August 2018

Report On Cross-Strait Tunnel Is Simply More Pro-China Propaganda From SCMP

A strange, rather lengthy report by Beijing-based correspondent Stephen Chen appeared in the South China Morning Post on August 6th, claiming that Beijing is “planning [the] world’s longest rail tunnel to link Taiwan to mainland,” and written as though this tunnel would begin construction in the immediate future. This article should serve as a reminder that, while the South China Morning Post has regained some measure of journalistic objectivity in the past half year or so, the newspaper still often publishes pro-Beijing propaganda with little factual basis...

Anger After Actress Claims To Be Chinese In Public Apology

Anger has broken out against Taiwanese actress Vivian Sung after she apologized on her Weibo account for previous comments during an interview several years ago in which she stated that Taiwan was her favorite country, later unearthed by Chinese netizens. Such comments were outraging to Chinese netizens, seeing as they implied that Sung viewed Taiwan as a country. It remains to be seen whether Sung’s later apology will placate angry Chinese netizens, but in the meantime, this apology has angered Taiwanese netizens...

Efforts By The KMT To Outreach To Youth Voters Going Into 2018 Local Elections?

Going into 2018 local elections, what has become increasingly clear is that the KMT hopes to appeal to young people. The Tsai administration and DPP rode into power in 2016 presidential and legislative elections with the support of young people in the two years following the Sunflower Movement and the KMT is hoping to replicate this. This has not been very successful to date...

August Key Month For Referendum Campaigns

August would be a key period for several referendum pushes in Taiwan at present. Both the Formosa Alliance’s push to achieve a referendum on Taiwan participating in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics under the name “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei” and an alliance of anti-gay groups hoping to hold a referendum against gay marriage and sexual education they see as encouraging homosexuality aim to reach 280,000 signatures by the end of the month...