Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus, who is 2026 Ministry of Foreign Affairs Taiwan Fellow, discussed U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific with students and faculty virtually at Poland’s Marie Curie Skłodowska University.

Larus discussed the role of regional allies as force aggregators and offered an overview of U.S. policy toward Taiwan. She also offered insight on President Trump’s upcoming meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping, and answered students’ questions regarding the potential for a future conflict with China. Larus was a 2020 Fulbright Research Fellow at UMCS, where she maintains a professional relationship.

Other media mentions for Larus include:

US-Israel Strike Iran (WION)
Larus offered comments to WION news on US strikes against Iran. Professor Larus anticipated that Iran’s clerics would select another Islamist to succeed Khamenei as Supreme Jurist, but less predictable is the success of a popular overthrow of Iran’s theocracy. Watch on WION.

Australia Deploys Military Planes to Evacuate Citizens from Middle East Amid Rising Tensions (WION)
Larus commented on the possibility of NATO involvement in the conflict. Watch on WION.

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus was quoted by the BBC News in an article titled “Venezuela today and Taiwan tomorrow? How Trump’s raid on Maduro sparked heated debate on both sides of the strait.” Larus, who is also a senior fellow at the U.S. think tank Pacific Forum, disagreed with the idea that the U.S. action this time gave Beijing a green light. She explained that China regards Taiwan as an internal affair and will take action against Taiwan when the PLA is ready, ‘regardless of what international law dictates.’ Read more in BBC News.

Other media mentions include:

Philippine leadership puts ASEAN at center of South China Sea rivalry (UPI)
“Having the Philippines as chairman, particularly under the U.S. friendly Marcos administration, is useful to the U.S. agenda in the region,” said Elizabeth Larus, adjunct senior fellow at the Pacific Forum. She also underscored the critical importance of Trump-Marcos security accord in preventing China from displacing the United States as the dominant maritime power in the region. Read more in UPI.

Maduro’s downfall deals China new cards in US rivalry (DW)
“China didn’t give a hoot about international law,” said Elizabeth Freund Larus, adjunct senior fellow at the Pacific Forum, pointing to China’s military assertiveness in the South China Sea and its reluctance to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Read more in DW.

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus, who is also adjunct senior fellow at the Pacific Forum, offered the bi-lingual presentation “Public Speaking in a Foreign Language – Lessons from Learning to Speak Mandarin​【外語公開演講：從學習中文得到的啟發​】at the 2025 Polyglot Conference in Taipei, November 10-12, 2025. Larus engaged with conference participants in discussing challenges to articulating difficult constructs in a public setting.

Larus also traveled to southern Taiwan to meet members of the Kaohsiung American Chamber of Commerce, with whom she discussed changes in Taiwan’s political environment, the effect of U.S. tariffs on Taiwan’s economy and U.S.-Taiwan relations, and recent flare-ups in cross-Strait tensions. She is currently studying Taiwanese (Tai-gi), a language widely spoken in southern Taiwan.

Larus also flew to Kinmen, a Taiwan administered island only 16 miles off China’s southern coast that had been invaded and bombarded by China in previous attempts to occupy it, to conduct preliminary research on military resistance and civilian emergency preparedness. She will conduct further research on this topic in 2026.

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus

Elizabeth Freund Larus, professor emerita of political science and international affairs, has been invited to speak at the 2025 Polyglot Conference in Taipei, November 10-12. Larus will offer her Chinese-English bilingual presentation “How to Prepare for Public Speaking in a Foreign Language — Lessons from Learning to Speak Mandarin,” to more than 400 teachers, interpreters, translators, students, scholars, language bloggers, linguists and writers, from some 60 countries. Larus speaks Mandarin Chinese and is studying Taiwanese.

Other media mentions for Larus include:

Analysis-China Likely to Take Wait-and-See Approach to Taiwan After Recent Election (RTI Novosti)
Larus suggests that Beijing would likely continue military sorties into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone and later carry out naval exercises near the island closer to Lai’s inauguration in May.

US experts believe negotiations with China will continue despite Trump’s new tariffs (RTI News)
Larus noted that both countries have time to soften their positions before November 1 and the APEC summit, where the planned meeting between Trump and Xi is scheduled to take place. Read more.

Setting the tone for US-China relations is difficult, and the “dominance test” between Xi Jinping and Trump continues (BBC News)
Larus told BBC Chinese that China’s leaders may be able to see through Trump’s vanity and vulnerabilities, but they may also have misjudged him: “Trump gets along well with strong male leaders until they test his patience, at which point he will strike back fiercely. Zhongnanhai should also take note of this.” Read more.

Professor Emerita of  Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Larus

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elisabeth Larus was quoted in RTI News on China’s decision to restrict exports of rare earths and minerals. Larus said the move was aimed at pressuring the U.S. President ahead of a tariff deadline, but instead reignited a cycle of escalating trade threats. “Xi may have overplayed his hand,” she noted, adding that the restrictions could backfire by accelerating U.S. efforts to develop alternative sources and reduce reliance on China. Read the article from RTI News.

Other media mentions for Larus include:

China Gathers Allies to Shape Global Security Vision (Deutsche Welle)
Larus commented in Deutsche Welle on this year’s Xiangshan Forum, China’s annual international security gathering. Larus indicated that the U.S. decision to send a lower-level Pentagon official to the gathering does not indicate a lack of interest on the part of the U.S. administration, but the choice of the U.S. representative indicates that the real discussions are happening through back channels and not in front of the cameras. Larus also commented that China’s leader Xi Jinping would use the forum as an opportunity to promote his peace narrative on issues ranging from the Ukraine war to the South China Sea and Taiwan despite Beijing’s support for Russia and China’s increasing aggression in the Asia-Pacific. Read more.

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs and Adjunct Senior Fellow at Pacific Forum Elizabeth Freund Larus

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs and Adjunct Senior Fellow at Pacific Forum Elizabeth Freund Larus was an invited speaker at the 2025 Asia Retreat for Senior Congressional Staff in Charlottesville, VA August 6-8, 2025.

Professor Larus offered her insight on the Chinese government’s decision making process, as well as on current economic and social issues affecting China’s foreign policy, to chiefs of staff of a dozen members of congress and senators. The program was organized and hosted by the Congressional Study Group on Japan, a program of the Former Members of Congress (FMC), and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA.

Other media mentions for Larus include:

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Larus

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elisabeth Larus, a China expert and adjunct senior fellow at the Pacific Forum, was featured in a BBC News article titled “Trump looks forward to visiting China: Will Rubio, sanctioned by Beijing, become an obstacle to his trip?”

Commenting on meetings between U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and top Chinese officials, Larus observed, “Rubio’s meetings with Beijing’s top brass were inevitably awkward, including a lack of eye contact and faces that looked grim rather than smiling. But their primary role was to pave the way for a meeting between Trump and Xi, not to engage in in-depth, substantive discussions.” Read the full story. 

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Larus

Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus was quoted by BBC News in an article titled “Will the spillover effect of the US surprise attack on Iran cover North Korea and the Taiwan Strait? Asia-Pacific region hotly discusses Trump’s muscle flexing.” In the article, Larus, who serves as an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Pacific Forum, provided expert analysis on regional geopolitical implications, noting that if the U.S. mission against Iran’s nuclear weapons is ultimately successful, Beijing will grudgingly realize again that the United States is not a “wounded hegemon.” Read the article.