By:
Jess Marinaccio
For the Pacific Islands region (also known as Oceania), which includes countries like Fiji, Samoa, and Tuvalu, the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) is undoubtedly the most important regional organization. PIF creates venues where Pacific Island countries gather to make and issue communal decisions on regional and international issues, and most of the Pacific’s significant statements on climate change, sovereignty, statehood, and a range of other matters are released through PIF. The annual PIF Leaders Meeting is the premiere decision-making venue for Pacific leaders, with decisions reached at the meeting channeled into international fora like the United Nations General Assembly.
By:
Carissa Cheng
Before 1945, the most widely spoken language in Taiwan was Tâi-gí (also known as Taiwanese [台語] or Taiwanese Hokkien). It was used across many of Taiwan’s ethnic communities, especially Taiwan’s ethnic majority population (sometimes referred to as the “Holo” or “Hoklo” population). However, due to almost a century of language repression policies, Tâi-gí use has declined sharply. Over 60 percent of Taiwanese people believe Tâi-gí is at risk of becoming endangered, but only 37.2 percent of Taiwanese believe the Ministry of Education’s (教育部) efforts are enough to save Taiwan’s “heritage languages,” including Tâi-gí. Despite Tâi-gí’s former status as Taiwan’s de facto national language, there is little contemporary political effort, even from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, 民進黨), to incorporate it in public life. Indeed, it was not until 2019 that Taiwan launched a public television channel using primarily Tâi-gí, which recently saw its budget slashed.
By:
Gahon Chia-Hung Chiang
In July this year, a Taiwanese court handed down a criminal conviction for the destruction of an undersea communications cable. The Chinese captain of the Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號), a bulk carrier, was sentenced to three years in prison after his vessel loitered in February in a government-designated no-anchor zone (禁錨警戒區) and severed a critical submarine cable between Taiwan and Penghu. The incident caused over NTD 17 million (USD 520,000) in damages to Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信) and temporarily disrupted vital civil and government communications. Although the defendant claimed negligence rather than malice, the court found him guilty of gross dereliction of duty. The ruling marks not just a judicial milestone but a strategic one. Undersea cables are no longer mere commercial assets—rather, they are infrastructure representing Taiwan’s sovereignty.
LATEST RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
By:
Gahon Chia-Hung Chiang
By:
Truong Tuan Kiet
Huynh Tam Sang
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