cross-strait relations

TSMC’s Development of Arizona Semiconductor Plant Could Have Implications for Taiwan’s Security

Jesse R.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company recently won a $6.6 billion grant from the US Department of Commerce to subsidize the construction of three semiconductor manufacturing fabrication plants in Phoenix, Arizona. The total package could come to $11.6 billion, inclusive of loans. This is the largest cash grant the US has awarded a foreign company and the largest single greenfield project by a foreign company in US history...
April 2024EnglishInternationalPoliticsRegional Tensions12 min read

Chinese Efforts to Intimidate Taiwan Continue During Hsiao Bikhim’s Trip to Europe

Brian Hioe
An incident involving the following of Taiwanese Vice President-elect Hsiao Bikhim’s motorcade by a vehicle driven by a Chinese military attache in Prague last week proves revealing. The Chinese military attache was following Hsiao in a vehicle, as a means of harassment, and was stopped by Czech police due to his following Hsiao’s motorcade...
April 2024Cross StraitEnglishInternationalRegional Tensions5 min read

China Threatens to End ECFA Ahead of Elections

Brian Hioe
Ahead of elections, China has threatened to end the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement that dates from the time of the Ma administration. In particular, China claims that Taiwan is currently violating the terms of the agreement under the Tsai administration by continuing to maintain trade barriers on some Chinese goods, while also alleging that the Tsai administration has increased the number of Chinese goods blocked from entering Taiwan...
Cross StraitEnglishInternationalNovember 2023Politics5 min read

“The Taiwanese People Should Stand With the People of Swaziland”: A Conversation with Tanele Maseko

Brian Hioe
New Bloom editor Brian Hioe interviewed Tanele Maseko, human rights defender from Swaziland and the wife of Thulani Maseko. Thulani Maseko, an opposition politician and human rights lawyer, was killed by unidentified gunman in January of this year. As this took place after comments by Swazi monarch King Mswati III suggesting that critics of his should be killed, it is thought that this killing was ordered by the monarch. Tanele Maseko was visiting Taipei for the Oslo Freedom Forum on October 18th. Despite the questionable human rights record of Swaziland, which was renamed Eswatini by Mswati III in April 2018, it is one of Taiwan's diplomatic allies. Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen most recently visited Eswatini this September. ...
EnglishNovember 2023Politics11 min read

Tsai’s Eswatini Trip Continues Praise of Authoritarian Monarchy

Brian Hioe
A recent visit to Eswatini by Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen saw Tsai praise Eswatini for its support of Taiwan, while lauding the relationship between Taiwan and Eswatini as “the epitome of progress and development”. However, what Tsai did not mention in her comments was the fact that Eswatini’s government is an authoritarian one, as a country in which freedom of political association is forbidden and ruled over by one of the world’s last absolute monarchs...
EnglishPoliticsSeptember 20236 min read

China Sets New Record with Air Incursions

Brian Hioe
The People's Liberation Army set new records yesterday with the number of planes it deployed into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense announced that 103 warplanes were detected around Taiwan in a 24-hour period yesterday. The ADIZ is the airspace in which planes normally identify themselves for security purposes. Aircraft also maneuvered in airspace southeast and southwest of the island...
Cross StraitEnglishInternationalSeptember 20236 min read