| RED LANTERNS

Opened in 2019, the futuristic Beijing Daxing International Airport continues to expand as the "new gateway to China". But hundreds of residents forced to leave their villages to make way for the structure have found themselves with homes that are smaller than they were promised. Now they are mobilising for compensation based on the market value of their lost properties.

by Stefano Vecchia

The Filipino president has announced a "cabinet reshuffle" to "adjust our actions to the expectations of the people." The failure to elect five out of eleven candidates for Senate seats, crucial in the battle against the "Duterte clan," weighs heavily. The goal is to revitalise the administration’s initiatives to overcome poverty, inadequate public services, and limited opportunities for young people.

| 22/05/2025
| PHILIPPINES
by Arundathie Abeysinghe

The outcome of the recent round of elections for the renewal of several municipal councils remains uncertain in many cases. In over 150 municipalities, no party or alliance holds an outright majority. The first meeting is scheduled for 2nd June. The opposition parties are attempting a difficult path towards unity in an effort to wrest control of the administrations from the ruling majority.

| 22/05/2025
| SRI LANKA
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Mirziyoyev plans to build a large shopping centre on the site where, in 2005, hundreds of protesters—who had occupied a high-security prison in protest against a wave of arrests—were killed in a military crackdown. For years, the authorities claimed that the demonstrators were “slaughtered by Islamic terrorists.”

| 22/05/2025
| UZBEKISTAN
by Melani Manel Perera

For the first time, Sri Lankans were able to pay homage to the memory of the fallen and the missing in an atmosphere of relative peace and security. Rallies were held in the north and in the capital to remember the end of the war in May 2009 between the Tamil Tigers and the military. Tens of thousands of civilians paid the ultimate price. “Reconciliation without justice,” said Sister Deepa Fernando, “is an empty gesture.”

| 21/05/2025
| SRI LANKA
by Giorgio Bernardelli

Hong Kong’s Card Stephen Chow said that the pope told him that he “visited China several times and got to know the Chinese culture and reality.” This is unprecedented for a pontiff, linked to his long mandate as prior general of an order that, at the behest of Leo XIII (the pontiff whose name the new pope took) sent its own missionaries and bishops in Hunan until the expulsion decreed by Mao. Starting in the 1980s, the order rebuilt ties and presence in the Diocese of Changsha through the province of the Philippines.

| 21/05/2025
| CHINA – VATICAN
by Lisa Bongiovanni

Taku Etō resigned after saying that he personally had too much rice in a country where the price of the staple food has been steadily rising for several months, caused by greater consumption sparked by a tourism boom, and by regulated output. Rice is now a pawn in tariff negotiations with Washington.

| 21/05/2025
| JAPAN
Editor's choices
 
by Giorgio Bernardelli
Hong Kong’s Card Stephen Chow said that the pope told him that he “visited China several times and got to know the Chinese culture and reality.” This is unprecedented for a pontiff, linked to his long mandate as prior general of an ...
| 21/05/2025
| CHINA – VATICAN
 
After 2,454 days unjustly behind bars, the former senator and minister of Justice is back in Congress, in the House of Representatives this time. With the opposition party, Mamamayang Liberal (ML), she will challenge the political oligarchies of the ...
| 20/05/2025
| PHILIPPINES
 
A source in mainland China spoke to AsiaNews about the election of a pontiff born in a country that, according to state propaganda, is its archfoe against whom to flaunt China’s superiority. Yet, the open gaze of Chinese Catholics towards Leo XIV ...
| 14/05/2025
| CHINA
 
The local government is asking the Legislative Council (which it controls) to approve a new regulation that would hand over jurisdiction to mainland China in "complex cases" involving foreign countries. The measure appears tailored to the case of Jimmy ...
| 12/05/2025
| HONG KONG - CHINA
 
by Gianni Criveller
Leo XIV experienced the mission for a long time, in Peru first, as a reason for being alive. This is something new for a pontiff. He has already spoken about authority that should “disappear so that Christ remains.” The choice of the name ...
| 11/05/2025
| EDITORIAL
 
by Oswald Gracias *
The archbishop emeritus of Bombay (Mumbai), representative of Asia on Pope Francis’s Council of Cardinals, wrote to AsiaNews about the new pope. “He brings hopes, expectations, understanding, openness and a missionary thrust,” the cardinal ...
| 10/05/2025
| VATICAN – ASIA
 
by Alessandra De Poli
Cardinal Prevost, a spiritual son of St Augustine, was elected pope on the very day the Church celebrated the liturgical feast of the martyrs of Algeria, among whom were two Augustinian nuns. And in the description of the “disarmed and disarming” ...
| 09/05/2025
| VATICAN /1
 
Born in Chicago, he is the first pontiff from North America who also served as bishop of Chiclayo and has Peruvian citizenship. For two terms he was prior general of the Augustinians, a religious order also present in many Asian countries. Pope Francis ...
| 08/05/2025
| VATICAN
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”