AWST is an acronym for Australian Western Standard Time and is the time zone that is eight hours ahead of UTC. The time zone is also known in other contexts as Chinese Standard Time.

Australia

All of Western Australia observes this time zone, and does not observe daylight savings time at any point in the year, in contrast to the eastern states of Australia, such as New South Wales. The time is retained eight hours ahead of UTC the entire year.

Asia

Certain regions of eastern Asia, including all of China, also observe a time zone eight hours ahead of UTC. The time zone is also known as Chinese Standard Time in this context. These regions of Asia do not observe daylight savings time, unlike Eastern States of Australia.

The Dilemma of a Uniform Time Zone

Sunset is normally between 5pm and 7pm in a typical region on a typical day, but because all of China observes the same time zone, in the far west the Sun usually does not set until past nine o'clock, while the far east commonly experiences sunrises before 5am. If the same rule was used in the United States, then Hawaii and Florida would observe the same time, giving huge discrepancies.