Concerns regarding the role social media could potentially play in next year’s presidential elections have been flagged in a number of incidents. Last week, Mirror Media, Newtalk, Storm Media, and Up Media suddenly found themselves prevented from making posts on social media, and Facebook users found themselves unable to post content critical of the Chinese government or on Taiwanese social issues, such as LGBTQ issues...
The Tsai administration's lack of action on issues facing indigenous, unfortunately, continues to be an issue that goes without major discussion. This was highlighted yesterday, which was the 1,000th day of the indigenous occupation maintained by indigenous singer-songwriter Panai Kusui, her spouse and fellow singer-songwriter Nabu Husungan, and filmmaker Mayaw Biho regarding the Tsai administration’s failure to return traditional indigenous territories. However, the anniversary was marked by little fanfare...
Demonstrators have now been trapped within the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, surrounded by police and with exits to the university sealed, for over 48 hours now. Those still trapped in the university face the threat of eventually running out of supplies, such as food and water. It is also thought that many of those remaining are injured after weathering many hours of police assaults...
Demonstrators continue to be trapped in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, with police still refusing to allow hundreds of demonstrators to leave the university. It is thought that there are five hundred to six hundred individuals still trapped at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. 60% to 70% are thought to be students from the university and reportedly, some of those trapped inside on the campus are as young as 11 or 12 years old...
Tensions run high in Hong Kong tonight, with police having completely surrounded the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and sealed off all exits. However, students, protestors, and reporters are all among those trapped inside, with some believing that the police intend to escalate its ongoing siege of the university to the level of deadly force...
The latest round of protests against the exploitative migrant labor brokerage system saw hundreds of people demonstrating outside the Indonesian, Filipino, and Vietnamese representative offices in Taipei in early November. Yet the Taiwanese Ministry of Labor responded to the protests by washing its hands of any responsibility for upholding this predatory system of labor brokerage. The Ministry of Labor's deference to the free market is consistent with the government’s goal of treating Southeast Asian migrant workers employed through the guest worker program as cheap and disciplined labor power...
A Tweet several weeks ago by Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen on the cancellation of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that was originally scheduled to take place in Santiago, Chile strikes as not only tone-deaf but illustrative of a consistent pattern of behavior by the Taiwanese government...
Many anticipate an escalation in the situation in Hong Kong over the weekend, following the police siege on the Chinese University of Hong Kong earlier this week. Following the raid, protestors have begun fortifying the area around the university. The past few days have also seen two deaths thought to be the result of police actions, including the death of a thirty-year-old man and a seventy-year-old man...
