Taiwan

Wednesday

Melissa Chen

John Cena’s car-crash Taiwan apology

In an unforgivably cringeworthy mea culpa delivered in surprisingly fluent Mandarin, John Cena has apologized to his fans in China. He had said in a promotional interview with a Taiwanese media outlet that Taiwan would be 'the first country that can watch' his new Fast & Furious movie, F9. Uh oh. To the Chinese Communist party and a billion Chinese citizens, the slightest hint of Taiwan’s sovereignty is considered blasphemy in the highest order. 'I made a mistake,' the former WWE champion said in a groveling video posted to the Chinese social media platform, Weibo. 'Now I have to say one thing which is very, very, very important: I love and respect China and Chinese people.' He continued: 'I’m very sorry for my mistakes. Sorry. Sorry. I’m really sorry.

john cena

Wednesday

Amber Duke

Why is Trump protecting a microchip company with close ties to China?

The United States and China are locked in a battle for technological superiority. President Trump has blacklisted tech giant Huawei over concerns the company will leverage its control of 5G networks to spy on behalf of the Chinese Communist party. The crackdown shows the administration is acutely aware of the national security implications of outsourcing network and chip technology. But the concerns don’t end with foreign-owned companies. Qualcomm, US-owned and the one of the world’s largest chip companies, has developed an intensely close relationship with China, potentially making it a trojan horse for communist influence. Qualcomm has been on Trump’s radar.

qualcomm

Wednesday

Toby Young

Xi’s useful idiots against free speech

On December 30, Ai Fen, director of the emergency department at Wuhan Central Hospital, got the lab results back about one of her patients who had a flulike illness. The words she read on the report made her blood run cold: ‘Sars coronavirus’. She circled the word ‘Sars’, took a photo and emailed it to a doctor at a neighboring hospital. Within hours, the photo had been sent to dozens of people in the Wuhan medical community. One of them sent a series of messages to a private group on WeChat, advising his colleagues to take precautions, and someone took screenshots of those messages and shared them more widely.

useful idiots

Monday

Michael R. Auslin

President Trump’s support for Taiwan is welcome

Over the coming weeks, a battle between Washington and Beijing over the inclusion of Taiwan as an observer at the World Health Organization will rage, reflecting the struggle between the People’s Republic of China and the United States over control over international institutions. Yet it also reveals the reality of the new cold war between the two countries, and the shift in focus of attention to ground-level tactics at the expense of grand strategies. Long forgotten in the shadow of China’s rise and the intensification of both contact and competition between the PRC and the United States has been the island nation of Taiwan.

taiwan

Monday

Stephen L. Miller

The best message the State Department could send Beijing and the WHO

A troubling pattern has emerged at the World Health Organization. In the wake of this global pandemic, it appears China has been misdirecting and misleading the rest of us about confirmed cases in their own country, with the help of their close financial partner, the WHO.As the WHO and parts of the American media laud China’s response to the pandemic, with NBC News even hailing them as a global leader as the US falls behind, several countries reported massive problems with faulty equipment and supplies.Shortly after China expelled American journalists from its borders, they stopped reporting new cases of COVID-19 altogether, despite Wuhan once again closing down its movie theaters.

taiwan