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Democratic rights in Asia have been under threat this past year, as leaders from India to Myanmar and Indonesia cracked down on protests, jailed activists and journalists, and took advantage of pandemic restrictions to stifle dissent. This backsliding on human rights is a key metric of the rising tide of populism that will hang heavily over the region in 2022. So will tensions between the US and China, which will force governments to forge new partnerships to work with and around them.
The Quad grouping of the US, India, Japan and Australia should continue to develop as an important strategic body behind shared anxiety over Beijing’s increasingly assertive behaviour. However, Washington has lost respect over its hasty exit from Afghanistan, which now confronts an economic and humanitarian crisis.
Whether the US can marshal its allies and the international bodies it influences — including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund — to prevent the nation from slipping into starvation will test its ability to rebuild trust in a region already losing faith in America’s ambitions in Asia.
Tens of millions of women have disappeared from the workforce in India over the last decade. That was before Covid-19 worsened female employment prospects by displacing another 6.7 million from their jobs. Until the pandemic hit, India was one of the world’s fastest-growing large economies but failed to increase women’s participation in line with that expansion.
Culture wars are heating up in India, home to more than 270 million people.
Rising religious intolerance and criminal complaints against activists who challenge politicians are increasingly common in a country where the government is now openly jailing critics.
Facing tension along its borders with both China and Pakistan is an uncomfortable place for India, coming out of a punishing second Covid-19 wave and accompanying economic slowdown. Despite a couple of high-profile summits, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping have failed to find common ground.
—Bloomberg