New Bloom editor Brian Hioe spoke to Asylum Access, an international NGO working on asylum issues, about the status of asylum laws in Taiwan, the organization's work, and its efforts to work on asylum issues in Taiwan...
The unexpected death of Shen Yi-ming, Taiwan’s military chief of staff, in a helicopter crash earlier today is likely to provide fodder for electioneering in the coming days. While both the Tsai and Han campaigns have announced a three-day break from campaign activities in the wake of Shen’s death, it is probable that the incident will eventually be used by the Han campaign as a means of attacking the Tsai administration. It is also highly likely that the incident will become the object of Chinese disinformation efforts...
A 2017 deal inked between Taiwan and Australia for Taiwan to provide medical treatment for refugees stranded on Nauru that the Australian government refuses to admit was again in the news last month after Buzzfeed News obtained the text of the Memorandum of Understanding inked between the two countries regarding the agreement...
A Tweet several weeks ago by Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen on the cancellation of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that was originally scheduled to take place in Santiago, Chile strikes as not only tone-deaf but illustrative of a consistent pattern of behavior by the Taiwanese government...
Concerns have been raised regarding the reconstruction of the Losheng Sanatorium by activists, with demonstrations by residents and supportive activists earlier this month. Demonstrations to date have included attaching banners to the construction site of the sanatorium, protesting outside of the Executive Yuan, as well as protesting at the Golden Melody Awards while president Tsai Ing-wen was in attendance at the awards ceremony...
The revelation that Taiwanese academic Tsai Chin-shu has been detained by China for over 420 days should be highly worrying. That Tsai was detained for over 400 days with no information coming to light about his imprisonment suggests a higher number of Taiwanese currently detained by the Chinese government than was previously known. Likewise, Tsai was a known advocate of unification with China, suggesting that China will not only target pro-independence activists for arbitrary detention...
The long path for transitional justice to be achieved in Taiwan is evident in the challenges faced by efforts to bring the truth of major incidents during the White Terror to light. President Tsai Ing-wen vowed to do so in July through declassifying the files of the National Security Bureau and other institutions of the ROC state that carried out political persecutions on behalf of the KMT during the authoritarian period...
Scenes of disruption took place across Hong Kong today, with a general strike and eight rallies held at the same time across multiple districts of Hong Kong. Apart from the heavy use of tear gas by police during the day, nightfall saw the reemergence of triad members to attack demonstrators...
