With the decline of Communism, Russian has lost ground in Asia in recent decades, most notably in China, and English appears to be filling the vacuum it has left, in both China and the -stans. The shrinkage of Russian has in fact served to extend the use of English, which formerly had little significance in North and Central Asia. In addition, ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) has since it creation in 1967 used English as its working language, and currently also uses it in its increasingly important discussions with China, Japan, and other Asian territories. Evolution of English as Lingua Franca
A key reason, of course, for the use of English as an Asian lingua franca is its use as the world’s lingua franca. Both roles are likely to continue expanding: in the air, by sea, in the media, in telecommunications, and so forth. Asia does, however, differ from other continents in having no large native English-speaking population base, but at the same time it has had a long acquaintance with English as the key medium of first the British Empire then the United States (itself an offspring of that empire).