While the coronavirus pandemic has been overturning life as we know it, a familiar confrontation arose in East Asia. China’s establishment of new administrative divisions in contested areas in the South China Sea in late April set off the United States that responded by moving warships in the Taiwan Straits. China’s assertiveness in the area also discomforted Japan and South Korea, two countries where anti-Chinese sentiment has been brewing since the epidemic outbreak. Yet, the predictions of the International Monetary Fund are clear: Asia has an advantage in post-crisis recovery, but the region needs to learn to work together. Will insecurity jeopardize the region’s ability to resurge from the pandemic? Can East Asia look at regional organizations as viable frameworks to settle disagreements and make joint plans? To what extent will the regionalization of value chains be feasible, if long-lasting instabilities re-emerge?
Welcome remarks
YOO Hye-ran, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Milan
Panel discussion
Aidan FOSTER-CARTER, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea, University of Leeds, UK
JUN Bong-Geun, Professor and the Director, Center for Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security, Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS), South Korea
John NILSSON-WRIGHT , Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia, Chatham House and Senior University Lecturer in Japanese Politics and International Relations University of Cambridge, UK
Valérie NIQUET, Senior Research Fellow, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, France
Axel BERKOFSKY, Co-head of the Asia Center, ISPI and Professor of Asian History, University of Pavia, Italy
ISPI is hosting this event online.
