Asia Democracy Chronicles

Asia is producing hundreds of billionaires while hundreds of millions descend into poverty.

Yet another set of rules, this time covering the district council elections, chips away at the power of Hong Kong’s voters to to effect any meaningful change.

This article is the second in a 10-part series collectively themed "Fostering Democracy Movements," an Asia Democracy Network special 10th anniversary report produced by the Asia Democracy Chronicles. The release of this series is also in commemoration of Human Rights Day on December 10, 2023. The entire report can be downloaded here. On July 31, the Myanmar military junta announced the indefinite postponement of elections that it had repeatedly insisted would take place this year. The announcement came on the heels of a strike that erupted across Myanmar. The nationally coordinated boycott protest, most prominent in the townships of Tanintharyi,...

The women of Vietnam’s Yao ethnic minority continue to discover new uses for medicinal plants, even as they worry that their community may eventually lose such knowledge.

Looking at developments in the region in the past decade may reveal not only the reasons why democracy in Asia is now in danger but also the lessons that may convey pathways to resuming democratic consolidation in the region.

Farmers tending Bangladesh’s famous floating gardens could use more help from the government.

It’s hard to be a sport about the participation in the Cricket World Cup of a team of a country under an illegitimate regime.

Lured by the promise of plum jobs in countries widely known for their social welfare systems, Thai berry pickers find themselves weighed down by slavery-type conditions.

Online-freedom advocates say that a move in South Korea to have even global content providers pay network-usage fees can have a negative impact on net neutrality even beyond the country’s borders.

Numerous religious groups have discreetly made their way into Vietnam, each of them subject to oppression by the state.

A supposedly dying artistic profession in India is being given new life by the younger generation.

More than good money and adventure could be waiting for foreigners wanting to work in China.

A project started by a Roman Catholic priest helps surface the truth about the deaths of some of those killed during the drug war initiated by a former administration in the Philippines.

The chaos that followed flash floods in Hong Kong last September has highlighted the seeming unreliability of the city’s authorities in responding to emergencies.

As temperatures climb in India, babies are unable to sleep, leading parents and health experts to worry about the possible impact on their development.

The media in India-administered Kashmir are being forced to choose between submitting to authorities or facing the government’s wrath.

China brokers talks between some ethnic armed organizations in Myanmar and the junta, but they don’t quite yield all the results Beijing wants.

Singapore’s myriad of draconian laws has the country’s mainstream media practicing self-censorship.

Increasing attacks on the media in Indonesia have journalists on edge, but more so the women.

The religious in one of Asia’s predominantly Christian countries, the Philippines, may be among the most persecuted in the world.