October 2022

Constitutional Court Rules in Favor of Siraya, Paving Way for Broader Pingpu Recognition

The Constitutional Court ruled on Friday in favor of the recognition of the Siraya and other Pingpu groups as “Indigenous.” This reverses a previous ruling by the Taipei High Administrative Court in 2016 against Pingpu recognition and was a rare ruling by the Constitutional Court in which all 15 Grand Justices voted unanimously. New laws will need to be drafted within three years to allow for Siraya and Pingpu recognition, changing the Status Act for Indigenous Peoples...

Fourth Annual Trans March Brings Visibility as Taiwan’s Trans Rights Movement Gains Momentum and Draws Opposition

Over 3,000 people gathered in Ximending this evening to participate in the fourth annual Taiwan Trans March organized by the Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBTQ+) Hotline Association. This year’s march is the first in-person Trans March since the historic gains in Taiwan’s trans rights movement last fall. At the same time, trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) have also mobilized, almost exclusively online, against the trans rights movement in Taiwan. As trans issues continue to enter into public discourse and legal reform proceeds at its own pace, visibility and support for Taiwan’s trans community has never been more crucial...

Regional Forums Discuss Mixed Indigenous Identity and Legal Recognition in Taiwan

This past Friday in Pingtung City, the Mixed Indigenous Youth Forum Working Group (MIYF) held its fifth and final regional forum on the life experiences of Indigenous youth from mixed backgrounds. Combined with the other regional forums held in Taichung, Taipei, Taitung, and Hualien, MIYF discussed and recorded over 50 participants’ life stories pertaining to their Indigenous identity journey and variable engagements with Indigenous legal status...

20th National Congress Results in Leadership of Xi Loyalists, Potentially Amplifying Echo Chamber on Taiwan

The new Politburo standing committee of the Chinese Communist Party has been announced, following the CCP’s weeklong 20th National Congress. As was anticipated by many experts ahead of time, Chinese president Xi Jinping has been confirmed for an unprecedented third term in power, with the limits on the number of terms that a Chinese leader can serve having been undone at the 19th National Congress in October 2017. This was seen as potentially paving the way to lifetime rule by Xi...

US Navy Admiral Provokes Alarm with Comments Suggesting Close Timeline for Chinese Invasion

Admiral Michael Gilday, who heads US naval operations, recently raised eyebrows with comments at an Atlantic Council event suggesting that China’s timeline for an invasion of Taiwan could be shorter than the 2027 window previously suggested by now-retired Admiral Philip Davidson, who made comments suggesting that China might try to invade Taiwan in the next six years last year...

Tankie Forum on Taiwan Justifies White Terror, Indigenous Genocide, and Praises Henry Kissinger

The recent online webinar organized by Friends of Socialist China, “China encirclement and the imperialist build-up in the Pacific” proved another occasion for tankies to speak in hyperbolic terms about the possibility of US-China conflict over Taiwan. As usual, there was scarcely any concern about what Taiwanese think about their own future, or even what their assessment of any geopolitical threats they face from China is–and whether they think a conflict is imminent. On the other hand, speakers generally seemed to care more about ancient Chinese history than they did about the perspectives of contemporary Taiwanese. And, for the most part, there was actually very little discussion of Taiwan during the event...