Taiwan and China Continue to Contest Air Traffic

Brian Hioe

No, the DPP is Not About to Remove Chiang Kai-shek Statues En Masse

Brian Hioe

Tsai Administration Seeks to Reassure on US Support After Aid Package

Brian Hioe

Pension Reform Set to Become a Battleground Issue Between the Pan-Blue and Pan-Green Camps

Brian Hioe

Politics

Use of Genetic Information for Research Project Prompts Privacy Concerns

Brian Hioe
Concerns have been raised regarding the use of genetic information for more than 600,000 patients for an Academia Sinica research project. Consequently, this led to criticisms from legislator Huang Kuo-shu in February that this could potentially be a violation of the Human Biobank Management Act. Namely, according to the Human Biobank Management Act, patients must consent to their data being used and be allowed to withdraw use of the data at any given time. Some patients may not have signed off consent on their data being used but had their information included in the database...
April 2023EnglishPolitics5 min read

Student Groups Demonstrate Over Representation on University Councils

Brian Hioe
Student representative groups demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Education at the end of March against the ministry not conducting a vote on draft amendments to the University Act. The draft amendments would increase the number of student representatives on university councils from the current 10% to 20%. Groups involved include the National Students’ Union of Taiwan, as well as various student councils from schools across Taiwan...
April 2023EnglishPolitics4 min read

Make-Up Work Days Lead to Backlash

Brian Hioe
There has been increased criticism of the make-up holiday system in Taiwan after a series of six-day works in the last two months. Current provisions specify that when a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, the government moves the date of the holiday to create a long weekend, but then a Saturday in another week becomes a work day...
EnglishMarch 2023Politics5 min read

Will Honduras Break Ties with Taiwan?

Brian Hioe
Honduran president Xiomara Castro surprised last week with a tweet announcing that she had instructed her country’s foreign ministry to begin the process of switching recognition to China. This would mean that Taiwan loses one of its diplomatic allies shortly before a planned trip to visit Central American allies by President Tsai Ing-wen, which would involve a stopover in the US. It is expected that Tsai will speak at the Hudson Institute and meet with US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy as part of this trip...
EnglishMarch 2023Politics6 min read