It was only a matter of time. The stories are breaking about Taiwan’s inhospitality toward foreigners. Taiwan has the lowest birthrate in the world. They need people; they need talent; they need support. By denying dual-citizenship to foreigners who would… Read More ›

Taiwan
Cadence Column: Asia, September 7, 2020
As Philippa Georgiou said to Leland in the season 2 finale of Star Trek: Discovery, “We were just talking about you. Everybody hates you. Congratulations.” It goes without mention which country that statement is most relevant for, today. The Czech… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 31, 2020
There was always a stark difference between America’s southern wall and the Berlin Wall. America’s wall was built to keep people out—whether they were desperate to come in or hungry to invade. The Berlin Wall was meant to keep people… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 24, 2020
These days, Taiwan is the perfect poster boy in China bashing. Yes, China needs to be confronted. No, China can’t own the world. Yes, China wants to own the world. Yes, China responds to anything and everything like a friendless… Read More ›
Taiwan shows military might in slick video as China circles
China should not underestimate Taiwan’s determination to defend itself, and military threats will only cause Taiwan’s people to be even more resolute, the island’s defence ministry said in a new video responding to repeated Chinese threats. China has stepped up… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 17, 2020
All of us enjoy the results of the paths we choose, paths which no one can choose for us. Americans believe this so strongly, it often leads to unhealthy apathy toward others in distress. When America finally decides to help… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 10, 2020
China received two-and-a-half slaps in the face this week: financial sanctions against a few Chinese and Hong Kong leaders, who don’t have money in the US anyway, and the first formal diplomatic visit from America to Taiwan in over 40… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 3, 2020
If ever there were a time when two nations didn’t want to get along, it is now. If ever there were a time when a growing group of nations decided that a single other nation never wanted to get along,… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, July 27, 2020
Bail on Hong Kong, jump to Taiwan. That’s the move from everyone. Britain doesn’t bail on Hong Kong, but creates a path for Hong Kongers to bail on Hong Kong. Britain isn’t just walking away. By allowing British Overseas Passport… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, July 6, 2020
It’s official. China has broken the treaty that allows Hong Kong to be Chinese. The last time Britain accused China of breaking treaty, the Royal Navy opened fire on the Taiwan city of Tainan in 1858. The time before that… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, June 29, 2020
At what point is it okay to bully the bad guy? At what point does bullying the bad guy make the bully the bigger bad guy? This is a line China is fast approaching and the US is fast leaving…. Read More ›
World War III – China vs the rest of the world
“Hide your strength and bide your time.” China in 2008 “No force can shake the status of our great motherland, No force can stop the advance of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation.” China in 2019 The above statements… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, June 22, 2020
China seems desperate for war. America has typically been the infamous provocateur. That’s how China paints things. That’s how Japan and Germany saw things. But, China has taken up a new role. Buzzing jets into Taiwanese airspace is just one… Read More ›
Taiwan Black Lives Matter protest gets indigenous twist
Hundreds packed into a park in central Taipei on Saturday for a Black Lives Matter protest, with a group of indigenous Taiwanese given prominent billing to draw attention to discrimination against the island’s original inhabitants. The rally, attended by more… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, June 15, 2020
The West and China just won’t back down from each other. China will no longer try to work through former Mayor Han of Kaohsiung to reunite Taiwan against the will of 23 million people. America wants to put new missiles… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, June 8, 2020
If China thinks that the poll numbers looking low or that the unrest in America means the Xi doctrine has a widening path on the road ahead, they should think again. But, being Confucian Communist, that’s hard. Trump actually may… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, June 1, 2020
China says every effort will be made for peaceful reunification with Taiwan as long as there remains hope; force is the last resort. But, Taiwan wants peaceful freedom from tyranny; force is the last resort. There is no hope for… Read More ›
Cadence of Conflict: Asia, May 25, 2020
