i still don't know why Taiwanese travel to China for vacation or work. might as well travel to North Korea or USA 
Cases of Taiwanese missing in China rise
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2025/10/03/2003844836
"A total of 133 cases had been reported to the Straits Exchange Foundation or the MAC as of Aug. 31, up from 55 in the whole of last year, Chiu said."
The terrible secrets of Taiwan’s Stasi files
Researchers have unearthed the surveillance records of Taiwan’s former dictatorship. But the revelations inside could tear society apart
https://archive.ph/o5Tiq#selection-1945.22-1949.105
The White Terror itself is still only murkily understood in Taiwan, and there is no consensus on how to talk about it. This is partly because Taiwan’s transition to democracy in the 1990s was gradual – an evolution, rather than a revolution. There was no storming of the public-records office, the way there was in East Germany. The most prominent secret-police unit, the Garrison Command, was dissolved, but all other security agencies continued functioning as before. In 1995 Taiwan’s first democratically elected president apologised for the 228 Incident and offered compensation to victims of the KMT’s abuses, but declined to offer transparency into that era.
The result is a kind of amnesia. The KMT still exists, but as one party in a competitive political system. Chiang’s statue still stands in the centre of the capital. Green Island is home to a museum on the horrors that happened there, but many Taiwanese see it primarily as a holiday destination with excellent snorkelling. (“It’s the worst habit of Taiwanese people,” said Yang. “Once the past is over they don’t want to talk about it any more. They say, ‘It’s already in the past, let’s move on.’”)
It's sad that not one person involved with the White Terror has been put on trial or answered for their actions. Will there ever be justice?
PS Incredible photos in this magazine article!
@intmonitor would recommend to add aother $100M every time #Beijing is in #denial of the truth and says some bs...
Podcast saying Taiwanese society starting to care about pedestrian deaths.
Hmm very simple solution to that: enforce the fucking traffic laws
jfc
fascinating podcast I'm listening to right now China Talk and they are talking about this monograph article.
Deterrence Gap: Avoiding War in the Taiwan Strait
Authors by Jared M. McKinney, Peter Harris
https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/964/
The likelihood China will attack Taiwan in the next decade is high and will continue to be so, unless Taipei and Washington take urgent steps to restore deterrence across the Taiwan Strait. This monograph introduces the concept of interlocking deterrents, explains why deterrents lose their potency with the passage of time, and provides concrete recommendations for how Taiwan, the United States, and other regional powers can develop multiple, interlocking deterrents that will ensure Taiwanese security in the short and longer terms. By joining deterrence theory with an empirical analysis of Taiwanese, Chinese, and US policies, the monograph provides US military and policy practitioners new insights into ways to deter the People’s Republic of China from invading Taiwan without relying exclusively on the threat of great-power war.
Taiwanese users told Rest of World they worry how long Threads would be willing to host their activism. Huang, the education worker, called on users to add each other on messaging apps Line and Telegram, so people could stay in touch even if the algorithm on Threads stops promoting politics. That post got more than 2,300 likes.
“My worry is that the Taiwanese on our side rely too much on this place,” Huang said. “After all, this is a commercial platform run by the notorious Meta.”
They need to get on signal, simpleX, and Mastodon. Fb will have tremendous pressure from China about this.
https://restofworld.org/2024/instagram-threads-app-taiwan-protests/
228, also known as the February 28 Massacre, occurred in 1947 when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government of the Republic of China (ROC) violently suppressed an anti-government uprising in Taiwan.
https://oftaiwan.org/history/white-terror/228-massacre/
Today is the national holiday to remember this event. To understand Taiwanese politics, you need to understand this event.
But Michelle Kuo, a Taiwan-based author and academic, says Taiwan has diverged from both the restorative justice model provided by South Africa and more punitive paths in eastern Europe.
“Unlike these countries, where the party wielding authoritarian power was disbanded, the KMT remains a major political party, albeit currently in opposition.”
This. I'm not sure why the KMT still exists. I guess they haven't run out of all that money they stole after the Japanese left? Still having the KMT in Taiwanese politics would be like the Nazi party still existing in Germany. How can they just pretend nothing happened? At least change the party name...
Taiwanese politics is frustrating.
So is Korean fish guy going to be speaker of the house? Saw him on tv today.
tootbrute
Kevin Karhan 
Klaus Alexander Seistrup