Taiwanese Election Candidate Denied Entry Into Hong Kong

Amid mounting speculation surrounding the mysterious disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers, another development this week suggests a further erosion of freedoms in the Special Administrative Region as Beijing turns the screws on the former British colony. In a Facebook post on Tuesday evening, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), a candidate of the small New Power Party …

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A Toolkit for the Citizen Journalist

Part I of the series offered advice on how to petition the U.S. White House by introducing a “well-pleaded complaint” (WPC) doctrine drawing from legal practice to illustrate how to present a convincing and persuasive petition to the international community. The WPC doctrine includes the elements necessary for establishing jurisdiction of the courts, as well …

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Does Taiwan Need a Ko Revolution?

On many occasions since the members of the Sunflower Movement voluntarily exited the Legislative Yuan after a more than three-week occupation in April 2014, I have found myself correcting the perception among a number of foreign journalists and at academic conferences overseas that the dramatic events in the spring constituted a revolution. Though the term …

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Let 118 Sunflowers Bloom

If we could be 100% certain that the court system in Taiwan can act independently, it would perhaps be less tempting to suspect that the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office’s announcement on the morning of Feb. 10 that 118 individuals, including student leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), will be prosecuted for various “crimes” committed during the occupation of the …

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From ‘Black Island’ to ‘The Convenient Illusion of Peace’

I distinctly remember the feeling that something had shifted, that a new, undefined force had installed itself in Taiwan. It was in the air, in the glimmer of determination that showed in the young protesters’ eyes. That was the summer of 2012, following a major rally against a pro-Beijing Taiwanese billionaire’s attempt to expand his media empire. …

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KMT Reform? We’ll Believe It When We See It

A recent article in Foreign Policy magazine penned by Charles I-hsin Chen (陳以信) has caused a bit of a sensation among some Taiwan watchers for its seemingly candid assessment of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) failures and need to reform. Chen, who until recently was the KMT spokesman and has now been elevated to the position …

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A Tale of Sunflowers and Umbrellas

Not even six months have passed since Taiwan’s Sunflower activists occupied the Legislative Yuan, and now it’s Hong Kong’s turn for mass protests. While a familiar, social media-savvy focus on peace and rationality is already evident, Hong Kong’s “Umbrella Movement” has already diverged from Taiwan’s Sunflower in significant ways. First, while Hong Kong’s occupation was …

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Were Taiwan’s Nine-in-One Elections a Referendum on Ma’s China Policy?

(Editor’s note: This article was originally published on the China Policy Institute Blog, University of Nottingham, on Dec. 16, 2014.)  The dust from the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) routing in the Nov. 29 local elections had yet to settle when analysts within the green camp started arguing that the results constituted a referendum on President …

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Say It Loud: Language and Identity in Taiwan and Hong Kong

The Sunflower Movement in Taiwan and Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong show how far citizens in both countries are prepared to go to safeguard what they see as their distinctive way of life. Both sides fear the encroaching influence of China. The protesters in Taiwan — who occupied the Legislative Yuan in the spring — …

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Rex Unbound: A Review of Rex How’s ‘Taiwan Unbound’

A former national policy adviser to President Ma talks about constitutional amendments, the rise of new civic movements, and the very future of Taiwan Rex How (郝明義), a former national policy adviser to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), published a new book in September 2015 titled 《如果台灣的四周是海洋》(Taiwan Unbound). The 384-page volume (in Chinese) presents his critical views …

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VOTE 2016: Two Ads, Two Worlds

Two recent ads, one supporting the KMT and the other the DPP, start from the same point but end up in completely different territory The second-to-last week before the Jan. 16 elections has seen the airing of major campaign ads on behalf of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) calling …

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VOTE 2016: What Young Taiwanese Voters Want

Young voters in Taiwan have a detailed understanding of the politics of their country and take a keen interest in seeing the election of politicians who can make Taiwan a better place With youth shaping up to be a deciding factor in Taiwan’s Jan. 16 elections, the main political parties have directly appealed to the …

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Deconstructing ‘One Voice’ the Movie: Diversity, Justice, and the Media in Taiwan

A new documentary about the Sunflower Movement seeks to inspire citizen journalists to do their part The reasons why co-director Chauming Tsai of Taipei and I made the Chinese-subtitled, English movie One Voice – Occupy Taiwan Congress documentary (movie trailer available here) was to introduce to an international audience, particularly English-speaking countries, the occupying movement …

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Why June 4 Should Matter to Taiwan

Twenty-five years of maturing as a distinct nation has made Taiwanese seemingly uninterested about the Tiananmen Square Massacre, but they ignore the lessons at their own risk Every year on June 4th, it is hard not to feel slightly disappointed by the small turnout at the commemoration events here in Taiwan for the Tiananmen Square …

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In Search of Sunflower Seeds in Hong Kong

The specter of Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement continues to loom large for Hong Kong’s unfinished “Umbrella Revolution.” Soon pushing into its third month, Hong Kong’s movement has out-scaled and outlasted Taiwan’s Sunflowers, and has attracted exponentially greater international attention. It has, however, been caught in something of a holding pattern, punctuated earlier this month by a …

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Lessons in Dissent: The Documentary

The opening sequence of Lessons in Dissent, a 97-minute documentary film written and directed by British filmmaker Matthew Torne, is a powerful feast for the senses. A group of youngsters, some in their secondary school uniforms, are on a makeshift stage in Civic Square, located at the government headquarters in Hong Kong, rousing the thousands …

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Curriculum Protests Challenge Chiang-Confucian Social Order

At 2 am on July 31, soon after protesters against the changes to the high school history curriculum guidelines had occupied the courtyard of the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taipei, a couple arrived at the MOE looking for their 18-year-old son Chou Tien-kuan (周天觀) and tried to make him go home with them. The …

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Beyond The Sunflower Movement: Present Issues for Future Taiwanese Activism

While things are relatively quiet for the time being, Taiwan’s recent political crisis is far from over. The Sunflower movement’s twenty-four-day occupation of the Legislative Yuan in March and April was expressive of a variety of social discontents, not only stemming from the issue of Taiwan-China relations, but also Taiwanese domestic issues of democracy and the …

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Will They Ever Learn to Trust Taiwan’s Youth?

Judging from the growing number of unrelentingly cheerful young people who surround party officials at press conferences or who appear in political adverts nowadays, it would be tempting to conclude that the nation’s politicians, shaken from their longstanding slumber by the Sunflower Movement’s eruption earlier this year, have finally realized that youth have a role …

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Tolerance for Minority Groups in a Time of Revolution

The Sunflower Movement appears to have come to an end for the time being. No matter how we judge its accomplishments, the movement has arguably succeeded in making social issues a subject of interest among a majority that had hitherto been silent on the subject. In every phase of the movement, from the March 18 …

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