Taiwan has a new Vice President: Former Premier William Lai, known for his pro-independence posture. China won’t be happy, but China is rarely happy these days. The Chinese made two loud omissions in their rhetoric this week. When talking about… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, May 18, 2020
It was a week of slap after slap in China’s face. Congress pokes at Human Rights in Xinjiang among other old-news grievances. China “warns” the US—again—about Huawei, apparently unaware that warnings require power or at least clout, of which China… Read More ›
Cadence Cadence: Asia, April 27, 2020
China is under global attack from all sides. It’s not just the government, but a sizeable portion of the Chinese people who cooperate with that government. We don’t know how many in China are part of the problem or the… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, April 20, 2020
Just when we thought China couldn’t make itself more unpopular, China made itself more unpopular. Perhaps it was charity. Perhaps it was delusion. We don’t like thinking bad things about others, especially if we sacrificed our jobs and economies to… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, April 13, 2020
The global case against China is marching forward in force. Typically the West doesn’t care about human rights violations—they care, but never enough to do anything until it involves themselves. Two million Uyghurs missing in Xinjiang doesn’t matter to the… Read More ›
With the world distracted, China intimidates Taiwan
The tanks queued patiently with the cars, delivery trucks and bright yellow taxis before rolling serenely through the traffic lights. The drill, in Yuanshan, a town south-east of Taipei, was intended as practice at repelling a Chinese invasion. Some of… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, April 6, 2020
The pneumoniavirus is having a detrimental effect on China. While Xi Jinping kicks China’s economy into full swing, the rest of the world is on full alert. Manufacturing moves home—whether to or from China. Countries seek alternate supply sourcing. Taiwan… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, March 23, 2020
China’s in trouble—deep trouble. America pauses with the same hush of silence that swept the country from the outskirts of Washington to New Orleans in 1812, gathering around the radio in 1941, or staring at the same TV images on… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, March 16, 2020
News around the world has blacked out. Everything is about this new virus that should be called the “pneumoniavirus”, also known as Wuhan’s 2019-nCoV, everything—the news, the politics, the economy, the maps, organ harvesting. But, that wasn’t the only Western… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, March 9, 2020
Things are fairing worse and worse for China, but better and better for Taiwan. The KMT-Nationalist party is abandoning its long-standing agreement to cooperate with the Chinese Communists, much how the American Democratic party is abandoning socialism within its ranks…. Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, February 24, 2020
There isn’t news this week. More countries hate China. More people are sick with Wuhan nCoV. Cases rise in the Far East. Taiwan is one of the safest places to be—in terms of the virus, that is. Friends of Taiwan… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, February 17, 2020
The 2019-nCoV Wuhan virus isn’t doing any good for Xi Jinping’s public trust. Dissidents inside China are silenced and their social media accounts scrubbed. Joshua Wong issues a call to arms from Hong Kong. Taiwan closes its border and plans… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, February 10, 2020
The words of US President Trump set an unsettling policy for Communist China: “We’re also getting our allies, finally, to help pay their fair share.” This is far-reaching. By having multiple nations with multiple militaries operating with appropriate budgets, China… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, February 3, 2020
The world is fed up with China’s Communist Party, including people in China. The Wuhan virus is a blame-blaming scandal of a magnitude greater than Chairman Mao. It could crack the foundation of Xi Jinping’s rule and party confidence along… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, January 27, 2020
Trying to be polite or indirect while not taking no for an answer does not give anyone a right to make trouble. When someone gives a decisive, “No,” decent people accept that answer, then move on somehow. But, China doesn’t… Read More ›
China says it won’t back off position that Taiwan is its territory
China will not change its position that Taiwan belongs to it, Beijing said on Sunday, after President Tsai Ing-wen won re-election and said she would not submit to China’s threats, as state media warned she was courting disaster. The election… Read More ›
Taiwan’s president elected to 2nd term as voters back tough stance against China
Tsai Ing-wen was reelected as Taiwan’s president by a landslide Saturday in a victory that signalled strong support for her tough stance against China among voters determined to defend their democratic way of life. Tsai, from the Democratic Progressive Party,… Read More ›
