The deep partisan divisions rending Taiwan's government are no secret. Legislative push-back to President Lai Ching-te’s budgets has received international attention. Yinn-Ching Lu writes that much less attention has been paid both abroad and within Taiwan to a different manifestation of the power struggle between the branches: near-paralysis of the government appointment process. Critical institutions’ leadership ranks are being decapitated by the legislature’s refusal to approve presidential nominees, a phenomenon that Lu says may ultimately be more damaging to Taiwan’s democracy.
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.
Few people outside of China’s legal elites have heard of the “foreign-related rule of law” policy. Yet this awkwardly named policy was a big reason that Chinese President Xi Jinping was able to stage his recent summit with US President Donald Trump in a posture of apparent parity. Katherine Wilhelm writes that “foreign-related rule of law” produced the critical minerals export control regime that enabled Xi to force Trump into a tariff truce.
July 26 – August 01
China threatens to retaliate after the US Federal Communications Commission restricts imports of foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots; yet another Hong Kong bookstore says it will shut down after authorities accuse it of selling seditious books; a panel of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party proposes allowing government agencies to intercept private communications for national security purposes without a court warrant; South Korea’s legislature strips prosecutors of the power to investigate crimes; Taiwan says it is working with US authorities to halt smuggling of advanced AI chips to China.
July 19 – July 25
Reactions across East Asia are muted to the Trump administration’s latest new tariffs; China adds fourteen European entities to an export control list in retaliation for the European Union sanctioning fourteen Chinese mainland and Hong Kong enterprises; the former leader of Hong Kong’s disbanded Democratic Party flees to the UK; Japan’s Diet authorizes the prime minister to designate a “backup” capital to handle major government functions in the event of a natural disaster striking Tokyo; the Seoul High Court acquits a woman who had been convicted of murder for terminating her pregnancy at thirty-six weeks; Taiwan’s legislature approves savings accounts for children into which the government will make annual deposits in an effort to boost the birthrate.
July 12 – July 18
Twenty-nine countries establish a Chinese-led artificial intelligence cooperation organization in Shanghai; Hong Kong national security police raid two more bookstores and arrest five booksellers on suspicion of selling seditious books; Japan's Diet enacts election-misinformation measures requiring labels on AI-generated images, as well as a controversial law that punishes publicly damaging or defacing the national flag; South Korea’s National Assembly wrestles with sweeping changes to its Criminal Procedure Act, including a controversial proposal to strip prosecutors of all investigatory powers; Taiwan's opposition-controlled legislature moves to put referendum proposals about restoring nuclear power and legalizing euthanasia on the November ballot.
Program on International Law & Relations in Asia
