Monday Asia Events, June 14, 2021

Flag Day in the U.S.

The Facts. In 2007, members of the Japanese rightwing published in the Washington Post a full page advertorial "The Facts" condemning the Comfort Women--sex slaves for Imperial Japan's military and colonial administrators--as liars and well-paid prostitutes. The ad was part of an effort to convince members of the House of Representatives to reject a House resolution, H.Res. 121, that asked Japan to unequivocally apologize to Imperial Japan's Comfort Women victims. The Comfort Women system was a state initiated, organized, and managed form of human trafficking. Two of Prime Minister Suga's current Cabinet advisers signed this denialist document: Manabu Sakai (坂井学) and Minoru Kihara (木原稔)

BRUSSELS FORUM - DAY 1. 6/14, 4:00am-2:00pm (EDT), LIVESTREAM. Sponsor: German Marshall Fund. Speakers include: Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General, NATO; Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, Canada; Angela Merkel, Chancellor, Germany; Justyna Gotkowska, Program Coordinator, Regional Security Program, Center for Eastern Studies; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President, Turkey; Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister, Greece; Tacan Ildem, Former Assistant Secretary General, Public Diplomacy, NATO; Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA), U.S. House of Representatives; Peter Dutton, Minister of Defence, Australia; Noah Barkin, Senior Visiting Fellow, Asia Program, German Marshall Fund; Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), U.S. Senate; Tanvi Madan, Senior Fellow, Project on International Order and Strategy, Foreign Policy Program, Director, The India Project, Brookings; Janka Oertel, Director, Asia Program, European Council on Foreign Relations; Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), U.S. House of Representatives; Alexander de Croo, Prime Minister, Belgium. 

CHINA’S DIGITAL SILK ROAD: INTEGRATION INTO NATIONAL IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND WIDER IMPLICATIONS FOR WESTERN DEFENCE INDUSTRIES. 6/14, 9:00am (EDT), ZOOM. Sponsor: International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Speakers: Alexander Neill, Executive Director, Alex Neill Consulting; Camille Lons, Research Associate, IISS-Middle East Office, Bahrain; Nawafel Shehab, Research Assistant, IISS-Middle East Office, Bahrain; Scott Malcomson, Director of Special Projects, Strategic Insight Group; Meia Nouwens, Senior Fellow, Chinese Defense Policy and Modernisation, IISS; Dr. Bastian Giegerich, Director of Defence and Military Analysis, IISS. 

THE ROLE OF NATURAL GAS IN A DECARBONIZED WORLD – REGIONAL INSIGHTS. 6/14, 9:00am (EDT), ZOOM PANEL. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Secretary Ernest Moniz, President and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Futures Initiative; Melanie Kenderdine, Principal, Energy Futures Initiative; Astha Gupta, Asia EDGE Fellow, National Bureau of Asian Research; Anouk Honoré, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; Ken Koyama, Chief Economist and Managing Director, Institute for Energy Economics, Japan; Leila Ben Ali, Chief Economist, International Energy Forum; Alain Ebobissé, Chief Executive Officer, Africa50; Ruslan Stefanov, Program Director and Chief Economist, Center for the Study of Democracy; Lisa Viscidi, Director, Energy, Climate Change & Extractive Industries Program, Inter-American Dialogue; Moderators: David Goldwyn, Chairman, Energy Advisory Group, Atlantic Council; Robert Stoner, Deputy Director for Science and Technology, MIT Energy Initiative.

TAIWAN - GEOPOLITICAL FLASHPOINT: FACTS V HYPERBOLE. 6/14, 9:30am (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: US-China Series. Speakers: Maggie Lewis, Seton Hall University; Bonnie Glaser, German Marshall Fund of the United States. 

RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION DURING CRISES: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE. 6/14, Noon-1:15pm (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). Speakers: Mahan Mirza, Executive Director, Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, University of Notre Dame; Sabrina Dent, Senior Faith Advisor, Americans United for Separation of Church and State; Susan Hayward, Visiting Fellow, Religion in Public Life, Harvard Divinity School; Knox Thames, Senior Fellow, Institute of Global Engagement; Moderator: Jason Klocek, Senior Researcher, USIP. 

WHAT THE US-JAPAN ALLIANCE HOPES TO SEE EUROPE CONTRIBUTE TO THE INDO-PACIFIC. 6/14, 7:00-8:00pm (JST), WEBINAR. Sponsors: Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies (YCAPS); Jeunes IHEDN; Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS), Temple University Japan Campus. Speakers: Tsuneo Watanabe, Senior Research Fellow, Sasakawa Peace Foundation; Kevin Maher, Senior Advisor, NMV Consulting, LLC; Moderators: John Bradford, Executive Director, YCAPS; Stephen Nagy, Director for Policy Research, YCAPS. 

WE HEREBY REFUSE: JAPANESE AMERICAN RESISTANCE TO WARTIME INCARCERATION. 6/14, 9:00pm (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsors: Elliott Bay Book Company; Seattle Public Library; Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience; Densho. Speakers: Author, Frank Abe, Writer; Author, Tamiko Nimura, Writer; Ross Ishikawa, Cartoonist, and Animator; Tom Ikeda, Executive Director, Densho. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/3x93rsj

JAPAN IN THE AGE OF SINO-AMERICAN CONFRONTATION. 6/14, 9:30pm (EDT). WEBINAR. Sponsors: Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS), Temple University Japan (TUJ); Center for Rule-making Strategies (CRS), Tama University. Speakers: Shihoko Goto, Deputy Director for Geoeconomics, Asia Program, Wilson Center; Tobias Harris, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Moderator: Robert Dujarric, Co-Director, ICAS, TUJ. 

COMPARATIVE CONNECTIONS ROUNDTABLE. 6/14, 8:00-9:30pm (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Pacific Forum. Speakers: Dr. Catherine Dalpino, Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University; Dr. Chin-Hao Huang, Assistant Professor, Yale-NUS College; Dr. Robert Sutter, Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University. 

OCEANS OF OPPORTUNITY: SOUTHEAST ASIA’S SHARED MARITIME CHALLENGES, SESSION TWO. 6/14, 8:00-10:30pm (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsors: CSIS; University of the Philippines. Speakers: Deo Onda, Deputy Director, Marine Science Institute, University Philippines; Sandra Whitehouse, Founding Member, Ocean Collective; Antonio Carpio, Former Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the Philippines; Tara Davenport, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore; Xiao Recio-Blanco, Director, Ocean Program, Environmental Law Institute; Jay Batongbacal, Director, Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, University of the Philippines. Gregory B. Poling, Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia, Director, Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, CSIS; Whitley Saumweber, Director, Stephenson Ocean Security Project, and Senior Associate (Non-Resident), Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, CSIS.