January 2023

TPP Seeks to Cut Ties with Former Spokesperson Over Chinese Funding

Brian Hioe
The TPP has found itself in hot water over Ma Chi-wei, a former party spokesperson who is now running as an independent legislative candidate, who was found to have received funds from the Chinese government to support her campaign. The funds were transferred through cryptocurrency, ironically enough, as the first major public incident in which the CCP has been found to distribute funds through cryptocurrency to candidates it backs in Taiwan...
EnglishJanuary 2023Politics5 min read

Does “Hong Kong Influence” Linger in the 2024 Taiwan Election?

Sanho Chung
It has been widely recognized that Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Movement in 2019 was the turning point of the 2020 General Election in Taiwan. In the last general election, Beijing’s hardline crackdown on the protests in Hong Kong gave rise to the Taiwanese’s mistrust of China and finally brought a big win to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which was expected to lose both their majority over the Legislative Yuan and their presidency. But after three years of National Security Law (NSL) enactment in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong issue in this general election seems no longer as focal as it was. How should we make sense of this huge contrast in attention? Has “Hong Kong Influence” faded out totally...
Cross StraitEnglishInternationalJanuary 2023PoliticsRegional Tensions11 min read

Transgender Issues Enter Third Party Politics

Yo-Ling Chen
In the past three months, transgender issues have gained unprecedented attention within third party politics in Taiwan, with the Taiwan Solidarity Union rebranding itself as the only political party against abolishing compulsory surgery for changing one’s legal gender and Green Party Taiwan putting forward Taiwan’s first transgender woman to run for office, Abby Wu, as an at-large legislative candidate. This is the first time in Taiwan’s history that transgender issues have been explicitly incorporated into party campaigning. While transgender issues have yet to become a campaign issue in mainstream party politics, the current standoff between the two parties offers a first look into how such politicization would likely play out as the struggle for transgender rights in Taiwan continues...
EnglishGender/SexualityJanuary 2023PoliticsSocial Movements12 min read

Corporatization of the Taiwan Railways Administration Represents Defeat for Labor

Brian Hioe
The corporatization of the Taiwan Railways Administration, changing it from an agency of government into the state-owned enterprise of the Taiwan Railways Corporation, puts an end to a long-run labor struggle by workers. The struggle went on for many years, but the inability of workers to stop the corporatization reflects the weakness, in many ways, of Taiwanese labor...
EnglishJanuary 2023LaborSocial Movements5 min read