This is why the DPP is not winning any popularity contests

Two friends well met on my early morning ride

DPP, KMT, whoever runs the government has the same attitude toward hoi polloi (FocusTw):

Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said Thursday that the government will continue to "negotiate" with residents of Rueifang District in New Taipei to dispel their fears about the planned reopening and expansion of a decommissioned coal-fired power plant in the area.

"Our responsibility is to negotiate, negotiate and negotiate with them, with compassion, before going ahead with the plan," Shen said at a news conference, when asked about the government's plans for the controversial Shen'ao Power Plant.

"Negotiate" in this case means simply wear them down until they shut up, and then build a power plant that the nation does not need and which will hurt both the local and global environments. I wish it were hard to find public policy-making more moronic than this, but most nations run their energy policies this way.

The image above shows a bridge under construction to enable the 3 to bypass the city of Dongshih (google map link). There are also new roads going in around the central Taiwan science park. Why this construction? Because the city of Taichung, with all the many urgent needs facing it, chose to spend millions putting in these roads in part to service anticipated new traffic to the idiotic flower exhibition center. This google maps link still shows the old horse racing area in Houli, a stretch of grass that has been destroyed to put in the flower exhibition, which will be permanent. It will demand power to cool it, permanently, and water to keep it watered, permanently.

The stoopid, it burns.

Imagine if, instead of spending all that public money on this fruitless, idiotic project, the government had instead decided to spend it on putting solar panels on public buildings and handing out free solar panels to anybody who wanted until the budget ran out. Instead of subsidizing an urgently needed hi-tech industry with massive panel orders the government decided to subsidize the gangster-ridden construction industry by spraying yet more concrete across the countryside.

The lack of imagination is terrifying. A chance to change the future for everyone and spare northern Taiwan the re-opened Shenao Coal Plant, and instead, we get another cookie cutter construction-industrial state project. Nothing changes....
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Daily Links:

• If you read one thing today, read Australia's China Reset
• Speaking of public policy, TSMC's recent experience with WannaCry might actually spur the Taiwan government to take a break from spraying the landscape with concrete and do something
• White Wolf's home, offices raided in search for Chinese money backing him
• Great interview with Japanese man running movement to get Taiwan properly named for the  2020 Olympics
• The next big thing for Taiwan's textile firms is... Ethiopia
• Q: What do Buddhist soldiers eat?
  A: Armytofu

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Act #10: Taiwan: Between Hong Kong and Xinjiang

My latest for American Citizens for Taiwan: Taiwan: Between Hong Kong and Xinjiang

Consider: Taiwan combines both the problems of Hong Kong — an established order of democracy and rule of law backed by a long history of dealing with colonial power — and Xinjiang: an isolated population with its own identity and a long history of independent cultural development. In Taiwan this double whammy of problems for the occupation is the hallmark of the young, whose independent Taiwan identity has robustly incorporated the idea of democracy.

Go thou and read!
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Red Headed Island

On this Illustrated Tourist Map of Taiwan, published in 1954, the names of some locations are still in flux. Author and historian Katy Hui-wen Hung, who is coming out with a culinary history of Taipei this fall (along with the awesome Steve Crook), mused on Facebook....

🙄Note: today's Little Ryukyu, is called just Ryukyu in 1954. Whereas Ryukyu became Okinawa in Japan)

There is so much twists and turns, so much bullies, enforcements and disguises between 1940 to 1960 in Taiwan, that one could discover something every week for the rest of the year.

I came across the original of this map printed in 1942 (1945 ended Japanese occupation) the other day, now I can’t find it. But I noticed something then that today’s Green Island (Ludao) Japanese had called it something else, 3 characters and beginning with Fire 火. I looked up then, and learned that it was called ‘Bonfire Island’. It was changed to Green Island (the Oasis Hell. Sadly it turned out History made it) in 1949 when Chiang KS retreated to Taiwan.

This map is printed in 1954. I couldn’t find the original in 1942, but it is now owned by National Taiwan History Museum Tainan, that I remember.

In this map – you see both names printed ‘Green Island’ and ‘Bonfire Island’.

(The name "Green Island" is a calque of the island's Chinese name Lǜdǎo, which was adopted on August 1, 1949, at the behest of Huang Shih-hung (黃式鴻), the magistrate of Taitung. Prior to 1949, it was known as Bonfire Island from its former name Kashō-tō (Japanese: 火焼島). In the 19th century, it was also called Samasana Island from its Amis name Sanasai.)

