While we were at last year’s Taiwanese American Conference West Coast in July of 2025 which was hosted in San Francisco Silicon Valley, we sat down with Akio Yaita (矢板明夫), the keynote speaker of the conference. As a senior journalist at Sankei Shimbun Akio has covered Beijing and Taipei. He’s been a strong advocate for Taiwan. In 2024 Akio obtained citizenship in Taiwan and founded the Indo-Pacific Strategy Thinktank.
As we were working on translating and editing our interview with Akio we were disturbed to learn that on July 6th Akio was assaulted after a speaking engagement in Taichung. While Akio was in the lobby of a hotel, a Chinese man approached him and punched him in the face. The man, surnamed Liao (廖) was later arrested at the Taichung International Airport. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council described the attack as the “first case of transnational repression” in Taiwan since China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law took effect on July 1. After the attack Akio has said that he will not be intimidated.
What timing it’s turned out to be for us to be sharing our interview with Akio Yaita now. You’ll get know about his backstory and how you can follow him and his work.
This episode is sponsored in part by the Pacific Times.
Related Links:
Akio Yaita’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/YaitaAkio
Indo-Pacific Strategy Think Tank (IPST): https://www.indopacstrat.com/
Taiwan Security at the Heart of New Think Tank Initiative: https://japan-forward.com/taiwan-security-at-the-heart-of-new-think-tank-initiative/
China’s Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress: https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/en/ethnic-unity-and-progress-law/
Sankei Shimbun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankei_Shimbun
Media personality Yaita Akio punched in the face by Chinese-born HK man: https://english.ftvnews.com.tw/news/2026706W04EA
Chinese man arrested after punching Japanese speaker: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2026/07/07/2003860344
MAC suggests China may be involved in attack on Japanese commentator: https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202607060025
Political commentator vows not to be silenced after Taichung attack: https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202607070017
Suspect in Akio Yaita attack was HK triad member: ‘Mirror Media’: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/07/14/2003860731
Japanese War Orphans and the Challenges of Repatriation in Post-Colonial East Asia: https://apjjf.org/mariko-asano-tamanoi/2195/article
The 1989 Tiananmen Crackdown: https://www.amnesty.org/en/projects/the-1989-tiananmen-crackdown/
Timeline: What Led to the Tiananmen Square Massacre: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/timeline-tiananmen-square/
Hu Jintao: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Jintao
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hu-Jintao
Xi Jinping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping
China’s Cultural Revolution: https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/introduction_to_the_cultural_revolution
The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China’s political convulsion: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/11/the-cultural-revolution-50-years-on-all-you-need-to-know-about-chinas-political-convulsion
Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics
Tsai Ing-wen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsai_Ing-wen
Chinese officials stifle, expel foreign journalists for doing their job: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/chinese-officials-stifle-expel-foreign-journalists-for-doing-their-job
COVID pandemic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic
https://www.who.int/europe/emergencies/situations/covid-19
Donald Trump: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
Speaker Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit: Implications for the Indo-Pacific: https://www.csis.org/analysis/speaker-pelosis-taiwan-visit-implications-indo-pacific
Han Kuo-yu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Kuo-yu
China Times: https://www.chinatimes.com/?chdtv
CTI News: https://www.ctitv.com.tw/
Su Tseng-chang: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Tseng-chang
DPP (Democratic Progressive Party): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Progressive_Party
Audrey Tang: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Tang
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Audrey-Tang
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