The death of Kim Jong Il caused Japanese Premier Yoshihiko Noda to shift the focus of his discussions in Beijing from bilateral issues to North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had a checkered relationship with Beijing but one that was solidified in the last year and a half of his life, when he visited China three times in 13 months and sought, and obtained, China's acceptance of his youngest son as his political heir.

Outside of Taiwan, no one is watching the presidential elections slated for Jan. 14 more closely than people in China. And it is not just the Chinese government that is doing it.

Last week, President Hu Jintao urged the Chinese navy to accelerate its transformation and “make extended preparations for warfare.”

Last May, to mark its 100th birthday, the University of Hong Kong held a centenary dialogue via a video link with the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, barely six months after her release from prolonged years of house arrest.

Quietly, without much notice, the world's population crept past the 7 billion mark on Oct. 31, according to the United Nations. The majority of people live on one continent, Asia, with two countries, China and India, accounting for almost 37 percent of the total.

U.S. President Barack Obama's recent schedule reflected just how deeply the United States is getting involved in Asia and, at the same time, sent clear signals that despite its severe budgetary problems, its involvement in the region is sure to deepen.

In 1994, the last British Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, quoted a former colonial official as saying: “The Chinese style is not to rig elections, but they do like to know the result before they're held.”

In April, the consulting firm Bain and Co. and China Merchants Bank released a study which disclosed that about half of China's richest people were thinking of emigrating.

Whether the deal announced in Brussels last week will actually resolve the current eurozone crisis remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: The global order is changing, and the countries of Europe are looking to the developing world to rescue them.