Demand for Generational Justice and the 2020 Taiwan Presidential Election

Written by Tanguy Lepesant. Studies show that Taiwanese youths believe their quality of life as adults will be worse than their parents’ and that they are victims of “generational injustice”. They believe they have been deprived of their “right to a good quality of life” by their elders whom benefited from Taiwan’s economic miracle and accumulated wealth at the expense of environmental protection.

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Media and Free Expression in Taiwan Are Under Attack: What Can be Done?

Written by J. Michael Cole. With Taiwan’s election campaign shifting into high gear, an escalating campaign of intimidation by one camp and a media consortium that backs its candidate threatens to seriously undermine the ability of journalists and political commentators, both local and foreign, to do their work. By doing so, that camp is hoping to impose its discourse on the process and to limit, if not silence outright, any criticism of its candidate and the proxies that are aligned with it.

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Health Care for All Humanity? The Case of the World Health Organisation and Taiwan

Written by Najee Woods (葉正忠). 23.5 million Taiwanese citizens have been neglected by WHO since being expelled from the United Nations in the early 1970s. Since the late 1990s, Taiwan has attempted on numerous occasions to gain observer status within WHO, but requests were not considered in the WHA agenda. Taiwan does not have the same privileges that other WHO member-states enjoy, such as access to information on the latest outbreaks and epidemics. The lack of access to WHO databases detrimentally affects the Taiwanese population and further creates a blind spot for potential diseases to spread throughout the entire global network. 

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The Contested Political History of Taiwan

Written by Chiung. The political conflict between China and Taiwan has existed since 1949. The current government of China, officially called the People’s Republic of China, has been established since 1949. On the other hand, the government of Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, was established by Sun Yat-Sen in 1912. In fact, both countries originated in Mainland China. However, after the Chinese Civil War (1927 to 1950), the China government was split into two parts led by two political parties, the Kuomintang of China and the Communist Party of China. The Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan, and the the Communist Party founded the People’s Republic of China.

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Taiwan: The Next Crypto Capital of the World

Written by Marc Howard. Taiwan is a hotbed for tech start-ups focusing on block-chain, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things. It hosts a proliferation of major start-up accelerators and incubators, including start-up super-hubs like Taiwan Tech Arena, which will spawn 100 start-ups per year and expedite the overseas expansion of 300 start-ups over the next three years.

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A False Consensus: The “1992 Consensus”

Written by Najee Woods. There’s also confusion among the Taiwanese public as to what the 1992 Consensus actually means. According to the Global Taiwan Institute, one-third of the Taiwanese population believes the consensus implies both sides of the Taiwan Strait are separate countries. After newly elected KMT Mayors Han Kuo-Yu and Lu Shiow-yen affirmed their support for the 1992 Consensus, searches about the consensus from both Kaohsiung and Taichung voters on Google skyrocketed.

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The Extradition Law and Hong Kong-Taiwan Interactions

Written by Adrian Chiu. Since Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement in 2014, the two have shared ever-increasing sentiment against the Beijing government. Social movement activists have interacted with each other more frequently, although many Taiwanese activists were refused Hong Kong entry visas. Such interactions have not only strengthened their respective opposition and mistrust towards China, but also a sense of ‘community of shared destiny’ between Hong Kong and Taiwan

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Taiwan’s 2020 Election: Is the DPP’s Primary Fair?

Written by John F. Copper. Could it be that President Tsai’s favourable image improved so dramatically from January to June? It is hard to believe that it did.

Did the DPP leadership manipulate the polls to favor President Tsai? That seems so. Taiwan had never experienced a standing president being challenged in a primary election for a party’s nomination. It would have been traumatic for the party if William Lai had been chosen. Also, his nomination would have imperiled relations with China and the United States.

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