Discussion A: Security, Defense and Democracy
According to its latest 5-year plan, Beijing plans to sustain pressure on the South China and East China Seas and use its economic leverage to secure alliances in the region. This strategy is based on the belief that the US’ influence is dwindling. But with Biden in power, how will the US’ military and defense priorities change in the Indo-Pacific region? Couple this with political uncertainty and rising illiberalism, how will strategic and defense objectives interplay with a US return to promoting democracy in the region? Join Bates Gill, Professor of Asia-Pacific Security Studies and Macquarie University and Scholar-in-Residence at Asia Society Australia, C. Raja Mohan, Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies, Yuka Koshino, Research Fellow for Japanese Security and Defence Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, Lynn Kuok, Shangri-La Dialogue Senior Fellow for Asia Pacific Security
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
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Each week, we ll share a variety of videos, articles, webcasts, and more from around the web all curated by the Asia Society Texas Center staff to reflect the broad interests and goals of our mission. In this digest, explore Business and Policy topics through a selection of videos, podcasts, and articles.
Webcast: Beijing s Early Reactions to the Biden Administration
ASIA SOCIETY POLICY INSTITUTE, March 18, 2021 The year 2020 was a pivotal one for U.S.–China relations, concluding a four-year rollercoaster ride for the world s most important bilateral relationship during the Trump administration. Now, with the Biden administration taking charge in Washington and quickly implementing its own take on U.S. strategy toward China, Beijing has begun asses
Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a prominent editor with close ties to then-prime minister
Shinzo Abe, had drugged and raped her following a meeting to discuss a potential job. The police discouraged Ito from filing a report and subjected her to a humiliating interrogation. Yamaguchi denied the charge. And, despite ample evidence in support of Ito’s claim, the police declined to prosecute him.
Ito decided to go public. In doing so, she sparked a reckoning about sexual violence in one of Asia’s most deeply patriarchal societies, where an overwhelming majority of rapes are not reported. Ito’s allegation is credited with launching Japan’s #metoo movement, and it eventually led to a measure of justice: The Japanese government strengthened the country’s century-old laws against rape and in 2019, a court ordered Yamaguchi to pay Ito damages in a civil trial.
March 11th marks the ten-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, natural disasters which led to a series of explosions and meltdown at the nuclear plant in Fukushima. Formally referred to as the Great Eastern Japan Disaster (
Higashi Nihon Daishinsai), it was one of the gravest crises in Japan’s post-World War II history. The displacement of over a hundred thousand residents and the invisible spread of radioactive contamination from this catastrophe shook Japan and the world.
Asia Pacific Initiative (API) Chairman
Yoichi Funabashi and Asia Society Policy Institute and former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs