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News on China-Taiwan Relations

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Taiwan tensions rise

Relations with America continue to be fraught after Pelosi’s trip to Taipei
Aug 19, 2022 (WiC 596)

After the People’s Liberation Army took control of China’s northeast in 1948, the two million residents of Beijing spent months waiting nervously for their city to be captured. Encircled by the PLA and with no chance of relief, a deadly fight ...

Did he just say that

US strategic ambiguity gets more ambiguous
Oct 29, 2021 (WiC 561)

Back in 2001 George W Bush suggested that America would do “whatever it took” to help Taiwan defend itself if the island ever came under attack. This bold statement by the then US Commander-in-Chief was given short-shrift by the senior ...

A matter of time?

Fears escalate over Taiwan with Xi declaration
Oct 15, 2021 (WiC 559)

The Korean War was a conflict with no clear winner. One possible exception was Chiang Kai-shek, even though he was a non-combatant in the conflict. A year after faltering in the Chinese Civil War, the Generalissimo’s KMT troops were granted a ...

Ambassadors recalled

Lithuanian moves over Taiwan lead to diplomatic spat and an EU quandary
Aug 20, 2021 (WiC 552)

“It’s ridiculous when a mayfly shakes a tree.” So wrote Han Yu, the Tang Dynasty poet, about critics of Zhang Ji, a friend and fellow poet. He wanted to highlight the folly of those who belittle others, despite being inferior ...

Best foot forward

Taiwan’s richest man doesn’t make chips – he manufactures sneakers
May 14, 2021 (WiC 540)

The story of sneakers begins in 1839 when an American scientist called Charles Goodyear found a way of treating rubber with sulphur. The technique, known as vulcanisation, made for a pliable and resilient material. In the 1870s it was applied to ...

Troubled waters

A drought and a wastewater plan add to cross-Strait tensions
Apr 23, 2021 (WiC 537)

Some of the world’s biggest battles over the last century have been fought over oil. But Kamala Harris, the American vice-president, thinks that more of the conflicts of the future will be waged over another commodity. “I would suggest to you ...

Diplomatic exit

Beijing can’t wait to see the back of Mike Pompeo
Jan 15, 2021 (WiC 524)

In the view of many Chinese diplomats, Henry Kissinger is the statesman that contributed most to Sino-US relations. Considered “an old friend of the Chinese people”, the former US secretary of state has met every Chinese leader from Mao ...

Beijing waits for signs of a Biden reset on Taiwan
Nov 27, 2020 (WiC 520)

Donald Trump’s often confrontational stance towards Beijing has won him fans in Taiwan, including figures in the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Senior DPP politicians have shown ostentatious support for the US president ...

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 ...

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