For over the last decade, the two of us at year’s end have put our heads together to pick out a handful of trends, people and places—or even things, animals and organizations—that have captured headlines and interest.
Who, we asked, had the “Worst Year or Best Year in Asia?” We focused on Asia’s “good to bad” (or “bad to good”), sharing our thoughts on CNBC, CNN, Fox News and a range of media outlets. 2024 was no different.
Here though is a twist. Amid spotlighting the good, the bad and the in-between, where too did we find opportunity for greater China-U.S. engagement as 2025 replaces 2024, and soon the lunar Year of the Snake begins and the Year of the Dragon ends? Have a read of our latest selections.
Worst Year: Asia’s Climate Casualties
Los Angeles wildfires
Twenty years ago, a devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on December 26, 2004, killed more than 200,000 in a single day. In contrast, 2024 was a year of mounting casualties from typhoons, floods, heat waves and droughts.
This included Super Typhoon Yagi. One of the strongest storms to hit Southeast Asia in years, Yagi left a path of death and devastation in November. From the Philippines through southern China and Vietnam, and onto Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, the storm killed hundreds and devastated communities and livelihoods.
Floods from the yearly monsoon rains also left millions displaced and hundreds dead 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 accompanied by scorching temperatures leading to months of severe water shortages.
With extreme weather events seemingly more the norm and their victims too often increasingly unnoticed and forgotten, the region’s climate casualties garnered the dubious distinction of Worst Year in Asia in 2024.
With this year beginning with devastating wildfires in Los Angeles and President Trump’s return to the White House on January 20, we believe there is also a chance to find common ground on both sides of the Pacific even amid talk of tariffs and trade wars. Just as the Indian Ocean tsunami led to significant cross border cooperation and assistance, perhaps greater transparency and cross-Pacific cooperation can also become the norm in sharing lessons learned and in responding to natural disasters, and assisting those most in need.
Bad Year: East Asia’s Babies
In marked contrast to relatively youthful and growing nations like India and the Philippines, aspiring grandparents in China and across East Asia might have a critical question. Where are all the babies?
In South Korea, mainland China and Japan, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong, record-low fertility rates continued to prove a major concern in 2024. Fertility rates across East Asia remained well below that needed for a stable if not growing population. The long-term economic consequences could well be significant as nations contend with shrinking workforces and aging populations.
Women are having very 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 factors behind this East Asia demographic trend. In China, a nationwide campaign including financial incentives has been launched to boost childbirth in light of “a severe low birth rate.”
In Japan, four-day work weeks and free childcare have been suggested as one way to help fight the decline. The so far seemingly losing battle against declining birthrates continues.
Perhaps here too, lessons—good and bad—from the United States and other nations in areas ranging from work-life balance to immigration and assimilation can provide the basis for greater engagement and cooperation.
Mixed Year: Democracy & Incumbency in Asia
The U.S. and Chinese systems of governance are obviously and strikingly different. In an era of discontent, being an incumbent in a democracy is no easy matter.
From India and Indonesia, to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Taiwan, elections featured prominently on the 2024 calendar across the region. At year’s end, however, it proved a decidedly mixed year for not just incumbent politicians but for democracy itself. For good or for bad, China’s system certainly provided more stability this year for incumbents than Asian systems that provide a more direct way for citizens to show their discontent via the ballot box.
The year began with longtime leader and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina winning re-election overwhelmingly in an election boycotted by the opposition, only to resign and flee the country months later after weeks of student protests.
As a perhaps bewildered world looked on, 2024 ended with South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-Yeol declaring martial law eight months after his party lost significantly in the country’s general elections. The National Assembly then successfully moved both to force the lifting of martial law and then to impeach him as well as his acting successor. The K-drama only intensified at the start of 2025 with the detention of Yoon.
Yet, elections cemented a vibrant democracy in Taiwan, forced India’s President Narendra Modi to govern with a coalition, surprised the Pakistan incumbent, and heralded the peaceful transition of presidential power in Indonesia to former General Prabowo Subianto. Diverse, mixed democratic trajectories for a diversity of democracies in Asia characterized 2024.
