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| 1 |
ID:
179226
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| Summary/Abstract |
The biggest stories of the year 2020 were the COVID-19 pandemic and a trade dispute between the United States and China. The pandemic significantly damaged the Asian economies. The US-China trade war halted after a phase one trade deal and the pandemic, but the future is unclear.
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| 2 |
ID:
179260
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| Summary/Abstract |
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Bangladeshi economist Mushfiq Mobarak argued that in developing countries, lockdown-based social distancing would not be feasible to mitigate its spread. This was because they would be unable to impose restrictions, undertake mass testing, or provide adequate safety nets to the poor. Bangladesh was one of the first countries to allow the reopening of work places (as early as April 28, 2020), especially in the export-oriented garment industry, and has done economically better than its South Asian counterparts. A crucial enabling factor for this pandemic-era economic growth has been the explosive boom in digital money. On the downside, free speech has been sharply curtailed, and women’s futures were further jeopardized when the garment industry was severely hit by order cancellations. But perhaps the most frightening development is the effect of climate breakdown and the mass movement of populations within Bangladesh as well as in and out of the country.
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| 3 |
ID:
179262
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| Summary/Abstract |
The year 2020 in Bhutan was dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, a decline in state revenues, and territorial claims by China. In 2019, Bhutan’s strong economy suggested that the country would graduate from the least developed country category in 2023. The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy makes this less certain.
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| 4 |
ID:
179257
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| Summary/Abstract |
In common with other countries around the world, Brunei Darussalam has had to deal with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid19) pandemic and its consequences. By the end of 2020, Brunei had navigated the pandemic storm successfully by keeping its social compact intact, achieving a relatively buoyant economy, exhibiting a balanced foreign policy through strategic hedging, and keeping the country secure through defense diplomacy. Ending 2020 in great shape places Brunei in good stead for assuming the chairmanship of ASEAN and future royal succession.
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| 5 |
ID:
179250
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| Summary/Abstract |
In 2020, Cambodia experienced its sharpest economic contraction in more than a quarter-century as COVID-19 crippled its tourism industry, hampered foreign investment, and reduced demand for exports from its crucial garment and textile sectors. Wary of simmering popular unrest, the government of long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen sought to support the battered economy with one hand while stifling domestic political dissent with the other. Domestic crackdowns brought further erosion of Cambodia’s ties with the European Union, and relations with the United States and some Southeast Asian neighbors remained tense as Cambodia drifted closer into a dependent relationship with China.
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| 6 |
ID:
179239
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| Summary/Abstract |
The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on China, causing tremendous losses. It also accelerated the trend of power concentration, both within the state and inside the Communist Party. With tensions between the US and China mounting in more areas, bilateral relations dropped to the lowest point since the end of the Cold War. On its periphery, China also saw crises of varying intensity over Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Uyghurs, and the disputed border with India.
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| 7 |
ID:
179240
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| Summary/Abstract |
Due to Beijing’s deep concern about its national security being undermined in Hong Kong, where the anti-extradition protests from June to December 2019 not only challenged the legitimacy of both the central and Hong Kong governments but also constituted an attempt at initiating a “color revolution,” a national security law was enacted in late June 2020. The new law aims at demonstrating its immediate deterrent effects on protestors and dissidents by empowering the Hong Kong authorities to pursue suspected offenders. The results were the escape, arrest, and imprisonment of some local political activists. The year 2020 marked the immediate impacts of the national security law on Hong Kong’s political development, resulting in the territory’s truncated autonomy and exerting controls over the society, education, and the judiciary.
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| 8 |
ID:
179258
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| Summary/Abstract |
The year 2020 was one of multiple challenges for India and for the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government. The year began with mass protests against the Citizen (Amendment) Act, which minority Muslims saw as threatening their citizen rights and was widely felt to be unconstitutional, and ended with mass protests by farmers against market-oriented farm reforms. The coronavirus pandemic arrived in January and by the end of the year had caused the world’s second-largest caseload (10.3 million infections) and 149,000 deaths. The government responded with a strict lockdown, resulting in a severe economic contraction, although the economy and foreign investment picked up in the last quarter, buoyed by vaccine hopes and a partial economic recovery. On the foreign front, Chinese incursions in June along the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border, led to a tense standoff that remained unresolved at year-end. Politically, the BJP remained not only entrenched but somewhat further empowered against a weak and divided opposition, with Modi’s popularity ratings high.
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| 9 |
ID:
179248
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| Summary/Abstract |
The coronavirus dominated Indonesian politics in 2020. Rather than propelling Indonesia in new directions, however, the pandemic amplified existing political and societal dynamics.
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| 10 |
ID:
179242
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| Summary/Abstract |
Japan’s leaders began 2020 with grand ambitions to make it a historic year. Tokyo was set to welcome the world for the Summer Olympics, Japan’s first since 1964, and Abe Shinzō, the powerful prime minister, planned to realize his party’s 65-year-old dream: revising Japan’s never-amended, US-drafted 1947 constitution. By spring, however, it was clear that COVID-19 had other plans. Despite public health outcomes better than in any other G7 member, daily life was severely disrupted, and the domestic political and economic fallout for Japan was significant. By late summer, circumstances were improving, but both Abe’s popularity and his personal health had suffered. He resigned in September, ending the longest prime-ministership in Japanese history. Though COVID-19 and the end of the Abe Era were the major storylines of Japan in 2020, a subplot was, paradoxically, remarkable continuity in national politics and foreign affairs.
