Articles by Jin Kai

South Korea’s US pivot raises alarm for Beijing

Under President Lee Jae-myung, South Korea is anchoring its future with the US, strengthening security and economic ties while limiting strategic depth with China. Beijing faces shrinking influence as Seoul’s long-term orientation shifts westward, says academic Jin Kai.

Jin Kai

10 Dec 2025

Liquid AI: Why artificial intelligence can’t be locked down

AI tech — unlike Cold War-era heavy equipment — is a relatively liquid and mobile asset, thus a completely stable and enforceable tech blockade by any single state will remain elusive, says researcher Jin Kai.

Jin Kai

04 Aug 2025

Would Hegseth’s words be heard at Normandy? Rethinking double standards in WWII remembrance

Reflecting on US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech at Iwo Jima recently, academic Jin Kai points out that Japan’s strategic importance as a core ally in East Asian geopolitics has been prioritised, while the wartime history between the US and Japan has largely been relegated to the past.

Jin Kai

29 Apr 2025

America’s ‘breaking’ and ‘building’ of the world order

Academic Jin Kai observes that the US is still the only power with the goal, power and will to practice the construction of a world order. Seeing that the current world order no longer best serves its interest and it is now faced with unprecedented challenges from Russia and China, it will do what it takes to “break” the old order and “build” a new one. The other countries looking on can only adapt to the changes during this period of change. 

Jin Kai

10 Jun 2024

US's 'axis of evil' narrative could escalate tensions on Korean peninsula

With North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's visit to Russia recently, observers worry that North Korea and Russia, together with China, are drawing closer, forming a greater "axis" of nuclear threat. But academic Jin Kai sees the sense of a greater "alliance" forming as all part of the US and its allies' "geopolitical imagination", which could see them taking steps that escalate the situation in the Korean peninsula.

Jin Kai

21 Sep 2023

Seoul-Tokyo rapprochement: Stop-gap measure or long-term goal?

Japan and South Korea's recent closeness may not just be a product of wariness of China, but US interests too, says Jin Kai, a visiting scholar at the Yonsei Institute for Sinology at Yonsei University, Seoul. But is closer Japan-South Korea-US trilateral cooperation sustainable amid tense dynamics in East Asia and the Korean peninsula?

Jin Kai

31 Jul 2023

Can China avert North Korea's seventh nuclear test?

With North Korea's seventh testing of a nuclear weapon looking imminent, Chinese academic Jin Kai notes that the ROK's hardened stance and the US's inconsistent policies are not helping to calm rising tensions in the Korean peninsula. And while it is perceived to hold sway over North Korea, China's influence over its neighbour may be overrated in truth.

Jin Kai

08 Dec 2022

When neighbours disagree: Did China 'steal' South Korea's culture and historical memory?

When the Chinese featured a lady wearing a hanbok - what to the Koreans is their national costume - at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony, it was as if the band-aid on rising China-South Korean tensions was peeled off. Soon after, cries of foul play and the Chinese "snatching" medals from the South Koreans followed. Are greater squabbles on the horizon for these Northeast Asian neighbours?

Jin Kai

17 Feb 2022