December 2022

Taiwan Ponders TikTok/Douyin Ban

Brian Hioe
The Taiwanese government plans to ban TikTok/Douyin in the public sector, mandating that public sector workers cannot use the app, with rising concerns about the security threat posed by the Chinese app. It is more of a question as to whether there will be an outright ban on TikTok/Douyin for the general public, with pan-Green legislators calling for strong regulation, but this raises questions about the measures that the government can take against Chinese apps. TikTok/Douyin is likely to prove a litmus test, setting a benchmark for measures taken by the government regarding Chinese apps as a whole...
December 2022EnglishPolitics5 min read

Demonstrations Against Cigu Solar Farms in November Follows Familiar Lines

Brian Hioe
Two hundred demonstrated against solar farms in Cigu in front of the Presidential Office in early November. This continues several years of protest by Cigu residents against solar farms. According to demonstrators from the Alliance to Save the Lands of Cigu and other groups, protests against the solar farms have quadrupled in the past four years...
December 2022EnglishEnvironmentalSocial Movements5 min read

Regulations Requiring Migrant Workers to Have Employers’ Permission to Purchase Electric Bikes Criticized

Brian Hioe
Migrant worker advocates have reacted with anger against new regulations rolled out by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications requiring blue-collar migrant workers to have the consent of their employer in order to purchase electric bicycles. The new regulations began to be implemented on November 30th, with the form that employers need to fill out for their employees to purchase electric bicycles released on November 18th...
December 2022EnglishLaborRaceSocial Movements5 min read