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| 11 |
ID:
179253
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In 2020, Laos successfully contained the spread of COVID-19, with very few cases and no deaths. The key elements of the COVID-19 response reflect not only public health advice but also the core values of the political culture promoted by the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. These include unity, solidarity, struggle, respect for science, guidance by a strong center, and the extension of the state into everyday life in the form of designated roles, committees, and organizations. These significantly shaped the social fabric drawn on in the COVID-19 response. This success, then, can be read as a reaping of some of the benefits of this political culture. More ominously, the global pandemic exacerbated Lao PDR’s public debt crisis. Born of years of government backing of megaprojects such as hydropower, this debt is the dark harvest of the LPRP’s reign.
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| 12 |
ID:
179247
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| Summary/Abstract |
It was a tumultuous year for Malaysia. As the country was experiencing the onset of the first wave of COVID-19 in late February 2020, the majority coalition, the Alliance of Hope (Pakatan Harapan) that formed the federal government at the time broke apart due to defections, symbolized by the so-called Sheraton Move. A new government led by the National Alliance (Perikatan Nasional, PN) coalition came into power after the king appointed its leader, Muhyiddin Yassin, prime minister, replacing Mahathir Mohamad. The PN government immediately faced two severe challenges: the global pandemic threat and the crisis of legitimacy due to weak coalition building. This article mainly focuses on the second challenge, namely the ways the PN government has been able to avoid a parliamentary vote of no confidence and keep its coalition intact, albeit precariously.
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| 13 |
ID:
179241
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| Summary/Abstract |
Mongolia in 2020 recorded no COVID-19 deaths, despite its proximity to China, the original hotbed of the outbreak. Yet GDP and exports decreased and unemployment, poverty, crime, and domestic abuse rose, in large part due to the disease. Facing desertification, climate change, overgrazing, and mining damage to pastureland, herders who could not eke out a living continued to migrate to Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, and lived in tents, with no running water and poor sanitation. Elections for the Parliament were held, with the Mongolian People’s Party dominating, but corruption and accusations of money laundering prompted a lack of faith in the government. On the other hand, Mongolia maintained cordial relations with China and Russia, its neighbors, as well as with distant countries.
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| 14 |
ID:
179252
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| Summary/Abstract |
The NLD was reelected in 2020 with more seats than it won in 2015. Myanmar’s transition is not regressing, but many priorities remain before the state truly democratizes: conducting transparent trials of military officers who were involved in the killings of Rohingyas, solving the conflict between the Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw in Rakhine State, ensuring that enduring armed conflicts do not undermine citizens’ ability to vote, making sure the National Ceasefire Agreement prevents the resurgence of old animosities, demilitarizing the constitution, and restraining the military’s ability to sue opposition for defamation.
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| 15 |
ID:
179261
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| Summary/Abstract |
Internal party rifts in the Nepali government preoccupied leaders, who squandered opportunities to prepare a coherent response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic resulted in a four-month lockdown, with widespread economic and social consequences. The government’s response to criticism was to propose legislation restricting citizens’ rights, prompting accusations of creeping authoritarianism. Continued tensions along Nepal’s borders led to escalated rhetoric. The crises of 2020 exacerbated existing problems with governance, social inequality, and poverty.
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| 16 |
ID:
179244
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| Summary/Abstract |
North Korea slogged through 2020 in an effort to maintain public health and state power. Kim Jong Un’s hopes for an economic breakthrough were dashed by the COVID-19 outbreak in neighboring China, which posed an existential threat given the DPRK’s limited healthcare resources. Although swift sealing of borders helped prevent a crisis, keeping the country on national quarantine took a heavy toll. Information about internal developments was scarce this year, as demonstrated by the global media’s frenzied speculation in the spring that Kim Jong Un had died. Kim did scale down his public appearances, but convened frequent sessions of the ruling Politburo, often to complain about Party failings, and his sister Kim Yo Jong elevated her profile with tough messages for Seoul and Washington. North Korea remained inwardly focused to the end of the year, rebuffing South Korean entreaties at cooperation and ignoring the presidential election in the United States.
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| 17 |
ID:
179259
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| Summary/Abstract |
Pakistan began the year with the military establishment having tightened its grip on political institutions, but as the year progressed, opposition parties sought to reassert themselves and challenged both the PTI government and military leaders. Political movements took center stage as religious extremists as well as regionalist movements drew strength from the challenges to the PTI government. Feminists demanded action after a series of sexual assaults, and religious minorities continued to be targeted by violence. The COVID pandemic upended the economy, which was already straining under low growth and high debt and deficit conditions. Foreign relations provided many challenges as the government sought to target India for its mistreatment of Kashmiris, while the Pakistan–China relationship remained strong.
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| 18 |
ID:
179256
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| Summary/Abstract |
Ultimately, 2020 turned out to be an ordinary year for Papua New Guinea. Other than the COVID-19 crisis, much remained the same in the country. Any expectations that the new prime minister, James Marape, would change its direction fell apart quickly when it was clear that “business as usual” would continue. Despite their best efforts, Australia and its allies failed to stop the rising Chinese influence in the country.
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| 19 |
ID:
179251
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| Summary/Abstract |
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic initially threatened the populist legacy of Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte. Despite implementing one of the longest and strictest lockdowns globally, the country is still struggling to control the virus. While Duterte appears victorious in his assault on human rights and media freedom, his government’s record in fighting the virus is spotty at best. Yet, Duterte’s populism proved resilient. He remains extremely popular, with a September national survey reporting 81% approval of his government’s response to the pandemic and 91% of respondents expressing trust in his leadership.
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| 20 |
ID:
179254
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| Summary/Abstract |
In July 2020, Singapore went to the polls amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the People’s Action Party remained the perennial party-in-power, the opposition Workers’ Party made modest electoral gains. The rise of the Workers’ Party may usher in a one-and-a-half-party system in the city-state within the next decade or two.
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