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 management 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 elegant 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
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