Pacific Standard 🚜🌻☂️
@pacstandardtw.bsky.social
An American perspective at the western frontier of liberal democracy, framed and focused through the lens of life in Taiwan. #LiberalHawk #NeoIdealist #TaiwanIsACountry
Commonwealth mag on #Taiwan always has great stuff. Interview with NSC Sec Joseph Wu english.cw.com.tw/article/arti...
[Exclusive] NSC Secretary-General Joseph Wu: “What We Fear Most Is a Public Grown Numb to China's Pressure”｜International｜2026-08-04｜CommonWealth Magazine
As China intensifies its gray-zone pressure across the Taiwan Strait and the first island chain, Taiwan's National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu warns that the greatest risk is a public...
english.cw.com.tw
Russia attacked #Ukraine with 24 ballistic missiles, 4 Tsirkon/Onyx missiles and 115 strike drones. Not a single missile was shot down. Hits by missiles and 17 drones were recorded at 26 locations. Kyiv: ▪️ In Obolonskyi district, a fire broke out in a non-residential building. 📹Suspilne
Once again we wake up to the news of horrible atrocities by Russia through its aerial attacks on Ukraine. Russia must pay for the destruction it has caused. And we are using the proceeds from the immobilised Russian assets to make sure it does.
Financial Times: "Beijing is stepping up efforts to attract foreigners to its sovereign debt by building out futures contracts and other bond market infrastructure." www.ft.com/content/0fe0...
China courts global investors with bond market tweaks
Building out market infrastructure is welcome but the country’s economic challenges could remain a deterrent
ft.com
The left rightly condemns #colonialism ... until the colonising power is China. In #Tibet, forced assimilation becomes “modernisation” and occupation becomes “liberation.” Anti-colonialism that depends on the identity of the empire is not anti-colonialism at all.
Tenam བསྟན་རྣམ།@tenam.bsky.social · yesterdaySi l’anticolonialisme ne s’applique que lorsqu’il est politiquement commode, alors ce n’est pas vraiment de l’anticolonialisme. Si la solidarité dépend de l’identité de l’empire plutôt que de la condition des opprimés, alors ce n’est pas vraiment de la solidarité. blogs.mediapart.fr/rangzen/blog...
Pinhead Cigarettes, manufactured by Duke & Sons, were the first brand of US cigarettes introduced to China in the 1880s. (That’s the Dukes of Duke University). They were called 品海 in Chinese, and it’s the brand smoked by the female protagonist of Xu Xu’s story “Ghost Love” 鬼戀, 1936.
An odd proposal but past precedent shows Chiang may not be serious—it’s just a way to raise his profile in the KMT. This all goes to show that Chiang intends to throw his hat into the race for 2028
New Bloom@newbloommag.net · 2d ago"In Response to Food Oil Scandal, Chiang Wan-an Calls for Expediting Legislative Elections" by @brianhioe.bsky.social
Here’s my latest for @thediplomat.com—on the referendums that will take place alongside elections in a few months thediplomat.com/2026/08/kmt-...
KMT, TPP Mull Referendums to Go With Taiwan’s Local Elections
Up to six proposals – ranging from nuclear power to absentee voting – will be put to voters in the November polls, but without the usual round of campaigning for signatures.
thediplomat.com
Can AI save democracy?🛟 That's the $64,000 question.❓ But is democracy in need of “saving” or an assistive-intelligence, ⿻Plurality-powered revitalisation?🙋 As technology evolves, we evolve & democracy evolves — together.🤝 Read on!🙏 ▶️ www.forbes.at/artikel/kann... #LLAP🖖
China is claiming the right to punish its critics anywhere on Earth theconversation.com/china-is-cla...
China is claiming the right to punish its critics anywhere on Earth
China’s new ethnic unity law reaches across borders. The danger is not that it does so. It is what it criminalizes, whom it targets, and how it enforces.
theconversation.com
The Russian economy is rapidly transitioning to the cloud.
