Asia

Affronts to Australia by China’s top diplomat in Canberra and the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper reached new heights in April 2020. What prompted their verbal barbs was the Australian government’s backing for an independent review into the...

On May 20, 2020, President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan began her second term in office. In a more subdued ceremony than is the norm, Tsai took the office of oath, along with new Vice President Lai Ching-te. Her second...

Mid-May is upon us. I would like to thank our readers who have loyally read our weekly discussions throughout the pandemic. I hope you all are healthy and safe, and continue to stay the course in staying at home....

The World Health Assembly (WHA)—the annual plenary session of the 194 members of the World Health Organization (WHO)—convenes on May 18, 2020. The perennial question of Taiwan’s participation and access has again become especially prominent and contentious, largely because...

Attempts in the United States to use legal means to hold the People’s Republic of China responsible for its role in novel coronavirus-linked harms are legally flawed and politically fraught. So far, they have taken several forms, each problematic...

Congratulations to our readers: you made it to May! Celebrate the small victories, and do something special for yourself today (aside from reading today’s titillating conversation, of course). Some states are beginning a slow re-opening, but please continue to...

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which arose in China and swept around the globe, has devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands. But however large the health impact of COVID-19 ultimately is, hundreds of millions more have already...

The end of April is in sight. Most of us have been working from home and living under quarantine and social distancing policies for six weeks now, but somehow, April’s almost over. Some misguided individuals are now protesting to...

The Streisand Effect, referring to “the act of trying to suppress information but simply making it more widespread as a result,” was coined in 2005. The term is named after singer Barbara Streisand because in 2003, Streisand sued photographer...

Week four of social distancing and quarantine is coming to a close in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We’re starting to see some encouraging signs about curves flattening, but the death toll this week has been a tragedy. This...