"Ciekhix si lirn ee miaa. Gurn lorng si kiaugvo ee Taioaan-gyn'ar!"

Taiwan considers Amazon’s Project Kuiper
Taipei wants to make its communications networks less vulnerable to Chinese attack. Starlink isn't an option because of Musk's business ties to China and his company's refusal to relinquish control in a joint venture. And Eutelsat's OneWeb constellation of low Earth satellites isn't up to snuff, according to technology minister Wu Cheng-wen:
Taiwan President to Rally Tiny Pacific Allies to Counter China
'The advantage that Taiwan gets from showing good will to these diplomatic partners is that naturally they help us speak out internationally, in all kinds of international settings where Taiwan can't do it,' said Ian Tsung-yen Chen, a professor who specializes in Asia-Pacific relations at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan.
>Taiwan Is Ready to Defend Democracy. Is 'Old Donald'? - read in harnji

"Old Donald's" return to office is putting our faith in America to the test. He has made clear that, unlike previous presidents, he couldn’t care less about Taiwan and our hard-won democracy. He says we need to pay for protection, even though we already spend billions of dollars a year on U.S. weapon systems. He says — falsely — that Taiwan “stole” America’s chip business, has dismissed us as a geopolitical trifle and expressed doubt about the U.S. being able to defend Taiwan against China.
Maybe this was just campaign bluster, but statements like this carry an existential weight for Taiwan’s 24 million residents. As China’s economic might has grown, we have been left with fewer and fewer allies in the world, relying on our informal but strong relationship with America for survival.
Are we on our own now? 'Old Donald' makes me yearn for those action-hero commanders in chief that Dad and I rooted for.
Border insecurity is a way of life in Taiwan: For the past 75 years, we’ve been hunkering down, looking across the Taiwan Strait as China got stronger and more threatening. During air-raid drills at school, we filed into an underground shelter where we crouched with our fingers covering our eyes and ears. I always wondered what good that would do if a bomb dropped on us. During one round of menacing Chinese missile launches in the mid-1990s when I was 10 years old, I asked my parents, “Will I be allowed to grow up?” I lived my whole life with this low-grade anxiety and these days avoid war movies because they feel like previews of Taiwan’s fate.
Today China sends its warplanes flying across the median line, the midway point of the strait, on a near-daily basis. Civilians shouldn’t have to know military terms like “median line,” but they are part of casual conversation in Taiwan. Just last month, after our democratically elected new president, Lai Ching-te, made some very measured remarks about Taiwan’s right to exist, China sent an armada of ships and aircraft to encircle and threaten us in a simulated military blockade.
Nova Scotia: Taiwan’s former president says Ukraine needs US weapons more urgently than Taipei while Taiwan's Premier12 victory
“They should do whatever they can to help the Ukrainians,” Former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said. “We [Taiwan] still have time.
While Taiwan is heavily reliant on purchasing American weapons and receiving U.S. military aid for its defense, Tsai said that American support for Ukraine would help deter China from a cross-strait attack.
'A Ukrainian victory will serve as the most effective deterrent to future aggression' globally Tsai said. 'They should do whatever they can to help the Ukrainians,' Tsai said at the forum. 'We [Taiwan] still have time.'
What's up Taiwan
How the U.S. Election Matters for the Rest of the world
Chinese economic officials are very aware that 'Old Donald' has called for blanket tariffs on China's exports, which could pose a serious threat to China's economy. This is a country that is enormously dependent on foreign demand, especially from America, to keep its factories running and its workers employed. Manufacturing creates a lot of wealth, and it offsets China's very serious housing market crash.
Let’s compare how the world treats the Taliban vs. Taiwan - read in harnji
If you want a vivid illustration of why so many Americans shrug at invocations of 'the international community,' check out the contrast between the way many countries treat the Taliban and how they treat the democratically elected and Taiwan independent Taiwanese government. First, there is no cohesive 'international community.' Second, that 'international community' is full of countries that treat the Taliban a heck of a lot better than they treat Taiwan.

