11 July 2022 — Hong Kong’s new chief executive and former head of security John Lee’s pledge to further strengthen security laws in the global business hub, citing yet undisclosed pressing risks to national security, has understandably raised more fears. Democracy advocates and members of the press, who worry that significantly repressed civic space in the city could shrink further, and likely violently under the hardline pro-Beijing leader. The National Security Law, foisted onto Hong Kong by Beijing in 2020, has since been used to suppress dissent even from abroad. Crumbling civil and political rights became manifest anew when some news outlets were banned from the inauguration of Lee, with Chinese President Xi Jinping in attendance.

4 July 2022 — North Korea is buckling under the growing weight of crises: the ever-present threat of COVID-19; flooding that has driven people from their homes and exposed them to disease; food shortages; and a brutal economic downturn, just to name a few. And yet, its leaders seem more focused on building the country’s military might. The Kim Jong-Un administration has funneled even more funds into its nuclear arsenal. instead of strengthening the country’s social security net—keeping North Korea’s armed forces bloated while the rest of its people endure hunger.

27 June 2022 — South Korea ratified the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the Protocol Relating to the Status Refugees in December 1992 and started accepting asylum applications in July 1994. Twenty-eight years after, the first Asian country to sign the convention is far from being a welcoming environment for refugees. Refugee advocates continue to express concern on the lack of standard and objective guidelines, and humanitarian approach. Meanwhile, a strong anti-refugee sentiment aggravates the situation, making Korean society more difficult to navigate for asylum seekers.

20 June 2022 — Following a viral video showing a group of men physically assaulting four women in China, the issue of gender-based violence, particularly against women, has once again captured the country’s mostly conservative and patriarchal consciousness. China passed its anti-domestic violence law in 2016, but until today, such assaults are still largely treated as a secret family affair, with victims shamed into silence by a strong stigma. At the same time, the country’s push to revitalize its population has shone a harsh, often debasing light on those who choose to remain single.

13 June 2022 — On World Oceans Day earlier this week, civil groups called on Taiwan’s government to enact stalled environmental protection laws. Home to hundreds of species of marine life, the waters around Taiwan are among the world’s most impressive biodiversity hubs. Unfortunately, global warming, rabid development, and careless tourism have heavily damaged its marine ecosystem—an eventuality that the government isn’t doing enough to avoid. Aside from stalled legislation, already feeble policies have been loosely implemented, allowing environmental destruction to continue unchecked.

6 June 2022 — Japan’s rampant sexism and borderline-xenophobic sensibilities have proven destructive to its labor market and economic recovery from the pandemic. In this light, a recent policy blueprint that aims to address the egregious wage gap between men and women couldn’t be more timely; so is the Kishida administration’s New Capitalism action plan that aims to increase the minimum hourly wage to ¥1000 regardless of region and contract status. Still, efforts to address the low wages among Japan’s migrant workers is sparse, if not completely missing, and remains a policy blind spot for the Kishida government.

30 May 2022 — Macau’s gaming industry, shaky lifeblood of its economy, is steeped in even more uncertainty. Long known as dens of unlawful practices, casinos have also struggled with declining revenues during the pandemic. Though meant to bring more clarity and stability to the industry, amendments to Macau’s gaming law have only plunged Asia’s gaming hub into confusion. Lost in the conversation are the casino workers, many of whom could lose their jobs amid the big industry shake-up. Public officials have urged the government to put mechanisms in place to protect these workers’ welfare.

23 May 2022 — After two years of stagnant wages, Hong Kong’s civil servants may soon receive some welcome news. The 2022 Pay Trend Survey Committee recommended a hefty pay increase, even reaching over 7 percent for senior government employees. However, several experts, business executives, and top state advisers bristled at the prospect, saying that the pay bump might be too generous given that thousands remain jobless or underemployed. With Hong Kong’s leadership in transition, the final verdict may fall to the hands of the incoming Chief Executive.

16 May 2022 — After over two years of feigning blindness to the pandemic, North Korea finally confirmed its first COVID-19 case and death. The announcement came just days after a military parade celebrated the armed prowess of the world’s most reclusive country. Before long, leaders admitted that they were struggling with their first-ever outbreak — and a massive one at that — with nearly 200,000 people under isolation and treatment. Largely unvaccinated and hesitant to the jabs, North Korea’s people and economy will likely be ravaged by the Omicron variant.

9 May 2022 — China has tightened its vice grip on civil liberties, smothering voices online, detaining dissenters, conducting unlawful arrests, and even clamping down on religious activities. To further force people into submission and silence, authorities now mete out prison terms for offenses that would have merited reprimands in the past. Borders are now also insufficient to stop this crackdown, with Beijing imposing surveillance and intimidation tactics on Muslim Uyghurs, dissidents, writers, activists, and critics abroad.

