Who had it best — and who had it worst — in 2025

The year saw a tsunami of cybercrime radiating from Southeast Asia and growing globally. Criminal gangs operating mostly in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia have defrauded billions of dollars from victims worldwide.

“Perpetrators” are also victims. Hundreds of thousands of people were lured into these countries with fake employment offers, many transiting through Thailand, then detained against their will and enslaved to work in these fraud centres.

The kidnapping of Chinese actor Wang Xing, who was lured by a fraudulent acting job and then forced to work in a single operation in January 2025, has sparked renewed interest in this growing crisis. Even the Trump administration has noticed this. “The fraud centers are creating a generational transfer of wealth from Main Street America into the pockets of Chinese organized crime,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

Despite high-profile efforts to free captives and shut down settlements operating with near impunity across Southeast Asia, weak governments and corruption allow these multibillion-dollar criminal organizations to operate.

Unless stopped, these operations will become even more sophisticated as they begin to use artificial intelligence and deepfakes to carry out their crimes. Asia’s enslaved victims of cyber fraud earn the distinction of having endured the worst year in Asia with sadly little hope of escape and rescue.

The death toll across large parts of Asia appeared to accelerate towards the end of the year. During the entire year 2025, too many people fell victim to natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, and floods, and this situation was apparently worsened due to human corruption or incompetence.

The March 28 earthquake in Myanmar killed more than 3,600 people, displaced nearly 200,000, and even collapsed a skyscraper under construction across the border in remote Bangkok, killing dozens more. From Sri Lanka to Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, floods, landslides and typhoons combined to affect millions and kill more than 1,600 people.

Add fire to the mixture. The year closed with the devastating Wang Fuk Court apartment complex fire in Tai Po, Hong Kong. Televised scenes of the rising inferno were seen around the world. Failed fire alarms and construction materials below ground reportedly contributed to this heartbreaking tragedy that resulted in the deaths of at least 160 people; This made the fire one of the deadliest in the city’s history.

Armed with memes, hashtags and reels, some waving the Jolly Roger Flag popularized by the Japanese anime and manga series “One Piece,” change-hungry Generation Z has had a mixed year in 2025.

Many of this group of young people born between 1997 and 2012 took to the streets, including in Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Maldives and even new ASEAN member Timor-Leste, to protest corruption, nepotism and economic inequality. The results were certainly mixed, but disappointments seemed to be widespread in Asia.

These “digital natives” managed to overthrow the Nepalese government. This generation played a key role in overthrowing the Bangladesh government last year. Small concessions were made in 2025 in other countries. But at year’s end, the question remains whether Generation Z, the first generation to fully grow up in the internet age, can maintain the momentum and turn these uprisings into a viable movement for constructive change.

Common hope remains for a political force that can reform entrenched and corrupt systems, alleviate youth’s deep frustration with the status quo, and create more economic opportunity. Monkey D. Luffy quote from “One Piece”: “If you don’t take risks, you can’t create a future.”

At the end of the year, resilience was on full display in Asia’s slowing but still growing economies. Leaders in the region have adopted flexible strategies akin to bending bamboo in high winds to navigate Trump’s “Emancipation Day” tariffs.

Indeed, it has been a good year for “bamboo economic tactics” as the region’s reputation for pragmatism is maintained and countries are able to manage the new global economic reality. This approach led to lowering U.S. tariffs (lower than originally proposed duties) and revamping trade configurations and new economic strategies.

An example of this is the India, Canada and Australia cooperation agreement on technology and innovation, which underlines the Asian countries’ own “Art of the Deal”.

The recalibration of the economic approach allowed developing Asia to achieve growth of around 5% for the year, according to the Asian Development Bank. This has also enabled Asia to become the fastest growing region in the world.

If technology and creative content are the new soft power, the past year has shown that “Made In China” could be a contender, with Beijing joining the ranks of the US and Korea as a soft power giant.

The year began with a January surprise: the launch of DeepSeek’s low-cost AI model in a world once adored by ChatGPT and American tech prowess. By year’s end, the “ugly-cute” Pop Mart collection Labubu had taken the world by storm, even appearing in New York City’s iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Labubu is part of a larger group of characters called “Monsters” created by Hong Kong artist and writer Kasing Lung.