A referendum to push for the reopening of Taiwan’s last nuclear plant has failed to reach the legal threshold to be valid, though the president said the island could return to the technology in the future if safety standards improved. The plebiscite on Saturday, backed by the opposition, asked whether the Maanshan power plant should be reopened if it was “confirmed” there were no safety issues. The plant was closed in May as the government shifts to renewables and liquefied natural gas. The small Taiwan People’s party proposed the referendum…
Tag: Taiwan
Trump says Xi told him China will not invade Taiwan while he is in office
US president says Chinese counterpart told him ‘I am very patient and China is very patient’ The US president, Donald Trump, has said that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, told him China would not invade Taiwan while Trump is in office. Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox News on Friday, ahead of talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading… The Guardian
Tuvalu considers pulling out of Pacific leaders’ summit amid China-linked power struggle
Tuvalu’s prime minister Feletei Teo said his country may pull out of the region’s top political meeting next month, after host nation Solomon Islands moved to block all external partners – including China, US and Taiwan – from attending. The Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting will be held in Honiara in September. On 7 August, Solomon Islands prime minister Jeremiah Manele told parliament that no dialogue partners would be invited to the annual gathering. Countries outside the Pacific, known as “dialogue partners,” have attended the forum since 1989, to work…
Weather tracker: Typhoon Podul pounds southern Taiwan
Typhoon Podul crossed southern Taiwan on Wednesday with wind speeds of up to 110mph (177km/h), equivalent to a category 2 hurricane. Podul had developed a week earlier, near the Northern Mariana Islands, and tracked west across the Philippine Sea, achieving typhoon status on Tuesday before making landfall in south-east Taiwan the following day. Podul whipped up high waves along the east coast, where a man died after being swept away while fishing. As the storm travelled overland, it dumped large amounts of rain across the south of the island, with…
US warships patrol South China Sea after two Chinese ships collide
The US has briefly deployed two warships in a disputed South China Sea shoal where two Chinese ships collided earlier in the week while trying to drive away a smaller Philippine ship in a high-seas accident that raised alarms about maritime safety. Both China and the Philippines claim Scarborough Shoal and other outcroppings in the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay overlapping claims in the contested waters. The USS Higgins, a guided missile destroyer, and USS Cincinnati, a littoral combat ship, were shadowed by a Chinese…
Maps: Tracking Tropical Storm Podul
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Taiwan president scraps Latin America trip amid reports the US opposed stopover in New York
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te will delay an expected trip to his country’s remaining allies in Latin America, amid conflicting accounts of the reason for the postponement. Lai was expected to travel to the Americas next month, as his government seeks to shore up support in a region where many countries have cut diplomatic ties in favour of relations with China, which claims Taiwan as its territory. Amid reports that the Trump administration had opposed a proposed stopover by the president in New York, his government said Lai had no overseas…
Attempt to unseat 24 ‘pro-China’ opposition politicians in Taiwan appears to fail
An unprecedented attempt in Taiwan to unseat 24 “pro-China” opposition politicians and give a parliamentary majority to the ruling party appears to have failed, with early results indicating voters in every seat had rejected the notion. Polls opened on Saturday morning for the first 24 of 31 targeted seats, with voters asked to agree or disagree with a proposal to recall the local legislator and hold a byelection. Polls closed at 4pm local time and within a couple of hours the early results emerged. By 7pm the central election commission…
Total recall? Campaigners employ quirk of Taiwan’s political system to turn on ‘pro-China’ candidates
On a steamy night deep in one of Taipei’s most conservative suburbs, a group of elderly neighbours are yelling at each other next to a garbage truck. They have just been handed a leaflet by a university student calling on them to recall – expel – their sitting legislator. There are hundreds of these campaigners across Taiwan, targeting members of the Kuomintang (KMT) opposition who they accuse of being too pro-China. But this neighbourhood is deeply loyal to the party, and the campaigners are not welcome. A woman shouts angrily:…
Risk of undersea cable attacks backed by Russia and China likely to rise, report warns
The risk of Russia- and China-backed attacks on undersea cables carrying international internet traffic is likely to rise amid a spate of incidents in the Baltic Sea and around Taiwan, according to a report. Submarine cables account for 99% of the world’s intercontinental data traffic and have been affected by incidents with suspected state support over the past 18 months. Analysis by Recorded Future, a US cybersecurity company, singled out nine incidents in the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Taiwan in 2024 and 2025 as a harbinger for…