Taiwan’s political precipice: Foreign policy heavyweights weigh in, as island welcomes a new leader
HKFP speaks to Taiwan’s foreign minister, pro-Beijing figures and academics about the future of the democratic island, as it inaugurates a new leader. Does Taipei trust the US? How is Hong Kong viewed? Will policy change under Lai Ching-te? And what do the Taiwanese people want?
Taiwanese vent discontent over domestic policy at demo on eve of presidential inauguration
A day ahead of the inauguration of Lai Ching-te, hundreds protested the policies of outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen, holding guavas aloft to symbolise what they said were her “broken promises.”
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Glory to Hong Kong: Is the banned protest song going the way of Barbra Streisand’s mansion?
“It is perhaps time for our leaders to contemplate the possibility that if they stop kicking this hive the bees will sleep,” writes Tim Hamlett of the years-long efforts to ban a 2019 protest song.
Taiwan president-elect Lai Ching-te takes foreign dignitaries shrimp fishing ahead of inauguration
President-elect Lai Ching-te and his deputy Hsiao Bi-khim hauled visiting foreign dignitaries, including presidents and a king, along for the fishing expedition at the Zhishan Shrimp Fishing Farm in the capital Taipei.
Lai Ching-te’s inauguration: How a coal miner’s son became Taiwan president
The 64-year-old Harvard graduate swept to the presidency in January’s elections on the promise he would defend Taiwan’s democracy and resist Beijing’s claims on the island.