With calls for the "normalization" of Taiwan on the rise, the climate is ripe to begin discussing the scope of what is possible and what is not possible for Taiwan at the present political moment as a means to permanently secure Taiwan's de facto independence...
The annual commemoration of the Tiananmen Square Massacre took place in Taipei yesterday, marking the 28th anniversary of the crackdown on demonstrating students by the Chinese government. The commemoration was held in Liberty Plaza, as it has been in previous years, and had over one hundred in attendance despite drizzling rain and the ceremony coming on the tail end of a weekend which had seen near-typhoon conditions...
Joshua Wong of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and Lin Fei-Fan, Chen Wei-Ting, and Huang Kuo-Chang of Taiwan's Sunflower Movement held a joint press conference in Taipei today regarding the detention of Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-Che and the upcoming meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and American president Donald Trump...
With Sunflower Movement activists found not guilty today of all charges related to the occupation of the Legislative Yuan three years ago, another part of the unresolved legacy of the Sunflower Movement has been taken care of. But it remains that the sentencing for other legal cases involving incidents during the Sunflower Movement have not yet been heard. And, of course, the trial verdict raises the fact that many of the demands of the Sunflower Movement still have not been met...
The possibility of conflict breaking out between Taiwanese youth activists and the DPP seems quite likely in the near future, with discussion of an oversight bill for cross-strait trade deals scheduled for late next week. But although the passage of such a bill was one of the significant demands of the Sunflower Movement, the DPP has stalled and even reversed course multiple times on the issue....
In January 2017, the Free Taiwan Party posted a Facebook status: “Pro-Independence takes a stand! Come pull down the Chiang Kai Shek statue on February 28th at the Freedom Plaza!” As a young supporter of Free Taiwan Party and a supporter of the action of pulling down authoritarian statues, I documented and witnessed the actions on site during this time...
A visit by Hong Kong legislators to Taiwan over the past weekend for a conference organized by the New Power Party has seen protests from pro-China groups in Taiwan, as well as warnings from China against Taiwanese independence activists and Hong Kong independence activists seeking to ally with each other...