2 May 2022 — The Mongolian government amended its national budget to provide social relief for people hit hard by the pandemic. To sustain this effort in the next two years, the parliament is turning to austerity: cutting government investments, expenses, and infrastructure, and streamlining bureaucracy. However, such belt-tightening measures run the risk of driving hundreds, if not thousands, of people jobless, making life even more difficult for the already-struggling Mongolians. Austerity, after all, doesn’t always deliver the desired results.

25 April 2022 — Despite having the world’s second-largest flotilla, dire labor conditions plague Taiwan’s fishing industry, making the country an emblem for the global pattern of suffering ship workers endure out at sea. On April 20, prosecutors indicted nine Taiwanese crew members, including the captain, of the fishing vessel Da Wang, in connection to 2019 allegations of abuse and forced labor of Indonesian and Filipino crew members. This led the government to allot US$68.5 million to improve working conditions aboard these ships. Despite having the world’s second-largest flotilla, dire labor conditions plague Taiwan’s fishing industry, making the country an emblem for the global pattern of suffering ship workers endure out at sea.

18 April 2022 — Uncharacteristically, Japan’s response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has gone far beyond condemnation. Typically unresponsive toward people displaced by conflict, Japan has exceeded expectations, expressing willingness to take in Ukrainian refugees and promising aid to help them settle in Japan. In fact, 20 refugees were evacuated to Japan along with Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshima in early April. The government also plans to institute an acceptance system for future refugees on humanitarian grounds, signalling a shift in Japan’s refugee policy.

11 April 2022 — Macau’s ambitious target of vaccinating 90 percent of all children and elderly means, officials say, the country’s borders will remain closed to foreign domestic workers, according to officials. To fill this employment vacuum, lawmakers have proposed to train and provide incentives to locals, hoping to attracting more residents into care work. The impacts of this new labor policy direction on foreign domestic workers, and whether it’s a temporary measure or a long-term shift, bear watching.

4 April 2022 — COVID-19’s fifth wave in Hong Kong is at its most disastrous yet, so much so that blistering criticisms about the government’s ineptness has come from all angles, even from state-backed media organizations. Instead of dealing with the rising case counts, public officials seem more preoccupied with curbing civil liberties — an unrelenting phenomenon in the beleaguered city since the advent of Beijing’s national security law. Law enforcement has clamped down hard on political opposition, interrogating leaders of the disbanded pro-democracy Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, and even detaining former opposition lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung.

28 March 2022 — The COVID-19 Omicron variant has made quick work of China’s overly strict zero-COVID—and next on its list is the country’s economy. Though lockdowns were initially set to be phased across Shanghai, China’s premiere financial hub, authorities were soon forced to put the entire city on lockdown after it became clear that the outbreak would be uncontrollable otherwise. Experts have warned that a full-scale shutdown would be catastrophic for both the economy and individual livelihoods, and have urged the government to provide necessary support.

21 March 2022 — President Putin’s assault on Ukraine has prompted calls for worldwide peace, but these ring hollow as armed conflicts continue to ravage several parts of the globe, and its threat looms large for many others. This is the case in Northeast Asia, too. Fearing that China might become emboldened by Russia’s recent show of violence, Taiwan has ramped up its military training, particularly in vulnerable islands. Officials are also asking the US to provide additional artillery for long-range, aerial, and naval defense.

14 March 2022 —Despite the sheen of democracy and liberalism, South Korea has always contended with rabid misogyny. A growing feminist movement in recent years has slowly improved gender equality in the country, but all that progress is now suddenly in peril. By capitalizing on South Korea’s dismal birth rate, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol rode high on a cresting wave of hateful, anti-feminist rhetoric and claimed electoral victory. He vows to abolish the country’s Gender Equality Ministry, a promise that has gravely concerned activists.

7 March 2022 — The zero-COVID strategy may have initially worked for Hong Kong, but a relatively calm 2021 has given way to the chaos of 2022. Last year, instead of beefing up their vaccination rates and health care system, the Hong Kong government settled into complacency and completely squandered the time afforded by the overly strict measures of zero-COVID. Now, the country is in the midst of an uncontrollable outbreak that has left hospitals and morgues overwhelmed.

28 February 2022 — China has continued to, and even intensified, its cultural repression of Tibet. Earlier this month, Chinese authorities demolished two Buddha statues in the Tibetan province of Khan, followed by a sweeping crackdown of both civilians and monks. Meanwhile, Beijing has also ramped up the pressure on the installed Panchen Lama to make Tibet’s Buddhism be more acceptable to the CCP.

21 February 2022 — Despite the quickly inflating price tag on basic commodities, the North Korean government has instead decided to focus to funnel more funds into the display of its military might. In late January 2022, North Korea conducted its largest ballistic missile test since 2017, ringing alarm bells across the peninsula and in Washington. Despite the increasingly real threat of nuclear conflict, North Korea, the US, and US ally South Korea have not joined the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

7 February 2022 — At the ongoing Winter Olympics, China’s vice grip on civil society is was on full display. Even before the games, the government detained critics so that, as Human Rights Watch senior China researcher Wang Yaqiu said, “nobody can say anything.” During the events, authorities have ramped up the crackdown on free speech, even going as far as dragging a Dutch journalist away—as he was on-air. In protest of China’s grave human rights record, countries like the US, UK, Canada, and India previously announced a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics.

