What happened in 2022?

2022–2023Beijing

In late November 2022, nationwide protests against China's zero-COVID policy erupted, triggered by a memorial for Urumqi fire victims. Protesters held up blank sheets of paper as a symbol; the movement began at the Communication University of China, Nanjing, then spread across the country. It is considered the largest anti-government demonstration since 1989.

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2019–2023武汉市

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, began in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and spread globally by early 2020. The WHO declared it a pandemic on 11 March 2020. By early 2025, over 777 million confirmed cases and more than 7 million deaths had been reported worldwide.

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2022

On 8 July 2022, former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in Nara, Japan. He was shot while delivering a campaign speech outside Yamato-Saidaiji Station for a Liberal Democratic Party candidate. The attacker, Tetsuya Yamagami, was arrested at the scene. Abe sustained chest and neck wounds, was airlifted to hospital, and pronounced dead hours later. The killing is a rare act of political violence against a former head of government in postwar Japan.

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2022–2025基輔

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full‑scale military invasion of Ukraine, a major escalation of the conflict that began in 2014. The war became the largest and deadliest in Europe since World War II, with hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian deaths. It displaced about 8 million people internally and forced 6–7 million to flee, creating Europe’s largest refugee crisis since 1945. By July 2026, Russian forces occupied roughly 20% of Ukraine.

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2022Balmoral Castle

On 8 September 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at the age of 96. Buckingham Palace announced her death that evening, and her eldest son succeeded as Charles III. The United Kingdom then entered a period of national mourning and state funeral ceremonies.

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2014–2022顿涅茨克

In April 2014, Russian-backed paramilitaries launched an uprising in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, seizing territory and declaring independent states, prompting a military response from the Ukrainian government. This phase of the Russo-Ukrainian war, fought as a hybrid conflict, lasted until it was subsumed by the full-scale invasion in 2022.

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2011–2024

In March 2011, large-scale anti-government protests demanding democratic reforms broke out in Syria as part of the Arab Spring. The Assad regime's lethal crackdown led to the formation of armed opposition groups, turning the uprising into a civil war. The conflict lasted nearly 14 years until the regime's fall in December 2024.

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2022–2023Tehran

In September 2022, the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police sparked nationwide protests. Demonstrations erupted first in Tehran and cities in Kurdistan province, then spread across the country, becoming the largest anti-government movement since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Protesters condemned the compulsory dress code, with many women removing their hijabs publicly. By spring 2023 the unrest had largely subsided without political change.

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2020–2022Tigray Region

In early November 2020, a civil war broke out between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, primarily in the Tigray Region, later spreading to Oromia, Amhara, and Afar. The conflict lasted about two years, with significant implications for Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.

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2022Ouagadougou

On 30 September 2022, a coup d'état in Burkina Faso overthrew Interim President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who was accused of failing to contain the Islamist insurgency. Damiba had seized power in a coup only eight months earlier. Captain Ibrahim Traoré assumed leadership and formed a national transitional council.

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2022開放人工智能（舊金山）

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot. Built on generative pre-trained transformer architecture, it responds to text, voice, and image prompts. Its release accelerated investment and public attention in artificial intelligence, marking a key event in the AI boom.

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2022Bogotá

The 2022 Colombian presidential election held its first round on 29 May, and a runoff on 19 June after no candidate secured a majority. Left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro defeated Rodolfo Hernández Suárez, becoming the country's first left-wing president. His running mate, Francia Márquez, became the first Afro-Colombian vice president and the second female vice president.

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2022Kuala Lumpur

On 19 November 2022, Malaysia held its 15th general election to elect the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of parliament. 220 of the 222 seats were contested, alongside simultaneous state elections in Perak, Perlis, and Pahang. Amid ongoing political instability since 2020 and the COVID-19 fallout, the election followed a dissolution of parliament on 10 October and saw the voting age lowered to 18, expanding the electorate to around 21 million.

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2013–2025纳扎尔巴耶夫大学

In 2013, the Chinese government launched the Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure and economic development strategy to connect Asia, Europe, Africa, and beyond. The initiative comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, evoking the historic trade routes. It has since involved agreements with numerous countries and organizations for global connectivity projects.

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