As the Year of the Snake begins, however, the question remains for both China and the United States: how best to provide better lives for all of a nation’s citizens? What can be learned from each others’ experiences?
Good Year: the Korean Wave
The year of 2024 proved to be another winning one for “Hallyu,” South Korea’s wave of wildly popular cultural exports. That was certainly true in the United States.
“K” is for Korean. Whether “K-pop” music, “K-dramas,” “K-beauty” products, or Korean fried chicken and other “K-food,” 2024 proved a good year for this expanding wave of business that has grown well beyond superstar musical groups BTS and Blackpink.
More than 300 Korean movies and series are now available for streaming on Netflix alone, including Season 2 of Squid Game and contract marriage melodrama When the Phone Rings. The romantic drama Queen of Tears starring Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won was a 2024 global sensation, clocking more than 690 million viewing hours on Netflix. And the world was dramatically introduced to K-literature, with Korean author Han Kang in 2024 becoming the first Korean and first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
This surge of soft diplomacy that has elevated South Korea’s global presence is also big business. The global economic benefit of “Hallyu” for Korea is now projected to hit US$198 billion by 2030, according to a Business Korea report on a white paper released this July by TikTok and market research firm Kantar.
Yet, in China, numerous Korean cultural offerings including K-pop have been informally restricted and some even banned. So too have selected U.S. programs and media outlets. This has contributed to increased scrutiny in the United States of China’s state-supported programs.
At the end of the year, however, it became clear that greater cultural exchange and people-to-people engagement could be mutually beneficial, and is perhaps more important than ever before.
Best Year: Moo Deng, Thailand’s Viral Sensation
To say that the female baby pygmy hippo Moo Deng—Thai for “bouncy pork”—took the world and 2024 by storm would be an understatement.
Born this past July at Thailand’s Khao Chew Open Zoo, the “hyper-viral” baby pygmy has seen her memes, photos and videos go global.
Fan accounts on X, TikTok, and Facebook from across the globe continue to proliferate. Even NBC’s long-running U.S. comedy show Saturday Night Live got in on the “Moo Deng mania,”with Asian American star Bowen Yang impersonating the baby hippo on the show’s “Weekend Update” segment, lamenting the hazards of instant fame. But, Moo Deng isn’t just another pretty face. She correctly predicted the winner of the 2024 U.S. presidential race, by selecting the fruit and vegetable plate bearing Trump’s name over that of one for rival Kamala Harris.
For bringing some hope, joy, and even a bit of unity to a region and world that could use a lot more reasons for good cheer, we gave the designation of “Best Year in Asia” for 2024 to Moo Deng.
And perhaps here too lays the foundation for and exemplifies opportunities for further engagement in 2025. Thailand might have Moo Deng, but China has its heritage of panda-diplomacy with the United States to build upon. The end-of-January 2025 introduction to the public of two new giant pandas—Bao Li and Qing Bao—on loan from China to Washington’s National Zoo might well offer up yet another example of an opportunity to rebuild engagement efforts.
U.S.-China differences remain significant, necessitating a commitment to engagement from both sides. Notably, President Trump's inauguration on January 20, 2025, was attended by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng. While President Xi Jinping did not attend, it was still an unprecedented moment for Xi to have sent his vice president—generally the highest ranking official to attend the Inauguration would have been China’s ambassador to the United States—and indicates a potential for positive developments in U.S.-China relations in the coming years.
Just a few days before his swearing in, Trump had said he held a “very good” phone call with China’s President Xi—believed to be the first time the two leaders have spoken since Trump’s first term. And just hours after taking office, Trump signed an executive order that would pause of a ban of the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok for 75 days.
Here’s to a safer, peaceful, more joyful, and engaging 2025. Whether stemming from the worst or the best of the year that was, there remains opportunity for greater China-U.S. cooperation in the Year of the Snake ahead.