The victory of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Tsai Ing-wen in mid-January’s presidential election was no surprise; she had been leading in opinion polls for months. More unexpected was the scale of the triumph – and that of the DPP candidates in the legislative contests. Not only did Tsai win 56.1% of the vote in a…
Teen Singer Waves Flag, Angers China The presidential campaign of Tsai Ing-wen got an unexpected boost when it was revealed that China was picking on little girls. Chou Tzu-yu, a 16-year-old member of the Korean pop band Twice, raised the ire of Chinese nationalists, who called her a Taiwan independence supporter when images of her…
Nuclear Power Drops with Reactor Stoppage Taiwan was given a trial run of the Democratic Progressive Party’s “nuclear-free homeland” policy as one by one, four of its six nuclear reactors went offline for various reasons. On December 26, one of the two 985-megawatt (MW) reactors at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant (NPP 2) in New…
Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU), an investigative consultancy aimed at assisting law enforcement agencies to root out cybercrime, employs a dynamic map that displays locations from which cyberattacks are originating, as well as locations that are being victimized. Until roughly seven years ago, the map showed Taiwan as being the victim of large-scale cybercrime. But…
Taiwan’s Submarine Project Resurfaces Taiwan’s two major political parties appear to be in agreement on prioritizing the acquisition of submarines, which many experts see as vital in augmenting Taiwan’s defense in the face of China’s rapid military expansion. China has more than 1,100 ballistic missiles trained on Taiwan, along with large fleets of advanced fighter…
The newly elected DPP government has stated its intention to strengthen Taiwan’s defense industry as a way to both enhance national security and expand the economy. Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology has already demonstrated its capability to develop various types of weaponry, including advanced missile systems, and the Aerospace Industry Development Corp. –…
Historic Ma-Xi Meeting Draws Mixed Reaction It was a brief meeting arranged on short notice, an hour of closed-door talks followed by a sumptuous banquet. But when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou met in Singapore on November 7, the first encounter between Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Kuomintang (KMT) leaders in…
Speaking at an AmCham Taipei membership luncheon on October 23, Tsai Ing-wen, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate in the upcoming presidential election, reminded attendees of the “mutual interests” and “shared values” tying the United States and Taiwan, identified the United States as Taiwan’s “most important economic partner,” and called U.S.-Taiwan relations the “cornerstone for…
Tainan mayor William Lai ended his 234-day boycott of the Tainan City Council to give policy remarks as the city addresses a dengue fever outbreak that has sickened 2,500 people and killed four. Lai, who belongs to the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), had boycotted the council meetings to protest what he deemed the mishandling…
People First Party (PFP) chairman and veteran politician James Soong threw his hat into the presidential race as a third-party candidate, vowing to end decades of bitter partisanship that has divided the nation. “Collaboration instead of endless confrontation is our only way out of this mess,” he was quoted as telling the media, adding that…
