As the origin place of the COVID‐19 outbreak, East Asian welfare states have largely survived the immediate health threats out of the pandemic shock but have yet to deal with its dire social consequences. This paper offers an institutionalist account—in terms of the institutional resilience of the welfare state—to grasp the policy dynamics in East Asia. We select four cases under scrutiny: China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, to analyse the major trend of social policy responses in this region. With a systematic comparison of the policy responses, in particular reference to the unemployment protection and social assistance that have arisen as the major crisis responses, we identify striking similarities in institutional arrangements but also some variation in policy approaches. Given the effective containment of the pandemic spread and the comprehensive social safety nets, region‐wide measures such as consumption vouchers, prolonged unemployment benefits and emergency relief aids are of a one‐shot nature that will fall off once this crisis abates. The common trend of social policy responses to the crisis is largely an extension, not replacement or reinvention, of the existing institutional edifice of the East Asian welfare state. However, the pandemic crisis may offer a window of opportunity for gradual institutional change in light of the exacerbating social inequalities.