American Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar ended a four-day visit to Taiwan today, visiting the Taipei Guest House to pay his respects to recently deceased former president Lee Teng-hui before returning to America on a flight scheduled for the afternoon...
Comments by Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je at the TPP's first national congress last week are telling about the current political orientation of the party, as well as the challenges it faces going forward. Ko raised eyebrows by calling for a ‘Silent Revolution” in Taiwanese politics at the party congress, a pointed criticism of the Tsai administration indicative of the party’s pan-Blue leanings. At the same time, Ko did not lean as heavily into pan-Blue rhetoric as much as he did during the TPP’s founding one year ago...
Jimmy Lai, the owner of the Apple Daily and Next Digital, was arrested today under the provisions of the Hong Kong national security law. Lai’s two sons and at least seven other senior staff members were also taken into custody on various charges. Shortly after Lai's arrest, which took place at 7 AM, over two hundred police were mobilized to search the Apple Daily and Next Digital's offices at 10 AM...
The issue of the KMT’s illicit party assets continues to be an issue linked with broader efforts aimed at achieving transitional justice in Taiwan, as observed in a number of recent incidents...
More troubles are ahead for the NPP, with the departure of the party’s two Taipei city councilors in the wake of corruption allegations against former party chair and legislator Hsu Yung-ming that emerged earlier this month...
Student demonstrators held a press conference outside of the Ministry of Education today, criticizing the announcement by the ministry yesterday that, while students from foreign countries enrolled in degree programs will be allowed to return to Taiwan, Chinese students will be excluded...
News that American Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar plans to visit Taiwan as part of a diplomatic visit in the near future is ironic, given America’s disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. While Azar’s visit to Taiwan will be conducted under the auspices of seeking to learn from Taiwan’s successes fighting off the COVID-19 pandemic, one generally expects this to be primarily political theater...
Controversy broke out earlier this month regarding public broadcaster PTS and plans for PTS to launch an international English-language media platform. Plans for the platform were abruptly canceled after resistance from PTS board members, leading to the resignation of three out of fifteen board members. Among those that resigned included PTS’ president, vice president, and the manager of its news department...
News broke last week that the Hong Kong government intended to disqualify a dozen pro-democracy candidates from the Hong Kong Legislative Council elections, which were originally scheduled to take place in September...
An ongoing corruption probe into a group of pan-Green and pan-Blue politicians accused of taking bribes in a case related to the ownership of the Pacific SOGO department store chain has the potential to be a major corruption scandal faced by the DPP under the Tsai administration...