The recent “499 Chaos” ultimately proves no laughing matter given that it has its roots in the poor salaries faced by Taiwanese and the dominance of major Taiwanese industries by a small number of powerful companies...
As the two year anniversary of the Tsai administration taking power was on May 20th, recent comments by Tsai Ing-Wen on what she has accomplished to date in the two years of her presidency suggest that Tsai has not wholly abandoned attempts to keep the civil society groups that took public prominence after the Sunflower Movement happy...
As with past years, Taiwan’s lack of membership in the World Health Organization has become a matter of controversy again. Taiwan is currently blocked from participating in the World Health Organization and the WHO’s governing body, the World Health Assembly, due to Chinese pressure...
Reports that the Taiwan Civil Government is being investigated for fraud and scam activity may surprise few. However, it seems unlikely that the underlying ideology of the group will go away anytime soon. After all, vaguely similar conspiracy theories exist all over the world, but the underlying ideology of the Taiwan Civil Government would be one uniquely a product of Taiwan’s unusual geopolitical situation...
A fee dispute between some of Taiwan’s most significant television networks has touched upon long-standing concerns about undue attempts to influence political developments through the media. Namely, television network Formosa TV has alleged that FoxConn CEO Terry Gou is attempting to use the fee dispute to prevent Formosa TV programs from being shown as a form of political censorship...
With former president Ma Ying-Jeou facing four months of imprisonment after being found guilty of leaking classified information by the Taiwan High Court, it seems predictable that the KMT will leverage on this fact to claim political persecution by the DPP...
As Taipei 2018 mayoral elections approach ever closer, it remains an opaque question as to whether the DPP will back Ko Wen-Je. In the meantime, one can divine something of the shifts in the DPP’s position going into 2018 elections as compared to 2016 from the continued debate over whether the DPP will endorse Ko this year...
What has been read as the “banning” of children’s cartoon character Peppa Pig in Chinese media can be seen as the begin of what will probably be an expansive cycle of relatively harmless icons being banned in China because they come to be perceived as too politically sensitive. We might take a closer look...
A recent article in the South China Morning Post by Lawrence Chung has provoked ire, with its bizarre suggestion that former president Ma Ying-Jeou pursue the Taiwanese presidency for a third term. Indeed, the factual errors and implausible speculations of this article only go to show how much the South China Morning Post has deteriorated as a publication, in becoming little more than a propaganda organ for China...
China forcing airlines to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites is a highly significant move in framing Taiwan as part of China from the get-go for anyone going to Taiwan. As it seems unlikely that airlines will defy China, in spite of American condemnations, this may require intelligent responses...
