Tag: International relations

The KMT’s Shifting Attitudes on Tsai’s Mask Diplomacy

Written by Najee Woods (葉正忠). While Taiwan’s current mask diplomacy has been perceived as successful, the question arises: why doesn’t the KMT want the central government aiding those nations in dire need for masks? The party flip-flopping sends a mixed message to the international community that Taiwanese are not willing to lend a helping hand to combat COVID-19, which hurts the interest of all Taiwanese people, not just the ruling party. While the PRC health diplomacy is faltering, the international community has now begun to seek out Taiwan, allowing the island nation to lead the world in combating COVID-19.

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How Taiwan can help create a more resilient global society

Written by Cheng-Chia Tung. COVID-19 has cost thousands of lives outside of its place of origin and has put 20% of the global population under lockdown. It is hard to envision it not having a long-lasting impact. Many influential commentators have focused on how it has exacerbated the decline of globalization and intensified political tension and strategic competition among great powers. While many may crave a “return to normalcy,” if we are to address the challenges created by the pandemic more holistically we need to do more than simply ask “whether we’re going back to where we were.”

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A State-based World Health Organisation: The Taiwan Paradox for Global Pandemic Governance

Written by Po-Han Lee. Due to the recent outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID-19), Taiwan—which is greatly affected because of its intensive communication with China—has come under the international spotlight, because of its exclusion from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is the largest institution responsible for disease control. Drawing on the rules/practices regarding the WHO-related meetings, this essay discusses why it is so difficult for the Taiwanese to be heard by the WHO, let alone for them to be present at relevant forums.

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Cold War Border Politics: Chinese Maritime Captives in Korea during the 1950s

Written by Yu-Cheng Shih. The fishing and sailing communities during the Cold War is a long-neglected subject in current Cold War scholarship. For fishers and sailors whose livelihood requires frequent border-crossing, legal documentation became necessary, lest they be arrested as undocumented immigrants or smugglers. In other words, the new Cold War border illegalised a considerable part of these people’s livelihoods.

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Losing Burkina Faso and Gripping eSwatini: A Comparative Study of Taiwan’s Diplomacy in Sub-Saharan Africa

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.

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