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- Exclusive coverage on Asia's business, economies and politics | Cancel anytime. Offer exclusive to the above link. Terms are subject to change. Above discount open to new subscribers only. | Female pioneers make their mark as combat pilots, cricketers and chip technologists In a cockpit somewhere over the clouds, Suwapich "Windy" Wongwiriyawanich lost sight of the curvature of the earth. There was to one side of her, the receding night sky and to the other, the glow of day breaking. "This is the place I should be," the flight attendant mused. "Here in front of the plane – not in the back." Those five minutes, floating between Thailand and India, set a new course for Suwapich. She applied to AirAsia's first class of Thai cadets, clocked 2,000 flying hours, and became one of its first women pilots. Two decades on, Capt. Windy still catches passengers by surprise when the timbre of her voice spills out of a plane's speakers. Windy's journey from cabin to cockpit is part of a wider story as more women across Asia take the controls in professions long dominated by men. Read the full story here. |  | Household name in silk can be Asia's version of Ralph Lauren, says CEO When James Harrison Wilson Thompson -- better known as Jim Thompson -- first set foot on Thai soil as an operative for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services in 1945, he surely never imagined one day returning to the kingdom and settling in, nor devoting himself to saving the country's silk industry from extinction. Though Thompson mysteriously went missing in the woods of Malaysia's Cameron Highlands in 1967, his Thai silk company survived, successfully sailing through tough times such as Thailand's repeated coups and the Asian financial crisis. But the Thai fashion brand that bears his name now faces new threats that it hopes to conquer with a recently appointed CEO. Jim Thompson is scrambling to turn around its business, hurt by restrictions on tourism due to COVID. It has slashed its workforce drastically and revamped the product lineup to entice Thai residents, including the younger generation, rather than tourists from abroad. In an exclusive interview, Jim Thompson's CEO Frank Cancelloni told Nikkei Asia that while he is focusing on salvaging the brand from the effects of the pandemic, Jim Thompson has not given up its ambitions to grow internationally. Read the full story here. |  | Low vaccinations, Xi's reputation and fear of the virus force a cautious shift Sun Chunlan, China's vice premier and COVID-19 czar, sat at a conference table surrounded by health experts wearing masks. "With the weakening of the pathogenicity of omicron, the popularity of vaccination, [and] the accumulation of experience in prevention and control, China is facing a new situation and new tasks," Beijing's state media quoted her as saying during a National Health Commission meeting last Wednesday. It was not exactly a revocation of the zero-COVID policy China has pursued with relentless and sometimes merciless zeal during the pandemic, a policy that has disrupted the lives of millions and battered the economy. But coming on the heels of countrywide protests on university campuses and city streets -- and coming from a key architect of the draconian COVID-19 curbs that fueled such anger -- Sun's statement signaled that an adjustment was likely in the works. Read the full story here. | If you no longer wish to receive information like this, unsubscribe here. 1-3-7, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-8066, Japan
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