A few months before Taiwan’s local elections in 2018, a tropical storm hit the city of Chiayi, killing at least six people and displacing thousands of others. President Tsai Ing-wen traveled to Chiayi to show her support for the flood victims, but soon after, an innocuous photo of the president riding in an armored vehicle became a nationwide scandal. The image was cropped and cast in black and white, and a caption was added, falsely suggesting that she came with armed gunmen and was smiling cruelly at the misfortune of a nearby man biking through knee-high floodwaters.

During the Ma Ying-jeou presidency in Taiwan (2008-2016), confrontations over relations with the People’s Republic of China stressed the country’s institutions, leading to a political crisis. Nevertheless, as documented in Dynamics of Democracy in Taiwan, a new book edited by Kharis Templeman, Yun-han Chu, and Larry Diamond, its democracy proved to be resilient. In this discussion, several of the book’s contributors will reflect on the politics of this era, and what subsequent developments tell us about the enduring strengths and weaknesses of Taiwan’s democracy.

Although some still hold a positive outlook for the trajectory of U.S.-China relations, many more now see different versions of a Cold War 2.0 as the basis for the interactions of the two hegemons. As more countries around the world start to flock to either one of the two camps, Taiwan, sandwiched in this rising power rivalry, has also been thinking about its next step. Some have advocated Taiwan follow a hedging policy or maintaining an equal distance between both countries to maximize its flexibility should geopolitics change dramatically. Such a viewpoint is wrong. As U.S.-China rivalry intensifies, it is in Taiwan’s best interests to stand closely with the United States and its allies as a global partner. It is also essential for U.S. policymakers to understand the Taiwanese debate dynamics on U.S. and China policy because U.S. policy vis-à-vis Taiwan certainly shape the broader agenda.

On July 22, 2020, the State Department announced that it has directed China to close its consulate in Houston for the purpose of “protecting intellectual property and private information of U.S. citizens.”

Top academic publisher Springer Nature has once more sparked concerns over its censorship of topics regarded as politically sensitive by Beijing.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen eliminated a major hurdle to a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the United States when she eased restrictions on U.S. pork and beef imports on Friday, a move that carries significant political risk and has sparked concerns among health experts.

Observers of Taiwan’s foreign relations are well aware of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) perennial efforts to isolate Taiwan from the international community. Under the ‘One China’ policy, establishing diplomatic ties with Taiwan is tantamount to breaking up with the PRC.

Recently, Taiwan has been under the spotlight in international media for three main events: passing a same-sex marriage act in May 2019, Tsai winning a reelection in January 2020, and the outstanding performance in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The statehood of Taiwan, however, is not as clear as the above achievements. While numerous international media outlets tend to Taiwan as a self-ruled island-state, others often avoid using the term “country” to describe Taiwan due to the chagrin of Beijing. The duality of reporting exemplifies the dilemma of Taiwan’s statehood.