China NewsBase
Fast, easy search of the China news that matters
The China News Database was last updated at 03:45PM today.
Database searches currently perform best when a tag filter is used. We suggest trying out these tags: Xi Jinping, Russia, Taiwan, COVID-19, climate change, electric vehicles, gaming, IPOs, Belt and Road Initiative.
You may also filter by articles featured in our daily members-only Access newsletter, to get a curated overview of the top news and analysis about Chinese politics, business, and society. Select one option:
- All top news and analysis
- SupChina top news and analysis
- Top news and analysis from elsewhere — Stories in the “News briefing,” previously known as “Recommended links”
This product is in beta testing and development. If you would like to share feedback on the content or user experience, please email editors@supchina.com.
1,009 articles matching the search query.
Taiwan anger at Qatar World Cup ID
Meanwhile: China is looking to build on its Olympics success at the FINA World Championships.
The talk on Taiwan
Shelley Rigger and Simona Grano discuss the U.S.’s longstanding, unofficial policy of “strategic ambiguity,” how Taiwan has been impacted by the Ukraine War, and much more.
China and the U.S. talk at Shangri-La Dialogue, but do not resolve the tough questions
The Shangri-La Dialogue this past weekend helped ease China’s tensions with some countries, but the meetings also showed hardening positions on key issues like Taiwan.
What would James Hilton say? — Editor’s Note for Friday, June 10, 2022
A note for Weekly newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
Pacific palaver — Editor’s note for Friday, May 27, 2022
A note for Weekly newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
Poolside daydreams
Fan Yang-Tsung captures the summertime bliss
Biden spells out U.S. policy on Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, but where are the teeth?
Joe Biden has said the U.S. would intervene militarily if China invaded Taiwan. He also unveiled a new economic initiative in the Indo-Pacific.
Taiwan reacts to California Church shooting, with some calling it a ‘political attack’
Pro-independence politicians and groups blamed China’s pro-unification threats for the shooting at a Taiwanese church near Los Angeles on Sunday, and demanded action from both the Taiwan and U.S. governments.
Editor’s Note for Tuesday, May 17, 2022
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
Inking absurdities
Sic Lee offers a humorous slant on tattoos in Taipei
‘Rose Boy’: How a death on campus changed LGBTQ education in Taiwan
The 22nd anniversary of the death of “Rose Boy” was commemorated in China, while the media coverage of an empowering song named after him attracted criticism for downplaying its progressive message.
Taiwanese activist released after serving five years in Chinese prison for “subversion”
Lee Ming-che, a rights activist in Taiwan, disappeared on a visit to China in 2017 and was later charged with “subversion of state power.” He is back in Taiwan and just gave his first public comments on his ordeal.
Activists fight for LGBTQ adoption rights in Taiwan
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Taiwan since 2019, but true equality has not yet been achieved. Social organizations and legislators are collaborating to make changes happen.
With international backing, Taiwan makes another bid for World Health Assembly
Under pressure from Beijing, the World Health Organization has denied Taiwan even observer status at every World Health Assembly since 2017.
Bill to help Taiwan regain WHO status passes Congress, sent to Biden for signature
It takes Taiwan to make bipartisan consensus in the U.S.: The House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation calling for Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Organization (WHO).
Editor’s Note for Tuesday, April 19, 2022
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn. Today: Supply chains, speculation on Taiwan, and more.
U.S. officials touch down in Taiwan
The visit of six U.S. lawmakers to Taiwan follows earlier rumors of an intended visit by U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi — which was postponed because she tested positive for COVID.
Taiwan moves away from COVID-zero as cases climb
While Beijing continues to impose strict lockdown measures in an attempt to maintain its COVID-zero policy, Taiwan is beginning to shift toward living with the virus.
What do Taiwan residents really think about independence?
“The status quo feels safe, but I’m not sure it’s what people actually want.”
China warns U.S. against House Speaker Pelosi visiting Taiwan
Beijing will take “strong measures” if U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan. The visit has not been confirmed by U.S. or Taiwanese officials, but some Japanese and Taiwanese media reported it would take place after she visits Japan this weekend. However, the visit seems unlikely to happen, as Pelosi today tested positive for COVID.
Related: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the U.S. would sanction China, should Beijing invade Taiwan.