In March 2022, Russia accredited Taliban diplomat Jamal Nasir Gharwal as Afghan chargé 'affaires in Moscow. In April 2022, China accepted diplomatic credentials from the Taliban, and in September 2023, China became the first country to officially name a new ambassador to Afghanistan. In February 2023, Iran officially handed over the Afghan Embassy in Tehran to diplomats from the Taliban.
You're probably thinking: Oh, China, Russia, Iran — those are some of the worst regimes on the planet. Of course they'd cozy up with the brutes in Kabul. Game respects game.
On and on it goes, with countries in South America and Africa appearing to warm up to the Taliban as well.
Europe is not immune: In July, Bloomberg News reported that Italy was contemplating reopening its embassies in Afghanistan. The article quoted Spain's foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, saying,As soon as there are minimum security conditions, we'll send our ambassador back.'
In fact, while the Taliban is increasingly treated like just another regime, Taiwan is becoming more diplomatically isolated. In December 2021, Nicaragua terminated diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry released a statement in May claiming that 'Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory.'
In the end, Taiwan's championing of human rights and democracy counts for little beside China's economic power and warnings against recognizing Taiwan's independence. The Taliban, meanwhile, runs a regime that is especially repressive of women's rights, but it has access to widely coveted natural resources. For far too many countries, when push comes to shove, that's what matters.
Why China and the US are so obsessed with Taiwan
Taiwan tells Elon Musk it is ‘not for sale’ after latest China commentsh (Wed 13 Sep 2023)
“Perhaps Elon thinks banning it is a good policy, like turning off @Starlink to thwart Ukraine’s counterstrike against Russia,” Wu added, referring to the claim, since retracted, that Musk refused a Ukrainian request to activate his Starlink satellite network in Crimea’s port city of Sevastopol last year to aid an attack on Russia’s fleet there.
“Listen up, Taiwan is not part of the PRC & certainly not for sale!” Wu said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
Right now, I'd rather raise my child in Taiwan than America. I'm not the only one

How Taiwan overtook America
A lot has changed over the past 30 years as Taiwan has transitioned from a dictatorship to a vibrant democracy.
In Taiwan power is handed over peacefully while it's no longer a certainty in the US.
In Taiwan, guns are illegal. In America, guns are a leading cause of death to children.
My husband and I are not convinced we want to stay in Taiwan forever, but America, with its shocking lack of family-friendly policies, is on the bottom of the list of places we’d consider moving to.
Thinking beyond "Old Donald"
During this year's election cycle, however, opinions are much more muted. President Joe Biden has defied skeptics by maintaining a tough stance against China over the last four years and pro-"Old Donald" sentiments have waned considerably, especially in light of recent comments by the former president accusing Taiwan of taking away America's semiconductor business.
According to last year's Global Peace Index, Taiwan is the 33rd most peaceful state or territory in the world. The United States, on the flip side, is the 131st.
Now in his 60s, my father is convinced the Chinese threat will not materialize. While I don't agree with him, I understand his point of view. Cross-strait tensions have been strained for seven decades already and, with each passing year, the conflict feels more abstract in spite of the heightened rhetoric and airspace incursions because, eventually, you become numb to it.
I asked my dad - a lifelong Republican who he believed was a bigger threat this year: Chinese president Xi Jinping or former president "Old Donald".
He responded without hesitation. '"Old Donald",' he said. 'Because he's more unpredictable'.
How Taiwan's media is resisting Chinese threats
Although Beijing's military build-up in Taiwan Strait and Pacific Ocean tends to attract global attention, its media war has largely been an under-the-radar affair.
Taiwan celebrates Olympic gold (and China tries to ignore it)
Taiwanese shuttlers Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin did not just win, they won against China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, who had entered the competition as the top-ranked players, inevitably making the match political.
But — in Paris and in Taiwan, as Lee and Wang collapsed onto the ground in victory — fans offered a stark and ebullient expression of Taiwanese identity in an Olympic Games where such expressions have been repeatedly suppressed.