Note also that on this map Lanyu (Orchid Island) is "Red Head Island". Wiki observes:

he island was first mapped on Japanese charts as Tabako-shima in the early 17th century and Tabaco Xima on a French map of 1654. The Chinese, who had no contact with the inhabitants of the island, called it Ang-thau-su (Chinese: 紅頭嶼; pinyin: Hóngtóuyǔ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Âng-thâu-sū; literally: "Red-headed island"), from which it was called Kōtō-sho (紅頭嶼) during Japanese rule. The Japanese government declared the island an ethnological research area off-limits to the public.

After the KMT occupied Taiwan in 1945 the restriction on visits to the island was retained, and finally removed in 1967. Its name was officially changed in 1946 but obviously not everyone got the memo.
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Thanks, France

Apple Daily posted this image of the French team at the Gay Games in Paris waving the ROC flag in sympathy for Taiwan, whose name and flag were suppressed by China.
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Explaining Canada's China Policy

A net-acquaintance posted this to a discussion group..

____ describes the organization accurately. Leading members have much to offer, in particular deep background on Power Corporation, a huge corporation and major player all over the world which has somehow managed to fly below the radar of Canadian citizens for many decades.

Power Corporation has virtually dictated China policy to all Canadian governments since at least 1972. And the China policy it dictates has always been determined and drafted in Beijing. Through Power Corporation, Beijing has virtually owned every Canadian Prime Minister since 1972. It prefers the Liberal Party, but had no difficulty working through PM Brian Mulroney when the Conservatives were in Power. Later still, when the Conservatives came back to power in 2008 under Stephen Harper (who took office with a notably anti-China public persona), it took about two years. But after that, Harper did as he was told and toed the Power Corp line as had all Prime Ministers of both parties before him.

Pierre Trudeau was a behind the scenes co-founder of the Canada China Trade Council (Now the Canada China Business Council) in 1972, along with the then CEO of Power, Paul Desmarais. When Brian Mulroney brought the Conservatives back to power, he had a history with Power Corp as their Labour Lawyer. Jean Chretien had been a Cabinet Minister under Pierre Trudeau. When Trudeau’s Liberals were soundly defeated by Mulroney, Chretien left politics to accept a position with Gordon Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Corporation.

Later Chretien led a Liberal victory over Mulroney and became Prime Minister in his own right. By this point, Chretien’s daughter was married to Andre Desmarais, son of Paul Desmarais and new CEO of Power.

Paul Martin succeeded Chretien and immediately preceded Stephen Harper. Martin was a huge tycoon who had made his fortune as owner of Canada Steamship Lines. CSL had been a division of Power Corp but had been spun off to Martin. Martin later moved the international headquarters of CSL from New York to Shanghai and for many years has had almost all its ships built in China.

Power Corp is the major investor in the Three Gorges Dam project and, along with Bombardier, is also a major investor in the China/Tibet railroad project.

There is much more to the Power Corp story and I apologize for going on at such length.

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Lin Gets Boost in Taichung + Polls

And so the  Chinese end up giving Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung a boost in a tight race with the KMT's Lu (Taipei Times) as their cancellation of the East Asian Youth Games works in Lin's favor:

Asked who should be responsible for the incident, 40.5 percent said Beijing, while 31.5 percent said the Taiwanese government.

Despite the cancelation, 71.1 percent of respondents said that the city should continue to build the sports venues intended for the Games, while more than 80 percent said that they supported Lin’s appeal to reinstate the Games.

Regarding satisfaction over Lin’s handling of the incident, 57.6 percent said that they were satisfied, while 22.7 percent said they were dissatisfied.

The survey also gauged how the incident affected Lin’s approval rating. It found that 43.2 percent of voters support Lin’s re-election bid, while his main competitor, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), garnered support from only 24.4 percent.

Lin also led the favorability rating by 25.6 percentage points, the survey found.

The Taichung mayoral election to be held in November is widely considered to be a close race, National Taiwan Normal University Graduate Institute of Political Science professor Fan Shih-ping (范世平) said, adding that the result would also be considered a bellwether for the 2020 presidential race.

It's actually amazing to me that 31% of the people blame Taiwan when China hurts it. But this poll from the pro-China Cross Strait Policy Association is nothing but good news for Lin. Not only does it show him with higher favorability and support numbers, it also has high support for building the venue and for his handling of the cancellation. The DPP poll also found that 68% blame China. Lot of idiots out there in the minority, fortunately...

