David on Formosa

Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) spoke to a group of foreign residents in Taipei yesterday morning. She first spent some time outlining her vision for Taiwan before taking questions from the floor.  Tsai is currently on leave from her position as chair of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as she competes in the party’s primary for the [...]

Members of the Atayal community of Hagay (哈凱部落) protested outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei today. They called on the government to provide permanent housing to replace the temporary housing they have been living in for ten years. They also called on the government to take responsibility for the impacts of the construction of the [...]

Taiwan’s Fourth Nuclear Power Plant under construction in August 2009 with Fulong Beach in the foreground. I had a letter in the Taipei Times today on the subject of nuclear power. It argues that the high cost and long lead times of nuclear power projects defers investment in cleaner and safer forms of electricity generation. [...]

Several dozen members of Falun Gong (aka Falun Dafa) protested the arrival of Chen Zhenggao (陳政高), the governor of Liaoning Province, in Taichung this afternoon. The protesters shouted, “Chen Zhenggao, you’ve been accused, stop persecuting Falun Gong” (陳政高，你被告了，停止迫害法輪功). According to a Falun Gong website 409 Falun Gong practitioners have died as a result of persecution in [...]

I had a letter published in the Taipei Times today on the subject of the birth rate and population growth. Another letter by Brian Schack also makes the same point that I do. There is much talk in Taiwan about the urgent need to lift the birth rate, however there is little balance in the [...]

Today is Valentine’s Day so it seems like an appropriate day to talk about sex. This article in the Taipei Times today discusses a survey about rates of condom use in Taiwan. It is based on a recent survey of more than 1,000 men aged 15-59 about condom use in Taiwan. Here are some key statistics [...]