September 2019

Detention of Taiwanese Pro-Unification Advocate in China for Over 420 Days Raises Worrying Possibilities

Brian Hioe
The revelation that Taiwanese academic Tsai Chin-shu has been detained by China for over 420 days should be highly worrying. That Tsai was detained for over 400 days with no information coming to light about his imprisonment suggests a higher number of Taiwanese currently detained by the Chinese government than was previously known. Likewise, Tsai was a known advocate of unification with China, suggesting that China will not only target pro-independence activists for arbitrary detention...
Cross StraitEnglishInternationalSeptember 20198 min read

Annette Lu Unexpectedly Enters the Presidential Race, While Gou and Ko Withdraw

Brian Hioe
FoxConn CEO Terry Gou surprised yesterday with an announcement that he would not be running in 2020 presidential elections, with Taipei mayor Ko wen-je stating earlier today in the wake of Gou's announcement that he also would not be running. Today, September 17th, was the deadline for registering with the Central Election Commission as an independent candidate. In the meantime, in the pan-Green camp, the Formosa Alliance has unexpectedly announced plans to run Annette Lu as their presidential candidate...
EnglishPoliticsSeptember 201913 min read

Triad Attacks Take Place over the Weekend in Hong Kong, with Police Turning a Blind Eye

Brian Hioe
Protests continued in Hong Kong over the weekend, with a large march drawing tens of thousands on Sunday despite police refusing to approve the march beforehand. The weekend also saw clashes between pro-Beijing protesters and pro-democracy demonstrators and incidents of pro-Beijing triad members attacking demonstrators to little action from Hong Kong police...
EnglishSelf-DeterminationSeptember 2019Social MovementsYouth Movements7 min read

As the NPP’s Internal Crisis Continues, the DPP Takes Steps to Promote Young People Within the Party

Brian Hioe
The internal crisis of the NPP continues, with elements of the party leadership seemingly still uncommitted to endorsing Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP in 2020 presidential elections and continuing to flirt with the idea of nominating former chair Huang Kuo-chang as the NPP’s presidential candidate. These primarily seem to be older members of the NPP, suggesting an inability to overcome generational inertia in the NPP. In the meantime, the DPP is increasingly taking steps to run young candidates in 2020 elections and appointing young people to high positions within the party...
EnglishPoliticsSeptember 20199 min read

Anger Against Ko Wen-je on Facebook After Misogynistic Comments

Brian Hioe
Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je has received a great deal of blowback in the past week, as most visible in a sharp decline in the number of “Likes” Ko has his Facebook page. Ko’s Facebook page has now lost 150,000 “Likes” in a matter of days, bringing his total “Like” count to less than two million. Ko originally had around 2,100,000 “Likes” on Facebook. Ko provoked ire after comments referring to Presidential Office secretary-general and former Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu as a “fat version of Han Kuo-yu” and claiming that he had heard that Taiwanese actress and model Lin Chi-ling was pregnant on the basis of rumors that he had heard...
EnglishPoliticsSeptember 20196 min read