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Questions of Political Transition of Power in Taiwan During the Ma-Tsai Meeting

Brian Hioe
Outgoing Taiwanese president Ma Ying-Jeou and incoming president-elect Tsai Ing-Wen met in Taipei on Wednesday in order to discuss the upcoming transition of power between a KMT and DPP presidency. This will be the third presidential transition of power between parties in Taiwanese history, the first being the transfer of power from KMT to DPP with the victory of Chen Shui-Bian as the first non-KMT president in Taiwanese history in 2000, and the second being the transfer of power back to KMT hands with the victory of Ma Ying-Jeou in 2008....
April 2016EnglishPolitics7 min read

Chicken Or Egg?

Tumin
The recent murder case of a four year old girl in Taiwan has brought the capital punishment debate back on stage. It seems that such ethical debates only seem to appear in the case of “shocking” news that provides opportunities for sensationalist journalism. As mass media rides the wave of clickbait streaming into their sites, the phony argumentation only proves to breed generation of nonchalant and passive individuals. We might consider the role of the media in the debate....
April 2016EnglishPolitics7 min read

There Will Be Blood: Taiwan’s Rancorous Discourse On Capital Punishment

Phu-Pheng
The ghastly random killing of a four-year-old girl in Neihu, Taipei on Monday has garnered widespread attention, nationally and internationally. What has almost simultaneously been triggered is a reinvigoration of the debate over the abolition of capital punishment in Taiwan. However, it is to be noted that this is hardly a real exchange of ideas, even by the standard of the Wild West that is the Internet, but more like a campaign of persecution against social activists who advocate the abolition of death penalty....
EnglishMarch 2016Politics9 min read