Taiwan’s Han Chinese seek a new identity among the island’s tribes
In Taiwan, young Han Chinese are embracing indigenous culture as part of a “renewed emphasis on Taiwan’s Austronesian roots — trends that undercut Beijing’s claims to the island, which it says is an inalienable part of China,” per the Washington Post.
What’s behind Taiwan’s willingness to extend compulsory military service?
After Russian forces invaded Ukraine in late February, talk in Taiwan of extending the conscription period of its citizens — from four months to one year — became elevated in official discourse.
Taiwan Looks to Ukraine War for Ideas to Defend Against China
The war in Ukraine is “adding momentum” for Taiwan’s efforts to upgrade its national defense, the Wall Street Journal reports today, citing an “extension of Taiwan’s four-month mandatory military service for men” as one potential change under serious consideration.
The Distortion of UN Resolution 2758 and Limits on Taiwan’s Access to the United Nations
China is pushing its “One China” principle in the United Nations (UN), a new report from U.S. think tank German Marshall Fund finds, which seeks to “institutionalize and normalize its stance on Taiwan within the UN” by “signing secret agreements with UN bodies, restricting Taiwan’s access to the UN and its facilities, and embedding [People’s Republic of China] nationals across various levels of UN staff.”
Jessica Drun and Bonnie Glaser, the authors of the report, said they had received funding from the Taiwanese government for the research but that the views in the report were their own, per the New York Times.
Algorithmic bliss
The computer-generated art of Wu Che-Yu
Opinion | Taking Dictators Literally and Seriously
“Take autocrats literally and seriously when they tell us what they intend to do,” writes the Wall Street Journal editorial board. Vladimir Putin warned of his attack on Ukraine as early as 2007, and even wrote about Russia’s sovereignty claim on the region in an essay last summer, yet the West was quick to dismiss his words as a fever dream.
“In Beijing, Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 speaks of Taiwan in much the same way Mr. Putin does Ukraine… Beijing’s strong-arm repression of Hong Kong demonstrates the Xi regime is ready to trample treaties and violate its economic self-interest in pursuit of a nationalist agenda that fulfills Mr. Xi’s ambition. China’s concentration camps in Xinjiang reveal a regime immune to global embarrassment. How convincing is the argument that Mr. Xi would never be so foolish as to invade Taiwan?”
Key Asian nations join global backlash against Russia, with an eye toward China
Asian countries are joining the stand against Russia, with Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea tightening their spigots on the flow of goods into the nation. Mounting regional pressures from China have urged some, particularly Japan, to “defend the principle of state sovereignty and prohibitions against large powers changing the borders of smaller states,” per the Washington Post.
Team Taiwan says it will be at Beijing Games opening ceremony
Team Taiwan will “cooperate” and attend the Beijing Olympics ceremonies after the I.O.C. told the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee that it was required to participate, Reuters reports. The reversal came after Team Taiwan had said last Friday that it would not be attending, amid growing concerns that China would use the ceremonies to make claims over the island’s disputed sovereignty.
Team Taiwan to skip Olympic ceremonies amid name row
No “Taipei, China” in the opening ceremonies: “Taiwan’s Olympic contingent of 15 athletes will not participate in the opening or closing ceremonies of the Games kicking off in Beijing next week, Taiwanese authorities said Friday, amid concern that Beijing will use the events to assert its jurisdiction over the island,” Nikkei Asia reports.
Taiwan has not been asked to change name of Lithuania office
Lithuania is mulling over whether to deescalate its China conflict by asking Taiwan to modify the name of its representative office in the capital, Vilnius, but no decision has been made. “Taiwan has not received a request to change the name of its de facto embassy in Lithuania, its foreign ministry said,” Reuters reports. This comes after news, also reported by Reuters, that some German businesses “have asked Lithuania’s political leaders to de-escalate the dispute or risk a corporate exodus.” Context on SupChina: Lithuanian president says Taiwan office naming was ‘a mistake’ after ‘unconventional measures’ from Beijing.