Moreover, the public supports continued building of the infrastructure, which means that the city government run by the DPP will still be pouring money into the pockets of people pouring concrete, with public approval. Keeping local faction networks fed and watered with public funds is a key to winning local elections...

That's very good news, but even though Lu is a lackluster mainlander candidate backed by the KMT machine, the election is still very winnable for the KMT and much campaigning lies ahead. One county over, in Changhua, DPP infighting has given the KMT a real chance to take back Changhua, which is the largest administrative entity by population outside the 6 municipalities, as Donovan reminds me.

Taichung will be an important signal of the DPP's ability to deliver victory in the Real Taiwan. Remember, the mayor of a municipality appoints all of the officials in that area. That will mean eight years of DPP power across the area.

My friend Donovan Smith dug up this old photo of Ting Shou-chung, Chen Shui-bian, and Jaw Shaw-kong from a panel discussion before the 1994 mayoral election, which Chen won. 

According to a poll this week, in Taipei independent and pro-Green Ko Wen-je, the current mayor, is far ahead of the KMT's Ting Shou-chung and the DPP's Pasuya Yao...

As for the Nov. 24 elections, Ko has a significant lead (64.4 percent) in supportive rate against his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rivals, Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) respectively, the poll found.

Ko laughed at questions about him running for president. I do not think he will run in 2020. He'd have to run against Tsai Ing-wen, and his deputy mayor is DPP. That would mean turning his own city over to the party of his major rival, while annoying the population by leaving his job early. I don't see that happening. But it might not be a bad idea for the DPP to bring him into the party for the 2024 election and run him as Veep, if he'd accept that.

Meanwhile the pro-KMT Taiwan Competitiveness Forum came out with a rather strange poll that supported the claims of some analysts that people are giving up on political parties.

Public dissatisfaction with Tsai’s performance reached 64.1 percent, increasing by 3.8 percentage points from a February poll, while dissatisfaction with Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) performance rose 6.4 points to 47.5 percent, Hsieh said.

While Tsai has encouraged government officials to show humility, nearly 40 percent of respondents said that the ruling party has not demonstrated more tolerance for social dissent than the KMT, Hsieh added.

Asked which party they supported, 23.1 percent said the KMT and 14.6 percent chose the DPP, while more than half of respondents had no preference, he said.

The poll is simply a political attack on the DPP and should carry no weight as an analysis of the electorate. But that last paragraph there has half the population showing no party preference. It's pretty obvious to everyone that the population wants another party choice, but no party has stepped up. Nor can they -- the mathematics of a winner-take-all system work against smaller parties. That is why the KMT and DPP colluded to get rid of the old system. We need to return to that.

Donovan pointed out to me that the Miaoli shows how pro-KMT areas are willing to vote for alternatives if they are not DPP. But Taipei, a heavily pro-KMT city, also shows that -- if given a non-DPP politician, even an obvious green, KMT voters are willing to make the switch.

This blog tracks the polls. At present among the six municipalities the KMT is winning only in New Taipei City, where their candidate is one of the most popular politicians in the country. The KMT is in the lead in Yilan, which swings KMT from time to time despite its green reputation. In Hsinchu county a former KMTer is in the lead, while the DPP candidate is leading in the city. In Nantou (a KMT lock), Miaoli (a KMT lock), and Changhua the KMT is in the lead. Yunlin, Chiayi, and Pingtung are all DPP at the moment, but the KMT is leading in Chiayi City. Hualien, Taitung, and Penghu are all KMT at the moment, the first two are KMT locks.

In sum, if the election were held today, the notable swings would be in Yilan and Changhua. The all-important municipalities would remain in DPP hands.

Not a bad outcome, if it holds.

ADDED: Brian H looks at the election here.
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“Images of the Late Homeland”

From Youtube:

Yang Shun-Fa is a worker artist from Taiwan. He’s been working in a steel factory for 33 years. In his spare time, he likes taking pictures. He spent 3 years recording the coastal erosion and ground subsidence in the west of Taiwan, and created the photography series “Images of the Late Homeland”. During the shooting, he and his car were once nearly swallowed by the sea. Through the ink-wash-painting-style pictures, he presents the serious environmental issue in a subtle way.

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Does cross-Strait tourism induce peace? Evidence from survey data on Chinese tourists and non-tourists"

On the 193 in Hualien, one of my favorite roads.

From "Does cross-Strait tourism induce peace? Evidence from survey data on Chinese tourists and non-tourists" Hsin-Hsin Pan, Wen-Chin Wu, and Yu-Tzung Chang, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific Volume 0, (2018) 1–33.

