Former Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou has begun a nine-day trip to mainland China – his third in two years – amid accusations from pro-independence voices that he is compromising the self-ruled island’s interests. Ma’s delegation, which includes a group of Taiwanese university students, was greeted by municipal officials and well-wishers at the airport when they … Read more
An annual forum that brings together officials and business representatives from Shanghai and Taipei went ahead on Tuesday after Taiwan denied entry to some mainland Chinese attendees. Speaking at the 15th Taipei-Shanghai Twin-City Forum at a Taipei hotel, Shanghai’s vice-mayor Hua Yuan pledged to encourage people from his city to go on group tours to … Read more
When news broke earlier this month of the death of Taiwanese writer Chiung Yao, mainland fan Nicole Li was flooded with childhood memories of watching TV dramas based on Yao’s work. “I can almost recite the lines and plots of My Fair Princess and Romance in the Rain,” 30-year-old Li said, referring to mainland-Taiwanese co-productions … Read more
Former Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou will visit mainland China later this month, his third visit in the past two years, in another push to promote people-to-people exchanges amid elevated cross-strait tensions. Ma will lead a delegation of Taiwanese youth to visit the cities of Harbin in the northeast and Chengdu in the southwest on a … Read more
Officials from Shanghai will visit Taipei for the first time in six years to take part in a forum meant to encourage cross-strait communication. Shanghai vice-mayor Hua Yuan will head a mainland delegation taking part in the two-day Shanghai-Taipei City Forum, Taipei city government spokesman Yin Wei said on Wednesday morning. Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an, … Read more
In a rare move, Taiwan’s military is using a Taipei university campus to train reservists to prepare for the possibility of urban warfare against the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), prompting concerns and criticism. Taiwan’s defence minister, however, defended the decision, emphasising the need to consider frontline conditions to deter PLA attacks. National Chengchi University (NCCU) … Read more
Taiwan changed its air raid warning threshold to respond to the PLA’s tactics, the island’s defence minister said on Monday, amid concerns that the decision leaves the public with less time to take shelter during a cross-strait conflict. In the past, the island would issue an air raid alert if People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft … Read more
Taiwan is exploring the possibility of acquiring F-35 fighter jets and other advanced US weaponry, but pundits doubt the plan will get past Washington’s long-held concerns about military technology leaking into the hands of the People’s Liberation Army. According to a recent Financial Times report, Taipei has reached out to president-elect Donald Trump’s team about … Read more
US president-elect Donald Trump made Taiwan a focal point of his 2024 campaign, advocating increased defence spending by the island and casting a critical eye on its semiconductor dominance. While some Taiwanese officials have dismissed these statements as campaign rhetoric, Trump’s repeated calls for Taiwan to pay “protection fees” and increase its defence spending to … Read more
Taiwan’s government watchdog has criticised the island’s coastguard for “serious lapses” in a deadly incident involving a mainland Chinese boat. The February 14 incident resulted in the deaths of two fishermen whose boat capsized while being pursued by the Taiwanese coastguard near Quemoy, a Taipei-controlled outpost also known as Kinmen, a few kilometres from the … Read more
