Written by Chih-hen Chang. In May 2018, Taiwan founded the Transitional Justice Commission to address the historical trauma of the White Terror, which refers to the massive suppression of political dissidents from 1949 to 1987 in the name of safeguarding the nation against communist intrusion.
Conceptions of diplomacy held in Taiwan and Pacific nations like Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Palau have often come into conflict. One example is how Taiwan’s presidential visits to the Pacific have been conducted and received. Since the Chen Shui-bian administration came to power in 2000, Taiwanese presidents have attempted to visit most if not all of Taiwan’s allies. However, in the Pacific, these visits are often quite abbreviated.
Written by Megan Convielle. Given these factors of regional pressure, security, and internal political structure, it is important to re-evaluate the framework that gauges the role of diplomatic relations for the future of Taiwanese foreign policy. Previous research has shown that economic assistance plays a large role in small-state diplomacy, but this framework appears to be outdated in how Taiwan’s diplomatic relations are currently shifting.
Written by Fangmei Lin. What is emphasized by Luo as “becoming non-human” is, in fact, becoming non-Taiwanese. The entire loop of becoming eventually demonstrates the paradox of the Taiwanese: unending deferral and the situation of absence constitute the meaning of being and becoming (non)-Taiwanese.
At new year 1978/79 the United States diplomatically de-recognised the Republic of China on Taiwan and recognised the government of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. Forty years on from this momentous foreign policy pivot, the city of Nottingham in the UK is hosting an international conference to assess the impact of the decision in Taiwan, China and world affairs.
Written by Tsung-Lun Alan Wan. In Kinmen’s case, we see how geopolitical process can also be a sociolinguistic process, where Kinmenese people deal with the identity crisis of demilitarization through cultural imaginations about Kinmen-Taiwan differences.
Written by Sam Robbins. The tragic cases of Liu, Peng, and Bai happened at a critical intersection in Taiwan’s transition from authoritarianism.
Written by Kai-Yuan Cheng, Po-Han Lee, Po-Chang Tseng, Yunhung Jordy Tu, Shun-Te Wang. In this context, the exclusion of the Taiwanese people – currently represented by the Republic of China – from the largest world health institutions (e.g. WHO, United Nations) is no longer justifiable. Nonetheless, the reanimated Cold-War dynamics between China and the US have marginalised the Taiwanese people’s needs and voices yet again.
Written by Euan Graham. Taiwan is central to the security and strategic geography of the Indo-Pacific, perhaps even to the future development of democracy in the region. It remains an economy of significant weight. Yet, as a “stateless” entity, it suffers from a double identity, confined to margins of the region’s international affairs.
Written by Wen Shan Yang. In 2010 Taiwan’s total fertility rate (TFR, the number of children who would be born per woman during her life time using an estimation based on the current year) of 0.89 was so low that it became a member of a dubious club: the lowest-low fertility countries in the world club. According to this estimate, a woman in Taiwan will have borne less than one child after passing her child-bearing age of 49.
Taking into account the fact that the Taiwan of 2019 is not the same as the ROC of 1979, we need to look at Taiwan in its own light and its own right. We need to bring Taiwan in from the cold of political isolation and start working towards a normalization of bilateral relations.
Written by Jane Pei-Chen Chang and Kyle Kai-Yuan Cheng. If there is a single strongest conviction behind Taiwan’s tireless fight for its representation in global health, it is that Taiwan takes it as a responsibility to work together for the advancement of human health as a whole.
