The return of the protests in China, the women of Tehran, the consequences in Asia of the conflict in Ukraine. And also the first Dalit cardinal, the assassination of Shinzo Abe in Japan, the Qatari migrant workers who must not be forgotten now that the World Cup is over. The last 12 months in Asia through many other witnesses selected by our editorial team.
Today goes to the archives a year marked by many important events for Asia, such as unexpected returns to the streets, violent deaths, unresolved conflicts and old and new leadership. We have tried to make a summary through 12 faces of as many witnesses from all regions of the great continent. To review these 12 months, but also to take into account all the challenges that await you in 2023.
PENG LIFA (China)
Their protest was the prelude to the “White Sheets Revolution”, the massive demonstrations that in late November led the Chinese government to revoke the draconian zero Covid policy imposed by Xi Jinping. On October 13, on the eve of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, Peng Lifa became the protagonist of the most blatant challenge to the Chinese regime since the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1989. The 48-year-old man, originally from Heilongjiang , unfurled banners critical of Xi on a Beijing bridge, who won a controversial third term in power a few days later. The police immediately arrested the activist, who became a web star with the nicknames “man of the bridge”, “lone warrior” and “brave man”.
TSENG SHENG-KUANG (Taiwan)
Many wonder if the people of Taiwan are willing to defend their democracy against a Chinese invasion as the Ukrainians are doing against Russian aggression. Tseng Sheng-kuang certainly was. The 25-year-old from Hualien County was the first foreign fighter from Taiwan to be killed in the Ukrainian conflict. He enlisted in the International Legion in support of Ukraine and was killed on November 2 in a military operation against Moscow forces in the disputed Lugansk region. The fighter had been a volunteer in the Russo-Ukrainian war since June. According to the kyiv army, he was part of the Carpathian Battalion, an infantry unit. His wife had not heard from him since October 23.
KASYM-ZOMART TOKAEV (Kazakhstan)
In Central Asia this was, in many ways, the year of Kasym-Žomart Tokaev, the 69-year-old president of Kazakhstan. 2022 began with harshly suppressed riots in the streets, the arrival of Russian troops who were immediately sent back to their country and a succession of debates and initiatives for change that led to the reform of the Constitution. Tokaev – the heir who succeeded Nursultan Nazarbaev’s thirty-year “reign” in 2019 – knew how to steer this process and get himself confirmed as president, without real rivals, on November 20. And to make clear its desire to move away from the past – precisely in the days of the great international showcase offered by the visit of Pope Francis – the capital was renamed Astana, abandoning the awkward name of Nur-Sultan that it had adopted just three years before. in honor of Nazarbayev. But the real crux remains Kazakhstan’s international standing. Tokaev tries not to be overwhelmed by Putin’s pretensions, maintaining a neutral position regarding the war in Ukraine. But from an economic point of view, Kazakhstan cannot afford to cut the umbilical cord that unites it to Moscow, even if it fears its imperialist pretensions. At the same time Astana strengthens relations with Beijing. It is no coincidence that in September Kazakhstan was the destination of Xi Jinping’s first international trip since the pandemic began.
SHINZO ABE (Japan)
With the assassination of Shinzo Abe on July 8, Japan lost the mastermind of national politics for more than 15 years. Beijing may have celebrated the demise of a geopolitical “enemy,” but the former prime minister nonetheless managed to favor a reinterpretation of Tokyo’s pacifist constitution, a legacy of World War II. On December 16, the Kishida government approved the decision to double the military budget within the next five years, leaving open the possibility of counterattacking enemy bases (Chinese and North Korean). On the domestic front, his death shed light on collusion between members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. The killer considered Abe to be a supporter of the religious sect that had left his mother destitute.
ITAEWON VICTIMS (South Korea)
The Halloween tragedy in Itaewon will forever mark the city of Seoul, administered by Oh Se-hoon, the mayor who was elected for the third time in April 2021. Hundreds of young people died in the typical alleys of the South Korean capital due to a stampede of the crowd and civil society took to the streets to protest against President Yoon Suk-yeol. But this year Seoul has also had to face other challenges. In the summer, at least 8 people died due to the heavy rains that flooded the basements of the buildings where the poor and marginalized live, and in recent months truckers have staged strikes and protests to demand the extension of the current tariff system. In 2022, the citizens of Seoul have been active, often participating in the front lines to denounce abuses and inequalities.
FERDINAND BONGBONG MARCOS JR. (Philippines)
For the Philippines, 2022 was the year of the return to the presidency of a member of the Marcos family. In the May 9 elections, Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr, the son of the former dictator who led the country until 1986, won a landslide victory, beating main challenger Leni Robredo by 30 percentage points. The election as vice president of Sara Duterte, former mayor of Davao, marks the continuity with her predecessor Rodrigo Duterte (Sara’s father). However, the first months of the presidency also showed a more cautious approach on the part of the new administration, both on the sensitive issue of international relations -especially with Washington and Beijing- and on the controversial violent approach to the “fight against drugs”. ” that characterized the years of the Duterte presidency, with more than 6,000 people killed in operations against drug trafficking.
