International debate on Taiwan is obsessed with “invasion countdowns,” framing the cross-strait crisis as a matter of military timetables and political opportunity. However, the seismic political tremors surrounding Central Military Commission (CMC) vice chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) suggested that Wa
According to statistics from the European Commission, 5.8 billion duty-free, low-value e-commerce parcels entered the EU last year, a 26 percent increase from the year before. These staggering figures underscore the necessity and legitimacy of countermeasures. From July, the EU would be imposing a 3
The Nantou County Government on Saturday last week convened an environmental impact assessment meeting on plans to build an incinerator in Mingjian Township (名間). In a particularly hard-to-watch moment, tea farmers knelt in protest alongside petitioners before a row of officials and police officers.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) has said that while the US was Taiwan’s benefactor, China is family. That statement is not only logically flawed, but a serious misjudgement of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality. As Chinese military aircraft continue to intrude on Taiwanese a
EDITORIAL CARTOON
On the international day of education, Jan. 24, UN agencies sounded the alarm on a situation that is far too neglected. It was just more than four years ago that Afghanistan’s Taliban government banned all girls from secondary education. Since then, it has extended the ban to include higher educatio
In early December last year, Kenyan environmental activist Truphena Muthoni made history by hugging a tree for 72 hours straight. The goal was not only to raise awareness of the growing threats posed by climate change and deforestation, but also to highlight the limits of conventional advocacy in dr
On the last day of the extended legislative session on Friday last week, the Legislative Yuan, with a slight majority held by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), continued to refuse to review the government’s annual budget for this year, which is already o
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) challenges and ignores the international rules-based order by violating Taiwanese airspace using a high-flying drone: This incident is a multi-layered challenge, including a lawfare challenge against the First Island Chain, the US, and the world.The People’s Liberat
The US has withdrawn from the WHO citing the agency’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and failure to adopt reforms. It is estimated that tens of millions of people and trillions of dollars of revenue have been lost to COVID-19 globally.While WHO officials continued to deny receiving an early wa
EDITORIAL CARTOON
The year was 2007. Steve Jobs had announced the launch of the first iPhone, the sub-prime mortgage crisis was bubbling up in the US, the EU had expanded to include Romania and Bulgaria, and India had for the first time become a trillion-dollar economy. This was when trade talks between Delhi and Bru
It is still mid-winter in the high Himalayas along the disputed border between India and China. In New Delhi and Beijing, spring has come. Relations, frozen since 20 Indian soldiers were killed in clashes in 2020, have begun to thaw. Bilateral diplomatic visits have resumed and the two militaries ha
It has been clear for many years that China’s status as a second global superpower poses challenges to the world’s democracies. US President Donald Trump’s marauding behavior as president of the first-placed superpower makes those challenges more acute. In the past, the UK’s relationship with Beijin
The latest legislative session, which was already extended for a month following a vote by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Dec. 19 last year, finally closed on Friday. Despite the extension, the Executive Yuan’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) eig
Over the past two days, two heartwarming currents have flown through Taiwan’s streets — like sunlight in the winter, shining into people’s hearts. The first took place in Kaohsiung’s Fongshan County (鳳山), where a junior-high school student walked a person with disabilities across a busy intersection
Under the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) self-imposed “two-year clause,” in which at-large legislators are required to resign halfway into their four-year term to make way for candidates next on the party list, six legislators are to step down from their positions today. The measure was designed to cul
For too long, Taiwan’s defense procurement has been framed by opposition forces in the Legislative Yuan as a “fiscal burden” or a “protection fee.” The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) coalition with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has exploited this narrative to block the NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7
The word Lichun (立春), meaning the “Beginning of Spring,” arrives as a quiet recalibration of the world. Falling around Feb. 4, it stands as the inaugural chapter of the 24 solar terms — an ancient East Asian calendar system that serves as a rhythmic pulse for the natural year. The mere mention of sp
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