Category: The Diplomat

Most of the Cabinet appointments of the incoming Lai Ching-te administration in Taiwan have been announced in the last week. Despite Taiwanese media initially expecting that most positions would be announced at once, the announcements largely took place in stages. This seemed to be because some appointments were not confirmed at the time that the initial slate was announced.  Lai’s choice of premier and vice premier were the subject of much interest in Taiwanese reporting. Lai’s initial premier will be former Executive Yuan secretary-general and former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)…

Recently, Apple has been meeting with Chinese technology firms about using homegrown generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in all new iPhones and operating systems for the Chinese market. The most likely partnership appears to be with Baidu’s Ernie Bot. It seems, if Apple is going to integrate generative AI into its devices in China, it will have to be Chinese AI. The certainty of Apple adopting a Chinese AI model is the result, in part, of guidelines on generative AI released by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) last July,…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens global security, in an apparent call for China to apply greater pressure on its neighbor and close strategic partner to resolve the conflict. Scholz also said the use of nuclear weapons in the two-year-old war should not even be threatened, according to a German government transcript of his brief remarks at the start of a meeting with Xi in the Chinese capital. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned last month that his government is…

Central and Eastern Europe has been one of the most interesting regions to follow in terms of the Chinese global presence. When China stepped up its engagement with the region via its 16+1 initiative in 2012, the debate in Europe soon after started to revolve around the notion of the region serving as a “Trojan horse” for China to enter the continent. Recently, the discourse has changed significantly, with many pointing to Lithuania and Czechia as the most hawkish European countries on China and representing a souring of the region’s…

For two years Chinese authorities secretly detained the newborn baby, her siblings, and their parents.  Their whereabouts and wellbeing remained unknown to family members or lawyers until word began to trickle out in July 2022: the baby and her sister, then 6 years old, had been kept in a psychiatric hospital since October 2020. Their brother, who turned 8 that year, had been sent, without the parents’ consent, to be fostered by a local police informant.  The children’s mother, human rights defender He Fangmei, had been detained at the psychiatric…

The need to alleviate the strain of great-power competition and navigate uncertainties in international politics has prompted many countries to broaden their partnerships and establish new avenues of cooperation. Taiwan is no exception.  Since the official launch of the New Southbound Policy (NSP) in 2016, the Tsai Ing-wen administration has made great strides to strengthen the cultural, diplomatic, and economic ties between Taiwan and 18 of its southern neighbors, encompassing ASEAN countries, South Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Economic collaboration, talent exchange, people-to-people ties, and resource sharing are the backbone…

If there is one area where Argentina’s President Javier Milei cannot be faulted, it is the coherence and consistency of his libertarian ideas since he started his political career. As expected, Milei also brought that ideology to foreign policy. Milei understands the world in a binary way, with an ideological perspective typical of the Cold War. It’s a world that ceased to exist in 1989, but which is still very much alive for Milei. It’s an almost existential need for him, given his deep ideological convictions. In that sense, aggressively…

China’s policymakers have long grappled with a data and cybersecurity policy conundrum: how to balance government control without torpedoing business sentiment. To date, the pro-control camp has prevailed, ensuring that China’s policymakers treat its cyberspace as comparable to physical territory, with increasingly restrictive controls as (perceived) data risk to national security increases. At the same time, policymakers have touted the power of data as a new engine of economic growth.  This muddled approach – presenting data as both a needed means of economic development and something that must be reviewed…

As U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio for a state visit, and prepares for a historic trilateral summit also including the Philippines’ President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., China is emphasizing its own partnerships. On April 8, the same day Kishida arrived in Washington, D.C., Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov began a two-day trip to Beijing. On April 11, the same day Biden, Kishida, and Marcos will gather at the White House, China is sending its third-ranking leader to North Korea. Despite China’s consistent claims that the China-Russia…

Chinese President Xi Jinping and former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou met on April 10 at 4 p.m. at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.  Earlier media reports suggested that Ma and Xi would meet on April 8. It has been speculated that the original date of the meeting was changed so that Ma and Xi would meet on the same day as a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, who is in Washington, D.C. on a state visit. Spokespeople for the Chinese…