According to recent comments by Minister without Portfolio John Deng, who heads the Office of Trade Negotiations in the Executive Yuan, food imports from Fukushima are likely to prove an obstacle for efforts by Taiwan to join the CPTPP. Deng made similar comments in September, as well...
US president Joe Biden again created confusion regarding the US position on Taiwan today during a town hall held by CNN. In response to a question about whether he would vow to protect Taiwan and what he would do to compete with China militarily, following Chinese tests of a hypersonic missile, Biden stated “Yes and yes"...
In the past week, the Chinese government has sought to tar Taiwan’s efforts to build stronger diplomatic relations with Somaliland, with state-run tabloid Global Times alleging that the Taiwanese government is paying off politicians in Somaliland in return for diplomatic recognition. Such claims, which have been denied by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, draw on Taiwan’s reputation for “dollar diplomacy” ...
Both Tsai Ing-wen and Xi Jinping made major speeches over the weekend on the issue of cross-strait relations, as well as other issues. This was to be expected, because of the fact that today is Double Ten Day, the founding holiday of the ROC...
Taiwan has seen a significant uptick in the number of incursions into its ADIZ by Chinese warplanes in the past week. In the five days from October 1st to October 5th, Taiwan saw 150 incursions. At the same time, one has seen the circulation of an unusual claim online—that Taiwan is, in fact, reporting flights that occurred over the Chinese mainland. It is indeed true that Taiwan’s ADIZ extends into the Chinese mainland. And so, this misinformation/disinformation claim mixes fact with falsehood to make it appear as though Taiwan is overreacting to the ADIZ incursions and suggests that Taiwan is simply ratcheting up tensions for its own purposes by playing the victim...
US president Joe Biden raised eyebrows today after stating that he and Chinese president Xi Jinping had “agreed to abide by the Taiwan agreement”, following a phone conversation about China’s recent military actions with Chinese president Xi Jinping. Namely, there is no agreement between the US and Taiwan known as the “Taiwan agreement,” though Biden’s comments could be misleading, nor do the US and China share agreement on Taiwan’s status...
China commemorated Chinese National Day, which took place on October 1st, through unprecedented military displays of force against Taiwan. Namely, in the four days after Chinese National Day, China sent a total of 145 warplanes into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone...
Groups rallied today in front of the legislature to call attention to the Chinese government’s authoritarianism and to call on the Taiwanese government to take stronger action for Hongkongers in need of assistance. The rally took place today because October 1st is Chinese National Day...
China surprised last week after announcing new import restrictions on wax and custard apples, blocking fruit exports from Taiwan. Many have viewed the move as politicized, seeing as the move was announced one day before the ban took effect. Namely, the Chinese market constitutes up to 90% of the Taiwanese wax and custard apple exports...
For New Bloom, Jenny Li interviewed Noam Chomsky on the responsibility of leftist intellectuals in time characterized by conflict between the US and China, as well as possible ways out of this dilemma for small nations such as Taiwan caught between great power competition. The original interview was conducted on June 25th, 2021 and the video of the interview was released on August 25th...
