During a televised interview with ERA TV earlier this month, President William Lai (賴清德) said that China wants to annex Taiwan not for the sake of territorial integrity, but for hegemony. Otherwise, China should take back the territory it ceded to Russia in the Treaty of Aigun, especially now that R
The contest for leadership of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) officially launched on Thursday. An unprecedented nine candidates are vying for the top position, but only a few have strong prospects. The top three candidates are Shinjiro Koizumi, Shigeru Ishiba and Sanae Takaichi, recent opinio
Germany shows its supportTwo German navy ships sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Friday, the first time in 22 years that any German naval vessel has made an appearance in this sensitive waterway.The move shows that Germany is paying attention to developments in the Taiwan Strait and is acting in u
EDITORIAL CARTOON
Whoever said a lie could get around the world before the truth had its boots on clearly did not envision the force of a megastar such as singer Taylor Swift, who on Tuesday demonstrated that she could get ahead of any falsehood in an instant.The singer’s blockbuster endorsement of US Vice President
Young people have been leading large-scale protests in two of Africa’s most influential countries, Kenya and Nigeria. While many of the protesters’ demands are unlikely to be met, the demonstrations highlight the urgent need for fundamental reforms, not only in Kenya and Nigeria, but across Africa.I
As deadly as the COVID-19 pandemic was, the next one could be more nightmarish. Powerful new artificial intelligence (AI) models, combined with novel lab tools, could soon enable rogue scientists or states to engineer a pathogen that would spread faster, resist vaccines better and kill more people t
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region.The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the i
In his inaugural speech, President William Lai (賴清德) outlined a clear vision for Taiwan’s future, emphasizing the nation’s strategic role in the global supply chain amid shifting geopolitical tides. He underscored the centrality of the “five trusted industry sectors” — semiconductors, artificial int
Most people believe that it is “unfilial” to send their elderly family members to a nursing home, or that it is a form of abandonment. Some believe it denies elderly people the ability to experience the domestic bliss of a leisurely old age. Some even say that sending a family member to a nursing ho
Anti-trafficking effortsHuman trafficking has become an increasingly serious international issue. UN statistics from last year indicate that at least 100,000 people were tricked into going to Southeast Asia and forced to participate in phone scams or other crimes. Many are victims of human trafficki
EDITORIAL CARTOON
The arrest in France of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has brought into sharp focus one of the major conflicts of our age. On one hand, we want privacy in our digital lives, which is why we like the kind of end-to-end encryption Telegram promises. On the other, we want the government to be abl
Public inquiries are a valuable tool for democracies to address major catastrophes and failures, a transparent process that enables facts to be established, blame to be apportioned and lessons to be learned. Is there a limit to the amount of bad news that a country can absorb about its system, thoug
New French Prime Minister Michel Barnier has yet to appoint a government, still less lay out its agenda. However, three-quarters of voters already believe that he would soon be on his way out, despite French President Emmanuel Macron’s hope that the former EU Brexit negotiator can safeguard his lega
Since posting a warning in June that the Chinese government was paying Taiwanese content creators to travel to China to produce media coverage favorable to Beijing, YouTuber “Potter King” (波特王) has noticed a surge in content by Taiwanese influencers promoting Xinjiang under Chinese Communist Party (
By urging the US to adopt a no-first-use nuclear policy and abandon its nuclear protection guarantees for allies in Asia and Europe, Beijing is trying to position itself as the reasonable voice on anti-nuclear proliferation. Official Chinese government documents acknowledge there is no victor in a n
The former head of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Huang Fu-hsing chapter Tsang You-hsia (臧幼俠) attended an event in Hong Kong that promoted unification with China. During the Chinese national anthem, he stood at attention. These actions were an infringement of Article 9-3 of the Act Governing
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has been detained and is being held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei.His three defense lawyers issued a joint statement declaring that Ko would not file an appeal against the detention ruling.The statemen