Building global ties
After returning from a backpacking trip in Taiwan, I can see why this nation wants to maintain its independence from the People’s Republic of China.
It is clear to me that Taiwanese live with a strong sense of freedom and enterprise that penetrates deep into society. The “new southbound policy” of extending visa-free access to ASEAN member states is just another example of this: A small nation with a growing tourist sector trying to open up its borders.
Surely this could be an example to China on how to go about building its relations with fellow global partners across the world.
Benjamin Isaacson
London
Flexible holiday solution
With the new legislative session now under way, the government’s proposed “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) will undoubtedly become a key battleground.
Less than a month after the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, Taiwan celebrates Double Ten National Day. During extended holiday periods, the low efficiency of Taiwan’s transport network and difficulty in obtaining tickets causes supply problems. In order to guarantee each person the opportunity to purchase a ticket on public transport to return home during holiday periods, it is worth considering a national holiday reform: adapting the current system of “concentrating” public holidays during one period and instead introduce a “staggered” public holiday system.
The east coast transport network during extended holiday periods is a good example: whether putting on additional train services or, as was done during the recent Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, implementing a name-based booking system, demand outstrips supply so that many people continue to be inconvenienced by the “concentrated holiday period” and are packed into overcrowded trains. Such a system even affects the quality of the holiday experience.
Taiwan has transformed from a traditional manufacturing economy into a modern service-based economy. Traditional holiday periods and public holidays have been commercialized and turned into sales platforms for businesses. Concentrated public holidays only exacerbate this trend, while adding an external cost to transportation and travel, as the cost of excessive congestion is borne by those living in remote areas of the nation and who have limited access to transportation.
If the government were able to implement a flexible, staggered public holiday policy, not only would the cost to industry be minimal, it would also help relieve “holiday anxiety” and reduce traffic accidents, while improving the quality of public holidays. It would also make holiday periods feel longer.
Adopting such a system would not only help improve economic efficiency, but it would also be a politically savvy move that would bring the government a lot of kudos. Hopefully a compromise can be reached that satisfies both employers and employees.
Sun Jung-fu
Taipei
Stan Lai’s dream
Regarding the New York Times interview of Stan Lai (賴聲川), it seems the interviewer avoided asking Lai about his involvement in the musical Dreamer — a celebration of the Republic of China’s centennial in 2011 — which cost about NT$258 million (US$8.23 million) and, directed by Lai, failed to meet the expectations of what a good musical should be. (“Theater’s evolving role in China and Taiwan,” Sept. 19, page 19). Its theme and performance were a cliche.
The two-night-only show and its high production costs shocked Taiwan’s struggling artistic community. Since then, Lai has refused to explain himself and his involvement in this scandal, having skillfully stolen money from the public coffers.
Ni Kuojung
Hsinchu
The conflict in the Middle East has been disrupting financial markets, raising concerns about rising inflationary pressures and global economic growth. One market that some investors are particularly worried about has not been heavily covered in the news: the private credit market. Even before the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global capital markets had faced growing structural pressure — the deteriorating funding conditions in the private credit market. The private credit market is where companies borrow funds directly from nonbank financial institutions such as asset management companies, insurance companies and private lending platforms. Its popularity has risen since
The Donald Trump administration’s approach to China broadly, and to cross-Strait relations in particular, remains a conundrum. The 2025 US National Security Strategy prioritized the defense of Taiwan in a way that surprised some observers of the Trump administration: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.” Two months later, Taiwan went entirely unmentioned in the US National Defense Strategy, as did military overmatch vis-a-vis China, giving renewed cause for concern. How to interpret these varying statements remains an open question. In both documents, the Indo-Pacific is listed as a second priority behind homeland defense and
Every analyst watching Iran’s succession crisis is asking who would replace supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yet, the real question is whether China has learned enough from the Persian Gulf to survive a war over Taiwan. Beijing purchases roughly 90 percent of Iran’s exported crude — some 1.61 million barrels per day last year — and holds a US$400 billion, 25-year cooperation agreement binding it to Tehran’s stability. However, this is not simply the story of a patron protecting an investment. China has spent years engineering a sanctions-evasion architecture that was never really about Iran — it was about Taiwan. The
In an op-ed published in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said that Taiwan should not have to choose between aligning with Beijing or Washington, and advocated for cooperation with Beijing under the so-called “1992 consensus” as a form of “strategic ambiguity.” However, Cheng has either misunderstood the geopolitical reality and chosen appeasement, or is trying to fool an international audience with her doublespeak; nonetheless, it risks sending the wrong message to Taiwan’s democratic allies and partners. Cheng stressed that “Taiwan does not have to choose,” as while Beijing and Washington compete, Taiwan is strongest when
RSS