The US House of Representatives passed a mammoth US$858 billion military spending bill, putting the US budget for weapons and war-making higher than the next nine countries combined. Also attached to the bill was unprecedented US taxpayer funding for Taiwan’s military.
Lam Wing-Kee, the only one of the Hong Kong Causeway Bay booksellers to remain free, applied for permanent residency in Taiwan last month on the basis of being a professional in arts and culture. While there is a good chance that his application will be accepted, some other Hongkongers are finding greater difficulty.
Germany, led by Social Democratic Party (SDP) Chancellor Olaf Scholz, considers China both an essential economic partner and a “systemic rival.” This seemingly contradictory stance has produced political fractures within the coalition government, but it is part of a pragmatic geopolitical strategy.
Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives are calling for increased confrontation with China, and should this party take power in next week’s midterm elections, they may exercise significant influence on US foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region.
In a move that critics are calling a “dangerous escalation,” the United States is reportedly preparing to deploy up to six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to northern Australia, where they would be close enough to strike China.
A group working for peaceful relations between the United States and China has sent a letter to leaders of both countries imploring them to end or limit “dangerous and provocative military maneuvers” in the South China Sea and near Taiwan that could lead to all-out war.
Continued heavy fighting following the collapse of a ceasefire between the rebel region of Tigray and the Ethiopian national government further imperils aid efforts to a people already facing what some believe to be the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis.
The arrest of a 28-year-old Vietnamese migrant for working jobs unrelated to his original employment has drawn attention to the inability of migrant workers to take on part-time work and other forms of employment, even when their activities may benefit Taiwanese society.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is defending a trip to mainland China made by party Vice-Chair Andrew Hsia which provoked criticism from within the opposition party itself as well as from the Taiwanese government.
Although it usually hits the global headlines due to tensions with mainland China, Taiwan is also known for its relatively progressive stance on LGBT issues, which in turn is not unrelated to its government strategies.
