The Formosa Alliance held a rally this afternoon outside DPP headquarters in Taipei in order to push for a referendum on the name Taiwan will participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics under. Organizers claimed that 120,000 were in attendance...
As raised in a recent The Diplomat article, statements by Taiwanese political leaders gesture towards an attempt to situate Taiwan within the framework of the “Indo-Pacific”. The “Indo-Pacific” would be the Trump administration’s preferred terminology to refer to how it strategically envisions America’s role in the geopolitical terrain of what is more commonly referred to as the “Asia Pacific,” or what was referred to as “Trans-Pacific” in the now-defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership...
The fact that a current campaign to hold a referendum on a planned coal-burning power plant in Shenao has led to pressure on the DPP is evident in flip-flopping by premier William Lai on the power plant. This has led to accusations of hypocrisy on the part of Lai from the KMT, which was a major force in pushing for the referendum...
Many uncertainties remain for efforts to realize marriage equality in Taiwan, with the approval of multiple referendums on marriage equality and sexual education. Two referendums, pushed for by marriage equality supporters, have phrasing favorable to the legalization of marriage equality and have reached the necessary benchmarks to be held. On the other hand, referendums with phrasing unfavorable to gay marriage and sexual education have also reached necessary benchmarks to be held, as pushed for by anti-gay groups...
ROC National Day commemorations took place today with official celebrations and some protests. Protest activity was not as intense compared to past years, however. Likewise, controversies resulting from statements by Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen or other politicians were fairly minor...
Do recent American actions indicate stronger support of Taiwan? Namely, American actions as of late have been unusual, with America taking the high-level step of recalling diplomatic representatives to three countries which recently broke ties with the ROC in favor of acknowledging the PRC, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Panama...
Make no mistake: The execution of a 39-year-old man in Kaohsiung last Friday is a political killing. In all probability, the Tsai administration went ahead with the execution as a way to score political points for the DPP in the lead-up to 2018 local elections and in order to counter criticisms that it has been lax on violent crime...
DPP legislators would in the past week make allegations that the Chinese government has begun investigating whether Taiwanese businesses operating in China have made donations to the pan-Green political camp. If found to have done so, the Chinese government reportedly intends to take punitive measures against such companies, forcing them to make statements acknowledging the 1992 Consensus or otherwise acknowledging a political stance that Taiwan is a part of China ...
Criticisms of the Tsai administration’s handling of flooding in southern Taiwan in the past week have been seized upon by members of the pan-Blue camp. Some of this has bordered on fake news and it is unlikely that a KMT administration would have done any differently. All this would point to the KMT’s lack of any concrete policy platform upon which to contest the DPP, with the KMT instead latching onto any criticisms that it can...
With an announcement by Premier William Lai that English will become an official language of Taiwan next year, there have been a number of divided reactions, ranging from skepticism to support for the idea...
