Brian Hioe

Sentencing of Pingtung Mayor Another Example of High-Level KMT Corruption

Brian Hioe
Pingtung mayor Lin Hsieh-sung and Pingtung city council speaker Hsiao Kuo-liang, both KMT members, were sentenced on corruption charges earlier this week by the Pingtung District Court. Lin was sentenced to seven years in prison, while Hsiao was sentenced to four years and two months in prison. Lin and Hsiao, who were both found guilty of violating the Anti-Corruption Act, will also be deprived of civil rights for the next three years, with Lin found guilty of 180 corruption-related charges...
EnglishPoliticsSeptember 20216 min read

Eric Chu Wins KMT Chair Race, With Chang Ya-Chung as Runner-up, Johnny Chiang Distant Third

Brian Hioe
Former New Taipei mayor and previous party chair Eric Chu was the winner of the KMT chair elections today. Chu was the clear winner, with 83,027 votes, or 45.96% of counted votes, at press time. However, what proves significant is that after Chu, Sun Yat-Sen School head Chang Ya-chung won the second highest number of votes, with 58,980 or 32.65% of votes. After Chang was current chair Johnny Chiang, who was running for re-election, with 33,604 or 18.6% of counted votes, and in last was former Changhua county magistrate Cho Po-yuan, with 5,037 votes, or 2.79%...
EnglishPoliticsSeptember 20219 min read

Second KMT Chair Debate Sees Sharp Attacks Between Eric Chu, Chang Ya-Chung

Brian Hioe
The second KMT chair debate, which took place on September 18th, had five rounds. The first round consisted of opening comments, while the second round allowed candidates to field questions from a panel of commentators that they were allowed to choose from. The third round involved questions asked by a panel of media experts, the fourth round allowed for cross-examination between candidates, and the last round consisted of closing comments. The four candidates are current chair Johnny Chiang, former party chair and New Taipei mayor Eric Chu, Sun Yat-Sen School head Chang Ya-chung, and former Changhua magistrate Cho Po-yuan...
EnglishPoliticsSeptember 20216 min read

Protests Continue Against Zhiben Solar Farm on Katratripulr Land in August and September

Brian Hioe
Protests regarding the Zhiben photovoltaic farm took place again late last month, with demonstrations against a government survey of the land that the farm is planned to be built on. These protests were not widely reported on, however, probably due to the fact that they took place in Taitung. Protests that take place outside of Taipei sometimes fail to receive coverage, with much of the media industry based in Taipei, and because Taiwan is small enough that protesters can frequently travel to Taipei to protest even for local issues. This has not been helped by COVID-related stories still continuing to take up a large part of the news cycle...
EnglishEnvironmentalIndigenousRaceSeptember 2021Social Movements5 min read

Asia Cement Ruling Likely to Be Resisted by the Company, with the Backing of the Ministry of Economic Affairs

Brian Hioe
The Supreme Administrative Court ruled against extending the mining rights of Asia Cement’s mine on Truku Indigenous land on Thursday, dismissing an appeal filed by Asia Cement. The decision has been seen by some as a victory in the struggle against the mine. The Hualien city council had previously levied an ore tax of 70 NT per metric ton on the mine and rejected the extension. A lower court had previously also found Asia Cement’s actions to be in violation of the Indigenous Basic Law....
EnglishEnvironmentalIndigenousSeptember 2021Social Movements6 min read

Eswatini Donation Continues Taiwan’s Backing of Authoritarian Monarchy

Brian Hioe
The Tsai administration announced a donation of 637 million NT to Eswatini last week. The donation is earmarked for a fund for reconstruction work in Eswatini that will take place under the auspices of King Mswati III, following some of the largest protests to take place in Eswatini in its 53 years of independence. The donation was the largest contribution to the fund, with other donations coming from state-operated enterprises in Eswatini and the military...
EnglishPoliticsSeptember 20216 min read
Avatar photo

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。