China’s extended naval reach in western Pacific fuels Taiwan tensions
China’s navy has ramped up operations east of Taiwan: “For at least six months, the People’s Liberation Army Navy has rotated destroyers and missile corvettes through the waters east and south of the southernmost tip of the Ryukyu chain — which Tokyo calls the Nansei islands — according to officials from Taiwan, Japan and the U.S.,” the Financial Times reports. Meanwhile, a day after the U.S. and Japanese navies made a “massive show of force in the Philippine Sea,” China sent 39 planes into Taiwan’s ADIZ (air defense identification zone). Context on SupChina last October: Explaining China’s surge in warplane activity in the Taiwanese ‘air defense zone.’
Taiwan an inalienable part of China: FM responds to 7-Eleven using incomplete Chinese map
7-Eleven was fined 150,000 yuan ($23,505) by Beijing regulators for “displaying an incorrect and incomplete Chinese map” that showed Taiwan as a country.
徐旭東投書／跨越選舉思維框架，尋求產業發展的大格局 | 聯合新聞網：最懂你的新聞網站
“I have always opposed Taiwan independence,” Far Eastern Group (FEG) Chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東 Xú Xùdōng) wrote today in United Daily News, pushing back on Beijing’s targeting of his company for ties to the less-China-friendly Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan. Hsu also defended FEG’s investments in the mainland, and said it was unhelpful when “certain public opinions” in Taiwan try to put a “sense of guilt” on companies with cross-Strait ties. According to Reuters, an updated total of the fines levied on FEG by Chinese authorities is 474 million yuan ($74.4 million).
U.S. invites Taiwan to its democracy summit; China angered
China is “firmly opposed” to the “Summit for Democracy” that the Biden administration invited Taiwan to last week. The virtual gathering of 110 governments on December 9 and 10 is aimed at preventing democratic backsliding and the erosion of rights and freedoms around the world. In recent meetings with Russia, India, and Iran, Chinese Foreign Minister Wáng Yì 王毅 has criticized the summit as divisive, in what Nikkei Asia interprets as concern “that the virtual meeting will lead to Taiwan’s recognition by the international community.”
Choose a side, China tells Taiwan firms as it punishes conglomerate
Did China punish a Taiwanese firm for political infractions? Far Eastern Group, a conglomerate with diverse interests, was fined 36.5 million yuan ($5.72 million) by Chinese law enforcement agencies “for a series of problems, from tax to fire safety,” Reuters reports. But one of the group’s listed units “said its textile operations in China had been inspected by law enforcement in the second quarter” with no such problems being flagged. The law enforcement action came two weeks after Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office pledged to hold pro-Taiwanese-independence individuals and companies criminally liable and prevent them from being “allowed to profit from the mainland.”
Japan tells China peace, stability in Taiwan Strait are important
Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Thursday emphasised to his Chinese counterpart that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are important, while also expressing "deep concern" about the situation in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
EU shelves Taiwan trade upgrade amid balancing act on China
Announcement of new strategic format for liaising with Taiwan on trade is postponed, as lawmakers push Taiwan issue but also aim to re-engage with Beijing.
Dutton raises stakes over Taiwan with talk of war
Did Australia’s defense minister vow to defend Taiwan? Peter Dutton made headlines last week when he declared it “inconceivable” that Australia would not join the U.S. in defending Taiwan if China were to use force in the Taiwan Strait. But as freelance journalist Elise Thomas noted, Dutton quickly backtracked by saying that “maybe there are circumstances where we wouldn’t take up that option, [but] I can’t conceive of those circumstances.” According to the Sydney Morning Herald, one senior Australian official described Dutton’s comments as “an analytical opinion rather than a policy decision.”
TSMC to build new chip factory in Taiwan's southern city amid shortage
TSMC is building a new factory in Kaohsiung, in southern Taiwan, as part of a plan to lift production and quell shortages, along with planned fabs in Japan and Arizona.
The U.S. Is Getting Taiwan Ready to Fight on the Beaches
U.S. troops have been in Taiwan for 13 years, since “at least September 2008,” according to a “Foreign Policy review of Pentagon data produced by the Defense Manpower Data Center, an in-house Pentagon organization.” The amounts of troops are not disclosed, but are described by Foreign Policy as “small contingents.” Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen (Cài Yīngwén 蔡英文) recently commented on the public disclosure of the presence of U.S. troops in Taiwan, saying only that the amount of troops was “not as many as people thought.”
