Cross-strait tensions, the One-China policy and regional security around Taiwan and China.
Opinion
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I am writing this from Singapore, where the haze is back. For the uninitiated, smoke from fires several hundred kilometres away drifts over the island, the skyline turns the color of weak tea and the whole city checks…
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By: Jens Kastner According to US President Donald Trump on Oct. 14, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has agreed that the state-run CPC Corporation will invest up to $4.4 billion in the long-stalled Alaska liquefied…
Commentary
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The standard explanations for why Taiwan is so important to the Chinese Communist Party are familiar: territorial integrity, credibility of deterrence commitments, great power competition with the United States, the…
Military
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Taiwan’s new American-made F-16V Block 70 jets deliver much-needed breathing room against daily Chinese gray-zone coercion, yet surging Chinese stealth numbers and cratered runway risks mean their wartime utility would…
World News
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China has accused Taiwan’s government of distorting World War Two history, escalating a dispute over which side can claim the legacy of China’s wartime resistance against Japan. Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office said on…
East Asia
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Two Men at the Top, Two Ships in the Spratlys Today China marks National Day with the smallest military high command in its modern history. On 21 September, state media announced that Zhang Youxia, first vice-chairman of…
East Asia
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The Money That Runs Out Today At midnight tonight, $300 million that Congress appropriated as military financing for Taiwan expires unused. The State Department was supposed to notify Congress of how it would be spent by…
Diplomacy
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The Washington summit agreed on very little. What it confirmed matters more: the terms of America’s commitment to Taiwan are increasingly being set in leader-level bargaining with Beijing, not by repeal but by…
World News
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Taiwan must deepen cooperation with democratic partners on drone development as unmanned systems become increasingly important to modern warfare, President Lai Ching-te said on Monday, as the island steps up efforts to…
World News
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A senior Taiwanese diplomat stated that the United States understands Taiwan’s defense needs and the military threat from China. Taiwan has been waiting for President Trump to approve a $14 billion arms sales package…
Military
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On March 28, 2025 a rollout ceremony took place at Lockheed Martin’s F-16 production facility in Greenville, South Carolina. Two F16V block 70 jets were ready for final testing, and the ceremony marked the formal…
Technology
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When Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met in Washington on September 24, AI and Taiwan shared the agenda. Xi said AI should remain “under human control” and called for continued US-China dialogue on its risks and benefits. On…
US-China
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Beijing has agreed to work with Washington to improve governance of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and to enhance cooperation as Chinese President Xi Jinping and United States President Donald Trump met…
Members
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In 2021, Sungmin Cho wrote, “South Korea’s Taiwan Conundrum,” where he argued Seoul’s complex strategic position makes engagement on questions of involvement over a Taiwan contingency complicated. Five years later, we…
AI at the Trump-Xi summit + Taiwan + EV overcapacities H.Seidl Wed, 09/23/2026 - 13:00 picture alliance / abaca | Pool/ABACA Download (pdf - 412.67 KB) MERICS Briefs MERICS China Essentials Sep 24, 2026 10 min read AI at…
World News
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China has drawn a firm line around Taiwan, human rights and several other issues ahead of President Xi Jinping’s meeting with US President Donald Trump, signalling that Beijing intends to protect what it considers core…
World News
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China’s President Xi Jinping is expected to urge US President Donald Trump to stop arms sales to Taiwan when he visits Washington this week. This request is based on a 1982 joint statement where the US expressed its…
East Asia
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Taiwan remains one of the most sensitive issues in relations between China and the United States, combining questions of sovereignty, national identity, military security and the unresolved legacy of China’s civil war…
Commentary
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Washington is preparing for the right war, but in the wrong theater. For years, U.S. strategic thinking has centered on the Indo‑Pacific: the militarized atolls of the South China Sea, China’s churning naval shipyards…
East Asia
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World War Two continues to shape relations between Russia, China, Taiwan and Japan, with competing interpretations of the conflict increasingly intersecting with present day geopolitical tensions. The issue resurfaced…
East Asia
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What is complicating the Taiwan issue is not just the shifting military balance or the increasing US-China competition, but the growing divergence in the two sides’ understanding of the communities they represent. While…
Commentary
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China’s marine scientific research ships are expanding their operations around Taiwan, and they are not just there to advance the frontiers of human knowledge. Their operations serve to undermine Taiwan’s independent…
Opinion
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Following the Beijing summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in May this year, their governments offered strikingly different public accounts of the meeting. Beijing’s official readout…
Military
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The opening moves of a future US-China war over Taiwan may be made not across the Pacific but hundreds of kilometers above it, as both sides race to seize the orbital advantage that underpins modern military power. The…
