Recent comments by Hau Lung-Pin, a KMT party heavyweight and a major contender in the upcoming race for party chair, illustrate how the KMT has largely failed to reckon with its authoritarian past...
Many questions remain to be answered in coming days with the indictment of former president Ma Ying-Jeou on charges over leaks of classified information regarding the 2013 wiretapping of Ker Chien-Ming...
Recent declarations by the Islamic State that it will target China in retaliation for its oppression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang will probably only be met by further Chinese restrictions on the region. But China's responses are illustrative of to what extent China uses the discursive terms of America's War on Terror to justify its suppression of the Muslim majority Uyghur population in Xinjiang and other parts of China...
The war on drugs under the Tsai administration seems set to continue, with recent public scandals regarding drug use on army bases, the scandal caused by a drug-related death after a party at the five-star W Hotel in Taipei, and major drug crackdowns. Very likely, the Tsai administration is determined to make harsh drug policy enforcement one of its political achievements...
That public discussion has been disproportionately large regarding the posting of what would probably be approximately a dozen or so American marines to AIT’s new facilities in Neihu illustrates the highly charged nature of the diplomatic relationship between America and Taiwan in recent months...
Whatever the claims of the Tsai administration that it continues to concern itself with the issue of gay marriage, the Tsai administration has evidently changed tack, now attempting to play the role of “peacemaker” between pro-marriage equality and anti-marriage equality groups in Taiwan. This evidences hypocrisy on the part of Tsai, as well as demonstrates her attempt to wash her hands of past support for marriage equality...
The political struggle between Ma Ying-Jeou and Ker Chien-Ming ultimately returns to the recent nature of Taiwanese democracy and the unstable nature of many of its institutions...
The invoking of campus activist discourse by Chinese students at the University of California, San Diego, to try and prevent the Dalai Lama from giving a speech on campus should not be particularly surprising. But it is an ironic turn of events, nevertheless...
After a bus accident which claimed the lives of thirty-three on February 13th, discussion in Taiwan should turn towards how bus drivers and other transportation workers in Taiwan are among the most overworked people in the nation, despite the crucial nature of their jobs in the functioning of everyday life in society...
The association of the KMT and organized crime does not seem set to fade anytime soon in the popular imagination, with membership drives in recent months which have been accused of allowing elements of organized crime into the party without due scrutiny...
