Asia’s 12 months in assessment: Who had it good — and who had it dangerous — in 2024

Curtis S. Chin, a former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Growth Financial institution, is managing director of advisory agency RiverPeak Group. Jose B. Collazo is an analyst specializing in the Indo-Pacific area. Observe them on X at @CurtisSChin and @JoseBCollazo.

Just like the 12 months earlier than, 2024 seemingly supplied up little to have a good time for a lot of throughout the huge Indo-Pacific area. Amid unsure economies and enduring geographic tensions, nonetheless, there was nonetheless hope and pleasure to be discovered. 

Who had it dangerous and who had it good in Asia and the Pacific area in 2024?

Because the area appears to be like to the return of President Donald Trump to the White Home in 2025 and to what may nicely be a tumultuous 12 months of the Snake within the lunar calendar, we check out the 12 months that was.

In a area well-known for pure disasters that make international headlines, 2024 noticed the addition of 1000’s of “local weather casualties” throughout Asia. 

In contrast to 20 years in the past, when the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004 killed greater than 200,000 folks, 2024 was a 12 months of mounting casualties from typhoons, floods, warmth waves and droughts. 

In a single instance, Tremendous Hurricane Yagi, one of many strongest storms to hit Southeast Asia in years, left a path of dying and devastation in November. From the Philippines via southern China and Vietnam, and onto Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, the storm killed a whole bunch and devastated communities and livelihoods.  

Floods from the yearly monsoon rains additionally left thousands and thousands stranded and a whole bunch lifeless in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Nepal, making this 12 months one of many deadliest in current reminiscence. And, if it was not record-breaking rainfall, it was drought accompanied by scorching temperatures resulting in months of extreme water shortages.

With excessive climate occasions seemingly extra the norm and their victims too usually more and more unnoticed and forgotten, the area’s local weather casualties garner the doubtful distinction of Worst 12 months in Asia.  

The place have all of the infants gone? In most of East Asia, aspiring grandparents and different followers of latest born infants confronted one other robust 12 months in 2024. Document-low fertility charges continued to show a serious concern in all main economies, together with in South Korea, China and Japan in addition to Taiwan and Hong Kong.  

Fertility charges remained nicely beneath the wanted degree for a steady if not rising inhabitants. The long-term financial penalties might nicely be important as nations cope with shrinking workforces and growing older populations. 

Ladies throughout East Asia are having few to no kids. Altering gender roles, lengthy work hours, the excessive price of housing, training and childcare are all cited as a few of the components behind this demographic pattern. 

At year-end, South Korea was additionally formally declared a “super-aged” society, an idea outlined by the United Nations, because the proportion of residents aged 65 or older now accounts for 20% of its inhabitants, based on Korea’s Ministry of the Inside and Security.   

From India and Japan to South Korea and Indonesia, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Taiwan, elections dominated 2024. At 12 months’s finish, nonetheless, it has confirmed a decidedly blended 12 months for not simply incumbent politicians however for democracy itself.  

The 12 months started with Bangladesh’s long-time chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina retaining energy in an election boycotted by the opposition, solely to resign and flee the nation after weeks of pupil protests following the elections. 

Infamously, the 12 months ends with South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-Yeol declaring martial regulation eight months after his occasion misplaced large generally elections, solely to see the Nationwide Meeting efficiently transfer each to drive the lifting of martial regulation and to question him. The president’s destiny now sits with the Constitutional Court docket.  

But, elections cemented a vibrant democracy in Taiwan, compelled India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to manipulate with a coalition, stunned the Pakistan incumbent, and heralded within the peaceable transition of presidential energy in Indonesia to former Basic Prabowo Subianto. Numerous, blended democratic trajectories for Asia’s democracies characterised 2024. 

Ok is for Korean. Whether or not you are listening to Ok-pop music, streaming a Ok-drama, making an attempt out the most recent Ok-beauty product from Sulwhasoo, or choosing up Korean fried rooster or different Ok-food, you’ve got succumbed to “Hallyu” — South Korea’s wave of wildly standard cultural exports. 2024 proved a very good 12 months for this increasing wave of enterprise that has grown nicely past famous person musical teams BTS and Blackpink.  

In line with a current rely, greater than 300 Korean films and sequence can be found on Netflix alone, together with “Squid Sport,” Season 2. “Queen of Tears,” a  romantic drama starring Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won, was a 2024 international sensation, clocking 690 million viewing hours on Netflix. And say whats up to Ok-literature, following creator Han Kang in 2024 changing into the primary Korean and first Asian girl to win the Nobel Prize in literature.  

This tsunami of sentimental diplomacy that has elevated South Korea’s international presence can be large enterprise. The worldwide financial profit to Korea of “Hallyu” is now projected to hit $198 billion by 2030, based on a BusinessKorea report on a white paper launched by TikTok and market analysis agency Kantar. 

To say that the feminine child pygmy hippopotamus named Moo Deng — Thai for “bouncy pork” — took the world by storm in 2024 could be an understatement. 

Born this July at Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo, the “hyper-viral” child pygmy has seen her memes, images and movies go international. 

Fan accounts on X, TikTok, and Fb proceed to  proliferate. And even NBC’s long-running U.S. comedy present “Saturday Night time Dwell” obtained in on the Moo Deng mania. Asian American star Bowen Yang impersonated the child hippo on the present’s “Weekend Replace” phase,  lamenting the hazards of on the spot fame.

Including to her fame, Moo Deng accurately predicted the winner of the 2024 U.S. presidential race, by choosing the fruit and vegetable plate bearing Trump’s identify over that of rival Kamala Harris. 

2024 might need been the 12 months of the Dragon within the lunar calendar, however it additionally was clearly the 12 months of the Hippo within the hearts and minds of Moo Deng followers in Asia and past. For bringing a little bit of hope and pleasure to a area and world that might use much more good cheer, the designation of “Greatest 12 months in Asia” for 2024 goes to Moo Deng.  

Here is to a hopeful and joy-filled 2025.