Domestic rice supply is a great security concern in Taiwan, one that’s been stoked by trade negotiations with the United States. Washington wants more access to Taiwan’s rice market. In Taiwan, the worry is that …
Articles by: "Jane Rickards"
It’s an odd thing that most Taiwanese people, threatened for decades with war by China to seize them and their island, don’t think about the possibility much. For decades, it’s just seemed unimaginable. But over …
Since March, China has been making a splash with manoeuvres off its south coast involving a line of odd-looking barges with retractable legs that work like giant stilts. Taiwanese analysts aren’t impressed, however. The barges …
Anyone would think that Taiwan, faced with a risk of blockade from China, would be doing all it could to ensure self-sufficiency or at least long endurance without supplies. But in energy security, it is going …
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te must have been on his toes. The island’s trade and defence policy has snapped into a new direction since US President Donald Trump took office in January. The government was almost …
Political fighting in Taiwan is delaying some of an increase in defence spending and creating an appearance of lack of national resolve that can only damage the island’s relationship with the Trump administration. The main …
Taiwan is paying attention to seabed risks. It’s suffered undersea cable breaks and it has noted deliberate attacks on such communications lines under the Baltic Sea. Its response is to build a robust and redundant …
The West had better think carefully about how it would handle China imposing a nominally civil quarantine on Taiwan, because that’s the tactic that increasingly looks like an opening move for Beijing in taking control …
Originally published on 18 June 2024. Because Taiwan lacks formal diplomatic ties with most countries, it works hard at developing cultural and social links with them. But not with Japan. Far more than is widely …
The drone message from the war in Ukraine has not been lost on Taiwan. Uncrewed aircraft and vessels, especially small, cheap ones, can be built and used in far greater numbers than even a …
Taiwan has taken a big step towards bolstering civil defence, marshalling a range of resources and know-how across society. A top-level committee, launched in June and detailed in late September, has been working to incorporate …
It’s early days, but the signs are strong that Taiwan’s new government will insist on much more of a porcupine strategy for national defence than many officers in the country’s hidebound armed forces have been willing …