mastodon 4.7.2Focus on Taiwan politics, with occasional posts on Thailand and China. Standing up for human rights and democracy everywhere.
The Tibetan region where the glacial collapse/flood disaster occurred is administered by China as a militarised frontier. This creates problems with information sharing, issuing warnings and responding to disasters
"When a disaster in the Nepal-Tibet border region demands that rescuers cross quickly or that a warning travel downstream from an upstream lake, it runs into a system built for control rather than speed."
You Must Take Part in Revolution at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney
Badiucao and Melissa Chan discussed their graphic novel, art and techno-authoritarianism
HRW called for a stronger response from the international community to the Chinese party-state’s severe repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims
"Current evidence shows continued mass arbitrary detention, unjust imprisonment, mass surveillance, cultural and religious erasure, restrictions on travel and communication, and pressure on Uyghurs abroad, even as Chinese authorities promote a public image of normalcy in Xinjiang."
https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/08/27/china-decade-of-impunity-for-crimes-against-uyghurs
Mobile network slowdown drills conducted during Taiwan's Urban Resilience Exercise may have been the first of their type ever conducted internationally. The exercise differed significantly from drills conducted in South Korea and Japan
"By simulating an extreme situation in which bandwidth became severely constrained, the exercise provided a real-world stress test that conventional drills cannot."
🎸 Chthonic have collaborated with Finnish musician Mariska on a new single titled "Näin Määrättiin"
Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan (張展) has suffered years of repression by the Chinese party-state
"Two years after Zhang Zhan’s re-arrest, the Chinese regime is doing everything in its power to suppress information about the current health and situation of this icon of Chinese journalism, who warned the world about a deadly disease. We remain deeply concerned for Zhang Zhan’s health." - Aleksandra Bielakowska, RSF
Interview with Taiwanese singer-songwriter Enno Cheng (鄭宜農) about her collaboration with Korean folk singer Lang Lee
The KMT's efforts to slash the budget of Taiwan's international English-language broadcaster is politically motivated and short-sighted
"If TaiwanPlus is starved of funding and forced to shrink or disappear, Taiwan will lose its principal independent vehicle for telling its own story to the world. Local media focused on domestic partisan battles will leave the international information space largely uncontested."
The KMT voted to pass a bill for a referendum on the use of corporal punishment (caning) to be held alongside Taiwan's local elections in November
The referendum is very unlikely to pass but plenty will be written in the international media about this over the next few months. It will absolutely trash Taiwan's reputation as a country committed to human rights. It makes a mockery of Taiwan's democracy
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2026/08/15/2003862523
#Taiwan #KMT #referendum #election #HumanRights #台灣 #人權 #公投 #政治
🏞️ A great guide to hiking off the beaten track in southern Taiwan
"I’ve hiked these mountains solo for over a decade, and most of the trails I write about have exactly zero other people on them – sometimes because they’re obscure little peaks, sometimes because there’s no trail at all and I had to make one."
Kevin Rudd talking to Ezra Klein about the importance of Taiwan
*Video from Kevin Rudd's Facebook page
🏞️ Can Taiwan Become a Hub of Mountain Tourism?
"...mountain tourism in Taiwan could give a significant boost to the local economy. Carefully managed and properly promoted, it could see visitors extend their stays in high-altitude, rural towns, helping lift up local communities, supporting indigenous townships, raising cultural awareness, and providing year-round work."
https://topics.amcham.com.tw/2026/07/can-taiwan-become-a-hub-of-mountain-tourism/
The August–October 2026 issue of Mekong Review is out now. Cover art by Badiucao
🔊 I recommend this podcast marking the 30th anniversary of the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. There are some great stories about the Free Tibet movement and the role of Adam Yauch (MCA) from the Beastie Boys
A man holding a Tibetan flag has died by self immolation outside the United Nations headquarters in New York
Tencho Gyatso, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, named the deceased man as Lobga Rangzen (aka Lobsang Palden)
The self immolation occurred just days after the Chinese party-state enacted the "ethnic unity" law which will further degrade the rights of Tibetans and other minority groups
Taiwan’s Public Television Service (PTS) is vital for building creative capacity. A process that has taken decades in parallel with Taiwan's democratisation. Its value risks being undone by budget cuts and freezes, writes Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2026/08/15/2003862514
🏞️ Mount Baimao (白毛山) is one of Guguan’s Seven Heroes, a series of peaks in Taichung
Kyinzom Dhongdue writes about the impact China's "ethnic unity" law will have on Tibetans
"Behind the language of “unity”, “progress” and “development”, the [ethnic unity] law entrenches state control over almost every aspect of life... It promotes what Beijing calls a “common consciousness of the Chinese nation”, demanding Tibetans to adopt an identity centred on Han Chinese culture and dictated by the CCP."
