Taiwan’s defense budget woes are probably coming to a middle, not an end. Taiwan needs to pass at least one special budget to fund its purchases of
German Chancellor Doesn’t Pull Punches Ahead of China Visit
German chancellor Friedrich Merz will arrive in China on Wednesday for his first visit to the country while in office. He is expected to focus on
Xi Isn’t Done Reshaping China’s Top Military Body
Two of China’s top generals, Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Liu Zhenli (劉振立), were seen missing from a public event on January 20. Domino Theory was one of
KMT, TPP Advance Alternate Special Budget for Defense Spending
Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan, is considering a defense special budget that effectively funds all of the items on the recently-announced
Taiwan Diplomacy Power Rankings: November 2025 to January 2026
KMT in China Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) went to China on December 28 for the Taipei-Shanghai Twin-City
Let’s Not Do This Now: Free Speech and Hate Speech in Taiwan
Taiwan is a society on the edge. It is threatened from without by China, an irredentist power that refuses to renounce its goal of annexing Taiwan. It
Zhang Youxia, China’s Most Senior General, Could Be in Trouble
Two of China’s top generals, Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Liu Zhenli (劉振立), apparently did not attend a gathering of all of China’s senior political leaders
Who Are the Churches That China Is Persecuting?
On the night of December 14, over 1,000 police officers surrounded Yayang Church in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. At 3 a.m. they burst into the church “with
Justice Mission 2025 Propaganda: Chinese Aircraft Were Not Flying Over Pingtung and Taipei 101
During and after the Justice Mission 2025 exercise in December, China released a huge volume of propaganda material. Among the childish cartoons of
No, Trump Didn’t Say Xi Can Invade Taiwan
U.S. President Donald Trump said that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “considers [Taiwan] to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s
China May Not Have Built Its Last Conventional Aircraft Carrier
Across the backend of 2025, two parallel tracks of rumors about aircraft carriers ran through Chinese-language military watchers on social media. The
No, the U.S. Didn’t Just Give China Grounds to Invade Taiwan
“Oh, this means China is allowed to invade Taiwan now,” they say. The U.S. kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a frankly very