On Friday, January 1st, President Tsai Ing-Wen (蔡英文) delivered her New Year’s Address from the entrance hall of the Presidential Office Building. During which, she mentioned and laid out the accomplishments that Taiwan has achieved throughout the past year combatting and containing the COVID-19 pandemic, touched on the newly lifted regulations on imported pork and beef items from the US specifically, and global climate governance. However, what drew Beijing’s attention was specifically a brief segment during her speech that touched on Tsai’s policies and stance with regards to Mainland China.

Regarding cross-strait relations, President Tsai expressed that from a “global strategic standpoint”, relations across the Taiwan Strait is now more important than ever and affects the wider Indo-Pacific region as a whole. Stressing that with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ramping up its military activities ... Read more

What Does the Wistron Factory Incident Mean for Modi’s “Make in India” Initiative?

As we take a deep dive into what happened when a worker’s riot broke out several weeks ago in December of last year, where Taiwanese manufacturing firm Wistron’s second factory in India was trashed and ransacked by workers leaving the building after a night shift; the implications of which this incident holds for regional economic aspirations and trends will also be brought to light in this briefing.

The factory is owned and operated by Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of the Taiwanese Wistron Corporation. Located in Narasapura Industrial Area in Kolar District, Karnataka, outside of Bengaluru, the tech hub of India, the factory was ... Read more

A Strain on Relations?

As the UK confirmed the Oxford-AstraZeneca for emergency approval, days later a new strain of COVID-19 is spreading through 33 countries and once again proving a test for world leaders across the globe. The new variant, B.1.1.7 has been analyzed as carrying a variety of mutations which allows it to spread and multiply at a faster rate than its previous strain. Whether this is through a natural process of mutations in which viruses commonly go through, or an actual resistance that the virus has responded to is too early to confirm.

However, one thing for sure is that scientists around the world are worried about 2 possible mutations that could render current treatments ineffective, the N501Y mutation and deletion of H69/70. To put it in short, the N501Y mutation would ... Read more

EU-China Investment Deal

As the country that was the hub of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has no doubt come out of 2020 with great strides in its economic development. While it continues to take advantage of the coronavirus’s effect on other states, it has been able to sign major economic deals, most recently the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Experts have continued to reiterate the fact that these agreements not only consolidate China’s economic power but also its push for a stronger Asia to add to its BRI. Now, what has been over 7 years of back and forth constructive dialogue has come to a conclusion as China and the EU have signed ... Read more

The Siege of Capitol Hill

What does the violent aftermath of Thursday’s “Save America March” mean for American democracy at home and abroad moving forward?
Read more