Professor and Chair of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus
Elizabeth Freund Larus, Chairman of the Department of Political Science and International Affairs virtually participated in the Roundtable “COVID-19 Pandemic as a Challenge to Democracy and Human Rights in China and Taiwan” at Jagellonian University, Krakow, on November 29, 2021. Professor Larus commented that the U.S. media has grown more critical of China since the advent of COVID-19 and more favorably disposed to Taiwan, shaping the message that the media convey. She also indicated that COVID-19 reinforced autocratic rule in China and democracy in Taiwan, and that COVID-19 weakened China’s soft power, which had been waning before the outbreak of the pandemic.