The second and final round of recalls took place across Taiwan today, with seven KMT legislators facing recall. Likewise, a national referendum on the issue of whether to extend the lifespan of the Ma-anshan nuclear reactor took place...
Commemorations in Taiwan regarding the 80th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War earlier this month have proven politically charged between the DPP and KMT. This may not be surprising, insofar as present-day concerns have been projected onto World War II, and Taiwan is sometimes discussed as a potential flashpoint for another global conflict along the lines of past world wars...
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?...
A recent Substack post by Christian Whiton, an advisor to the Bush and Trump administrations, proves an odd fever dream about Taiwan. Even if not framed in such terms, the gist of Whiton’s argument about Taiwan is, in effect, that the Trump administration’s recent actions directed toward Taiwan are driven by a lack of faith in Taiwan because of its embrace of the woke Left...
A recent incident involving legislative assistants of Han Kuo-yu and Johnny Chiang, as president and vice president of the legislature, has led to increased focus on the issue of Chinese lobbying...
With the defeat of the “Great Recall Movement” last week, some have asked the question of whether the DPP and KMT will seek to make amends. After all, it now seems clear that the pan-Green camp will not be able to oust the KMT from the legislature...
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...
The first round of recall voting in Taiwan took place today. The results, however, mostly indicate a defeat for pro-recall campaigners, in that no KMT legislators were recalled. 24 legislators and one mayor were up for recall today...
Tomorrow is the date of the recalls set to take place in Taiwan. What should be self-apparent is that it was a sense of political crisis that led up to this point. For the recalls, as a self-initiated movement to recall all KMT legislators, to take place involved both domestic and international factors, as well as an interplay between social movement politics and electoral politics....
