A look at Asia’s 2025 winners and losers

WHAT a year this has been across the Indo-Pacific.

Understandably for many, it could not be over soon enough.

From the impacts of United States President Donald Trump’s tariffs and natural and man-made disasters across Asia to new leaders breaking glass ceilings (Japan) and old leaders whisked off to the International Criminal Court at The Hague (the Philippines) or sentenced to death in absentia (Bangladesh); to missiles fired across borders (Cambodia-Thailand) and terrorist attacks in South Asia (India, Pakistan) and the Pacific (Australia), enduring corruption challenges (the Philippines) and real estate woes (China) to people scammed and enslaved; surely 2025 was not a year full of good news.

We look back and see who had it bad and who had it good.

Here’s one last look at Asia’s worst to best in 2025.

Worst year: Cyber scam victims

The victims are both the scammers and the scammed in the still growing tsunami of cybercrime sweeping across the globe from South-East Asia.

Under the dateline “Scambodia”, criminal gangs largely operating out of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia have defrauded billions of dollars from victims worldwide.

“Pig butchering”, a euphemism for fattening up a victim before they are slaughtered, is one nickname for these cybercrimes.

The perpetrators? Hundreds of thousands of individuals are enticed with fake job offers to these nations, many transiting via Thailand then held against their will, enslaved to work in these scam centres.

The kidnapping of Chinese actor Wang Xing, who was lured by a fraudulent acting gig in early 2025 and then forced to work in one operation, brought heightened attention to this growing crisis.

Even the Trump administration has taken notice.

“The scam centres are creating a generational wealth transfer from main street America into the pockets of Chinese organised crime,” stated Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Weak governments and corruption allow these multibillion-dollar criminal enterprises to operate, despite high-profile efforts to free captives and close compounds that have operated with near impunity in South-East Asia.

Unless stopped, these operations will only grow more sophisticated as they begin to use artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes to perpetrate their crimes. Criminals too often seem to call the shots in “scam cities”.

Bad year: Everyday casualties

The death count across large swaths of Asia seemed to accelerate by the year’s end.

Throughout all of 2025, too many people fell victim to not just natural disasters but also the impacts of earthquakes, typhoons and floods seemingly made worse by the hands of man, whether through corruption or ineptness.

The March 28 earthquake in Myanmar killed well over 3,600, displaced some 200,000 and even brought down a skyscraper that was under construction across the border in distant Bangkok, killing dozens more.

From Sri Lanka to Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, floods, mudslides and typhoons combined to impact millions and kill more than 1,800 toward the year-end.

Add fire to the mix: The year closed with the horrific Wang Fuk Court apartment complex fire in Tai Po, Hong Kong.

Televised scenes of towering infernos, seemingly from a disaster movie, were seen worldwide.

Inoperable fire alarms and below-grade construction materials reportedly exacerbated the heartbreaking tragedy that killed at least 160 people, making it one of the deadliest fires in the city’s history.

Mixed year: Gen Z uprisings

Armed with memes, hashtags and reels, and some waving the Jolly Roger popularised by the Japanese anime and manga series One Piece, Generation Z’s hunger for change had a mixed year in 2025.

Many in this cohort of young people born between 1997 and 2012 took to the streets, including in Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Maldives and even in new Asean member state Timor-Leste, to protest corruption, nepotism and economic inequality.

The results were decidedly mixed, though their frustrations seemed all too common in Asia.

These “digital natives” succeeded in bringing down Nepal’s government, following the same generation’s role in helping bring down the Bangladesh government last year.

In other countries, small concessions were achieved in 2025. Yet at the year-end, the question remains whether Gen Z is able to maintain momentum and turn these uprisings into a viable movement for constructive change.

A shared hope remains for a political force that can reform entrenched and corrupt systems, alleviate the youth’s deep frustration with the status quo and bring about more economic opportunities.

To quote Monkey D Luffy from One Piece, “If you don’t take risks, you can’t create a future”.

Good year: Bamboo economic tactics

Resilience was in full display across Asia’s slowing but still growing economies at the year-end.

Leaders across Asia adopted flexible, adaptive strategies, akin to bamboo bending in high winds, to navigate Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs.

Indeed, it proved a good year for this “bet” on “bamboo economic tactics”, as the region’s reputation for pragmatism held and countries were able to manage the new global economic reality.

This approach led to reduced, albeit still higher, US tariffs, down from initial proposals for many, and revamped trade configurations and new economic strategies.

One example is the cooperation agreement between India, Canada and Australia on technology and innovation, underscoring Asian nations’ own “art of the deal”.

This recalibration allowed developing Asia overall to achieve growth hovering around 5% for the year, according to the Asian Development Bank.

It also kept Asia on track overall as still the fastest-growing region in the world.

Best year: Chinese soft power

If tech and creative content are the new soft power, this past year showed that “made in China” could be a contender, with that country joining the ranks of the United States and South Korea as a powerhouse of soft power.

The year began with the January surprise that was the launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek in a world once enamoured by ChatGPT and American tech prowess.

And by the year-end, it was clear that the “elvish creature” and iconic Pop Mart collectible Labubu had taken the world by storm, even appearing in the iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

Labubu herself is part of a larger group of characters called The Monsters, created by Hong Kong artist and author Kasing Lung.

From BYD electric vehicles and Ne Zha 2, the world’s biggest animated film ever that grossed some US$1.9bil, to Li-Ning sneakers appearing on NBA courts and Luckin Coffee shops opening at a rapid pace throughout Asia and the United States, Chinese soft power was clearly on the rise in 2025, and so receives the distinction for best year in Asia.

Here’s to a better, safer and more peaceful year for all in 2026. — The Jakarta Post/ANN

Curtis S. Chin is a former US ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, the managing director of advisory firm RiverPeak Group and chair of Asia fellows at Milken Institute. Jose B Collazo is an analyst focusing on the Indo-Pacific. The views expressed here are the writers’ own.