Taiwan can breathe a sigh of relief after the Trump-Xi meeting which took place on the sidelines of the G-20 conference in Argentina on Saturday. Namely, Taiwan did not come up in any substantive manner during the meeting, with economic tensions between America and China being the main object of negotiation between Trump and Xi...
US-Taiwan relations and US-China relations will likely see no major shift after the results of American midterm elections. As such, the current status quo will remain, pending future political shifts...
Recent comments by American vice president Mike Pence at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC have made waves in Taiwan, with the perception that such comments are made as the articulation of a stronger pro-Taiwan and more anti-China stance by the US. However, this would be yet another indication of a strong disconnect between Taiwan’s perception of the United States and what is political reality in the United States...
Recent comments by American president Donald Trump lashing out at what he claims are Chinese attempts to interfere in American midterm elections are ironic...
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...
The American government sailing two destroyers through the Taiwan Straits last week has been interpreted by some in Taiwan as a continued sign of stronger American support for Taiwan under president Donald Trump. However, some skepticism is in order...
Taiwan has instead sought to emphasize that it should be a member of the international community through good works. This is why one observes that pan-Green political actors, such as current President Tsai Ing-Wen, have a pronounced tendency to try and emphasize Taiwan as a progressive nation-state internationally. But America, Taiwan's major guarantor of security, has continued to lurch rightwards, as observed in America withdrawing from the UN's Human Rights Council and recent Supreme Court rulings upholding Trump's controversial "Muslim ban" and dealing blows to labor and abortion rights...
Anger has broken out from a number of Korean progressives at American liberals for their reactions to the Trump-Kim summit. Namely, American liberals are seen as prioritizing sniping at Trump over establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula. Such outrage is all too familiar for Taiwan...
The opening of the new American Institute in Taiwan complex in Neihu was largely a non-event today. Apart from being overshadowed by the Trump-Kim summit that took place concurrently in Singapore, the building move signals little about any shift in American policy on Taiwan, regardless of boilerplate talk by American and Taiwanese policymakers...
Images of the killing of Palestinians on the Israel-Gaza border during protests against the American Embassy relocation to Jerusalem have been shocking for many in Taiwan. However, instead of looking at this tragic set of events merely as a tragedy in a distant, faraway land, perhaps there are lessons from this to be drawn for Taiwan and connections to be drawn between Taiwan's own struggles and Palestine's plight...
