At this late stage in the game, one should not be surprised at how incredibly poor the western left’s understanding of China is. Many western leftists remain unable to conceptualize any imperial or capitalist power outside of the US and therefore romanticize or downplay China’s authoritarianism because it seems to them at least an alternative to US global hegemony. This is the case, then, with respected leftist magazine Monthly Review’s recent August issue, featuring such writers as Asian American tankie commentator Mark Tseng-Putterman, and no less than the diasporic ethno-nationalist Qiao Collective. It proves of some hilarity to see the Monthly Review, which once hosted the Brenner debates and writing by luminaries such as Herbert Marcuse, Noam Chomsky, C. Wright Mills, and others, now platform the Qiao Collective...
The Transitional Justice Commission announced aspects of its proposal for renovating the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial yesterday. This will include removing the 6.3-meter bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek at the center of the memorial, which is overseen by an honor guard...
What emerges from the KMT chair election debate is that the party has failed to take action on the fundamental issues facing the party. This is no different than last year, when Johnny Chiang was elected. What surprises, then, is to what extent there were few ideological differences between any of the candidates and how the general discourse between the candidates gestures toward the shifts in the party over the past year. The general consensus of the party has shifted to become significantly more deep Blue compared to last year...
Seven domestic cases and two imported cases were reported at today’s CECC press conference, along with zero new deaths announced. Of concern, however, is the fact that cases linked to a kindergarten in Banqiao, New Taipei have been confirmed to be of the Delta variant. This marks the first time that Delta has entered a crowded urban area in Taiwan in any significant way. All seven cases today were in New Taipei, with three already in quarantine...
Holding out day and night in its restless position, the Miramar Resort has become a unique monument to both capitalist hubris and people power. Nearly a decade has passed since it became the site of one of Taiwan’s most vibrant recent social movements, eventually leading to a Supreme Court barring it from opening...
During the recent Level 3 lockdown, with Taiwan having experienced a COVID-19 outbreak since mid-May, Taiwan decided to carry out high school testing nonetheless. What does this reveal about the Taiwanese educational system and the importance placed on education in Taiwanese society?...
Civil society organizations rallied earlier this week, to call attention to the continued plight of Lee Ming-che. Lee, a human rights NGO worker who was kidnapped while entering China from Macau in March 2017, has now been imprisoned for four-and-a-half years...
For the seventeenth episode of Radio New Bloom, which is primarily in Mandarin, we present the live recording for our event last month on the five year anniversary of Tsai Ing-wen's apology to Taiwanese Indigenous. The event asked the question: Five years later, have conditions improved for Indigenous in Taiwan? Has Taiwan become a more pluralistic and inclusive country five years after Tsai’s apology?Our featured speaker is Savungaz Valincinan, a member of the Indigenous Youth Front who is currently a graduate student in law...