The war on drugs under the Tsai administration seems set to continue, with recent public scandals regarding drug use on army bases, the scandal caused by a drug-related death after a party at the five-star W Hotel in Taipei, and major drug crackdowns. Very likely, the Tsai administration is determined to make harsh drug policy enforcement one of its political achievements...
This afternoon saw a demonstration and the performance of traditional dances by Taiwanese indigenous and their allies on Ketagalan Boulevard, in front of the Presidential Office Building. The issue at hand was backsliding by the Tsai administration on vows to restore traditional indigenous territories, something which was promised by the Tsai administration as part of its historic apology to indigenous on behalf of the ROC government in August of last year...
Whatever the claims of the Tsai administration that it continues to concern itself with the issue of gay marriage, the Tsai administration has evidently changed tack, now attempting to play the role of “peacemaker” between pro-marriage equality and anti-marriage equality groups in Taiwan. This evidences hypocrisy on the part of Tsai, as well as demonstrates her attempt to wash her hands of past support for marriage equality...
The Formosa Steel saga continues to be unresolved in Vietnam, with minimal payouts to victims and the use of physical force by the Vietnamese government to prevent attempts to file a lawsuit against the Vietnamese government and Formosa Steel’s handling of the disaster...
The recent announcement that Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uyghur Congress, will not be visiting Taiwan in the near future may be a sign that the strategy adopted by pro-China political forces in Taiwan who have taken to harassing or even physically assaulting political dissidents against China may be working...
Tsai Ing-Wen's stopover transit in Houston on her way to visit Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador and her subsequent meeting with Texas senator and former presidential hopeful Ted Cruz may have drawn hysterics from alarmists, but it is really no more than business as usual. But this non-departure from standard procedure in and of itself is worthy of reflection, and we might take look at how this fits into the current context of Taiwan’s international situation...
The twisted nature of Tawan's workplace culture is evident in that business groups’ solution to what is quite evidently a problem of understaffing after recent labor reforms is not to hire more workers, but in many cases to try and force workers to work overtime. The Tsai administration has not proved much better...
Renewed contestation has erupted regarding Taiwan’s name, with China lodging protest over the renaming of Taiwan’s de facto embassy organization in Japan from the “Interchange Association (Japan)” to the “Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association”. Is this a sign that the Tsai administration plans on pushing for greater use of the name "Taiwan" internationally in the near future?...