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By: Jens Kastner Taiwan officials inspect a wartime military trial exercise. Photo from Taiwan’s Military News Agency The Taiwanese military frequently reveals its soldiers’ full Chinese and English names to local media…
Members
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In 2025, Michael Hunzeker and Yuster Yu wrote, “Taiwan’s Biggest Problem in Steeling Itself for War With China is Cultural,” where they argued major cultural changes were needed in both Taiwan’s military and civilian…
World News
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Taiwanese companies are planning an additional $20 billion in investment in the United States, driven largely by strong demand for artificial intelligence and semiconductor technologies. The move comes as Washington…
East Asia
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Adam P. Liff’s book is a concise yet conceptually rich contribution to the study of the Taiwan Strait. It argues that the US allies are more autonomous, which is empirically convincing but not fully causal. While the…
World News
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Lai Calls for Urgent Expansion of Taiwan’s Drone Capabilities Taiwan must demonstrate its resolve to defend itself and pass a six-year, T$210 billion ($6.6 billion) special budget to buy military drones, President Lai…
External
By: Tim Daiss The disruption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) flows through the Strait of Hormuz has exposed an uncomfortable reality for Taiwan. Its energy imports remain acutely vulnerable to events thousands of…
East Asia
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Taiwan Warns Chinese Vessel to Leave Sensitive Waters Taiwan’s coast guard said on Friday it had warned off and shadowed a Chinese research vessel operating in sensitive waters west of the island, marking the third time…
External
In this issue: - US may impose more sanctions on China over Iran? - Wang Yi in South Korea - Life for Evergrande founder - People’s Daily on AI governance - Supply chain weaponization against Taiwan - CASS attacks…
Defense
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China has completed the first phase of construction at Antelope Reef in the disputed Paracel Islands, creating a large artificial island that analysts say could eventually become one of Beijing’s most important military…
Taiwan: The Economic Rhetoric Versus Reality Strategic Calculus of a Blockade Versus Force The Taiwan question begins with a fundamental difference in how Beijing and many Western governments define the issue. To…
World News
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Taiwan is set to increase defence spending by 16% next year, taking its proposed military budget above T$1 trillion ($31.40 billion) for the first time as the island faces growing military and political pressure from…
Community & Education
After climbing four flights of stairs in the August summer heat, Helen was met with a locked metal gate and a printed sign saying Have a Nice Stay had permanently closed. A notice outside Have a Nice Stay saying it is…
World News
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China on Friday condemned Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang military exercises as a “wasteful charade”, accusing Taipei of stoking fears of war as the island conducts 10 days of drills simulating a potential Chinese attack. The…
Opinion
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This week brought two Indonesia stories that sat side by side but pointed in different directions. In Jakarta, US Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby met Indonesia’s defense minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, as…
World News
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Taiwan has condemned planned Chinese naval drills with an Indonesian warship off the island’s east coast, calling the exercise a dangerous provocation and accusing Beijing of trying to create the impression that it…
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By: Jens Kastner Impressed by Ukraine’s success in using low-cost sea drones against Russia’s Black Sea navy, Taiwan is increasingly focusing on asymmetric coastal defense by pushing the development and procurement of…
Commentary
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It is conceivable that in one blistering campaign, the People’s Republic of China could invade, occupy, and forcibly annex Taiwan. One question would dominate the post-occupation debate: “What more could have been done?”…
World News
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Taiwan has signaled that its military cooperation with the United States is stronger than widely understood, as Taipei continues to deepen defense coordination with the U.S. Pacific Command to strengthen its ability to…
World News
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China’s latest coast guard patrols east of Taiwan mark another step in Beijing’s long-term strategy to reshape the security environment around the island without resorting to direct military confrontation. While Chinese…
Opinion
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Like few other countries, Taiwan faces a legitimate existential crisis. Beijing’s position that Taiwan must submit to absorption by the People’s Republic of China, even by force if necessary, is insistent and…
Cogs of War
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Taiwan produces the world’s most advanced semiconductors, yet the island’s own military is only in the opening stages of adopting artificial intelligence systems. This mismatch bears directly on Taiwan’s ability to deter…
Commentary
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In March 2025, China’s military researchers published a concept describing how to rapidly capture and subdue the city of Taipei. Distributed in restricted military channels, this approach argues Beijing can achieve…
East Asia
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For a few weeks at the start of 2026, the Taiwan Strait looked almost quiet. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense recorded no People’s Liberation Army incursions into the island’s air defense identification zone on 13…
China-Taiwan
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Taiwan’s government and overseas ethnic groups have raised concerns after China implemented the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress this month, warning it forces Taiwanese people to accept Beijing’s political…