Big Take Asia

China rattled neighbors from Japan to Australia on Monday by test-launching a long-range ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean. While such launches are rare, the latest test reflects Beijing’s increasing openness about its growing military strength. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, Rebecca Choong Wilkins, who covers Asian government and politics, joins host K...

Thanks to the AI boom, stock markets in Taiwan and South Korea have seen historic rallies this year. But as retail investors pile in, often using borrowed money, concerns are growing over whether this momentum is sustainable. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, guest host Rebecca Choong Wilkins speaks with Bloomberg’s Asian markets reporter Charlotte Yang and Bloomberg Opinion’s Sh...

After more than a decade as a private company, Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, known internationally as RedNote, is testing China’s mood for all things tech with its plan to list in Hong Kong. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg Intelligence’s Robert Lea about why the time may be right for an IPO and what Xiaohongshu's debut says about th...

An interim deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz offers relief, but Asia’s economic woes are far from over. Beyond the chokepoint, the conflict has forced long-lasting shifts in Asia’s food and energy flows. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, Oanh Ha joins Odd Lots co-hosts Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal to discuss why Asia is reeling from the conflict and what the “new norm...

Offshore trading has long given Chinese investors access to global markets — often through legal gray areas. Now, Beijing is stepping in with its biggest crackdown in decades. On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg’s Lulu Chen about the sweeping restrictions and why Beijing is tightening controls over money leaving the country. We have a special B...

Samsung recently made headlines when it narrowly averted a strike by offering eye-popping bonuses to its chip workers. But the move has seemingly backfired—sparking deep resentment in other corners of the company and fueling a wider debate over wage equity in South Korea. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha and Bloomberg’s Yoolim Lee break down how the wage dispute...

Indonesia’s free lunch program is a massive operation, feeding tens of millions of people every day across a vast archipelago.  On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host Rebecca Choong Wilkins talks with Bloomberg’s Rosalind Mathieson about the challenges facing President Prabowo’s flagship program and whether it can survive the strain. Read more:  Handing Out $15 Bi...

Beyond this month's talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, there’s an epic tale that has been unfolding for decades. It’s a battle to be the world’s number one power and a much bigger story than the latest meeting of these two men.  Kishore Mahbubani is a former Singaporean diplomat who served as president of the United Nations Security Cou...

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has made a $60 billion bet on OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman – a commitment that has some insiders worried. On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg’s Min-Jeong Lee about how Son became captivated by Altman and what’s at stake for his reputation – and the company – as the AI race intensifies. We have a...

Tensions between the US and China have deepened since the last time a US president traveled to Beijing for a summit, in 2017. President Trump’s return to China, in a swirl of dinners and festivities, generated positive optics for host and guest alike, but brought less apparent progress on some of the biggest bilateral sticking points, from tariffs and trade to US arms sales to Taiwan. On tod...

Despite India facing economic headwinds, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party defied expectations with a stunning state election sweep — capped by a historic win in opposition stronghold West Bengal. On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks to Bloomberg’s Menaka Doshi about how the BJP secured a shock victory and what an emboldened Modi might mean for India...

As a high-stakes Trump–Xi summit looms, tensions over the Iran war and defiance of US sanctions threaten to derail what could be one of the year’s most consequential meetings. On Trumponomics, Bloomberg's Stephanie Flanders is joined by Jennifer Welch, chief geoeconomics analyst for Bloomberg Economics and Bloomberg News executive editor Dan Ten Kate to unpack whether the talks will ha...

China’s decision to block Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus stunned the global AI industry. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg’s Newley Purnell and Lulu Chen about how the deal crumbled and what it signals for Chinese startups trying to go global. Read more:  China’s Meta Backlash Renders Manus Model ‘Off...

For more than 30 years, the Indian-born writer Amitav Ghosh has built a global following with novels that draw on deep historical research.  But his latest offering, Ghost-Eye, is more esoteric. The plot moves back and forth between India and the US, using past lives to explore the ties between the personal and the political. The plot centers on a psychiatrist treating a 3-year-old who shocks...