The authors surveyed Chinese who had never been to Taiwan (China sample), and Chinese who had come as group tourists and independent tourists (Taiwan sample).

Figure 3 presents part of our preliminary findings. There is quite a substantial difference between the China sample and the Taiwan sample where the pace of resolution of the Taiwan issue and use of force are concerned. About 51.5% of respondents in the China sample and only 25.5% of the Taiwan sample believe that the Taiwan issue should be resolved as soon as possible. Meanwhile, about 6% of respondents in the China sample support the use of military force to resolve the Taiwan issue, but only 10 out of 1,067 respondents (0.9%) in the Taiwan sample hold this view. Figure 3 clearly illustrates that Chinese people who have never visited Taiwan are more hawkish on the Taiwan issue than those who have visited Taiwan. This contrast between tourists and non-tourists render support to the causal mechanism of peace through tourism.

The right-hand panel of Figure 3 indicates that the type of tourism also makes a difference where Chinese citizens’ attitudes toward crossStrait relations are concerned. Members of tour groups are more likely to be in favor of resolving the Taiwan issue more rapidly than are independent tourists, suggesting that the type of tourism is correlated with tourists’ attitudes. Chinese tourists who have more frequent and more intensive contacts with locals appear to be more patient in dealing with cross-Strait issues. This finding echoes previous studies on the constraining role of escorted tourist groups in improving intergroup understanding (Milman et al., 1990; Tomljenovi c, 2010). However, because only 10 out of the 1,076 respondents in our Taiwan sample said that they supported using force to resolve the Taiwan issue, the difference between group members and independent tourists on this point is not statistically significant.

Years ago many of us foresaw that Taiwan would work its magic even on the Chinese, and that Chinese tourists would merely harden Taiwan attitudes...
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My University has native speaker post open

Breakfast spring rolls

Full Time English Faculty Wanted

English native speaker only. Chang Gung University is looking for a qualified English teacher with at least two years of college English teaching experience. The candidate must have at least an MA degree in related field. 

 Chang Gung University is a renowned private university in Taoyuan Area of northern Taiwan. The Language Center of CGU is hiring a full time English professor starting August 1, 2019.

1.      The candidate must be a native speaker of English.

2.      2 years of college English teaching experience is required.

3.      The candidate must live in Taoyuan, New Taipei City, or Taipei City area.

4.      The candidate should come to work four days a week, sometimes may include evening time.

5.      The job mainly consists of teaching required college English courses and some elective courses. The candidate also has responsibility of organizing English learning activities for college students.

6.      This teaching position is paid with a salary stipulated by the Ministry of Education for public universities according to candidate’s teaching qualifications, and Chang Gung University has a merit bonus pay system that will reward its faculty according to their performance.

7.      The deadline of this opening application will be March 29, 2019. Results will be announced before May 31.  

8.      All applicants must submit a cover letter, up-to-date curriculum vitae, and evidence of teaching experience (electronic) . Application should be sent to Dr. Frank Yang, Director of Language Center, Chang Gung University. yangc@mail.cgu.edu.tw

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My latest for ACT: Take Heart: US moving in Right Direction

Because no place is so small that it doesn't need another shoe vendor

My latest for American Citizens for Taiwan: US Taiwan Policy: Despite Setbacks, Still Moving in the Right Direction

July was the kind of tumultuous month that left observers of the US-Taiwan relationship shaking their bottles of pain reliever to see if any pills were left. On the one hand there was the US, sending warships through the Strait in a clear signal to Beijing and to America’s friends and allies in the area. Congressional Republicans indicated strong support for Taiwan and then voted for a defense bill that contained a number of pro-Taiwan provisions and called for a stronger policy on China....

Go thou and read!
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"Ethnic Chinese" Round 2

Beetle in aboriginal colors

Financial Times reporter Ben Bland tweeted this Twitter thread around.

1. Here follows a short thread on why Beijing’s ratcheting up of pressure on Hong Kong and Taiwan should be issues of global concern, highlighting a wider clash of values as the world’s most powerful authoritarian state grows in influence and determination.

It would be great if this idea got into the media more....

2. The move to ban the tiny Hong Kong National Party seems at first sight like a massive over-reaction, just like many of Beijing's other recent moves to squeeze Hong Kong and Taiwan.

