighbors.

China's New Claims in the South China Sea

With tensions mounting in the South China Sea, China has named and claimed 80 obscure geographical features in those contested waters as it steps up its aggressive campaign to mark out territory and push out other claimants.

China's Coronavirus Fight Becomes a Global Battle as Cases Mount

China has come under fire from friends such as Iran and rivals like the United States for an early response to the coronavirus epidemic that featured politically motivated cover-ups and delays, while a chorus of critics accuse the World Health Organization of being too closely aligned with Beijing to be trusted.

China's Reach

As China rises as an economic and military power, so does its reach beyond its borders. China's influence is expanding in ways that shape the policies of governments and touch the lives of ordinary citizens in neighboring countries. China offers the promise of growth and a more-connected Asia, but brings with it fears of Chinese dominance. Here is a selection of Radio Free Asia's latest reporting on how China is changing the region.

Bangsamoro in Transition

After decades of armed conflict, Muslims of the southern Philippines -- the Bangsamoro -- now have the right to self-governance.The new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao encompasses five provinces and more than four million people. But it faces many challenges -- brutal splinter groups, Islamic State sympathizers, and lingering differences between the region's two main separatist groups. Can the Bangsamoro end one of Asia's longest-running conflicts?

Sketching the Prison Life of Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s Opposition Icon

Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia has spent more than a year in prison after being convicted on corruption charges she claimed were politically motivated. Authorities have barred the former three-time prime minister from giving interviews during her time at the Old Dhaka Central Jail. No photographs or other images of Zia, 73, have been published since she arrived there. She has since been occasionally hospitalized due to poor health. Now, in sketches drawn for BenarNews and based on interviews with experts and officials from Zia’s BNP party and the ruling Awami League, illustrator Rebel Pepper recreates scenes from the opposition icon’s life inside prison.

Indonesia Votes

Indonesia, a vast archipelago and the most populous nation in Southeast Asia, held its first simultaneous presidential and legislative elections on April 17, a one-day exercise in democracy viewed as one of the most complex ever staged. During a six-hour span voters cast ballots for a president, 575 members of the House of Representatives (DPR), 136 members of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) and nearly 20,000 members of local legislatures in 548 provinces, districts and municipalities.

Thai Elections

On March 24, 2019, the people of Thailand voted in national polls for the first time after five years of military rule. Since the military seized power through a coup in May 2014 and before the vote, Thais lived with strict controls on political gatherings and free speech that tamed the kingdom’s polarized politics and ensured a smooth royal succession. Now that the new king is in place, will the military step aside? Will the party of the exiled Shinawatra siblings -- who won every free election since 2001 -- find a way back to power? Or will new faces emerge to lead Thailand?

Bangladesh Votes

Some 104 million voters go to the polls in Bangladesh on Dec. 30 for the first competitive parliamentary polls in a decade, in which 71-year-old Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is seeking a third consecutive term while her rival, Khaleda Zia, sits in jail and opposition party members allege they are subject to arrests and attacks.

Power Shift in Malaysia

Malaysian voters will go to the polls on May 9. In setting a mid-week date for Malaysia’s 14th General Election, the EC announced that the nomination date for candidates would take place on April 28 – kicking off 11 days of official campaigning – and absentee ballots known as postal votes would be due on May 5.

The Rohingya: World's Least-Wanted People

A persecuted Muslim ethnic minority—in Myanmar for centuries but denied citizenship by the government—finds itself vulnerable and unwelcome around the world.

Dhaka’s July 2016 Café Attack

On July 1, 2016, five Bangladeshi youth steeped in the Islamic State's violent ideology targeted a cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter, singling out foreigners and non-Muslims for slaughter in an attack that left 29 dead. "A massacre of this magnitude never happened in our country," Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told BenarNews. A year later, top police counter-terrorism official Monirul Islam says security forces have destroyed the domestic network they blame for the attack, Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). "But militancy may not be uprooted and JMB may reappear with another name unless we have a proper de-radicalization program,” he said.

The Rohingya Exodus

At least 70,000 Rohingya Muslims have entered Bangladesh since October 2016, amid a military crackdown on the minority community in Myanmar triggered by an attack on Burmese border guards in early October 2016 that killed nine. Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing to Bangladesh -- and to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and India -- since the 1970s to escape repression in Myanmar.

South China Sea | Conflict and Diplomacy on the High Seas

The U.S. and other Western nations have pushed for a “rule-based order” in the South China Sea, which carries a large portion of the world’s maritime freight traffic, calling it critical to regional security and economic prosperity. But Beijing largely views U.N.-backed codes of maritime governance as incompatible with domestic laws, and has continued dredging projects on seven disputed formations for nearly two years, creating artificial micro-islands.

Dangerous Words

Ten people have been hacked to death by violent extremists in Bangladesh since February 2013: writers, publishers, a professor, an actor, a gay rights activist. The so-called Islamic State has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks; local authorities say Ansaralluh Bangla Team, the Bangladeshi affiliate of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), is to blame.

Torn Lives

From Bali to Mumbai to the rise of the “Islamic State,” the ideology and actions of violent extremists have damaged many lives. Beyond the numbers are people: people struggling to forgive, to move on, to rebuild lives, to reclaim a religion.