Few publicly displayed artistic masterpieces languish in more profound obscurity than “Rakuchū rakugai-zu,” or “Scenes in and around the Capital,” a 17th-century pair of painted sixfold screens hidden away in Osaka’s seldom-visited Nanban Bunkakan Museum. Situated well off the downtown…
If there is a “gathering storm” in the Indo-Pacific, Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be the Asian Winston Churchill. In an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times on April 12, Abe called for the U.S. and Japan…
Shortly after midnight on Sunday, the Parliament of Pakistan voted to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was elected to the office in 2018. Among the domestic factors that led to disaffection with Khan and his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf…
Last week, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a historic four-day visit to Taiwan. He met President Tsai Ing-Wen, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, and many other politicians and leading Taiwanese personalities. While giving a speech at a prominent Taiwanese…
At times of national security peril — and we are in such times, with conflicts brewing in the South China Sea and Eastern Europe, and an administration in Washington that appears to be reacting in an ad hoc and nonstrategic…
Last week, China Evergrande suspended its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Evergrande is China’s second-largest real estate developer. The company has been in crisis for months, having repeatedly missed interest payments on its debt. Now, the company, which owes $300 billion in…
Once a brutal dictatorship, Taiwan is now one of the world’s most vibrant democracies, having received a Global Freedom Score of 94/100 from Freedom House and the accolade of Asia’s most democratic country from the Economist. Its leader, President Tsai…
On Thursday, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, which is part of the Office of Director of National Intelligence, issued a report warning American companies about the risks of doing business with Chinese firms in five critical industries: artificial intelligence,…
By many measures, South Korea should be a nation on the rise. South Korea is the world’s 10th largest economy (and the fourth largest in Asia); its goods and cultural exports span the earth. From leading automotive brands to cell…