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.
New research published by The Lancet and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the China National Key Research and Development Program has found that annual deaths from air pollution in China are now below 1990 levels, having peaked in 2013.
Seoul, South Korea, is taking a step toward vehicle electrification with a new plan to phase out diesel vehicles from its public fleets by 2025, including mass transit fleets.
Eligible individuals from Hong Kong currently can come to the U.K. for six months without a visa. With the rule change, they will have the right to live and work in the country for five years. After that, they will be allowed to apply for settled status and then again for citizenship.
The five-year, $61 billion initiative calls for zero-energy public facilities and is expected to create 660,000 new jobs and reducing GHG by 12 million tons.
All retail outlets across the country are required to charge customers for the use of plastic bags. The new requirement is an attempt by the government to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the country’s rivers, forests, streams and, ultimately, surrounding oceans.
“Even though the numbers are still small, you can see a future for this animal,” said senior conservation officer Philip Lo Yik-fui of Hong Kong-based Kadoorie Conservation China, which was driving efforts to protect the gibbons and expand their habitat.
South Korea’s capital, Seoul, is purchasing 700 electric taxis. This subsidy is worth 18.2 million won (around $15,000) per EV, far more than the 12.7 million ($10,300) subsidy for buying an EV for personal use.
In several of the patients the virus cleared up entirely, leading the authors to conclude that plasma “can serve as a promising rescue option” for severe COVID-19 cases.
Patients who were given the medicine in Shenzhen turned negative for the virus after a median of four days after becoming positive, compared with a median of 11 days for those who were not treated with the drug.
The City University of Hong Kong researchers say that a single rain droplet can briefly generate 140 volts, enough to briefly power 100 small lightbulbs.
