The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) last week published a report titled Truth and Reality with Chinese Characteristics that reveals how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using its propaganda system to brainwash people in other countries. For instance, it invests in emerging technolog
If a company’s overhead for creating products rises, but their prices remain the same, it would eventually shut down.Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) is the nation’s only electricity provider. If it were to shut down, would people be fine without electricity? Unless people are willing to revert to living
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is on his first tour to Europe in five years, beginning with France on Monday this week, followed by Hungary and Serbia. Notably, Xi’s infrequent trips overseas often come on the heels of changes unfavorable to China, be it Vietnam after its strategic partnership a
Fu could have said ‘no’After Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) led KMT party members to Beijing to meet with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧), China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Song Tao (宋濤) and others, the TAO announce
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The bird flu outbreak among dairy cows continues to generate alarm, despite reassuring news that pasteurized milk is unlikely to infect anyone with H5N1. Scientists cannot stop worrying about a nightmare scenario: that the virus would get into pigs and, from there, spark a human pandemic.Pigs “are t
India’s ongoing parliamentary election, in which nearly 1 billion people could cast their votes over a six-week period, should represent an extraordinary exercise of democracy. However, the bleak reality is that the election appears poised to consolidate a decade-long process of democratic decay, wh
On Wednesday last week, US President Joe Biden called the immigration policies of Japan and India “xenophobic,” lumping them in with China and Russia. Comparing them with the US’ principle of welcoming immigrants, he accounted for their troubled economies by saying that “they don’t want immigrants.”
The trio of AUKUS defense chiefs — US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, British Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps and Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles — have recently revealed the nations’ collaboration with Japan on AUKUS Pillar II advanced capability projects. This announc
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan h
Be a better touristOver the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, a record of about 400,000 travelers passed through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a single day. Trips to Japan are still the first choice of many Taiwanese tourists. To avoid making fools of themselves due to cultural differences or mis
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Russians are learning to live with the war that Russian President Vladimir Putin has unleashed in Ukraine.As Putin was sworn on Tuesday for another six years as president, the invasion has become part of everyday life for many Russians, confounding expectations that the pressure of international san
Xenotransplantation, the futuristic-sounding field of animal-to-human organ transplants, is suddenly a lot closer to reality. The first two gene-edited pig kidneys have been transplanted into humans — and, so far, seem to be working beautifully.It is an astonishing advance in a field that has langui
Although the presidency did not change hands in January, the electorate expressed its discontent with the ruling party by ending its majority in the legislature. Yet at the same time, it did not see fit to hand the traditional opposition a majority in its own right, resulting in a split chamber. Wit
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Con
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has proposed amendments to the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) that would put the brakes on pension reform progress. On April 12, legislators voted on the KMT’s motion to review its draft amendments. The KMT and the D
On April 23, the Constitutional Court began deliberating the death penalty. Whether it is constitutional is to be determined by the end of July at the earliest.One Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator said that nearly 80 percent of people in Taiwan oppose abolishing the death penalty and revea
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