Vijay Prashad

History First as Tragedy, Then as Blob: The Taiwan Labor Party on Taiwan’s History in the Tricontinental Institute

Brian Hioe
In the wake of a letter by a Taiwanese academic that claimed Taiwan and China were part of the same polity…based on a land bridge that connected the two during the Ice Age, Vijay Prashad’s Tricontinental Institute has now followed up with a lengthy piece by Zang Ruxing. Zang is the director of the International Department of the Taiwan Labor Party. The piece, entitled “The Taiwan Question: From Civil War to External Intervention,” proves remarkable for many reasons, least of which is that the piece is dead on arrival from the first paragraph. Zang writes...
EnglishJuly 2026Politics16 min read

Tricontinental Institute Letter Claims that Taiwan is Part of China…Because of a Land Bridge During the Ice Age

Brian Hioe
A recent letter published in Vijay Prashad’s Tricontinental Institute written by Chen Meei-shia, a professor of public health at National Cheng Kung University, proves a bizarre exercise in cognitive dissonance. The letter begins by claiming Taiwan to be part of China…on the basis of that the two were connected by a land bridge during the Ice Age...
Cross StraitEnglishInternationalJune 2026PoliticsSelf-DeterminationSocial Movements4 min read

Vijay Prashad’s Letter on Chomsky Proves Hypocritical Attempt at Damage Control

Brian Hioe
A recent letter by Vijay Prashad in Counterpunch is a poor attempt at damage control. In effect, with it now known that Noam Chomsky was an associate of Jeffrey Epstein, as disclosed in what has come to popularly be known as the Epstein files, Prashad attempts to cut ties with Chomsky–this being an effort at damage control shortly after co-authoring a book with Chomsky...
EnglishFebruary 2026PoliticsSocial MovementsTheory and History6 min read

“New McCarthyism” Petition Illustrates Western Leftists’ Failure of Internationalism

Brian Hioe
A recent expose in the New York Times on tech multimillionaire Roy Singham, who funds various tankie media outlets, organizations, and institutions such as the Tricontinental Institute, Code Pink, and the People’s Forum in New York City, has led to a petition on the Tricontinental Institute and Code Pink’s websites lashing out against the “new McCarthyism.” This petition was signed by anyone from David Harvey to Radhika Desai, Chris Hedges, and luminaries of the Brooklyn left such as Doug Henwood and The Nation president Bhaskar Sunkara...
August 2023EnglishInternationalLaborRegional TensionsSocial Movements10 min read

Jacobin Features Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad Labeling Taiwan a “Rock”, Again Ignores Taiwanese Voices

Brian Hioe
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...
August 2022EnglishPolitics13 min read

Manichaeism with Chinese Characteristics: A Look Back on the “China and the Left” Conference

Brian Hioe
The Qiao Collective, Monthly Review, and People’s Forum came together to hold a conference on the topic of “China and the Left” on September 18th in New York City, an event featuring such luminaries of the tankie left ranging from Max Ajl to Mark Tseng Putterman and Vijay Prashad. Reportedly around 150 were in attendance, though many hundreds more attended online by livestream, and videos of the event accumulated thousands of views in the days afterward...
EnglishSelf-DeterminationSeptember 2021Social MovementsYouth Movements46 min read