East Asia
Through interviews and analysis, this section focuses on stories from East and Southeast Asia.
We write on the oppression and violence inflicted on Uyghur people in China and reflect on Fukushima following the nuclear disaster. Here, you will also find discussion of the region’s changing relationships internationally, including China’s growing influence in Africa and the power struggles over the South China sea.
Country profile: Myanmar
Preeti Jha profiles the Southeast Asian nation, two years on from its military takeover.
Hall of infamy: Bongbong Marcos
Like father, like son? The new Filipino president is the product of his parents’ politics – and the centre-left’s failure.
Country profile: South Korea
Hailey Maxwell profiles the East Asian nation and its flourishing soft power.
Commemorating Hong Kong’s lost youth
Husna Ara finds Blue Island a confused documentary, bogged down by form and lacking in political nuance.
Introducing...Yoon Suk-yeol
Richard Swift on the right-wing libertarian and former public prosecutor hoping to ‘teach some manners’ to its North Korean neighbour.
Should emergency aid be neutral and unconditional?
Khin Ohmar and Toby Lanzer explore the complex trade-offs made by humanitarians working under repressive regimes.
A fine kettle of fish
Iris Gonzales visits Manila’s largest fish port, where the effects of an international dispute are playing out.
Lights off in Myanmar
The energy sector has been a site of international investment in Myanmar, but, with foreign investors jittery and blackouts escalating, it is also a site of resistance against the military coup. Robert Bociaga reports.
Vaccine hopes and fears
The complications of the vaccine rollout in the Philippines are myriad, Iris Gonzales finds.
A bloody business
Iris Gonzales reflects on a violent national obsession that has only grown under coronavirus restrictions in the Philippines.
A chance to rebuild?
Thin Lei Win believes the Myanmar military’s reign of terror might be leading a long-divided nation onto a more inclusive path.
No place for children
Not even young lives have been spared by the junta. Maung Moe reports on a day of shame.
The interview: Sayragul Sauytbay
Sayragul Sauytbay on being forced to teach propaganda in a concentration camp for Uyghur people.
The cost of inaction
Yanghee Lee, a former UN human rights envoy to Myanmar, offers a warning from the past and outlines the practical steps the international community should take.
Fighting the cartel
Myanmar’s generals have amassed fortunes. Aye Min Thant highlights the movements aiming to stop profiteering.
‘Life is at a turning point’: Inside Myanmar’s resistance
Four people on the frontlines of the anti-coup movement in Myanmar tell Preeti Jha why they are not giving up.
Courage and terror in Myanmar
Lives and livelihoods have been laid down for democracy. The economy is on the brink of collapse. The world must support the people’s quest to end military rule once and for all, writes Preeti Jha.
Holding out for a hero
Iris Gonzales reflects on the human cost of the state’s war against its critics.
Why isn’t the world doing more to help Myanmar?
Since the military coup in Myanmar, the situation continues to worsen. What are the avenues for international intervention and what difference could they really make? Yali Banton-Heath outlines the options.
Fukushima communities are building a sustainable future
Ten years on from the devastating nuclear disaster, citizens are working together to show that nuclear power and fossil fuels are not the only way. Tina Burrett visits the red zone.
Why the coup is bad news for Myanmar’s ethnic minorities
Despite significant ongoing problems, life has changed for many minority communities since the military last ruled. Now those gains risk being lost, says Tina Burrett.
Forest defenders under fire in Cambodia
Authorities in charge of protecting the massive Prey Lang forest in Northern Cambodia are intent on harassing environmental activists rather than nabbing illegal loggers. Mary Menton and Justine Taylor report.
Myanmar’s internet shutdown
The recent post-coup wave of internet shutdowns and disruptions is an unsettling escalation of a global problem, writes Michael Caster.
Uyghur poet Abduweli Ayup: ‘I had no choice but to flee’
Uyghur poet and teacher Abduweli Ayup talks to Jan-Peter Westad about language, cultural survival and the unspeakable.
Hall of infamy: Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi’s spectacular fall from human rights icon to genocide denier.
Can the world handle another Rohingya crisis?
India is looking at the world’s largest statelessness crisis. Nilanjana Bhowmick asks, have we learned nothing from the ongoing dispossession of Rohingya Muslims?
Saving rivers, saving lives
An epic struggle has been playing out between islanders defending their land, rivers and livelihoods and the Malaysian government’s vision of ‘development’.
(Don’t) fight the power
Amy Hawkins surveys the cultural landscape in the world’s second-largest economy, China.
The Beijing connection
Christine Mungai reflects on the past, present and future of the relationship between China and the African continent.
Xinjiang: living in a ghost world
Yohann Koshy speaks to anthropologist Darren Byler to find out what is going on in China’s predominantly Uyghur northwest province.
China in charge
Yohann Koshy on the ironies and contradictions of what one day might be called the Chinese century.
Don’t call the Essex 39 a ‘tragedy’
The British state is complicit in their deaths, argues Jun Pang.
Who is militarizing the South China Sea?
Mark J Valencia makes sense of the cauldron for conflict between China and its neighbours.
