Aaron Baum

Nov 6, 2024 | lawfaremedia.org | Aaron Baum |Nikhita Salgame |Ania Zolyniak

The spirit of Halloween has reached across the Pacific. In China, police cracked down on public Halloween celebrations, which began over the weekend of Oct. 26 and 27. The crackdowns come on the anniversary of last year’s politically charged Halloween celebrations in Shanghai, where citizens used costumes to protest the Chinese Communist Party’s pandemic restrictions and economic policies.

Oct 7, 2024 | lawfaremedia.org | Daniel Byman |Aaron Baum |Nikhita Salgame |Ania Zolyniak

As China and the United States continue military exercises with partners in Southeast Asia, melting ice saw increased competition further north—in the Arctic. From under the blanket of U.S. and European sanctions preventing Russia from acquiring icebreakers, Moscow leaned on its risky “shadow fleet” of unregistered vessels this summer to channel an unprecedented amount of oil through the Arctic Ocean.

Aug 24, 2024 | lawfaremedia.org | Aaron Baum |Nikhita Salgame |Ania Zolyniak

After announcing a provisional agreement addressing some differences over one territorial dispute, Second Thomas Shoal, China and the Philippines found themselves in a new row in August over a separate area in the South China Sea: Sabina Shoal. The Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations that have their own territorial disputes with China have also spent the month building new defense alliances and participating in joint exercises in the region.

Aug 1, 2024 | lawfaremedia.org | Aaron Baum |Ania Zolyniak |Nikhita Salgame

While the recent film “Civil War” reflected in generic terms American anxieties about the risk of heightened political violence, a trailer released in late July for the upcoming Taiwanese TV series “Zero Day” gave even more explicit expression to Taiwanese concerns about Chinese aggression. The trailer depicts tactics by Beijing explored in mock exercises that Taiwan and others have conducted to prepare for potential aggression—including a blockade of the island and cyberattacks.

Jun 28, 2024 | lawfaremedia.org | Aaron Baum |Nikhita Salgame |Ania Zolyniak

Wiretapping. Resupply missions to a dilapidated navy ship in a disputed archipelago. An injured sailor. These incidents are but a snapshot of increasingly strained Philippine-Chinese relations and events in the Indo-Pacific this month, which came to a head when two ships—one Philippine and one Chinese—collided near the disputed South China Sea territory of Second Thomas Shoal on the morning of June 17.