Votes are still being counted for the US midterm elections, with many races still being up in the air. At present, Democrats have taken the Senate, while Republicans may end up controlling the House of Representatives...
The US midterm elections took place on Tuesday. Votes are still being counted several days later. Projections have Republicans winning the House, but possibly the Democrats holding the Senate. At press time, 46 Senate seats have been called for Democrats, while 48 seats have been called for Republicans. Likewise, 184 seats in the House of Representatives have been called for Democrats, while 207 have been called for Republicans...
One wonders when Jacobin will eventually get any Taiwanese voice to write–or even comment–on the possibility of conflict between the US and China that engulfs Taiwan. Their latest proves another article by Branko Marcetic, who is apparently the leftist magazine’s go-to-writer on Taiwan...
The Taiwan Policy Act cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. This clears the way for the bill to be discussed and voted upon by the US House of Representatives and Senate, with some warnings that China may take a strong response to the bill. The bill passed the committee by a vote of 17 to 5, with bipartisan support...
Earlier today, US president Joe Biden confused again with comments on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that suggested US commitment to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. Subsequently, as with previous such incidents in which Biden indicated US commitment to defend Taiwan, these comments were quickly walked back by the White House, which stated that US policy on Taiwan had not changed...
Jacobin's latest confused foray into commenting on Taiwan proves to be a video on its YouTube channel, the Jacobin Show, featuring Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad. Following on the heels of an article that labeled individuals that brought up the exclusion of Taiwanese voices from a conversation about their future as “warmongers,” rather than get anyone Taiwanese to discuss the Pelosi visit, Jacobin seems to have gone with Chomsky and Prashad...
Following US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, tensions in the region seem set to escalate. Although in a recent Pentagon briefing, US government spokespersons claimed that they had anticipated China’s moves, China’s actions still came as a surprise...
American leftist magazine Jacobin continues to plumb the depths of bad writing on Taiwan that does not bother to consult Taiwanese voices about their own future, with a recent article by Chicago-based writer Branko Marcetic. Instead of anything like, say, speaking to Taiwanese to see what they think of the odds of conflict with China are, what one instead sees is the usual insularity of western leftists who are more concerned with projecting the specter of American empire onto the non-western world to self-flagellate about themselves rather than finding pragmatic solutions to avoid conflict...
It remains opaque as to whether military drilling by China around Taiwan will continue in the coming days. Namely, although the People’s Liberation Army initially announced that its four days of live-fire drills would end on Sunday, yesterday it announced that military exercises in the area would continue. The drills are an escalation for the Chinese military, seeing as they take place closer to Taiwan than took place during the Third Taiwan Straits Crisis...
Today was the first day of live-fire drills conducted by the People’s Liberation Army in maritime areas around Taiwan. The drills are as close as 20 kilometers to metropolises such as Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s major southern port city, and are nine kilometers away from the island of Little Liuqiu. Another zone was added by the Maritime and Port Bureau for ships to avoid during the drilling, which is to last until Sunday, bringing the number of such zones to 7...