With American president Donald Trump announcing that America will withdraw from the Paris Agreement climate accord, this would be another step in the decline of American power. But, significantly, this also allows China to increasingly be seen as a responsible partner in the international community...
The victory of Moon Jae-In as president of South Korea draws strong parallels to Taiwan, with the election of a center-left president put into power after a social movement which galvanized much of society. But we can observe where structural parallels between Taiwan and South Korea end, given that as a center-left political candidate, Moon is skeptical of closer ties between South Korea and the US...
Trump's recent handling of South Korea should be concerning for Taiwan. For one, Trump suggested that Korea had once been part of China, which obviously does not bode well for Taiwan given China's claims over it. Likewise, Trump was willing to lie outright regarding the possibility of intervention against North Korean missile tests...
As another country in the Asia Pacific which faces the threat of China using its large economy as a political weapon, Taiwan stands to learn greatly from the effects of the Chinese boycott on South Korea due the deployment of the American-manufactured Terminal High Altitude Area Defense antimissile defense system in South Korea. But the lessons Taiwan stands to take away are, in fact, counterintuitive...
Many questions for regional peace in the Asia Pacific are up in the air after a failed missile test by North Korea today. It was speculated that North Korea may launch a nuclear missile test today to commemorate the birthday of Kim Il-Sung on April 15th. Today’s missile test was not a nuclear test, but it may precede such a test, and tensions will only increase in the region after it...
Inconsistent reports on whether Taiwan was mentioned or not at the Trump-Xi summit earlier this month illustrate the need to distrust media reports and to generally be more deeply skeptical of comments about Taiwan by either the Trump or Xi administrations...
Though world may have awaited with baited breath the first meeting between recently-inaugurated US president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping at Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago which occurred last week, reports coming out of the two-day event indicate an almost entirely conventional summit with no major surprises. Nevertheless, uncertainty still looms large for Taiwan...
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe visited the United States last week to meet with US president Donald Trump to discuss the future of US-Japan relations, often considered a key relationship in the Asia Pacific, but one that had faced significant strain in the wake of Trump’s election. The substance of the weekend-long discussion between the two heads of state warrants a closer examination given the shifting balance of power in the Asia Pacific...
Tsai's recent visit to Taiwan’s Central American allies highlight the difficulties of Taiwan in maintaining relations with its few remaining diplomatic allies abroad. We might review her trip...
Much of the media commentary to date about possible threats to American regional hegemony by China’s carrier group, fronted by its sole aircraft carrier the Liaoning, is largely meaningless political theater overhyped by the media...
