Every nation in Asia has dealt with COVID-19 differently and with varying levels of success in the absence of clear and effective leadership from the WHO. As a result, the WHO’s role in Asia as a global health organization is coming under increasing pressure. As its credibility is slowly being eroded by public displays of incompetence and negligence, it has also become an arena of contestation. Moreover, while the pandemic continues to undermine the future of global health governance as a whole, the highly interdependent economies in Asia have exposed the speed with which pandemics can spread, as intensive regional travel and business connections have caused every area in the region to be hit hard. The migrant labor necessary to sustain globalized economies has been strained and the security of international workers is now more precarious than ever, as millions have been left stranded, seen their entry blocked, or have limited access to health services. This volume provides an accessible framework for the understanding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia, with a specific emphasis on global governance in health and labor.

Anoma Phichai VAN DER VEERE is a Researcher of Modern Asia within the Leiden Asia Centre at Leiden University, and a Research Fellow at the IAFOR Research Center at the Osaka School of International Public Policy. He is currently based at Osaka University, Japan, and has published on health and labour policy, sports, technology, and human rights in Asia and Europe. His latest publications include: Japan’s Fragmented Response: Technology, Governance, and COVID-19 (Leiden Asia Centre, 2020), ‘The Tokyo Paralympic Superhero: Manga and Narratives of Disability in Japan’ (Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 2020), and ‘The Technological Utopia: Mimamori Care and Family Separation in Japan’ (AsiaScape: Digital Asia, 2019). He is currently the principal investigator in the Road to Tokyo 2020 project about local policymaking in disability sports in Tokyo in the run-up to the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the ‘Understanding the Limitations and Future of Transnational Migrant Labor and Global Health Governance in Asia’ project, both funded by the Leiden Asia Centre.

Florian SCHNEIDER, PhD, Sheffield University, is Senior University Lecturer in the Politics of Modern China at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies. He is managing editor of Asiascape: Digital Asia, director of the Leiden Asia Centre, and the author of three books: Staging China: the Politics of Mass Spectacle (Leiden University Press, 2019, recipient of the ICAS Book Prize 2021 Accolades), China’s Digital Nationalism (Oxford University Press, 2018), and Visual Political Communication in Popular Chinese Television Series (Brill, 2013, recipient of the 2014 EastAsiaNet book prize). In 2017, he was awarded the Leiden University teaching prize for his innovative work as an educator. His research interests include questions of governance, political communication, and digital media in China, as well as international relations in the East-Asian region.

Catherine Yuk-ping LO is an Assistant Professor at University College Maastricht, Maastricht University. She specializes in international relations and global health. Her current research interests include HIV/AIDS in China and India, infectious disease responses in Northeast and Southeast Asian states, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) challenges in the Global South and North, and also global health diplomacy. She is the author of HIV/AIDS in China and India: Governing Health Security (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). Her book won the 2017 International Studies Association (ISA) Global Health Section Book Prize. Her works appear in such journals as the Australian Journal of International Affairs, Health and Policy Planning, Globalization and Health, and the Journal of Global Security Studies.

Introduction: COVID-19 and Asia (Anoma Phichai VAN DER VEERE, Florian SCHNEIDER, and Catherine Yuk-ping LO)
PART I Health Policy in Asia and the Global Community
Chapter 1 – Fighting for a Global Community in a Post-COVID World (Haruko SATOH)
Chapter 2 – Countering Emerging Infectious Diseases and COVID-19: The Development of ASEAN’s Institutional Arrangements and International Cooperation (Kei KOGA)
Chapter 3 – The Outbreak of Infectious Disease and Trust in Government in Asian Countries (Yumi ISHIKAWA and Miki KOHARA)
PART II The Future of Global Health Governance in Asia
Chapter 4 – China and the World Health Organization: Not an Easy Road for Either (Xue GONG and Xirui LI)
Chapter 5 – South Korea and the WHO during the COVID-19 Crisis (Brendan HOWE)
Chapter 6 – Escaping the ‘Realist Trap’: The ROC’s Participation in Global Health Governance Under the One-China Principle (Catherine Yuk-ping LO)
Chapter 7 – From Pneumonia to Pragmatism: The Role of the WHO in Japan During Public Health Emergencies (Anoma P. VAN DER VEERE)
PART III Domestic Responses to COVID-19 in a Globalized Asia
Chapter 8 – The COVID-19 Pandemic: Socio-Economic Issues, Health Care, Health Security and the Rapid Response in Vietnam (Anh Tuyet NGUYEN)
Chapter 9 – The Coordination of COVID-19 Responses in Malaysia: Efforts and Challenges (Nurliana KAMARUDDIN and Zokhri IDRIS)
Chapter 10 – Analysis of South Korea’s Experience with the COVID-19 Pandemic and its Relations with the WHO (Eun Mee KIM and Jisun SONG)
Chapter 11 – State-society Relations as Cooperative Partnership and the COVID-19 Response in Vietnam (Mirjam LE and Franziska NIKOLAISEN)
PART III The Global Economy and Transnational Migrant Labour in Asia during COVID-19
Chapter 12 – The Coronavirus as the ‘Final Straw’ of the CCP’s Performative Legitimacy? A New Economic Model in the Post-COVID-19 Era (Catherine Yuk-ping LO)
Chapter 13 – Health Governance during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Reflections on Taiwan’s Guest Worker Policy (Mei-Chun LIU)
Chapter 14 – Public Health and Capitalism in Japan: The Impact of Labour Market Challenges and Welfare on Public Health (Saori SHIBATA)
Chapter 15 – Indonesia’s Response to Global Recommendations on Labour Migration during a Pandemic: Muddling through Priorities and Needs (Sylvia YAZID)