With less than 20 days left of 2012, politics and the economy do not give us much chance to rest.

In East Asia, we had the change of leadership in China to Xi Jinping and will have the general elections in Japan this weekend and the presidential elections in Korea on December 19th.

Among the ASEAN countries, the emergence of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, the Thai prime minister elections, and the growing waves of democracy in the Middle East trigger ongoing oppression and counterrevolutions, which can be seen until the last moments of 2012.

Nations are in endless conflict concerning national borders and the sea. The economy is declining more than ever.

How can we escape from this crisis? The solution does not seem easy. However, we will not be discouraged.

The AsiaN’s first step will be to report in this week’s edition on the ‘China in Transition’ Conference hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, which brought over a hundred people together in Seoul including scholars, media personnel, politicians, and bureaucrats from Korea, China, Japan, Russia, US and the Asia Pacific region to discuss alternatives for new leadership in 2013. Asan is the pen name of Chung Ju-young, founder of the Hyundai Group, which derived from the name of his birthplace, Asan-ri, Tongchon-gun, Gangwon-do, now in North Korea.

Next Wednesday, the day of the Korean presidential elections, we will present you with opinions from journalists of Asia on the elections and its influence on East Asia. Please stay tuned.

December 12, 2012

Sincerely
Lee Sang-ki, CEO & Publisher of the AsiaN

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