Taiwan Insight

Beyond Politics: The Economic Logic Behind Taiwan’s Defence Budget

10 February 2026 Adrian Chiu

Written by Domingo I-Kwei Yang and Chan-Hsi Wang. This article argues that a new trend is emerging in Taiwan’s debate over defence spending, elevating the economic logic behind defence investment. It identifies the shift from fiscal burden to strategic investment, from buyer to co-production partner with the US and “peace through strength” as an economic strategy that fuses military readiness with an economic agenda.

The New NSS’s Contradictions Towards Taiwan

9 February 2026 Adrian Chiu

Written by Baosheng Guo. This article highlights four contradictions in the US’s 2025 National Security Strategy, including the tension between defending Taiwan and the Retrenchment strategy toward China, burden-sharing exceeding allies’ tolerance, aligning allies’ actions with US interests, and maintaining American soft power while abandoning Taiwan’s democratic values.

Transnational Relay: Lesbian Women’s Cross-Border Use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Reproductive Health Precarity in Taiwan

6 February 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Yu-Ying Hu. This article illustrates how Taiwanese lesbian women navigate cross-border assisted reproduction under conditions of legal exclusion. Moving beyond narratives about reproductive tourism, it conceptualises transnational ART as a precarious yet agentic relay process, showing how vulnerability and resistance intertwine as women coordinate fragmented medical, legal, and logistical systems while bearing unequal reproductive health risks.

Beyond Cisfertility: Expanding the Reproductive Imagination in Taiwan

4 February 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Yo-Ling Chen. This article illustrates how Taiwan’s Assisted Reproduction Act amendments, while expanding access for unmarried women and lesbian couples, continue to exclude many transgender people by anchoring eligibility to legal gender. Tracing legislative debates, activist interventions, and medical research, it exposes a regime of passive eugenics and considers whether recent parliamentary critiques signal a shift toward transgender reproductive justice.

Subsidising Birth: Pronatalist Policy and the Rise of Assisted Reproductive Technologies

2 February 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Pei-Chieh Hsu. This article illustrates how state-subsidised assisted reproductive technology has reshaped reproduction in Taiwan, situating Taiwan’s In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) within global pronatalist regimes, fiscal governance, and demographic anxiety. It analyses policy design, comparative fertility outcomes, and ethnographic IVF experiences to show how subsidies engineered technological dependence while reproducing new social, medical, and moral hierarchies.

Taiwan Go Go Front: Path of Synergising Third Force Minor Parties

30 January 2026 Adrian Chiu

Written by Jonathan Leung. This article reviews the formation of Taiwan Go Go Front and analyses its prospects in 2026 and beyond. It suggests that TPP’s rise is the major reason for the alliance’s formation, as small parties struggled for attention. The 2026 local election is a relatively easier task for the alliance to coordinate their nominations.

2025 Taiwan Theatre Report: Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

28 January 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Yi-Ping Wu. This article recounts Taiwan’s 2025 cultural budget cuts amid political turmoil yet highlights the resilience of Taiwan’s theatrical landscape through the Taipei Theatre Awards, the Off-Broadway debut of Don’t Cry, Dancing Girls, the 2025 Expo Osaka initiatives, and the Les Misérables tour in Taipei and Kaohsiung, revealing international ambition despite systemic discrimination against the arts.

Hype and Hard Realities: Taiwan’s Diplomacy in Late 2025

26 January 2026 Adrian Chiu

Written by Meng Kit Tang. This article examines Taiwan’s diplomacy in late 2025, including Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s recent Brussels appearance. It argues that overstated narratives risk creating misaligned expectations at home and misunderstanding abroad. The commentary highlights how Taiwan can pursue a more resilient, results-oriented diplomatic strategy.

Bluff or Substantial Deterrence: The Purpose and Implications of China’s “Mission for Justice 2025” Exercise Against Taiwan

23 January 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Shen Ming Shih. This article describes that China’s late-2025 “Justice Mission” exercise around Taiwan functioned more as political signalling than as a credible rehearsal for war. Despite the expanded scale and proximity, the drills exposed operational constraints, ineffective cognitive warfare, and diminished deterrent value while further internationalising the Taiwan Strait and underscoring Taiwan’s readiness.

Taiwan’s $40 Billion Defence Pledge: Powder Keg or Firewall?

21 January 2026 Adrian Chiu

This article examines whether Taiwan’s record NT$1.25 trillion defence package in 2025 strengthens deterrence or unintentionally accelerates strategic and demographic risk. The piece argues that both major parties rely on the same unspoken assumption that the United States will intervene decisively. It proposes a viable third path that balances readiness with societal resilience.

Taiwanese Government Continues to Flounder on Transgender Rights in 2025 Amidst Continued Transphobia

16 January 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Yo-Ling Chen. This article reviews the year 2025 for Taiwan, which saw growing civil society support for transgender rights alongside intensifying anti-gender mobilisation, often echoing U.S. conservative politics. Yet the government failed to deliver substantive policy reform, maintaining compulsory surgery for legal gender change while sidelining transgender needs in assisted reproduction and conscription policy. The result was political stagnation amid expanding grassroots advocacy.

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