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Outlet profile

Asia Times (Opinion)

pan-Asian, lean left

Owned byAsia Times Holdings Limited, a Hong Kong-incorporated company; Chairman, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief Uwe von Parpart holds effective editorial control. The corporate structure includes a British Virgin Islands parent and a Chinese variable-interest entity (Qianhai Asia Times Shenzhen), disclosed in a 2018 SEC filing.
FundingReader subscriptions (AT+ premium tier), digital advertising, and reader donations; the outlet states it has never received USAID or state funding
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Asia Times was founded in 1995 as a Bangkok-based print broadsheet by Thai media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul, with Uwe von Parpart as its first editor. The print edition folded in 1997 amid the Asian financial crisis, and an online successor (atimes.com) launched in 1999, still under Sondhi's orbit. Sondhi is a controversial figure in Thailand, known for leading the right-wing People's Alliance for Democracy (the 'yellow shirt' movement) in the 2000s and 2010s. By 2013 he was seeking a buyer. In October 2016 the outlet was relaunched under Asia Times Holdings Limited, with Parpart returning as publisher and editor-in-chief. A 2018 SEC filing revealed a layered corporate structure with BVI and Chinese VIE components, raising some transparency questions, though the outlet explicitly disavows state or ideological backing. Media Bias/Fact Check rates its news coverage 'Least Biased' and 'Mostly Factual' (docking a tier due to Chinese government censorship constraints), while Ad Fontes Media and Ground News rate it 'Lean Left.' MBFC specifically notes that Asia Times opinion content tends toward an anti-American-hegemony perspective. The outlet publishes a wide range of outside contributors alongside staff columnists, with opinion covering geopolitics, trade, and foreign policy from an Asia-Pacific standpoint.

Sources

  1. Asia Times — Wikipedia
  2. Asia Times: About Us
  3. Asia Times — Media Bias/Fact Check
  4. Asia Times — Ground News
  5. Sondhi Limthongkul — Wikipedia
  6. Asia Times Holdings Ltd — SEC Form DRS (2018)
  7. Asia Times Support / Funding Page

Profile compiled 2026-09-18; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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