3. Many democrats say that the idea that the Hong Kong National Party is an imminent threat to national security is laughable. They argue that the authorities are merely looking for an excuse to send a warning to others about the risks of discussing/promoting controversial ideas.

4. While the authorities may be “killing the chicken to scare the monkeys", there's no escaping fact that the democratic values embedded in Hong Kong and Taiwan do represent a fundamental threat to the authoritarian system in China and undermine the rhetoric of the “China dream”.

5 Communist Party theorists have long railed against risks of “peaceful evolution”, whereby democratic ideas seep in over time, chipping away at party legitimacy. HK/Taiwan are points of entry into China for such dangerous ideas as labour unions, civil society & free speech.

6 .That is why Xi Jinping warned Hong Kongers last year that any attempt to use the city to “carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland” crossed a “red line” & was “absolutely impermissible”. That is also why we’ve seen booksellers kidnapped.

7. The near unanimous rejection in Taiwan of unification with China and the widespread opposition to the Communist party in Hong Kong represent a fundamental challenge to Beijing’s perception of sovereignty.

8. Moreover, the attitudes of many in Taiwan and Hong Kong undermine the idea of a unifying “China dream” that will uplift all ethnic Chinese globally, and create a global "community of shared destiny".

All the above is good, here is where he starts to go wrong.

9. The fact that many of the 30m or so ethnic Chinese closest to mainland China (in HK and Taiwan) are not buying into the dream suggests that selling it further afield will be difficult.

I have discussed the fact that Taiwanese are not "ethnic Chinese" here. But Catie Lilly, a professional historian who is kind and sweet and fiercely intelligent (yes, crushing hard) pointed out that "ethnic Chinese" is a term more often used by outsiders -- I should add, outsiders for whom the term "Taiwanese" is never used.

In the post I linked to above, I observe that when journalists use the term "ethnic Chinese" they are using it the way Beijing wants them to -- as an ethnic signifier that implies a link to China. Had Bland simply used the term "Taiwanese" it would have been obvious what the problem was: the Taiwanese aren't ethnic Chinese, so naturally ethnic-based blandishments have no appeal.

Hence Bland's observation is wrong on its face. Beijing's appeal to "ethnic Chinese" elsewhere may work among populations that consider themselves Chinese in some way, especially if their identity coheres well with the faux Chinese identity Beijing is urgently constructing (an eerie echo of the faux Chinese identity the KMT constructed in Taiwan) to wipe out all of China's hundreds of local identities.

For example, I was in Malaysia last year and visited the family of one of my students, whose forefathers came over to Malaysia from Guangdong at the turn of the previous century to mine tin near Ipoh. My student's father was a very nice man who insisted on explaining to me that Taiwanese were Chinese, just like him, and that Lee Teng-hui was forwarding a Japanese plot and had brainwashed Taiwanese, etc. Obviously there are many "ethnic Chinese" who buy into all the garble-blargle Beijing is putting out about China and Chineseness, and who would view an annexation of Taiwan to China as a good thing and a signal of China's greatness.

Finally, as I have pointed out before, Beijing's "soft power" measures aren't aimed at Taiwan, but rather at two audiences, its own people and at the international media. Beijing has to convince them it has done everything it can to lure Taiwanese over, and having exhausted peaceful options, war is necessary. As for the media, no need  to go over that again.

10. Tsai Ing-wen has called Taiwan the “canary in the coalmine” for how China’s rise will affect democracies around the world. Likewise, events in Hong Kong show what happens when the Communist party’s projection of power bumps up against democratic ideals and practices.

Quite true, all of this. It is good to see media workers writing in this vein, for once. Some of us have been saying this for years.

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Chinese suppress Taiwan's democracy and people everywhere

On Facebook Dave Oh Yeah posted:

China’s battle to erase Taiwan’s name unfortunately now extends to the fan message boards at Fuji Rock. Around 500 Tiawanese go to the fest each year, and proclamations of “Taiwan independence” in message board graffiti, banners waived during performances, etc have been pretty common at Fuji Rock for at least 5-6 years. This year was the first time that has been defaced. On top of the characters for “Taiwan” is written “is China”, and the characters for “independence” are scratched out.

Vast entitlement breeds vast hatred and malice.
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Law and Order, Rhetoric and Reality

Contemplating the walk home....

The Taipei Times featured an interview with the new Minister of the Interior, Hsu Kuo-yung, today...

According to official statistics, there were more than 450,000 criminal cases in 2008, but by last year, the number across the nation had dropped to 290,000 — including fighting and slander cases.

