East Asia

At the start of the month, groups of students begun cycling at night along the road that links Henan’s capital to Kaifeng, a place known for its steamed dumplings. For young people, affected by the crisis, this is a way to travel cheap. However, thousands of people quickly joined the rides with the authorities reacting with a ban starting with the universities.

Caritas and the Social Commission of the Bishops' Conference released a statement today denouncing the fact that families are being forced to fend for themselves. Some disabled people have died after the facility where they lived was closed. President Yoon is accused of not living up to his campaign promises, but rather just changing the name of this "social experimentation".

The China Labour Bulletin posted some videos from Chinese social media showing workers fainting from the gruelling shifts at the Foxconn plant in conjunction with the release of its new smartphone models. Overtime can reach up to four times the limit established by Chinese law.

Myanmar’s military strongman met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang during a two-day summit of the Greater Mekong Subregion. Chinese source stresses infrastructure projects undermined by the civil war, noting that Beijing has also held discussions with the militias that control the borders and the rare earth trade.

What are the repercussions in Asia of the deployment of Kim Jong-Un's troops in Ukraine? Prof Andrew Yeo told AsiaNews that geopolitical lines are being redrawn. Ukraine may be encouraging North Korean soldiers to desert, but support for Ukraine in South Korea is a divisive issue. For its part, China is trying to avoid being identified as part of the Russia-North Korea bloc.

In the town of Bando, Ibaraki prefecture, at least 20 men and women lived in a community. There was also a restaurant and a karaoke bar in the disused facilities. There are 600,000 Vietnamese working in Japan, but they are also the largest group among the nearly 10,000 trainees who have ‘disappeared’ in the country over the past year.

From Sarajevo, where the World Congress of Uyghur Exiles is taking place, Director Zumretaj Arkin's denounces Beijing's pressure. ‘The positive narrative that the standard of living in Xinjiang continues to improve is just propaganda’.

Sightings and attacks on people are on the rise: already 56 incidents this year, with two people killed. To curb the phenomenon, several municipalities are adopting systems based on video cameras "trained" to automatically detect if the moving figure is a bear and raise the alarm.

A state research institute in Guangzhou is working on integrated offshore power plants based on the combined use of wave, wind and solar energy to create self-sufficient communities of up to a thousand people. The goal is to boost China’s presence on the artificial islands it created, and boost its claims to the sea, which are challenged by other countries in Southeast Asia.

After its electoral defeat, the Liberal Democratic Party began talks with the Democratic Party for the People, led by Yuichiro Tamaki, who is not willing to go beyond external support for the government. Opposition leader Yoshihiko Noda has intensified efforts to gain cross-party support for his bid for the post of prime minister, but he is not likely to succeed.

China is bucking the trend of the rest of the world where smoking is falling. Sales reached 2.44 trillion in 2023. In 2022, smokers represented 24.1 per cent of the adult population, a figure well above the world average of 17 per cent. For experts, countrywide legislation is needed to control tobacco.

Five years now since the pro-democracy protests out of 10,279 people arrested only 28.8% have been remanded for trial. But for Justice Secretary Chris Tang, ‘the authorities must be given time to gather evidence’. Chow Hang-tung's request to call people living abroad to testify on video at the trial was rejected.