By:
Y. Tony Yang
The election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as Pope Leo XIV on May 8, 2025 marks a pivotal moment not just for the Catholic Church, but also for Taiwan's precarious position in global diplomacy. As the first American-born pope, who leads one of Taiwan's last remaining formal diplomatic allies in the world, Leo XIV's papacy arrives at a time when the Vatican's relationship with Beijing threatens to overshadow its historic commitment to the democratic island.
PopeLeo Feature
By:
Hsin-I Cheng
In the absence of official diplomatic ties with the United States, people-to-people diplomacy has been a major contributor to strengthening US-Taiwan relations. Kadir Jun Ayhan, an international relations scholar, defines people-to-people diplomacy as “intentional, political, and transboundary communication-based interactions between groups of people for public, rather than private interests that have or aim to have foreign policy implications.” Programs planned by the Taiwanese government, such as initiatives by the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC, 中華民國僑務委員會), and those planned by non-state actors, such as scholarship exchanges, intend to enhance outside understanding of Taiwan through people-to-people diplomacy. Because US-Taiwan relations have heavily relied on unofficial interactions, the individuals who forge these interpersonal relationships deserve a closer examination.
USTaiwan2 Feature
By:
Diarra Molock
Recently, Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC, 國家通訊傳播委員) has been put into a peculiar situation as a partisan deadlock has halted the NCC from carrying out its duties. In November 2024, the Legislative Yuan (LY, 立法院) amended the NCC National Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法), which as of December 1, 2024, capped NCC commissioners at two terms in office. The decision led to Acting Chairman Won Po-Tsung’s (翁柏宗) dismissal (who served as a commissioner since 2014), throwing the commission’s future into uncertainty as its operations have been grounded to a halt. Currently only three of the NCC’s seven total commission seats are filled, one seat short of the four required number of commissioners to resume NCC duties.
Taipei,taiwan 03.03.2021:taiwan,History,Landscape:a,View,Of,Taiwan's,National,Communications,Commission,(ncc)

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Amid growing authoritarian threats, Taiwan continues to stand as a vibrant example of democratic resilience. In 2024, facing intensified political warfare from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, 中國共產黨)—ranging from disinformation to economic coercion—Taiwan’s civil society has risen to the challenge. In events throughout the preceding year, GTI—supported by a generous grant from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD, 臺灣民主基金會‬)—sought to explore these issues in greater detail, through both staff research and public seminars involving a range of expert voices, including civil society representatives from Taiwan. The findings of this research are summarized in this report.
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