Last year’s amendments to the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例) allow judges to hand down heavier sentences, and help the police to crack down on the sudden spike in telecommunications scams that occurred in previous years.

Those numbers seem suspicious to me. The crime statistics are based on what reports the police choose to handle, and that precipitous fall looks like the police are being choosy about what they put into their official casebooks. Anthropologist Jeff Martin explained how this works years ago:

"You have to recognize that the policeman himself is just a pawn in this much larger political game," Jeff said. The policeman have no particular stake in the theft of your motorcycle, but somewhere above their heads is "some idiot who has said that if the crime rate goes up, I will resign." There is no way to effectively decrease the scooter theft rate, and no way to increase the recovery rate. The only way to influence the crime rate short of a miracle, is to influence the crime statistics. These become "very real political pressures," he explained, on the local substation commanders. "If your substation reports more than 15 motorcycles stolen this month, you are not getting a promotion." Essentially, Jeff said, laughing, this becomes "you have 15 motorcycle theft reports -- use them wisely."

....although as the interview notes further down, the number of homicide cases has halved since 2008, so maybe the fall in crimes is real rather than an artifact of police reporting methods. At the end of the interview the Minister said...

Separately, the ministry is to implement a “third-party policing” strategy that integrates the authority and resources of other administrative agencies, such as fire departments, revenue services, civil defense groups, construction management offices, building managers and business owners.

The ministry will appoint liaisons and carry out joint inspections; actively investigate the settings that gangs invest in, manage or guard; increase spot checks on the “eight major industries” — karaoke bars, nightclubs, dance halls, clubs, cafes and tearooms, bars, barbershops and saunas in which illegal activities, such as prostitution, often occur — and cut off gangs and other criminal organizations’ sources of funding.

This focus on obvious sites of prostitution has the salutary effect of cracking down on funding sources for A Certain Political Party which happens to be the DPP's rival, and of pleasing middle class moralists. Since these rise and die like mushrooms, the effect will be ephemeral.

Readers may recall that when Chen Shui-bian was mayor of Taipei, he shut down all the brothels and pachinko parlors and similar in the city. They re-opened when Ma Ying-jeou became mayor.

This representation of "gang activity" is conventional and reassuring. It divides Taiwanese society into nice people and people infected with vice, and gives the appearance that the government is actually doing something. Meanwhile, organized crime investment in things like construction firms, temple associations, bus companies, coffee shops, cram schools, large private schools, street vendors, betel nut stands, stir-fry restaurants and tens of thousands of other, ordinary, businesses, will remain, as always, ignored.

In the Real Taiwan, we all do business with organized crime.
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Project 2049 Accepting Intern Applications

Project 2049 sent this around.

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The Project 2049 Institute is accepting applications for Fall 2018 internship positions for current students and recent graduates:

RESEARCH INTERN

Position Responsibilities:
Assist with the Institute's research projects and ongoing programs
Assist with administrative tasks, event planning, and other logistics
Help maintain and update the Institute's social media outlets
Independent research with opportunities to publish on the Institute's blog, AsiaEye.
Attend local events based on research and project interests
Complete projects both in teams and individually

Minimum Requirements:

Excellent research and writing skills
Interest in Asia and Asian affairs
Prior research or work experience related to the Asia-Pacific region
Proficiency in Chinese (Mandarin, simplified or traditional) is desirable
Current undergraduate, graduate student, or recent graduate
Self-motivated and ability to work independently
Benefits of Internship:

Gain research experience on Asia security issues
Learn about the non-profit and think tank industry from all levels of the Institute's management
Opportunities to network with government and the private sector professionals working on Asia-Pacific security and policy
Opportunities to contribute to the Institute's blog, AsiaEye
Monthly stipend

To apply for this position, please electronically submit a cover letter, resume, and a short writing sample to project2049@project2049.net.

The deadline for application submission is 11:59 pm on Friday, August 10, 2018.

For more information on the Project 2049 Institute, visit our website, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter @Project2049.

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American Citizens for Taiwan #8: US Warships in the Taiwan Strait

My latest for ACT on US Warships in the Taiwan Strait: Not Just a Signal to Beijing

Such freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) are a very reassuring signal to Taiwan and to President Tsai herself. Recall that back in September of 2015 then-President Tsai pledged that the DPP would work to preserve the peace in the South China Sea and specifically mentioned freedom of navigation....

Kind of rendered obsolete by the Trump Administration's decision to let US airlines cave to Beijing
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