East Asia

Archbishop Kikuchi today conferred episcopal ministry on the Italian PIME missionary called by Pope Francis to join him as auxiliary bishop. "As I have loved you" the chosen motto. In his thanksgiving, the new bishop recalled Msgr. Mori who passed away a few weeks ago, "From Heaven help us to be a welcoming Church to those who seek refreshment."

Today's news: To protect women from abuse, Afghan Taliban locks them in prison; Over19,000 Palestinian casualties in Gaza, Israeli army mistakenly kills three hostages while Tehran executes "a Mossad agent"; Record number of bullying cases in Seoul schools; Tokyo sanctions Russian entities for war in Ukraine; Iranian woman to serve 13 years in prison for social posts regarding the killing of her son in protests over Mahsa Amini.

This is the GDP target set for 2024 at the conclusion of the Chinese Communist Party's economic conference. At the centre of the proceedings are fears over the real estate sector and obstacles to recovery. The propaganda is functional to the recovery attempt after the post-Covid clouds. Over 8.5 million people on the 'blacklist' for not having repaid bank loans, another 19 million without medical assistance.

All eyes are on members of the PM’s faction over US$ 3.5 million in allegedly unreported income garnered at party fundraisers. This comes on top of another scandal, namely the party’s ties to the controversial Unification Church. However, a weak opposition is not likely to remove the LDP from power even if elections are held.

At COP28, a compromise agreement was reached that calls for "transitioning away from fossil fuels". Meanwhile, ASEAN and Japan will hold a summit in Tokyo later this week to discuss ways to speed up the environmental transition in Southeast Asia.

The Chinese president began a two-day visit to Vietnam aiming for greater cooperation but will not be able to ignore territorial disputes caused by Beijing's unilateral changes to maps in the South China Sea. Hanoi wants to get the maximum economic benefits from its "bamboo diplomacy".

The testimonies of Agnes Chow and Chow Hang-tung that AsiaNews published in recent days explain the courageous resilience against Beijing’s oppressive system of power, values that too many of China’s "admirers" see as useless today.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of newly married couples dropped by more than 6 per cent in 2022. Of these, 46.4 per cent have not had children, a record since 2015, with 0.65 children per newlywed couple. The country's total fertility rate stood at 0.79 in the third quarter of 2023, well below the replacement level of 2.1.

Despite an intense government campaign, just over a quarter of the electorate turned out to vote, a huge drop compared to four years ago when pro-democracy candidates won a landslide. With almost three eligible voters in four staying away, the outcome was unrepresentative. Six people were arrested for peacefully expressing dissent on election day.

In the local press of Kyrgyzstan, but also on social networks, materials supporting Beijing and criticizing democratic values are multiplying. China imposes itself with a global rhetoric of "union of Eurasia" which must "free all the new energies of the East", always in harmony with Moscow.

Mongolia signed a declaration with other countries in favour of the development of nuclear power to reduce greenhouse gases. This is one of the country's latest initiatives to promote its domestic mining industry, which represents an important part of the country’s economy. This will require a reassessment of relations with Russia.

Lawyer and pro-democracy activist Chow Hang-tung writes a “J’accuse” from her cell in a Hong Kong prison. “It is indisputable that the current international order is heavily dominated by the West, and thus still quite far from the ideal of law-as-values. But the way to improve it is not by giving more voice to the non-western dictators, which could only deepen the silence of the hitherto voiceless.”