Many of these cases, I suspect.... A Chinese national accused of posing as a Filipino for more than two decades has been arrested by the Bureau of Immigration (BI),.... bnc.bilyonaryo.com/alleged-fake...
Alleged fake Filipino behind major power grid projects exposed by BI
Chinese national Lawrence Ke Sy, posing as a Filipino for over two decades and linked to major power grid projects, has been arrested by the Bureau of Immigration.
bnc.bilyonaryo.com
EU, any attempts with China at “engagement” or “talk” will not achieve the desired result when the writing is on the wall.
Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim of Taiwan kicked off this year's China in the World Summit in Taipei! With over 350 attendees from 75 countries, nearly 100 speakers, and more than 60 sessions over two days — the event has grown a lot over five years. Will miss being an advisory board member!
The current name - “Civil War” - “is a result of decades of lobbying by Confederate heritage groups and white Southerners committed to rejuvenating the South’s image and ignoring its treason and slaveholding.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/o...
Opinion | The ‘Civil War’ Is a Lie. Let’s Call It the ‘Slaveholders’ Rebellion’ Again.
To face our own history, we must be honest about it.
nytimes.com
"Some people act like only way to support universal coverage as a goal is to support Medicare for All, as if anyone who doesn’t back M4A isn’t truly committed to universal coverage. That would surprise the likes of Ted Kennedy, legendary MA Dem senator who was the patron saint of universal coverage"
The ‘Medicare for All’ Test for Michigan Democrats
Haley Stevens wants to move legislation. Abdul El-Sayed wants to move the debate. But first, one of them has to keep the seat blue.
thebulwark.com
Two refineries (Saratov and Ufimsky) as well as the Wildberries facility in Saratov struck. It was an extremely costly night for Russia. This does not even include the Russian battlefield losses.
RIP 🙏 x.com/LindseyGraha...
Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · 3d agoNew from me: Some data points for a MAGA melt-down: *Hardcore Trump loyalists declining *Right wing influencers losing viewers *The Heritage Foundation is rife with dissent and incompetence, with conservatives worried about the pipeline of talent 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/is-maga-me...
There are a number of dynasties that are not established by Han people, but the question of whether they are Chinese or not is a can of worms even the censors don’t want to open I guess
Matthew Bradford@matthewbradford.bsky.social · 4d agoHoisted by their own historical petard. ‘Amid unwanted chatter about the significance of 1644, the film’s positioning of Qing conquerors as heroes of national unity has been problematized by a countervailing narrative casting those same conquerors as illegitimate outsiders’.
What having French players on your #WNBA roster looks like.
Videos are appearing showing the moment of one of the FP-1 drones hitting the Wildberries facility in Novosemeykino, Samara region, in Russia. Distance from Ukrainian lines is 950 km (600 miles).
Another reason to always choose seats in row 44...
Phelim Kine@phelimkine.bsky.social · 3d agoChilling. "Chinese authorities aggregate vast amounts of data to monitor and analyze the behavior of foreign residents. It had fields for places they frequented, hospital visits and gas payments, as well as flights and trains taken, including seat numbers" www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/w...
Chilling. "Chinese authorities aggregate vast amounts of data to monitor and analyze the behavior of foreign residents. It had fields for places they frequented, hospital visits and gas payments, as well as flights and trains taken, including seat numbers" www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/w...
How China Keeps Tabs on Foreigners
An unsecured police dashboard was a rare window into how the authorities track foreigners by collecting and aggregating vast amounts of private data.
nytimes.com
Useful details here focustaiwan.tw/politics/202...
2026 Han Kuang highlights: U.S.-type methods, new tanks, more reserves - Focus Taiwan
The annual Han Kuang exercises, which have served as Taiwan's primary war games since 1984, are aimed at testing the country's combat readiness in the event of a possible Chinese invasion.
focustaiwan.tw