East Asian Policy

In this article, the author assesses the current status of Taiwan’s two main political parties focusing on the Democratic Progress Party’s (DPP) current popularity and its ruling party status and the Kuomintang’s (KMT) feelings of defeatism and malaise. Lack of party unity is a big factor. So are recent laws that handicap the KMT. Thus, it appears the KMT will do poorly in the upcoming election in late 2022. However, the situation may be different in 2024. The KMT has time to fix its problems while other factors suggest certain trends may operate to its advantage.

This article uses the 2017 Meizhou Mazu’s visit to Taiwan as a case study to demonstrate how Religious United Front operated in the civil religious exchange between Taiwan and China, and how various actors—including event organisers, local politicians, local temple managers and devotees—acted differently. Considering the disproportionality in the amount of resources that the Taiwanese and Chinese governments inject in the cultural battle, this article offers the Taiwanese government several tactics to overcome the challenge.

This article assesses climate change policies in Taiwan in the past decade and the findings indicate that the influence of international norms, especially those of the United Nations, has been significant to the decision-making process. To elucidate the importance of international norms, this article examines the policies and legislations for addressing climate change through the lens of policy learning, which is a relatively overlooked aspect in past and extant research.

Taiwan joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) as a member economy in 1991 and has since been actively engaged in this regional intergovernmental organisation. Trade facilitation and liberalisation are of importance to the export-driven island. In line with economic reasons, the accession to APEC also helps Taiwan advance its diplomatic goals, which do not aim to challenge China’s seat in the organisation, but rather they demonstrate how interdependent Taiwan and the APEC could be with each other.

The New Southbound Policy (NSP) is the signature foreign policy of Taiwan that enables collaborative partnerships to be built among public, private and the third sector in advancing its presence. This article unpacks the P-P-P-P practice of the NSP since 2016. It articulates that the cross-sectoral partnership and its synergy for delivering the NSP enables Taiwan to navigate in the changing dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region.

Australia–China relations are at a turning point 50 years after diplomatic recognition. While the past five decades have witnessed extensive growth in economic exchanges, in recent years, bilateral ties have experienced serious deterioration. Australia’s alliance with the United States, domestic politics—in particular the two major parties’ approaches to foreign policy—and economic interdependence are important variables in Canberra’s approach to China. There will be no exception for the incoming Australian Labor Party government to deal with these.

Australia is a significant yet contested actor in the Indo-Pacific region, whose new Labor government is presented with substantial opportunities but also significant challenges. These include deteriorating relations with China, strategic if polarising alignment with the United States and its regional allies, and undervalued ties with ASEAN, South Pacific and select European countries. If strengthened, such untapped relationship potential could boost Australia’s declining soft power capabilities and improve both its image and outreach in the Indo-Pacific, without requiring any strategic distancing from Washington.

A key component of China’s endeavour to develop new advanced infrastructure is the expansion of the fifth-generation (5G) mobile communications networks. China has thus taken up a leading position in 5G innovation, led by Huawei with a declared share of 13.53% of global 5G patent families. The challenges are how to leverage the benefits from the new capabilities of 5G networks and implementing the new 5G systems to enhance productivity and economic growth.