The Ministry of Labor announced on October 8th that Taiwan’s minimum wage will increase by five percent, starting next year on January 1st. According to the ministry’s Minimum Wage Review Committee, the minimum monthly salary will increase from 24,000 NT to 25,520 NT, while the hourly wage will increase from 160 NT to 168 NT...
Several recent talks further demonstrate western leftists’ failure to understand China. This occurs not only in terms of romanticization of China in juxtaposition to the US and other western powers, but with regards to the view that China is genuinely committed to a project of realizing domestic social equality...
Both Tsai Ing-wen and Xi Jinping made major speeches over the weekend on the issue of cross-strait relations, as well as other issues. This was to be expected, because of the fact that today is Double Ten Day, the founding holiday of the ROC...
The upcoming recall vote facing Taiwan Statebuilding Party legislator Chen Po-wei, which is set for October 23rd, looks to be an occasion in which the pan-Blue and pan-Green camps will directly come into conflict. Chen is a legislator representing Taichung District II, which consists of Dadu, Longjing, Shalu, Wufeng, and Wuri...
Proposals for Academia Sinica to change its name have been floated several times in the past. For example, the idea came up in March 2020 in the Taiwanese legislature after the Chinese government sought to take credit for a virus reagent developed by Academia Sinica scientists to test for COVID-19. Since then, pan-Green lawmakers have continued calls for a name change on several occasions. The issue was floated again recently, however, after the circulation of a Chinese-language petition by two dozen Academia Sinica researchers...
Taiwan has seen a significant uptick in the number of incursions into its ADIZ by Chinese warplanes in the past week. In the five days from October 1st to October 5th, Taiwan saw 150 incursions. At the same time, one has seen the circulation of an unusual claim online—that Taiwan is, in fact, reporting flights that occurred over the Chinese mainland. It is indeed true that Taiwan’s ADIZ extends into the Chinese mainland. And so, this misinformation/disinformation claim mixes fact with falsehood to make it appear as though Taiwan is overreacting to the ADIZ incursions and suggests that Taiwan is simply ratcheting up tensions for its own purposes by playing the victim...
US president Joe Biden raised eyebrows today after stating that he and Chinese president Xi Jinping had “agreed to abide by the Taiwan agreement”, following a phone conversation about China’s recent military actions with Chinese president Xi Jinping. Namely, there is no agreement between the US and Taiwan known as the “Taiwan agreement,” though Biden’s comments could be misleading, nor do the US and China share agreement on Taiwan’s status...
China commemorated Chinese National Day, which took place on October 1st, through unprecedented military displays of force against Taiwan. Namely, in the four days after Chinese National Day, China sent a total of 145 warplanes into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone...
The Evergrande debt crisis has drawn global alarm, due to the effects the collapse of the debt-ridden company could have worldwide. Evergrande is one of China’s largest real estate companies, yet currently has 300 billion in debt. But with the company set to default on debt, this has led to concerns that this could lead to something like the 2008 financial crisis...
Many in Taiwan were surprised by a wave of support from international countries after the ROC flag was removed from the livestream of a swimming competition on Wednesday. This took place because of displeasure from Chinese authorities, who blocked the livestream because the ROC flag is not allowed to be shown in China...
