Chinese fast food chain swaps all chicken eggs with plant-based versions
The chain, which has about 500 locations in China, is the first major fast-food company to outright replace items made with animal products with a plant-based version.
East Asia
East Asia spans countries including China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. This archive gathers reported milestones from the region — covering public health, environmental efforts, technology, and social progress. Each entry highlights specific, verifiable developments worth knowing about.
Plastic straws and single-use bags vanish from China as ban kicks in
In China, 2020 was bid farewell with a flurry of fireworks and the scratching off of 200 million metric tonnes of plastic straws from the nation’s pollution inventory.
China will open its huge FAST telescope to scientists globally
The “Sky Eye” parabolic dish is the world’s largest Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) used for spotting pulsars and other energetic astronomical targets.
Chinese island province of Hainan bans all disposable plastics
Plastic polymer food containers, forks, drink cups, knives, straws, plastic bags, packaging bags, and other items that are not biodegradable are no longer allowed to be sold at major establishments like supermarkets, hospitals, government and state-owned buildings like schools, and tourist attractions.
Nissan to go 100% electric and hybrid in China by 2025
Nissan is taking active steps to meet China’s recently-announced plans to follow a similar “eco-friendly” vehicle model throughout mainland China as soon as 2035. As part of its response, Nissan will announce 9 all-new or updated electrified cars between now and the 2025 model year, according to Nikkei Asia.
South Korea vows to go carbon neutral by 2050
In a policy speech in the national assembly South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in said that South Korea, one of the world’s most fossil fuel-reliant economies, would “actively respond” to the climate emergency “with the international community and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050”.
Toxic sulfur dioxide emissions fell across India, Russia, and China last year– dropping 6% globally
In 2019, the levels of anthropogenic SO2 emissions fell worldwide by 6%. In only the second time ever, SO2 emissions fell in all three of the countries most responsible for emitting it: China, India, and Russia.
Population of endangered leopard species rebounds in China
Camera footage installed by Bing Xie, a Ph.D. student at the University of Copenhagen and her fellow research colleagues showed an increase of 25 percent in northern China’s Loess Plateau’s leopard population from 88 in 2016 to 110 in 2017.
Japan pledges to be carbon neutral by 2050
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that Japan will become country carbon neutral by 2050, Bloomberg reported. As the world’s third-largest economy, this will require a “fundamental shift” away from coal, The Washington Post reported.
Pride House Tokyo, the first-ever permanent LGBTQ center in Japan, opens in Tokyo
Their opening was an official part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics’ Programme, making it the first “Pride House” officially recognized by the International Olympics Committee.