International

Why Does China Hope to Accomplish Through Deploying Fighter Planes in the Taiwan Straits?

Two Chinese J-11 fighter aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Straits at 11 AM yesterday morning, provoking strong reactions from within Taiwan and prompting the Taiwanese air force to mobilize five fighter planes in response. The incident was a break from precedent, seeing as while Chinese regularly fields planes in the Taiwan Straits, they do not usually cross the median line of the Taiwan Straits...

Visit by Han Kuo-Yu to Beijing Liaison Office Prompts Criticism from Hong Kong, Taiwan Politicians

A visit by Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu to Hong Kong has provoked outrage from both Taiwan and Hong Kong politicians. Han is accused of infringing upon both Hong Kong and Taiwan’s sovereignty in directly meeting with Wang Zhimin, the director of Hong Kong’s Beijing Liaison Office, which represents the Chinese government in Hong Kong...

Why Is AIT so Anxious About an Independence Referendum in Taiwan?

Responding to a call for progress towards an independence referendum, the American Institute in Taiwan, America’s de facto embassy in Taiwan has explicitly rejected efforts to change Taiwan’s status quo. The move is paradoxical. While the US praises Taiwan for its democracy and states that the decisions to island’s future should be left to the people of Taiwan, it at the same time hopes to discourage the people of Taiwan from making a decision on their political future...

American Opposition to a Referendum on Taiwanese Independence Should Not Surprise

A group of Republican senators recently called on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to invite Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen to speak at a session of the US Congress. However, this notion would be criticized by former AIT head Richard Bush, among others. Bush would later also criticize the notion of the holding a referendum on Taiwanese independence, something later backed up by comments from AIT stating that America would not be in support of a referendum...

American Support for Taiwan Draws Parallel to Backing of Israel

For organizers in Taiwan, the DPP’s commitment to justice must be questioned alongside any vision of transitional justice that fails to engage with the role of the US in propping up the authoritarian Chiang Kai-shek regime. Likewise, contrary to popular belief, American political support for Taiwan, similar to American support for Israel, is a deeply bipartisan position...