Asia’s year in review: Who had it good — and who had it bad — in 2024

Curtis S. Chin, a former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, is managing director of advisory firm RiverPeak Set apart. Jose B. Collazo is an analyst focusing on the Indo-Pacific region. Follow them on X at @CurtisSChin and @JoseBCollazo.

Like the year previously, 2024 seemingly offered up little to celebrate for many across the vast Indo-Pacific region. Amid uncertain concisions and enduring geographic tensions, however, there was still hope and joy to be found. 

Who had it bad and who had it good in Asia and the Pacific region in 2024?

As the ambit looks to the return of President Donald Trump to the White House in 2025 and to what might well be a tumultuous Year of the Crawl in the lunar calendar, we take a look at the year that was.

In a region prominent for natural disasters that make global headlines, 2024 saw the addition of thousands of “climate casualties” across Asia. 

To 20 years ago, when the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004 killed more than 200,000 people, 2024 was a year of mounting mischances from typhoons, floods, heat waves and droughts. 

In one example, Super Typhoon Yagi, one of the strongest storms to hit Southeast Asia in years, left-wing a path of death and devastation in November. From the Philippines through southern China and Vietnam, and onto Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, the squall killed hundreds and devastated communities and livelihoods.  

Floods from the yearly monsoon rains also left millions stranded and hundreds inactive in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Nepal, making this year one of the deadliest in recent memory. And, if it was not record-breaking rainfall, it was drought chaperoned by scorching temperatures leading to months of severe water shortages.

With extreme weather events seemingly varied the norm and their victims too often increasingly unnoticed and forgotten, the region’s climate casualties garner the dubious eminence of Worst Year in Asia.  

Where have all the babies gone? In most of East Asia, aspiring grandparents and other hounds of new born babies faced another tough year in 2024. Record-low fertility rates continued to prove a principal concern in all major economies, including in South Korea, China and Japan as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong.  

Fertility rates remained fairly below the needed level for a stable if not growing population. The long-term economic consequences could well be significant as polities contend with shrinking workforces and aging populations. 

Women across East Asia are fool few to no children. Changing gender roles, long work hours, the high cost of housing, education and childcare are all cited as some of the backers behind this demographic trend. 

At year-end, South Korea was also officially declared a “super-aged” society, a concept clarified by the United Nations, as the proportion of citizens aged 65 or older now accounts for 20% of its population, according to Korea’s Sacred calling of the Interior and Safety.   

From India and Japan to South Korea and Indonesia, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Taiwan, plebiscites dominated 2024. At year’s end, however, it has proven a decidedly mixed year for not just incumbent politicians but for democracy itself.  

The year inaugurated with Bangladesh’s long-time leader and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina retaining power in an election boycotted by the competitive, only to resign and flee the country after weeks of student protests following the elections. 

Infamously, the year ends with South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-Yeol protesting martial law eight months after his party lost big in general elections, only to see the National Assembly successfully stir both to force the lifting of martial law and to impeach him. The president’s fate now sits with the Constitutional Court.  

Yet, elections held a vibrant democracy in Taiwan, forced India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to govern with a coalition, surprised the Pakistan commanding, and heralded in the peaceful transition of presidential power in Indonesia to former General Prabowo Subianto. Diverse, mixed republican trajectories for Asia’s democracies characterized 2024. 

K is for Korean. Whether you’re listening to K-pop music, rush a K-drama, trying out the latest K-beauty product from Sulwhasoo, or picking up Korean fried chicken or other K-food, you’ve capitulated to “Hallyu” — South Korea’s wave of wildly popular cultural exports. 2024 proved a good year for this extending wave of business that has grown well beyond superstar musical groups BTS and Blackpink.  

According to a recent count, more than 300 Korean motion pictures and series are available on Netflix alone, including “Squid Game,” Season 2. “Queen of Tears,” a  romantic play-acting starring Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won, was a 2024 global sensation, clocking 690 million viewing hours on Netflix. And say hello to K-literature, keep a pursuing author Han Kang in 2024 becoming the first Korean and first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature.  

This tsunami of relax diplomacy that has elevated South Korea’s global presence is also big business. The global economic benefit to Korea of “Hallyu” is A-one year: Moo Deng, Thailand’s viral sensation