From May 31 to June 2, 37 ministers of defense attended the 21st International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, including Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍). Anyone who tried to separate Taiwan from China would be “crushed to pieces,” he said during the premier defense summit. In response to the threat, US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo revealed the US military’s “Hellscape” strategy, with the aim of thwarting a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The strategy involves turning the Taiwan Strait into an “unmanned hellscape” before Chinese forces can cross it, Paparo said in an
Since Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) arrival in Taiwan on May 26, he has dominated headlines across multiple local news outlets. Rather than speaking English, he has been seen several times conversing with locals in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), a local language no longer commonly used by the public. Due to his growing popularity and use of Hoklo, issues surrounding the preservation of native languages have resurfaced. Contrary to the stigmatizing belief that Hoklo is merely a language spoken by the uneducated, Huang’s actions have inspired many of his fans to revive their respective mother tongues. Unfortunately, even
The pro-China camp in Taiwan is apparently displeased with Nvidia Corp founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), and an Internet celebrity even searched for and disclosed his personal information online. Such disapproval was not only due to Huang using the word “country” to describe Taiwan or his praise for the nation’s technology industry, but also because his very existence implies support for Taiwan. After reforms in the Tang (唐) and Song (宋) dynasties, the class system of the “four occupations” — academic, farmer, worker and businessperson — took shape in China. Prior to the changes, businesspeople held influential roles in China. The
Beijing’s goals in last month’s China-Japan-South Korea Ninth Trilateral Summit were to repair and strengthen its relations with Seoul and Tokyo, as a way of counterbalancing US influence. In a climate where public sentiment is shifting against the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is attempting to break up the US alliances in Asia and Europe. The outcome of the trilateral summit is more symbolic than substantive, as both South Korea and Japan remain under threat from Beijing and are unlikely to pivot away from the US. This was evidenced by a statement after the US-Japan-South Korea Trilateral Ministerial