She’d made a cardboard cutout in the shape of Taiwan and that said “Go Taiwan” in Chinese characters, but an Olympics security officer told her it was “forbidden,” she said in an interview with The Post.
Upset with the label of “Chinese Taipei,” she wanted to make a poster that distinctly captured Taiwanese identity. She found it sad that even this display wasn’t permissible, but at least “it’s good for the world to see what happens to Taiwan, to the Taiwanese.”
Taiwan is readying citizens for a Chinese invasion. It's not going well.
Taiwan's military strategy has long focused on stopping China before its troops crossed the 110-mile strait that separates them, but a growing number of defense analysts in Taipei and Washington say Taiwan must prepare for the worst possible scenario: a protracted battle on the island itself.
“Taiwan’s reservists are going to be mobilizing where the fight is happening, when the fight is happening,” said Michael Hunzeker, a retired Marine who studies military reform at George Mason University.

The island is patently not ready for that, according to people who have completed military training recently.
A Letter to My Taiwanese American Mom on "Old Donald"
Margaretta Wan-Ling Lin
My Mom's Support For "Old Donald" Divided Our Family. Then I Found The Crack In Her MAGA Armor.
What Taiwan is learning from the war in Ukraine
Some 5,000 miles separate Taipei and Kyiv, but in Washington, the two embattled capitals seem almost geopolitical neighbors.

The prospect of Xi following in Putin’s footsteps and attempting a land grab across the straits seems more likely than it once did. And Taiwan, with new infusions of U.S. military aid, is preparing more vigorously to head off the threat. For the Taiwanese public, the Russian invasion of Ukraine “has brought some perspective, some reality” to the dangers at their own doorstep, Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador in Washington, told me.
Last year, Taiwan boosted its defense spending by some 14 percent from the previous budget. It has expanded the training period of the country’s compulsory military service from four months to one year. Like Ukraine, it is trying to develop its asymmetric warfare capabilities in the face of a far larger and more powerful aggressor. And its officials have also noted the sweeping whole-of-society involvement that has accompanied Ukraine’s defense, the “civic resiliency,” as Yui put it, that undergirds the bravery with which Ukraine’s forces defied the odds and staved off Russian conquest in the early months of the war.
How China Could Quarantine Taiwan: Mapping Out Two Possible Scenarios
A quarantine is more feasible for China and more likely than an invasion or blockade in the near term; it also presents unique challenges in terms of how Taiwan and the international community can respond.
Taiwan intensifies war games in response to rising 'threat' from China
Announcing the drills in April, Taiwan's defense ministry said the war games would practice "kill" zones at sea to break a blockade and simulate a scenario where China suddenly turns one of its regular drills around the island into an attack.
But China has also been using gray zone warfare against Taiwan, wielding irregular tactics to exhaust a foe by keeping them continually on alert without resorting to open combat. This includes sending balloons over the island and almost daily air force missions into the skies near Taiwan.
Taiwan to acquire more than 1,000 armed drones in new US arms sale
Taiwan will receive 720 Switchblade missiles and accompanying fire control systems worth $60.2 million, according to a release from the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on Tuesday.
The US will also provide Taiwan with up to 291 Altius 600M loitering munitions and supporting components with a price tag of $300 million, the DSCA said.
Taiwan's new president wants to turn country from 'silicon island' to 'AI island'
As we meet the global challenges of adopting more and more smart technologies, we in Taiwan, a 'silicon island,' must do all we can to expedite Taiwan's transformation into an 'AI island,' Ching-te said on Monday (May 20).
'We must adapt AI for industry and step up the pace of AI innovation and applications. We must also adapt industry for AI and use AI's computational power to make our nation, our military, our workforce, and our economy stronger.'

We must walk on the right path, and our industries must make every effort, so that we may be a force for global prosperity. With every step forward that Taiwan takes, the world takes a step forward with us.”`
Life in Taiwan is rowdy and proud, never mind China’s threats
Taiwanese often attribute the relatively tolerant atmosphere to the island’s cultural mix, which has been shaped by Indigenous groups, Dutch and Japanese colonizers, and folk practices carried across the Taiwan Strait from the Chinese mainland.

Batter up
Few pastimes embody Taiwan’s hybrid identity as much as baseball. Japan, which colonized Taiwan for 50 years starting in 1895, introduced the American sport.
Today, baseball is a national obsession. Watching a game in Taiwan today involves nonstop cheering, dancing and singing — by performers as well as the crowd. Being in the stands is a serious workout for many, with crowds bringing batons, horns, drums and even their own microphones and amplifiers as they try to make maximum noise for their team.
Taiwan's steely leader rewrote the book on how to deal with China