Catalonia’s cause has drawn much sympathy from the world. But as for those who are unsympathetic, this raises a valuable lesson for Taiwan with regards to the criticisms from the international world that Taiwan would face in the case of independence...
The release of former death row inmate Cheng Hsing-Tse should be celebrated as a victory for the legal advocates and activists that have fought for his release for decades. However, what the case continues to raise is how dystopian the Taiwanese legal system can be at times, seeing as Cheng served ten years on death row and was imprisoned for a total of 14 years on inconclusive evidence...
A ruling by the Taiwan High Court in favor of RCA workers whose health was affected by industrial pollution is a victory, not only for RCA workers but for Taiwanese labor overall. A landmark case in Taiwanese labor, the case is also a case with few precedents in Taiwanese jurisprudence, as a class action lawsuit with hundreds of plaintiffs. Subsequently, it remains to be seen what will come next for efforts to secure justice for RCA workers...
Controversy regarding the China Youth Corps and a probe into its finances by the KMT party assets investigation committee, highly reminiscent of earlier controversy regarding the Chinese Women’s Corps, points to the difficulty separating civil society organizations with KMT links from former organs of the former party-state...
Recent attempts by the KMT to attack the DPP on the issue of desinicization have been suitably bizarre, with claims that missing ROC flags from government websites or official invites is a sign of the DPP attempting to peel back the symbols of the ROC. This largely seems to be a sign of desperation on the part of the KMT...
Would the DPP ever seek rapprochement with China? Indeed, as absurd as this question may seem to many international observers of Taiwanese politics who look at Taiwan from afar and remain convinced that the DPP is a diehard pro-independence political party, this is not impossible as a political possibility...
With an upcoming court ruling by Taiwan’s High Court regarding the historic RCA case, a landmark case in Taiwanese labor, it remains to be seen if the decades-long struggle of RCA workers for justice will soon come to an end. Either way, the case will be a historic one for Taiwanese labor, as well as for Taiwanese labor law...
Recent comments by AIT chair James Moriarty earlier this month are, unsurprisingly, illustrative of American hypocrisy regarding Taiwan. In recent comments made around the time of ROC National Day, Moriarty called on Taiwan to continue to maintain the status quo with China, praised the Tsai administration for continuing to maintain cross-strait relations, and also called on Taiwan to do more for its defense, all the while affirming continued friendship between Taiwan and America. Never mind these are things which are mutually contradictory...
New Bloom editor Brian Hioe had a conversation on October 12th with Kevin Ko-wen Chen and Andrea “Chuey” Chu, who, along with Albertine Wang, are the editors of Chrysanthemum: Voices of the Taiwanese Diaspora, an upcoming anthology of print collection of visual and written work by North American members of the Taiwanese diaspora...