Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen speaks during Taiwan National Day celebrations in Taipei last October.
Ritchie B. Tongo/EPA
Is “strategic ambiguity” still the least-worst option for dealing with competing claims about Taiwan?
A silicon disc, or ‘wafer,’ yields dozens of semiconductor chips.
Steve Jurvetson/Wikimedia Commons
Semiconductor chips are electronic devices that store and process information. Today they can contain billions of microscopic switches on a chip smaller than a fingernail.
EPA-EFE/Ritchie B. Tongo
Today Taiwan is a flourishing democracy. It wasn’t always this way.
China’s show of strength over Taiwan being transmitted live in Beijing.
EPA
Welcome to an era of two parallel worlds in global business.
People walk past a billboard welcoming U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in Taipei, Taiwan, on Aug. 3, 2022.
(AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Visits by foreign law-makers to Taiwan are nothing new. So why did China react in such a heavy-handed manner to Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit?
EPA-EFE/TAIWAN Presidential Palace
Washington must continue to support Taiwan while seeking a better security dialogue with Beijing.
Taiwan dominates the market for semiconductors.
EPA-EFE/Ritchie B. Tongo
Taiwan dominates the global market for microchips – something that Washington is well aware of.
EPA-EFE/ Ritchie B. Tongo
Beijing’s response to the visit by the US speaker has a lot do with internal Chinese politics.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her delegation leave Taipei on August 3, 2022.
Taiwanese Foreign Ministry/Handout/Andalou Agency via Getty Images
While Chinese American voters are not a homogeneous group, many people who have ancestral ties to the region are unlikely to question their support for Nancy Pelosi just because of her Taiwan trip.
AAP/EPA/Taiwan Presidential Palace handout
The US speak of the house’s visit to Taiwan has provoked more sabre-rattling from China, but neither China nor the US will want tensions to escalate further.
Not everyone is so thrilled by the visit.
AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying
Chinese fighter jets buzzed the line separating China and Taiwan just hours before the US House speaker arrived on the island.
Will she visit Taiwan or not? Either way, China has made its views known.
Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The White House has distanced itself from the US House speaker’s potential visit to Taiwan. But does it still signal a shift in policy over diplomatic ties with the island?
China’s president Xi Jingping has brokered numerous relationships with African nations during his years in office.
Yao Dawei/Xinhua/Alamy Live News
World leaders should worry about the security risks and economic balance of power with China.
Independent? Helicopters rehearsing with a Taiwanese flag for Taiwan’s national day last October.
Ceng Shou Yi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Taiwan’s ambiguous position makes talk of war all the more dangerous
A military officer salutes during a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Hugh White warns of a potential war between the US and China, drawing lessons from the first and second world wars to explore how Australia might respond to such a conflict – and where to draw a line.
Farmers drive sprinkler irrigation machines in a wheat field in East China’s Jiangsu province.
Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images
If China progressively increases production and becomes a consistent net exporter of maize, South Africa would have to explore markets elsewhere.
EPA-EFE/stringer
A digest of the week’s coverage of the war against Ukraine.
Good to know you! Taiwanese newspapers hail the election of Joe Biden in November 2020.
EPA-EFE/David Chang
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised concerns about China’s intentions towards Taiwan.
Pondering a shift in strategy on Taiwan? Possibly not.
Nicolas Datiche/Getty Images
Biden’s suggestion that the US is prepared to intervene militarily if Taiwan was invaded was quickly walked back by White House officials.
High-level diplomacy: representatives of the US and UK on the UN Security Council talk with Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya.
EPA-EFE/Jason Szenes
The question centres on whether Russia legally inherited the permanent seat formerly occupied by the Soviet Union.