January 2021

Despite Further Arrests, Continued Silence in Taiwan Regarding Hong Kong Twelve

A political crackdown against pro-democracy figures continues in Hong Kong. In the latest series of arrests, earlier this month, eleven individuals were arrested in connection to the Hong Kong “Twelve”, twelve young Hongkongers that were arrested by the Chinese coast guard last August after attempting to flee to Taiwan by speedboat, then held in Shenzhen...

Fears of Undetected Transmission Chains Lead to Quarantine of Taoyuan General Hospital Contacts

With the cluster of cases linked to the Taoyuan General Hospital having now expanded to a total of fifteen cases, the Central Epidemic Command Center that coordinates Taiwan’s response to COVID-19 has announced that discharged patients that were released from the hospital between January 6 and 19 and their close contacts must undergo a fourteen-day home quarantine...

Taiwan Policy for Biden Complicated by Last-Minute Nature of Lifting of Restrictions by Pompeo

On January 9, outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that all restrictions on official contacts with Taiwanese officials were terminated. Applause radiated from Taipei. Joseph Wu, writing for Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, thanked the Secretary and Congress for the lifting of restrictions on the US-Taiwan relationship...

KMT Calls for a Lockdown of Taoyuan to Attack the DPP, Disregarding the Human Cost

Over the past week, KMT politicians have begun calling for a lockdown of Taoyuan after a cluster of thirteen cases of COVID-19 connected to the Taoyuan General Hospital broke out. This is the first domestic cluster of COVID-19 since last April. However, the situation in Taoyuan is far from one which would warrant the need for a lockdown, and the KMT's call for a lockdown is simply a means to attack the DPP, disregarding what the human consequences of a lockdown for residents of Taoyuan would be...

What Now for Taiwan, After the Biden Inauguration?

The presidential inauguration of Joe Biden took place earlier today. The inauguration took place after several turbulent weeks that saw some Republican members of Congress attempt to invalidate the results of 2020 presidential elections, an attempted invasion of the US Capitol to prevent the confirmation of the electoral vote by Trump supporters, and the impeachment of then-president Donald Trump after the US Capitol storming...