“Iron is the country.” Tetsu wa kokka nari. That is what Japan’s first prime minister, Prince Ito Hirobumi, said in 1901, channeling nineteenth century German statesman Otto von Bismarck, when the first blast furnace of Yahata Steel Works, Nippon Steel’s main antecedent company, was fired up. But that hardly applies to the United States and its iron and steel sector today, writes Paul Sheard.
China’s legal service sector is growing rapidly, including not only commercial law offices but publicly funded legal aid. In this Feb. 21, 2025 talk at NYU Law School, Hualing Fu, dean of the law faculty at the University of Hong Kong and visiting professor at NYU Law, shares his research into the emerging new sector of “public legal services,” in which the government funds lawyers to resolve social disputes at an early stage. Dean Fu argues that pro bono work in China can serve as a tool of political control, allowing the government to frame disputes in its preferred terms and ensure they are resolved quickly, without any group mobilization.
March 30, 2025-April 5, 2025
China responds to new US tariffs with reciprocal tariffs plus a wide array of sanctions and investigations against US companies; Hong Kong’s new police commissioner promises action against pockets of “soft resistance”; political parties in Japan negotiate changes to draft legislation on active cyberdefense in an effort to address privacy concerns; South Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously upholds the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol; three staff members of Taiwan’s ruling three Democratic Progressive Party are being investigated on suspicion of spying for the Chinese Communist Party.
March 23, 2025-March 29, 2025
Chinese authorities release five Chinese employees of the American due diligence firm the Mintz Group after holding them for two years without trial; a Japanese court strips the Unification Church of its status as a religious organization; the clock is ticking in the impeachment trial of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as the Constitutional Court continues its deliberations; Taiwan’s Executive Yuan approves a proposal to establish a Personal Data Protection Commission.
March 16, 2025-March 22, 2025
Chinese Communist Party-run news media continue to denounce plans by a Hong Kong company to sell ports on either end of the Panama Canal, arguing that the canal is a Chinese national security interest; Hong Kong’s Legislative Council approves a cybersecurity law; the city of Tokyo prepares to implement Japan’s first ordinance aimed at curbing harassment of public-facing workers by irate customers; South Korea’s Constitutional Court says it will rule in the impeachment trial of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo next week; Taiwan’s executive puts forward another slate of nominees to fill the bench of its Constitutional Court.
Program on International Law & Relations in Asia
