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News on China-Taiwan Relations

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Fisticuffs in Fiji and spy arrests signal new low
Oct 23, 2020 (WiC 515)

Not on the list to a party? Mainland Chinese diplomats apparently did not think it would be a problem as they crashed an event in Fiji hosted by Taiwan’s trade office this month. The occasion was meant to celebrate Taiwan’s National Day (on ...

Taiwanese starlet in row over song
Oct 9, 2020 (WiC 514)

Taiwan’s cultural critic and democracy advocate Lung Ying-tai has long argued that an authoritarian regime cannot produce great songs. In 2016 when Lung gave a speech in Hong Kong about music, she asked the audience to name the song that ...

Crossing the line

A new round of tensions bring the Taiwan Strait closer to conflict
Sep 25, 2020 (WiC 512)

Democracy as an ‘idea’ originated in ancient Greece. For the Chinese, ‘unity’ is a core Confucian value that has been upheld for a similar duration of more than 2,200 years. This helps to explain the rather different interpretations of ...

Exercise with care

Military drills take centre-stage in latest round of Sino-US tensions
Aug 21, 2020 (WiC 507)

To nobody’s great surprise the six-month review of January’s trade agreement between Washington and Beijing has been postponed. “I don’t want to talk to China right now,” Donald Trump, the US president, explained on Tuesday. But with ...

Rocky relations

Taiwan in difficult position as South China Sea tensions flare again
Jul 31, 2020 (WiC 506)

Once upon a time the United States supported Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea. The American military even gifted a fleet of vessels to the Chinese navy (then virtually shipless) to claim the Spratly Islands, which are now claimed ...

The rise and fall of one of Taiwan’s most colourful politicians
Jun 12, 2020 (WiC 499)

Han Kuo-yu was first elected to Taiwan’s legislative body in 1992. His political career started with a literal bang when he slapped Chen Shui-bian, another lawmaker, in a debate about war veterans. In 1994 Han was one of four KMT lawmakers ...

Taiwan’s firms turn back from mainland China
May 22, 2020 (WiC 496)

How do you out-muscle two 700-pound gorillas? That’s the question that Morris Chang, the founder of TSMC, posed in 2012. At the time, he was referring to his semiconductor foundry’s two main rivals, Samsung Electronics and Intel. As we ...

The silent treatment

Taipei presses its case for a voice at the WHO, irking Beijing
May 15, 2020 (WiC 495)

Two visits by US politicians to the Far East in 1971 were influential in reshaping the world order. The often-told tale of Henry Kissinger’s secret trip to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) took place in July that year. That culminated ...

Another source of worry?

Taipei’s mask deal deepens diplomatic row with Beijing
Apr 3, 2020 (WiC 489)

What kind of sentiment does the donation of a facemask convey? According to Sina Finance the answer is “friendship and love” in these troubled times. However, in this particular instance, the news site wasn’t referring to China’s ‘mask ...

Election landslide

Tensions will persist as Taiwan chooses Tsai
Jan 17, 2020 (WiC 479)

In early 2019 relations across the Taiwan Strait began with a gathering in Beijing to commemorate the 40th anniversary of ‘The Message of Compatriots to Taiwan’ (which ended military confrontations between the two sides; see WiC436). Chinese ...

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