American empire

Minneapolis Ignites in the Wake of George Floyd’s Murder

On the 25th of May, Memorial Day, the national holiday to honor and mourn American military martyrs, a devastatingly routine act of police brutality was captured on camera. Yet another cop murdered a Black man. George Floyd was pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police and suffocated under the weight of the knee pressed against his neck. Some of George Floyd’s last words echoed Eric Garner’s dying plea for mercy, “I can’t breathe"....

American Support for Taiwan Draws Parallel to Backing of Israel

For organizers in Taiwan, the DPP’s commitment to justice must be questioned alongside any vision of transitional justice that fails to engage with the role of the US in propping up the authoritarian Chiang Kai-shek regime. Likewise, contrary to popular belief, American political support for Taiwan, similar to American support for Israel, is a deeply bipartisan position...

Appeals By Taiwan To “Indo-Pacific” Framework

As raised in a recent The Diplomat article, statements by Taiwanese political leaders gesture towards an attempt to situate Taiwan within the framework of the “Indo-Pacific”. The “Indo-Pacific” would be the Trump administration’s preferred terminology to refer to how it strategically envisions America’s role in the geopolitical terrain of what is more commonly referred to as the “Asia Pacific,” or what was referred to as “Trans-Pacific” in the now-defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership...

Should Taiwan Celebrate Bolton and Navarro Appointments While The Rest Of The World Recoils In Terror?

The return to power of John Bolton and Peter Navarro in the Trump administration, after a period in which both were relegated to lesser roles in favor of other political actors, have been celebrated by some in Taiwan. But such appointments are signs of the incoherence and irrational hawkishness of the Trump Administration much more than they are indications of any more supportive policy of Taiwan...

Flattery During Asia Trip Shows That Asian Pacific Countries Hope To Pacify Trump’s Unpredictability

Donald Trump's recently concluded Asia trip was the site of much bizarre spectacle and pageantry, with Asia Pacific leaders going out of their way to tickle Trump’s ego. This illustrates that Asia Pacific leaders hope to keep Trump pacified through flattery, even when they could otherwise benefit from an American loss of face on the world stage...

Trump’s Asia Trip So Far Inconclusive

Evaluations of Trump’s Asia trip remain ambiguous, with Trump’s unorthodox means of conducting diplomacy leading to difficulties evaluating whether his trip advanced or compromised American interests in the Asia Pacific. However, an early evaluation suggests that while no fundamental shift in the status quo of the Asia Pacific has yet occurred following Trump’s trip, China’s position has been strengthened due to the image that the irregularities of Trump’s actions present to the international world...

Comments by AIT Chair Point To America’s Contradictory Stance On Taiwan

Recent comments by AIT chair James Moriarty earlier this month are, unsurprisingly, illustrative of American hypocrisy regarding Taiwan. In recent comments made around the time of ROC National Day, Moriarty called on Taiwan to continue to maintain the status quo with China, praised the Tsai administration for continuing to maintain cross-strait relations, and also called on Taiwan to do more for its defense, all the while affirming continued friendship between Taiwan and America. Never mind these are things which are mutually contradictory...