How China may help its enemy get elected in Taiwan
Taiwan’s President Tsai can thank Beijing for its stupidity if she stays in power. This Saturday, voters in Taiwan will choose their next president and the national Legislature. Tsai Ing-wen, the incumbent president who is detested by the Chinese government… Read More ›
How Taiwan’s elections remind the world – and Hong Kong – that Chinese culture and democracy can co-exist
When the islanders on the windswept Taiwanese archipelago of Matsu go to the polls this Saturday, Lii Wen, the enthusiastic young candidate for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, knows he has little chance of winning a seat. But he still… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, December 30, 2019
We are headed toward a massive inquisition of police. It could be known as the “Hong Kong Trials”, where each police officer who served since June is combed over and evaluated for every step taken at every single protest, then… Read More ›
China says Taiwan’s anti-infiltration bill, combatting Chinese influence, will cause ‘alarm’ for investors
A proposed anti-infiltration bill in Taiwan which the government says is needed to combat Chinese influence is spreading alarm amongst the Taiwanese business community in China, the Chinese government said on Wednesday. The legislation is part of a years-long effort… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, December 9, 2019
Money doesn’t lie; it’s in the airline figures. Cathay is reducing its capacity, largely from loss of demand for flights in and out of China. Hong Kong Airlines is dropping long hauls to and from Australia, the US, and Canada…. Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, December 2, 2019
Opinions on Asia aren’t just flying, but swarming the Pacific. Hong Kongers vote against China in an unmistakable slap to Beijing’s face, then Beijing blames the US—because Beijing still thinks that voters only vote how the government tells them to…. Read More ›
China has lost Taiwan, and they know it
“Not a chance,” the president’s tweet said, in Chinese characters. That was the message from Tsai Ing-wen, the leader of Taiwan, on Nov. 5, after the Chinese government announced a string of initiatives to lure Taiwanese companies and residents to… Read More ›
China holds out carrot ahead of Taiwan election, but few convinced
China is stepping up efforts to be nice to Taiwan ahead of key elections on Jan. 11, offering better treatment to Taiwanese in China and urging the democratic island to “come home,” but many there only see Beijing wielding a… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, November 25, 2019
Hong Kong’s election results from yesterday have confirmed the general public’s view: Hong Kongers reject China’s actions. Not that it will make a difference—elected officials don’t hold a majority in Hong Kong’s legislative process. But, pro-Beijing officials were voted-out, replaced… Read More ›
China says aircraft carrier on way to South China Sea after Taiwan passage
China’s first domestically-built aircraft carrier is on its way to the South China Sea for tests and to take part in exercises, the Chinese navy said on Monday, after sailing through the Taiwan Strait in a mission denounced by Taipei… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, November 11, 2019
Hong Kong has presented the world with the ethical question of confronting bullies. Say there is a bully at school who quietly eats whosever lunch he wants, stealing anyone’s homework he wants, until one day someone says something and the… Read More ›
China is sabotaging itself in Taiwan
China has a lot at stake in getting its favored candidate across the line in Taiwan’s presidential election in January, so it’s strange that Beijing is doing so much to sabotage Han Kuo-yu’s chances. Without a change in its approach, the… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, November 4, 2019
The crud is hitting the fan on China and the fake trade war. The US and China were ready to sign, until they weren’t. They were going to sign at APEC in Chile, but Chilean society’s peace seems to be… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, October 28, 2019
China is playing a dark game with Taiwan over the murder suspect in the case that sparked the spark of the Hong Kong liberation protests. A young man from Hong Kong traveled to Taiwan with his girlfriend where he murdered… Read More ›
Suspect in murder case that led to Hong Kong’s protests leaves prison
A murder suspect whose case indirectly led to Hong Kong’s ongoing protests was freed from prison on Wednesday and told reporters he was willing to surrender to authorities in Taiwan, where he is wanted for the killing of his girlfriend…. Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, October 21, 2019
“Careless” Carrie Lam’s effectiveness in Hong Kong is in the red. After banning masks at public gatherings, more people are wearing masks at gatherings than in the past. She bans an assembly, but people assemble anyway. Protests are so bad,… Read More ›