WeCare Kaohsiung, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, and other groups calling for the recall of Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu held a rally in Kaohsiung today. The rally was attended by thousands. The recall vote against Han is set to take place tomorrow...
A vigil commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre took place in Liberty Plaza in Taipei today. According to organizers, over 2,000 were present...
New Bloom editor Brian Hioe spoke to James Griffiths, the author of The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet, on May 28th. The Chinese edition of The Great Firewall of China will be released in Taiwan on June 4th, featuring recommendations from Puma Shen, Freddy Lim, Lai Pin-yu, Chen Bo-wei, and others...
Reports that 40 exchange students from Eswatini studying in Taiwan were forced to work in a refrigerated factory skinning chickens should be highly concerning. Namely, there have been a number of similar incidents in past years involving students from non-western countries forced to work in factories for low wages by their universities under the auspices of work-study programs or internships...
A press conference by US president Donald Trump took an unexpected turn yesterday after Trump announced not only the end of Hong Kong’s favorable trade status under American law, but that the US would be withdrawing from the World Health Organization. The WHO is the UN agency responsible for global health. The move is expected to have large repercussions on both Taiwan and Hong Kong...
The constitutional court ruled to decriminalize adultery yesterday in a ruling which has been hailed as a step forward for sexual freedoms in Taiwan...
With Paraguay's senate voting last month on whether to change diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, the Paraguayan senate voted to retain diplomatic relations with Taiwan by a vote of 25 to 16. However, attempts by China to poach diplomatic allies of Taiwan are likely to continue into Tsai's second term...
With Tsai beginning her second term as president, Tsai’s cabinet saw a minor reshuffle earlier this month. At the same time, with most positions remaining the same, Tsai’s cabinet primarily represents continuity more than anything else...
It is possible that protests yesterday in Hong Kong will be remembered as a pivotal event. Although yesterday’s demonstration is comparable to many of the protests that took place in the past year before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the wake of the protests yesterday, American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo certified to Congress that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous from China...
Brian Hioe is one of the founding editors of New Bloom. He is a freelance journalist, as well as a translator. A New York native and Taiwanese-American, he has an MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University and graduated from New York University with majors in History, East Asian Studies, and English Literature. He was Democracy and Human Rights Service Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy from 2017 to 2018 and is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at the University of Nottingham's Taiwan Studies Programme.
