On Thursday last week, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) officially named his picks for his national security team. Since the power to appoint the ministers of foreign affairs, national defense, cross-strait relations and other similar ministries, bureaus and departments belong to the presidency, La
On April 28, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) ran an opinion piece titled “There’s no problem child in special education classes.” As mentioned, “Many countries have anti-discrimination laws ... our country does not have this kind of law.” The meaning of this statement is not p
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartog
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In Australia, national anger at men’s violence against women is at boiling point. Following multiple killings, Australians are marching on the streets demanding change. Governments are nervous, emphasizing their existing approaches in media interviews, but searching for new solutions.Data are critic
Populist nationalism is on the rise globally, often shepherded to power by authoritarian leaders. Yet the neoliberal orthodoxy — government downsizing, tax cuts, deregulation — that took hold about 40 years ago in the West was supposed to strengthen democracy, not weaken it. What went wrong? Part of
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their re
A package of four laws that provide US$95 billion in security-related aid to Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific countries including Taiwan has been enacted by both chambers of the US Congress and signed into law by US President Joe Biden. Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan have voiced their gratitude, while E
The European Commission and associated national enforcement agencies conducted unannounced inspections of the Polish and Dutch subsidiaries of Chinese security scanner manufacturer Nuctech Co (同方威視) on Tuesday last week. The raids were carried out under the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Rule (FSR).Former C
The great disconnectA Taipei Times article last week caused this habitual 24/7-minded employer/employee a bit of concern (“Employers reminded of the ‘right to disconnect,’” April 28, page 3).Granted, employees have an absolute right to “me time,” during which they are neither required nor expected t
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The US government has spent US$471 billion supporting academic research over the past decade. A troubling proportion of that work, recent reports suggest, is riddled with errors, plagiarized or fraudulent.In recent months, some of the nation’s most elite universities and research centers — including
The US and its ally Israel could soon get awkward tidings from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, and as in some previous cases, Washington would be tempted to do the convenient rather than the principled thing, dismissing the tribunal as irrelevant and thereby undermining one of t
At the same time as more than 30 military aircraft were detected near Taiwan — one of the highest daily incursions this year — with some flying as close as 37 nautical miles (69kms) from the northern city of Keelung, China announced a limited and selected relaxation of restrictions on Taiwanese agri
While the South China Sea has remained a contested region for a long time, it has emerged as a major security flashpoint in the 21st century with the rise of China as an economic and military power. China’s recent moves against the Philippines are therefore seen as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近
Today, Poland celebrates its Constitution Day commemorating the ratification of the first written constitution of its kind in Europe and second in the world which took place in 1791. This reflected the Polish spirit of equality and democratic political tradition that enabled our nation to survive 12
I am in Taiwan on a mission on behalf of the Global Committee for the Rule of Law, a Rome-based association named after the late Marco Pannella, an Italian civil rights leader and member of the European Parliament. The committee is chaired by former Italian minister of foreign affairs, Senator Giuli
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Georgia faces more protests this week as lawmakers resume debate on a “foreign agents” bill that opponents denounce as a Russian-inspired tool to crack down on freedom of speech.The bill would force organizations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agen