A flood of Chinese visitors going abroad has raised the COVID-19 infections at alarming numbers around the world. With its abrupt opening up, Japan and South Korea have introduced mandatory COVID-19 testing for visitors from China. Beijing has retaliated by suspending short-term travel visas and visa exempt entry Japanese and South Korean Japanese visitors.
New suspicions have also followed with the replacement of one of China’s most active voices in its ‘wolf-diplomacy,’ Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian. Taiwan Talks looks at the headwinds in the global economy, boiling tensions in the U.S.-China tech war, and China’s post-reopening diplomacy on what ripple effects it may have on Taiwan’s international space and security.
In this episode, Lu Yeh-chung, National Chengchi University Department of Diplomacy Chair and Professor, and Stephen Tan, Managing Director of the International Policy Advisory Group, discuss what China’s opening up means for the world economy and the region’s geopolitics. We also hear from Riley Walters, Hudson Institute Japan Chair Deputy Director, and Alex Capri, Hinrich Foundation Research Fellow and World Economic Forum Agenda Contributor, on the implications on Japan’s increased security role in the Pacific and U.S determination to win the tech war with China.
Topics discussed:
- China’s explosive COVID-19 cases with its sudden opening up and parting with Zero-COVID while refusing Western vaccines
- How China’s diplomatic showdown likely manifest with China’s defiance and what effect will it have on the global economy
- Could the CCP try to reuse nationalism to divert attention? Will Taiwan become a target for distraction for China’s domestic discontent?
- Second renaming: What is behind China’s repeated name changing of the virus? From 'Wuhan coronavirus' to COVID-19, what is next?
- Significance of Japan’s mention of Taiwan in its latest national defense strategy: Is Japan upping its game in Asian collective defense?
- Rationale behind the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in the Solomon Islands
- Will the Marcos Jr. visit to Beijing change the Philippines' relationship with China and the U.S.?
- How the U.S. is determined to build supply chains excluding China and preventing it from receiving chip technology as it decouples from Chinese supply chains in winning its tech war
- TikTok bans: Possibility of Taiwan following other countries in banning the Chinese app and what this means for freedom of speech and national security
- Taiwan’s competitive chip edge and what this means for other advanced capitalist democracies
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