Brian Hioe

Labor Groups Push the Government on Policy, Ahead of the Lai Inauguration

A number of union groups demonstrated last week to call for inclusion in talks over the new incoming government’s labor policy. This included among Taiwan’s largest coalitions of organized labor groups. The demonstration was fronted by the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, which protested alongside the Kaohsiung City Confederation of Trade Unions, National Federation of Teachers Unions, Taipei Federation of Trade Unions, and Taiwan Federation of Financial Unions...

What Does Fu Kun-Chi’s Challenge to the KMT Legislative Presidency Ticket Indicate?

The contest over who will be the next speaker of the Legislative Yuan is on. The DPP hopes for Yu Shyi-kun to continue serving as president of the Legislative Yuan. By contrast, the KMT has aligned behind a joint ticket of its 2020 presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu, and its former chair, Johnny Chiang. As part of this ticket, Han would become president and Chiang would become vice president...

Volleyball Tournament the Latest Taiwanese Sporting Competition Cancelled Due to Chinese Pressure

Taiwan abruptly lost hosting rights for the Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship in the past week. Though the event was originally slated to take place in Taiwan from July 20th to July 27th, reportedly Chinese pressure has led to it being moved to Surabaya, Indonesia. Now, the event will take place from July 23 to July 30th. The volleyball championship is for players under 20...

The Taiwan People’s Party as the Kingmaker: What Does the Future Hold for the Party?

The results of the presidential and legislative elections, in many ways, confirmed predictions ahead of time. Late polling before the blackout period imposed ten days before elections showed Lai to have a significant lead ahead of his opponents, even if Ko Wen-je’s 3.7 million votes prove an impressive showing for the upstart TPP candidate. Indeed, in the early vote count, it appeared as though Ko could, in fact, be leading Hou, and it could not be ruled out from polls before the election results as to whether Ko or Hou was in second place...

Policy Presentation for Parties Divides Along Familiar Lines

The first-ever policy presentation for political parties was held on Wednesday. This saw some controversy, with the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, Taiwan Obasan Political Equality Party, and Green Party Taiwan demonstrating that they were given less time to speak than larger more electorally viable parties such as the DPP, KMT, and TPP. While there were sixteen parties represented, the following article will only focus on some of the parties...
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Brian Hioe

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.

丘琦欣,創建破土的編輯之一,專於撰寫社會運動和政治的自由作家偶而亦從事翻譯工作。他自哥倫比亞大學畢業,是亞洲語言及文化科系的碩士,同時擁有紐約大學的歷史,東亞研究及英文文學三項學士學位。