25 October 2021 — It’s no secret how China has ramped up its repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. But there seems to be no end to how far Beijing will go to keep a tight grip on Xinjiang. In yet another manifest violation of these ethnic populations’ fundamental rights, Beijing has embarked on a re-education strategy to change how these people “act and speak,” according to the latest findings by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. In Xinjiang and elsewhere in the world, there’s no letup in sight for China’s crimes against humanity.

18 October 2021 — North Korea is one of only two countries that have not administered any COVID-19 vaccines, according to the World Health Organization. The Hermit Kingdom repeatedly claims zero cases of COVID-19, which is unlikely.But even if true, the pandemic has led to the looming risk of starvation for many North Koreans. The country is subject to international sanctions, which limit trade. It also closed its borders in January 2020.

11 October 2021 — Is the jury still out on China’s pandemic transparency? Orders for polymerase chain reaction tests surged in China’s Hubei Province months before official reports of COVID-19 first emerged, according to data compiled by Australia-based cybersecurity company Internet 2.0. The sale of the tests used to detect coronavirus nearly doubled the 2018 total to 67.4 million yuan ($10.5 million at current rates) in 2019. The company concluded with “high confidence that the pandemic began much earlier than China informed” the World Health Organization about COVID-19.

4 October 2021 — It may be hard to imagine a liberal democracy wielding a draconian law commonly associated with autocratic states. But South Korea has attempted to do just that, only to be met with severe backlash for a fake news bill that would make it easier for people to sue the media for “emotional distress.” Amid the outcry from domestic media and international rights groups leery of unwarranted infringement on press freedom, South Korea has shelved the bill.

27 September 2021 — Despite its reputation as an affluent city, Hong Kong is also known for ‘cage homes’ where its invisible poor are trapped. By 2031, there should be no “cage homes” in Hong Kong. Such is the vision of a grassroots organization that has called on the government to act decisively to provide suitable housing to 50,000 households still living in these minuscule units. These subdivided apartments are usually smaller than 10 square meters and make physical distancing impossible. A decade hence, will this dream be a reality?

20 September 2021 — Nearly half of all North Koreans are starving, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Yet the COVID-19 pandemic, a spate of natural disasters, and widespread poverty have done little to deter North Korea’s efforts to boost its military might. Earlier this month, it successfully fired ballistic missiles from a train for the first time. The launches violate the UN Security Council resolutions barring such tests.

13 September 2021 — It is rare for Japan to take in foreign nationals fleeing conflict. In 2020, it granted refugee status to 47 people — or 1.2 percent of applicants for refugee status in the country. In the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last August, Japan did not offer help to all Afghans who had worked directly or indirectly with the Japanese government, says Human Rights Watch. The New York-based organization has since urged Japan to “demonstrate its commitment to refugee protection” and urgently support Afghan civilians with ties to it.

6 September 2021 — In an unprecedented move toward “national rejuvenation,” the Chinese government’s newly enforced ban on effeminate Chinese males and what they call “sissy boys” from television is yet another unmistakable sign of an intensified crackdown on just about every aspect of the nation’s life, including business, culture, and education. The ban is part of an eight-point regulation plan that will reform the entertainment industry.

30 August 2021 — In a recent report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has raised alarms that North Korea may have restarted its five-megawatt Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which had been inactive since December 2018. Through satellite images, the IAEA was able to detect cooling water being discharged out of the nuclear plant, strong evidence of its activity. This reawakening of Yongbyon comes after joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States.

24 August 2021 — Torrential rains battered Taiwan early this month, bringing massive floods and landslides to some parts of the country. This, after no typhoon hit the country in 2020, triggering its worst drought in almost 60 years and draining its dams to dangerously low levels. In order to support two water-thirsty industries — agriculture and semiconductors — while providing for domestic needs, environmental activists say Taiwan needs to finally take real, concrete measures against climate change.

18 August 2021 — The Tokyo Olympics may be over, but South Korean athlete An San, who chose to wear her hair short during the Games and sparked controversy, continues to inspire women to assert their rights. In a manifest demonstration of their feminist stance, women have posted photos of themselves with pixie haircuts. Such acts defy a long-held tradition in South Korean society of wearing long hair as a stark symbol of conventional femininity.

In a manifest effort to rectify the persistent gender inequality in their workforce, the Chinese government has recently considered providing tax incentives to encourage businesses to hire more women. In China, women in the workplace face prejudiced attitudes. While men continue to dominate the highest rungs of the corporate ladder, women are relegated to low-level positions. Whether the proposed incentives will change the overall employment landscape remains to be seen.

While it plays host to what is likely the most diverse Olympic Games in history in terms of gender identity, Japan itself has no competing athlete that is openly a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Advocates in the country say their government has yet to pass national legislation that protects their community from discrimination, something they assert is urgently needed so they can live openly, proudly, and safely.