As global attention is focused on war in the Middle East, North Korea has been accelerating its nuclear and missile program — testing new weapons and producing more warheads. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg’s Jon Herskovitz on Kim Jong Un’s aggressive nuclear buildup and the strain that puts on US defenses. Read more: North Korea&rsqu...

India wants to become a manufacturing powerhouse to rival China — but its reliance on the Chinese supply chain for things like batteries and semiconductors makes for a complex and exceedingly difficult puzzle to untangle. On today's Big Take Asia Podcast, host Oanh Ha and Bloomberg’s Alisha Sachdev on how corporate India is struggling to navigate this unique geopolitical landscape. Rea...

With the war in Iran creating a shortage of the fuel and fertilizer that farmers across Asia need to plant and harvest rice, many smallholders are seeking alternative supplies or pondering whether to plant at all. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, agriculture reporter Hallie Gu tells host Oanh Ha what the bottleneck in the Strait of Hormuz means for rice farmers from Cambodia to India &mdash...

日本のアパレル王者、ユニクロ。アジアや米国の沿岸部で成功を収めた同社が、今まさに挑もうとしているのが、ブランド認知がまだ低い「フライオーバー・カントリー（内陸部）」と呼ばれる広大なエリアです。ここを制覇することは、創業者の柳井正氏にとってグローバルNo.1への「最後の難関」を意味します。 今回のエピソードでは、テキサス州ダラスの店舗取材に加え、銀座の旗艦店で柳井氏の買い物に同行した様子を披露。柳井氏本...

Japan’s richest man — Uniqlo founder Tadashi Yanai — has struggled to win over the US, despite owning the world's third-largest clothing retailer by sales. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, Yanai takes Bloomberg’s Reed Stevenson to a store in Tokyo and explains why he’s betting big on America one more time. Read more:  Uniqlo's Billionaire Founder Wants Ten...

Fueled by a powerful mix of FOMO and a government drive to accelerate AI adoption, OpenClaw has exploded in popularity across China. But as these agentic systems gain sweeping access to personal data, reports of them “going rogue” are beginning to surface. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha sits down with Bloomberg’s Luz Ding and Bloomberg Opinion’s Cat...

BTS is back. After a near four-year hiatus, the K-pop icons returned with a historic Netflix event – the platform’s first concert live streamed from Asia.  On today's Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha joins Bloomberg’s Sohee Kim and Lucas Shaw to discuss Netflix’s power move and how global streamers are fighting for dominance in the competitive Asian market. Hoste...

In Episode 6 of The Sixth Bureau, a series from The Big Take, with spy Xu Yanjun in prison, the US government pursues some of his collaborators. Plus, host Jordan Robertson gets an unexpected call which leads to a big discovery. The Sixth Bureau  from Bloomberg News follows an MSS intelligence officer whose mission was to acquire the crown jewels of American aerospace companies. With aliases,...

From soaring fuel prices in Pakistan to a shortage of cooking gas in India, Asia is bearing the brunt of the energy crunch sparked by the Iran War. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast we look at how war in the Middle East has pushed Asia to the forefront of a global crisis. Host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg’s Faseeh Mangi about the impact of soaring fuel prices in Pakistan and Clara F...

By any account, Chen Zhi's ascent was meteoric. At a young age he founded a real estate company in Cambodia, which quickly became the sprawling Prince Group conglomerate. But beneath this legitimate facade, Chen allegedly ran a vast criminal network, building an empire on scams, human trafficking and high-level political protection. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, K. Host Oanh Ha and Bloom...

In Episode 5 of  The Sixth Bureau, a series from The Big Take, a spy from China’s Ministry of State Security travels to an overseas meeting with a valuable source. He has no idea he is walking into a trap that the FBI has been setting up for months. The Sixth Bureau from Bloomberg News follows an MSS intelligence officer whose mission was to acquire the crown jewels of American aerospac...