China could seize Taiwan's outlying islands

Significance They are difficult to defend and therefore a tempting target. Beijing might try to seize them as a way to frighten and demoralise Taiwan's government or as preparation for an assault on Taiwan itself. Impacts A successful attack might embolden China to seize islands claimed by Japan and South-east Asian states. Western sanctions imposed in response to such an attack would be significantly more aggressive than those related to Xinjiang and Hong Kong. Japan would take the possibility of war with China more seriously and strengthen its defence capabilities more vigorously. A weak US response would shake Seoul's confidence in US protection and could make South Korea more likely to develop nuclear weapons.

Author(s):  
Mansor H. Ibrahim ◽  
Syed Aun R. Rizvi

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the implication of trade on carbon emissions in a panel of eight highly trading Southeast and East Asian countries, namely, China, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis relies on the standard quadratic environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) extended to include energy consumption and international trade. A battery of panel unit root and co-integration tests is applied to establish the variables’ stochastic properties and their long-run relations. Then, the specified EKC is estimated using the panel dynamic ordinary least square (OLS) estimation technique. Findings – The panel co-integration statistics verifies the validity of the extended EKC for the countries under study. Estimation of the long-run EKC via the dynamic OLS estimation method reveals the environmentally degrading effects of trade in these countries, especially in ASEAN and plus South Korea and Hong Kong. Practical implications – These countries are heavily dependent on trade for their development processes, and as such, their impacts on CO2 emissions would be highly relevant for assessing their trade policies, along the line of the gain-from-trade hypothesis, the race-to-the-bottom hypothesis and the pollution-safe-haven hypothesis. Originality/value – The analysis adds to existing literature by focusing on the highly trading nations of Southeast and East Asian countries. The results suggest that reassessment of trade policies in these countries is much needed and it must go beyond the sole pursuit of economic development via trade.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 677-693
Author(s):  
Tauchid Komara Yuda

PurposePolitical analyses of the East Asian welfare state development often stress the importance of the power resource model, in which vibrant coalitions between the leftist party, interest groups, civil society and working-class unions have become driving factors in producing generous welfare outcomes. Challenging such analyses, this article discusses the convergence of the political attitude between political actors who are increasingly homogeneous (supportive) when it comes to the universal welfare state notion by focussing on childcare in South Korea.Design/methodology/approachBy using desk review of the peer-reviewed literature and reports, this article investigates the causation for why political parties with different political ideologies were keen on extending childcare programs and its outcome in addressing the existing demographic problems in Korea.FindingsAlthough the collective movement, especially in the 1990s and 2000s, had given important contributions to the early development of childcare in South Korea, more breakthroughs in childcare features were precisely and rapidly developed after politicians from different spectrums of political affiliations converged in their supportive attitude of the universal welfare. The driving factors of political convergence itself are not merely due to electoral competition or political activism; furthermore, it can be linked to the increased global institution involvement in domestic policy with extensive permeability, which, have ruined domestic policy development maintained for ideological reasoning and bring in more popular policy setting.Originality/valueThis article contributes to the growing literature on the political aspect of East Asian social policy studies, which goes beyond the traditional power resource analysis and makes a novel contribution to the childcare policy studies.


Significance Inbound and outbound Asian tourism has exploded over the last 20 years, especially in East and South East Asia. However, the sector faces challenges. Impacts Supporting tourism, Asia hosts three Olympics in a row -- South Korea 2018 (winter games), Tokyo 2020 (summer) and Beijing 2022 (winter). Tourism is a key source of exports and dollars; if Cambodia is hit by sanctions after its disputed election, tourism could cushion GDP. In ten years the UN sees India's population overtaking China's, making Indian travellers key to East and South-east Asian tourism.


2014 ◽  
Vol 115 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 314-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Lo ◽  
Joyce Chao-chen Chen ◽  
Zvjezdana Dukic ◽  
You-ra Youn ◽  
Yuji Hirakue ◽  
...  

