October 2024

Taipei Holds Vigil, Rally Commemorating One Year of Genocide in Gaza

Girard Mariano Lopez
Local and international community members across Taipei gathered on Sunday at Liberty Square in Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall to commemorate the 42,000 Palestinian lives that have been murdered by Israeli offensives in the past year, as well as the hundreds recently killed in recent Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon. On the morning of October 7th, organizers from the Taiwan Alliance for a Free Palestine also held a flash mob outside of the Israeli Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei in the World Trade Center...
EnglishOctober 2024Self-DeterminationSocial MovementsYouth Movements5 min read

Lai Strikes Conciliatory Tone to China, KMT in National Day Speech

Brian Hioe
Lai Ching-te delivered the first National Day address of his presidency today. Very little surprised about the speech, in that Lai made no surprising statements on Taiwan’s sovereignty or about Taiwan’s relationship with China. What one does observe from Lai’s speech, however, is the contours of a new historical perspective bridging adherence to the ROC and the resistance against authoritarianism that occurred in the course of Taiwan’s democratization...
America and the Asia PacificCross StraitEnglishInternationalOctober 2024Politics7 min read

KMT Calls for Allowing Investment by Political Parties, Government in Media

Brian Hioe
A proposal by the KMT to allow the government, political parties, and the military to indirectly invest in up to 10% of broadcast media proves an unusual proposal. This proves particularly ironic at a time when the KMT has frequently attacked successive DPP presidential administrations over the claim that the DPP clamps down on media through the regulatory body of the National Communications Commission...
EnglishOctober 2024PoliticsSelf-DeterminationSocial MovementsYouth Movements5 min read

Migrant Fishermen Forced to Stay Aboard Vessels During Typhoon

Brian Hioe
Fisheries associations and shipowners in Pingtung and Kaohsiung have been criticized after Typhoon Krathom hit Taiwan. Namely, a number of Indonesian migrant fishermen were ordered by shipowners to stay onboard ships during the typhoon in order to prevent the mooring lines that connect ships to the harbor from breaking, and the ships from drifting out to sea as a result. This occurred despite heavy wind and rain advisories, which resulted in the Kaohsiung county government ordering that ships under 100 tonnes be evacuated. This mostly took place in Donggang Township in Pingtung and Cijin District in Kaohsiung....
EnglishLaborOctober 2024RaceSocial Movements4 min read

Typhoon Holiday Leads to Partisan Contention

Brian Hioe
A typhoon holiday called for northern Taiwan has led to contention between the KMT and DPP. Controversy revolves around the fact northern Taiwan called a typhoon day for Wednesday on Tuesday evening despite the fact that the impact from the typhoon turned out to, in fact, be minimal. A second typhoon day was later declared for Thursday, though whether the effects of the Typhoon Krathom warranted a second typhoon day are debatable. But central and southern Taiwan have been more strongly affected by Typhoon Krathom, with two dead, two missing, and 103 injured, as well as over 50,000 households without power...
EnglishOctober 2024Politics4 min read