The chairwoman of Taiwan’s Nationalist (Kuomintang) Party, Cheng Li-wun, has a message for Americans: Taiwan should not be the next Ukraine. Rather, Taiwan should reconcile with China and seek to carve out some kind of autonomy within “the great Chinese nation.” Katherine Wilhelm writes that most of Taiwan’s 23 million people do not identify as Chinese, but they are deeply divided over whether the best way to preserve their way of life is befriending China or arming against China.
Japan has long been a leading advocate for nuclear disarmament. However, growing belligerency on the part of its three nuclear neighbors has put national security at the top of the government agenda, while US behavior has cast doubt on its longstanding commitment to defend Japan. In this May 20, 2026 talk, Nobumasa Akiyama, an advisor to the Japanese delegation to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference, says a majority of the Japanese public both supports nuclear disarmament and favors remaining under the US “nuclear umbrella.”
One of the most complex topics in contemporary international relations is the status of the self-governing entity of Taiwan and its government in Taipei. In this November 6, 2025 talk, Pasha Hsieh, a law professor at Singapore Management University, explains how states that lack formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan nonetheless enter into trade and bilateral investment agreements with it, blurring the line between recognition and non-recognition.
June 07 – June 13
China’s Coast Guard begins questioning merchant ships east of Taiwan to assert its jurisdiction after Japan and the Philippines announce plans to talk about their maritime boundaries; Hong Kong gives its chief executive sole power to designate any criminal case a national security case, automatically reducing the defendant’s procedural protections; Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party again tries to reduce the number of seats in the Diet to reflect the country’s shrinking population; South Korean police and prosecutors raid offices of the National Election Commission to investigate ballot shortages that disrupted local elections on June 3; the chairwoman of Taiwan's Nationalist Party brings her message of reconciliation between Taiwan and China to the United States.
May 31– June 06
China issues sweeping new outbound foreign investment regulations that mandate a nation security review of China-connected transactions even if they take place entirely offshore; Hong Kong police turn out in force on June 4 to prevent any public commemoration of the 1989 Chinese military attack on peaceful protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square; Japan advances a bill that would criminalize desecrating the national flag; South Korea advances draft legislation to foster the country’s defense semiconductor industry; Taiwan’s political opposition proposes to limit how long acting agency heads can serve, potentially escalating the appointment standoff between the executive and legislative branches; US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says a proposed US $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan is under review, not paused.
May 24– May 30
China’s government begins issuing ID numbers to humanoid robots so they can be tracked from production to recycling; Hong Kong announces plans to create a specialized International Commercial Court within the High Court to hear high-value cross-border disputes; Japan's Diet creates two high-level bodies to consolidate and analyze national security information; South Korean police accuse a YouTuber of using artificial intelligence to create fake evidence that actor Kim Soo-hyun dated a minor; Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun prepares to head to the United States for talks with American politicians about sustainable peace across the Taiwan Strait; Taiwan President Lai Ching-te proposes a US$12 billion program to encourage births.
Program on International Law & Relations in Asia
