Confusion has broken out in the United States regarding perceptions that American president Trump has abruptly reversed course, with claims that “too many jobs [have been] lost” in China, and that he intends to reverse sanctions on Chinese electronics manufacturer ZTE...
China forcing airlines to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites is a highly significant move in framing Taiwan as part of China from the get-go for anyone going to Taiwan. As it seems unlikely that airlines will defy China, in spite of American condemnations, this may require intelligent responses...
Ousted chief strategist to US president Donald Trump and current editor-in-chief of Breitbart news agency Steve Bannon arrived in Hong Kong last week to deliver a speech to CLSA Investment Forum, a Chinese-owned investment group headquartered in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is Bannon’s first major public speech since his forced resignation...
As a result of a recent US-Taiwan arms deal and increased tensions between the US and North Korea, an ally of China, some claim that this represents the worsening of US-China relations under the Trump administration after a period in which the Trump administration became strangely friendly with China, a country long at odds with the United States historically. This is a premature conclusion...
News of an arms deal between the US and Taiwan will no doubt prove reassuring to those who bank on America as Taiwan’s guarantor of its existing de facto independence from China. Nevertheless, in truth, skepticism is needed. This is merely indicative of a temporary extension of the US-Taiwan status quo, rather than affirming a stronger stance on behalf of Taiwan by the Trump administration...
With increasing talk in America of the possibility of impeaching Donald Trump, it may be due time for Taiwan to consider what course it should take in the case of a Trump impeachment. What Taiwan should not do at all costs is, for whatever reason, to irrationally hitch its wagons to the Trump administration...
It came to light this past week that three Chinese labor rights activists who had been investigating three separate factories in southern China had been detained by the Chinese government, their whereabouts currently unknown. The suspected cause of the arrest? The factory the men were investigating for accounts for one-third of the production for Ivanka Trump's shoe brand...
The Trump administration’s shift in a pro-China direction seems likely to hasten the movement of Asia Pacific countries away from America under the Trump administration...
It is strange to observe the means by which many otherwise sharp western observers on Taiwanese politics, particularly Americans, continue to cling to strange delusions regarding Trump’s potential positive influence on Taiwan or at least his lack of any harmful influence on Taiwan. Such views may ultimately be reflexive in nature for many...
Many questions for regional peace in the Asia Pacific are up in the air after a failed missile test by North Korea today. It was speculated that North Korea may launch a nuclear missile test today to commemorate the birthday of Kim Il-Sung on April 15th. Today’s missile test was not a nuclear test, but it may precede such a test, and tensions will only increase in the region after it...
