The already testy South China Sea waters just got a little choppier. The US has proposed expanding its military presence in Southeast Asia with the pretty apparent (though undisclosed) goal of contesting China's clampdown in the region. The protocol calls for strengthening US alliances with Southeast Asian nations, and increasing its military operations in the area without establishing permanent bases in the region so as to avoid another Okinawa debacle. more ›

Morbid suicide story of the day: A young woman in Taipei, Taiwan committed suicide by inhaling poisonous fumes while chatting with her friends on Facebook. None of her so-called friends called the police: more ›

The war of the future may not be decided by tanks on a sandy embankment or by the nuclear arsenals of various countries, but rather on a keyboard. Experts state that China demonstrates incredible prowess in the cyber-warfare arena, boasting the capacity to sabotage the US power grid, hack into the Federal Aviation Administration's flight database, and even crash its financial markets (or at least, crash them again) - capabilities that China might employ should a conflict arise between the US and China concerning Taiwan's self-governance. more ›

“Jeremy Lin is an iPhone. The accessories are made in China; a Taiwanese invested in its assembly; Chinese people want to own one; but at its core lies American technology and software, and in the final analysis it is an American brand without a cent’s worth of connection to China.” more ›

At 9pm on February 1st in the Taiwanese city of Xinbei, a 23-year-old gamer named Chen Rongyou was found dead in his seat at an internet cafe, after buying two-eight hour sessions of online time. When discovered by police, he was stiff with rigor mortis, and his arms remained outstretched in front of him, with one hand reaching for the keyboard and another hand reaching for the mouse. more ›

The newly appointed acting chairperson of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party, Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu has said Friday that the party would step up interactions with the mainland once she takes over the leadership position next week. more ›

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陈菊) has been returned unopposed as acting chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the leading opposition party in Taiwan. more ›

Beijing has announced plans to refashion Fujian province's Pingtan Island into a "Little Taiwan" by inviting Taiwanese citizens to join the island's leadership, in addition to permitting the circulation of Taiwan's currency. more ›

Beijing's mayor arrived at Taipei's Taoyuan International Airport on Thursday, and was received with the traditional welcome party for Chinese officials, with around 80 anti-China protestors and activists composed of Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners waiting for Guo at the airport with signs and banners accusing him of genocide. more ›

New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin may be the first Asian-American in the NBA and the first Harvard graduate to play in the league for almost 60 years. But he's also quickly gained a reputation over the last week as the NBA's #1 Jesus Freak hands down. Recently, Lin -- who wants to become a pastor when he grows up -- appeared together with his mom on Taiwanese evangelical Christian channel GoodTV and showed the world how he's got his guanxi with God all down pat. more ›

A Taiwanese surgeon who was a pioneer in the field of Lasik eye surgery has announced he will cease performing the procedure, as it violates his medical ethics. more ›

Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is on the hunt for a new leader as its party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) prepares to step down March 1 following her loss in the presidential election. more ›

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On Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks' Jeremy Lin (林書豪) officially went and got himself a hefty piece in a 99-92 win against the New Jersey Nets. Having been firmly planted on the bench all season (and all career, for that matter), Lin stepped up and gave an electric performance in front of the Knicks faithful at the Mecca of Basketball, scoring a career-high 25 points (with 12 coming in the 4th quarter) while dishing 7 assists and nabbing 5 rebounds. more ›

Li Guanyi, a 29-year-old Shanghai resident, was hit and killed by a motorcycle while crossing the road in the Taiwanese city of Hualien (花莲) at 10pm on Tuesday. Li was attempting to cross the road to reach his hotel when the accident occurred. Despite efforts at resuscitation, Li was declared midnight before reaching a hospital. The apparent cause of death was initially determined to be intracranial bleeding, though investigations are still ongoing. more ›

BBC's Beijing correspondent Damian Grammaticas is back from a week in Taiwan covering the recent elections. He reflects: more ›

Two days after Ma Ying-jeou's successful re-election, Chinese internet users still can't stop talking about Taiwan's 2012 presidential election. On Sina Weibo, China's largest microblogging platform, the election has remained the top trending topic as Chinese netizens look across the Taiwan straits and ponder over their own democratic future. Here is a selection of some of the most viral posts on Sina Weibo on the Taiwan election: more ›

Ma Ying-jeou (马英九), chairman of the Kuomintang, was re-elected as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan), winning 51.6% of total votes cast, a comfortable 800,000 vote lead over his top contender, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). James Soong (宋楚瑜) of the People First Party received 2.8% of the vote. more ›

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou speaking to international reporters in English yesterday morning in Taipei. Another video after the jump... more ›

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Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party has released a new music video urging voters to show up at the polls to vote for Taiwan's future.Lyrics after the jump... more ›

Here's yet another prime example of how Taiwan is light years ahead of the rest of Asia: A court has ruled against an employee of a gay massage parlour who sued his boss for defamation after he used his image in an advertisement placed on a gay magazine. The judge's rationale? The assertion that someone's gay is no longer defamatory today. more ›

The Taiwanese are clearly fed up with the scourge of dog crap that has until now rendered the streets of New Taipei City virtually un-walkable. To combat the odorous problem, the government is granting citizens the opportunity to collect and exchange sacks of crap for lottery tickets, one ticket per "doggy bag." Like any other lottery, each ticket enters into a raffle, but in this rare case, the drawn ticket-holder can win a bar of gold worth Taiwan $60,000 or around $2,000 USD. Literally turning shit into gold! more ›

“I want to see your elections with campaign flags flying all over the place. Taiwan and China are one country. How can you arrest me for illegal entry?” more ›

Peter Enav of the Associated Press writes:

A survey published this week by Taiwan's Commonwealth Magazine appears to confirm that Taiwan's process of demilitarization is rapidly gaining steam. Based on a sample of students aged 12 to 17, it found only 38.7 percent would be ready to see either themselves or a family member fight if a new war broke out, while 44.3 percent would not. The remainder had no opinion. more ›

Wow. If this can happen in Taiwan, what are the chances that it'll happen in China too? more ›

"You know, quite a lot of mainland tourists now, more than 2.6 million, have come to Taiwan. They have done a lot of consumption in Taiwan, and spurred a tourism boom. At the same time, moreover, they have also got a sense of Taiwan’s democracy and freedom. A lot of them didn’t go out during the evening. Instead, they lock themselves up in their hotel rooms, watching the political talk shows to see our people criticizing their president. [laughter] Well, that’s democracy. That’s, you know, freedom of expression. But after a while, they began to ask why they couldn’t do the same when they go home? So, this is a very powerful question, and gradually they will make some changes, not only in our cross-strait relations, but also in their own internal system." more ›

"My definition of the 'status quo' would be 'Taiwan is the ROC [Republic of China], the ROC is Taiwan, and Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country.'" more ›