March 2026

Civil Society Groups Criticize Continued Attempts to Remove Transgender Draft Exemptions

Yo-Ling Chen
At 10:15 AM this morning on Transgender Day of Visibility, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights co-hosted a press conference with Amnesty International Taiwan, Student Alliance for Gender Equality, Taiwan Non-binary Queer Sluts, and the Intersex, Transgender and Transsexual People Care Association condemning the Ministry of the Interior for procedural issues regarding changes to Taiwan’s conscription criteria that removes blanket exemptions for transgender people. Press conference attendees rallied around the slogan: “Procedural injustice and unreasonable amendments! Reject inappropriately raising draft exemption thresholds for transgender people!” Overall, the press conference revealed striking details about the Ministry of the Interior's sidelining of civil society and transgender community concerns over the past three and half months of negotiations, putting into question whether there is any hope for changing course...
EnglishGender/SexualityMarch 2026Social Movements11 min read

Ko Wen-je Sentenced to Seventeen Years in Jail, Potentially Preventing Any 2028 Run

Brian Hioe
Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je has been sentenced to 17 years in jail and 6 years of being deprived of his civil rights. This marks a heavy sentence for the founder of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founder, who ran as the TPP presidential candidate in the 2024 election. Before his legal troubles in the last two years, Ko continued to be a presidential hopeful...
EnglishMarch 2026Politics5 min read

Does China Not Intend to Invade by 2027?

Brian Hioe
A report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence states that China does not intend to invade Taiwan in 2027. The report, which is the Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community, takes the view that China does not have a fixed timeline for achieving unification and that China is more likely to continue with efforts to achieve unification that do not require military force. Instead, the report states that China is more likely to try to achieve unification by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which is in 1947, as part of aspirations to achieve “national rejuvenation.”...
EnglishInternationalMarch 2026PoliticsRegional Tensions4 min read