Chinese nationalism

Kaiser Kuo Articulates Apologism for Culturalist Authoritarianism in Sinica Article

Brian Hioe
A recent piece by Kaiser Kuo arguing for the fundamental difference between western and Chinese political systems proves the usual, facile apologism for authoritarianism from Kuo. And yet it is not a particularly sophisticated one either–it is the usual reaching for nationalist abstraction, tautological logic, and cherry-picking that one has come to expect from Kuo...
EnglishFebruary 2025Politics7 min read

Greater Push for Transparency Occurs After Kinmen Speedboat Incident

Brian Hioe
An incident involving the drowning death of two Chinese fishermen, who were on a speedboat intruding in the territorial waters of Kinmen, continues to be politically contested. The two fishermen died after the speedboat they were on refused to consent to a search by the Taiwanese Coast Guard, attempted to flee, then capsized. Though two of the four people on the speedboat were pulled out of the water, the other two had no vital signs when this occurred...
EnglishFebruary 2024Politics5 min read

Can Chinese Nationalists (or their Apologists) Please Shut Up About Zhonghua?

Brian Hioe
Imagine if after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that a leading Anglophone left academic journal put out an article blaming the invasion on the failure of Ukrainians to embrace Russian culture. Putin justified the invasion by claiming that Ukraine did not have a language, identity, or culture of its own outside of Russian culture and was wholly an invention of the Bolsheviks, so Ukraine’s existence as a polity could justifiably be nullified. The invasion of Ukraine, then, is the fault of Ukrainians for failing to embrace the “Russo-world”...
August 2022EnglishPolitics22 min read

Anger After Actress Claims To Be Chinese In Public Apology

Brian Hioe
Anger has broken out against Taiwanese actress Vivian Sung after she apologized on her Weibo account for previous comments during an interview several years ago in which she stated that Taiwan was her favorite country, later unearthed by Chinese netizens. Such comments were outraging to Chinese netizens, seeing as they implied that Sung viewed Taiwan as a country. It remains to be seen whether Sung’s later apology will placate angry Chinese netizens, but in the meantime, this apology has angered Taiwanese netizens...
August 2018EnglishPolitics5 min read