Pushes by the KMT for a referendum on food imports from radiation-affected areas in Japan and air pollution are ironic appropriations of referendum reform in Taiwan. This is in line with broader attempts by the KMT to imitate tactics of Taiwanese civil society...
The eviction last week of indigenous vendors outside a former residence of Zhang Xueliang in Chingchuan, Wufeng Township near Hsinchu raises a number of issues. Namely, indigenous vendors have operated outside the residence for twenty years. Many vendors have no other means of livelihood if they are forced to relocate...
Aurélien Jegou is an actor and director. Recently, he directed The Mermaid and the Whale, which was shot in Taiwan. The following is an interview with Jegou conducted by New Bloom editor Garrett Dee...
The return to power of John Bolton and Peter Navarro in the Trump administration, after a period in which both were relegated to lesser roles in favor of other political actors, have been celebrated by some in Taiwan. But such appointments are signs of the incoherence and irrational hawkishness of the Trump Administration much more than they are indications of any more supportive policy of Taiwan...
Taipei mayor Ko Wen-Je seems to intend to evict longstanding political occupations nearby the government buildings around Shandao Temple and NTU Hospital in the near future. Civil society groups have been critical of such plans, seeing them as part of broader attempts by Ko to restrict political gatherings in Taipei...
Controversy regarding the appointment of Kuan Chung-Ming as president of National Taiwan University, Taiwan’s most prestigious academic institution, continue to drag on without settlement by either NTU’s administration or the Ministry of Education...
Concerns in Taiwan that it will be severely affected by steel and aluminum tariffs by the Trump administration are ironic, illustrating in a nutshell what the perils of placing one’s faith in the Trump administration are. Perhaps Taiwan could learn something from this...
With the replacement of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, head of the CIA, it appears that the protectionist wing of the Trump administration is again ascendent. As such, fears prevail that individuals within the Trump administration viewed as stabilizing of it will similarly depart the Trump administration in the near future...
With the recent removal of term limits that a Chinese president can serve, possibly paving the way for Chinese president Xi Jinping to move towards lifetime rule, bluster by China against Taiwan has increased...