Bluebird Movement

Thousands Demonstrate Against KMT Cuts to Defense Spending

Brian Hioe
Thousands demonstrated on Sunday against the KMT’s cuts to defense spending, which reduced spending from 1.25 trillion NT to 780 billion NT. The main organizer of the demonstration was the Economic Democracy Union, the politically progressive social movement organization that played a key role in the 2014 Sunflower Movement and 2024 Bluebird Movement...
EnglishMay 2026PoliticsSelf-DeterminationSocial MovementsYouth Movements4 min read

Ruptures and Splits: Challenges to Recall Group Solidarity

Aleksandrs Gross
Thousands of strangers island-wide worked together with remarkable efficiency so that the Great Recall Movement would succeed. Despite its failure to recall any of the targeted politicians from office, the Great Recall Movement holds lessons for how to rapidly mobilize civil society in response to impending threats to Taiwan’s democracy...
EnglishNovember 2025Self-DeterminationSocial MovementsYouth Movements12 min read

Partisan Contestation to Continue in Aftermath of Recalls

Brian Hioe
The aftermath of the recalls is gradually taking shape. In particular, the pan-Blue camp is likely to persist with further attempts to attack the DPP. A new proposal from the TPP, which is supported by the KMT, would tie national referendums to elections. This would likely drive up turnout in a way that would make it more likely that referendums would meet benchmarks to be binding...
August 2025EnglishPoliticsSelf-DeterminationSocial MovementsYouth Movements4 min read

How the Recall Failure Affected Pro-Recall Taiwanese

Aleksandrs Gross
The Great Recall Movement has been described by some as the beginning of a new wave of Taiwanese activism—the greatest since the Sunflower Movement. The first wave of recall elections failed to recall even one of the 24 targeted KMT politicians from office, dealing a heavy blow to the pro-recall movement. Such a turn of events raises the question: how have the recall results affected pro-recall Taiwanese? And more importantly, what does this mean for the future of Taiwanese activism?...
August 2025EnglishPoliticsSelf-DeterminationSocial MovementsYouth Movements16 min read

Recalls Indicate Failure to Flip Pan-Blue Territory, Not Public Opinion Siding with the KMT

Brian Hioe
With the defeat of the “Great Recall Movement” over the weekend, it is notable to observe that some claims in media discourse have sought to frame the results as a rebuke to the DPP, indicating that the Taiwanese public supports the KMT. Chinese nationalists have gone even further, suggesting that the results mean that the majority of Taiwanese identify as Chinese...
EnglishJuly 2025PoliticsSelf-DeterminationSocial MovementsYouth Movements7 min read