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the different roles and expectations of the school librarians as information literacy (IL) instructors between Hong Kong, Japan, Shanghai, South Korea, and Taipei. School librarians are not merely managers of the school libraries nowadays; they are also expected to serve as administrators, teaching consultants, information specialists and IL teachers, etc. Unfortunately, in many countries, especially in Asia, there has always been a lack of understanding on the parts of the classroom teachers and school administration about their role as IL specialists in the public school system. Design/methodology/approach – The school librarians in Hong Kong, Japan, Shanghai, South Korea and Taipei were invited to take part in a questionnaire survey. A total number of 466 self-completed questionnaires were collected from all 5 regions. Findings – The results indicated that the school librarians in both Taipei and South Korea outperformed the other regions, in terms of the scope and extent of duties and responsibilities these school librarians undertook as IL skills instructors. The staffing and organizational structures amongst the school libraries in Taipei also tended to be far more affluent and “departmentalized” in comparison to the other four regions. Results also indicated that the amount of IL instructions carried out by the school librarians were directly proportional to the frequencies of collaborations the school librarians carried out with other subject teachers as well as the extent the librarians themselves could contribute to the curriculum as both information consultants and curriculum facilitators. Finally, the amount and level of reference duties performed by these school librarians for supporting the teaching of other subject teachers was another factor contributing to the overall success of IL instructions programmes being carried out. Originality/value – The complex interactions of global trend and local responses in education system cannot easily be understood without the use of comparative studies (Arnove and Torres, 1999). The value of comparative studies lies in its potentials in highlighting the strengths and deficiencies of the education systems being examined and thereby identifying valuable features of both foreign and local systems, as well as exposing defects for necessary improvements. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of cross-regional comparative research on IL programmes carried out via school libraries in East Asia. This study aims to provide a cross-analysis of empirical data collected in five different regions in East Asia for examining the issues of the role of the school librarians as IL skills specialists, by looking at their relationships with other colleagues as well as their role as curriculum facilitator within the school community as a whole.


2019 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregg A. Stevens

This collection of essays in Medical Education in East Asia: Past and Future outlines the history of medical education in five East Asian countries and territories: China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.


Subject Uzbekistan-South Korea ties. Significance Uzbekistan wants to reduce its reliance on Russia by expanding ties to Asia, but without risking becoming over-dependent on China, as it sees Turkmenistan has become. Uzbekistani President Islam Karimov's visit to South Korea in May paved the way for cooperation with Seoul in new areas such as logistics, energy infrastructure, construction and defence. These all represent areas of increasing connections between Central and East Asian nations. Impacts Sixty agreements were signed during Karimov's visit to Seoul worth more than 7.7 billion dollars. These will provide a boost to President Park Geun-Hye's Eurasia Initiative. South Korea will seek to strengthen its position in Central Asia ahead of China's 'New Silk Road' initiative.


Significance Although North Korea’s nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are still rudimentary by international standards, Pyongyang’s threats of striking targets in the continental United States have more credible technological underpinnings than before. The development of North Korean ICBMs threatens to ‘decouple’ Washington from Seoul and Tokyo, whereby US security commitments to allies become less credible because Pyongyang could attack the US homeland. Impacts Budget battles in Washington preclude extensive investment in mainland US ballistic missile defence systems. However, further integration of Japan and South Korea into the US regional missile defence network is likely. State Department vacancies for ambassadorships and Washington-based Asia policy officials will hinder US reassurance efforts. US interception of North Korean smuggling vessels or overflying missiles risk military-to-military armed clashes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Po Jen Yap ◽  
Chien-Chih Lin

This comparative study of the constitutional jurisprudence of three East Asian jurisdictions investigates how the rulings of the Constitutional Court of Taiwan, the Constitutional Court of Korea and the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal have converged. The unique political contexts of all three jurisdictions have led to strong courts using the structured proportionality doctrine and innovative constitutional remedies to address human rights issues. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea have the only courts in Asia that regularly use a structured four-stage Proportionality Analysis to invalidate laws, and routinely apply innovative constitutional remedies such as Suspension Orders and Remedial Interpretation to rectify constitutionally flawed legislation. This volume explores how judges in these areas are affected by politics within their different constitutional systems. The latest developments in Asian constitutional law are covered, with detailed analysis of key cases.


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