ANTHONY POOLA (India)
Among the 21 new cardinals chosen by Pope Francis for this year’s Consistory – which took place on August 27 in the Vatican – there are 6 from Asia. And among these, the purple conferred on Mons. Anthony Poola, Archbishop of Hyderabad (India), is particularly significant. Indeed, he is the first Indian cardinal from a Dalit family – the so-called “outcasts” or “untouchables” – who, despite the equality of all citizens proclaimed by the Indian Constitution, continue to suffer discrimination in daily life. . Even Christian communities are not immune to this evil, as was demonstrated during the tensions that arose over the appointment of bishops in Tamil Nadu. Commenting on the Pontiff’s decision to , the new Cardinal Poola said his appointment was “good news for Dalit Catholics and for the entire Church in India. I think the encouragement of Pope Francis will take many.”
IMRAN KHAN (Pakistan)
Outsider, then populist leader and finally prime minister: Pakistan’s parliament voted a no-confidence motion in April against Imran Khan, who was leading the country to economic collapse. According to international observers, he was deposed after losing the support of the army. But the former cricket star never stopped stirring up Pakistani politics, airing international conspiracies and organizing lengthy protest marches to call for an early election scheduled for October 2023. After the failed protest marches – in the latest one he was injured in the leg by an attacker – the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf has changed tack and has called on representatives of his party to withdraw from each province’s legislative assemblies.
MILITIA AGAINST THE COUP (Myanmar)
This year 2022 the civil war in the former Burma spread throughout the country. Many young people joined the resistance forces, made up of the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) and ethnic militias. After an initial peaceful opposition – in keeping with Aung San Suu Kyi’s policy of non-violence since the late 1980s – for the first time in the country’s history both the predominantly Buddhist Bamar majority and ethnic minorities They have now united to try to overthrow and expel the military junta once and for all. But the end of the conflict, which will enter its second year in 2023, still seems to be a long way off.
MAHSA AMINI (Iran)
It is the face and the origin of the protests in the streets led by women (even very young) that for four months have shaken Iran and have been bloodily repressed by the leaders of the Islamic Republic. Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish girl, was detained in mid-September by moral police at the exit of a Tehran metro station, where she was on vacation with her family, because she was not wearing the mandatory veil (hijab) correctly. placed. Her death, due to the violence she was subjected to while at police headquarters, sparked a wave of anger that swept across the country, from the capital to Kurdish-majority regions and Sunni provinces. The iron fist used by the ayatollahs to suppress dissent has so far left nearly 500 deaths and more than 18,000 arrests. For its part, the judiciary has handed down numerous death sentences -some of which have already been carried out- against protesters on charges of “enmity against God” (Moharebeh, in Farsi), using religion as an instrument.
SHIREEN ABU AKLEH (Israel – Palestine)
American naturalized Palestinian Christian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was for years a correspondent for the Arabic-language broadcaster al-Jazeera, was shot dead by an Israeli soldier on May 11 during an army raid on the refugee camp of Jenin, in the West Bank. Two days later, on May 13, during the funeral procession that was taking his body from the San José hospital to the burial site, the riot police attacked the crowd and also burst into the hospital, beating those present with kicks and batons. to the point of making the coffin wobble. Human rights activists and NGOs have called for an investigation, while the family – which was received by Pope Francis – has appealed to the International Criminal Court. For its part, Israel has closed the investigation and relieved its men of responsibility. Her death is a symbol of a year of violence and death that has elapsed in the silence and indifference of the international community.
MOHAMMAD SHAHID MIAH (Qatar)
Mohammad Shahid Miah, a 29-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh, is one of 6,500 workers (source Guardian), mostly from Asia, who lost their lives in Qatar over the 10 years that the construction of stadiums and infrastructure for the World Cup lasted. The young man died when water flooded his miserable room and, coming into contact with an exposed electrical wire, electrocuted him. He is the symbol of a system of exploitation and misery that goes beyond working conditions and is also reflected in daily life, according to a model defined as “modern slavery.” Since 2010, at least 12 immigrants from India, Bangladesh, Nepal or Sri Lanka have died every week for the event to take place, and only recently has the Doha government introduced some changes, such as canceling the “Kafala” system. One of the few voices that rose against exploitation was that of the German Church, with a campaign promoted by a Filipino nun who did not hesitate to draw a symbolic red “card” against the Gulf country on the issue of rights.