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/dalai-lama-91st-birthday-at-a-perilous-moment-for-tibetans/106891264
China's campaign of international diplomatic pressure against Taiwan is now targetting Taiwanese representative offices
This will have significant impacts in the South Pacific where Taiwan relies on offices in PNG and Fiji to maintain relations with the eight Pacific island countries that do not formally recognise Taiwan
📚 Independent book sellers in Hong Kong are under attack. Five people were arrested after raids on two bookstores yesterday
"This year’s escalating attacks on Hong Kong’s independent bookstores hammer home the chilling reality of what the city has become: a place where you can be criminalized simply for what’s on your bookshelf." - Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International
#HongKong #HumanRights #censorship #bookstore #AmnestyInternational
The Chinese government is placing heavy restrictions on Uyghur Australians visiting their homeland
This includes surveillance and monitoring while in the Uyghur Region and in some cases being interrogated about activities of the Uyghur community in Australia, according to research by Human Rights Watch
https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/08/16/australia-chinese-government-menaces-uyghur-diaspora
New report from the Global Taiwan Institute: Taiwan's Civil Society Ecosystem for Countering China’s Authoritarian Influence
"...the primary motivation for NGOs to counter China’s authoritarian influence is not to “oppose an enemy,” but rather to advance a domestic agenda of Taiwan’s continued democratic development."
📽 The program for the 2026 Taiwan Film Festival in Australia has just been released. There are screenings in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide
The latest episode of ABC TV's Race Around the World included a short documentary made in Taiwan. Lucinda is looking for love in Taipei!
The latest data on protest activity in China from the China Dissent Monitor is now available.
There were 846 protests recorded in the quarter to June 2026. This was a reduction from the same period last year. However, a government censorship campaign has reduced the amount of protest information published on social media
https://freedomhouse.org/report/china-dissent-monitor/2026/issue-12-april-june-2026
#China #ChinaProtests #FreedomHouse #HumanRights #censorship
Joint Statement: Rejecting Beijing’s “Ethnic Unity Law” and Transnational Repression
Signed by 39 community groups representing Hong Kong, Tibet, East Turkistan, Southern Mongolia and Taiwan
2026 ANU Taiwan Update
8-9 September
"Four scholars on chips, energy, polarisation and identity, plus a restored screening of Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Sandwich Man."
Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley writes about two Taiwanese films about the White Terror era made three decades apart: Super Citizen Ko (超級大國民) and A Foggy Tale (大濛)
"Viewed together, the two films chart the evolution of Taiwan’s memory culture. Super Citizen Ko belongs to the era of witnessing... A Foggy Tale belongs to the era of remembering."
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2026/07/03/2003860147
Last week a number of Australian newspapers published an article sponsored by the Chinese Embassy about the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Buddhist system of reincarnation
The article was propaganda designed to legitimise the CCP's attempts to control the recognition of the next Dalai Lama and other religious leaders in Tibet
#Tibet #China #CCP #DalaiLama #Buddhism #FactCheck #disinformation
The legislature's blocking of appointments to the Constitutional Court and Control Yuan undermine Taiwan's system of human rights protections, writes Chiu E-ling of Amnesty International
"If political deadlock continues and nominations remain blocked, Taiwan could face a situation in which its core human rights institutions cease to function."
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2026/06/27/2003859808
#Taiwan #politics #HumanRights #台灣 #政治 #人權 #AmnestyInternational
A report by Safeguard Defenders reveals exploitative working conditions, political coercion and physical and psychological abuse in China’s sprawling prison system
The Washington Times has a special advertising supplement on "Why Taiwan matters" with articles by people with expertise in various fields
https://www.washingtontimes.com/specials/taiwan-matters-2026/
Songshan in Taipei is best known for the Raohe Street Night Market. Tom Rook looks at some other places of interest in the district
https://www.tomrookart.com/hiddentaiwan/songshan-taipei-a-few-remaining-historic-sites
China's influence over African media is growing and needs to be countered
"Chinese state media influence in Africa is neither monolithic nor unstoppable. But it is more deeply embedded, and more effective, than most outside observers have recognized. Without a more serious response, the long-term consequences for press freedom, media diversity and sustainability, and editorial independence across the continent could be significant."
https://underreportedchina.substack.com/p/hidden-successes-of-beijing-influence-in-africa
Taiwan's Central Election Commission (CEC) has rejected proposals for two of three referendums to be held alongside local elections on 28 November
The CEC rejected referendums on caning as a criminal punishment and using traffic fines to improve road safety
The CEC accepted the referendum on abolishing the government’s nuclear-free homeland policy
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2026/08/29/2003863317
The PNG government's decision to close Taiwan's representative office signals a further contraction in Taiwan's diplomatic space. It indicates that China is no longer just targeting Taiwan's small number of diplomatic allies, but Taiwan's much larger network of representative offices
