Recent Articles
March 5, 2018 - 15:38
Nearly a half-millennium ago, on Aug. 9, 1549, Jesuit father Francis Xavier glimpsed the caramel beaches and emerald woodland slopes of ancient Formosa from the railings of the Malaccan junk he had hired to sail him northward to Japan. Father Francis did not further remark on the island, hearing...
March 5, 2018 - 15:43
The Holy Land today, at first glance, has scant relevance for Taiwan. But President Donald Trump’s new Jerusalem policy last month has set me thinking.
The international legal statuses of Taiwan and Jerusalem both are grounded in the murky diplomatic arcana of post-war peace treaties. Both...
May 17, 2017 - 17:34
Congressional Oversight of AIT
by Peter Chen
Peter Chen is the President of the Formosa Association for Public Affairs.
Taiwan has been - literally - lucky in the recent sequence of superb American foreign service officers who capably have shepherded U.S. diplomacy...
March 21, 2017 - 16:31
Breaking with Taiwan is Chinese Precondition for Vatican Thaw
Despite a year of fervid speculation on a Vatican-China breakthrough, Beijing’s precondition for movement is breaking Vatican-Taiwan ties, otherwise nothing gets done.
by John J. Tkacik
When I was a young lad—just...
March 21, 2017 - 16:35
Policy Memorandum for the President-Elect Regarding Taiwan
By John J. Tkacik
John J. Tkacik is Director of the Future Asia Project at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in Alexandria, Virginia. He is a retired US foreign service officer with tours in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China...
March 21, 2017 - 16:50
Donald Trump Has Disrupted Years of Broken Taiwan Policy
Trump’s bold move harkens back to the clarity of the Reagan years.
John J. Tkacik
December 5, 2016
As a long-retired Foreign Service Officer who served in U.S. embassies both in Taipei and Beijing and on the State...
March 5, 2018 - 15:54
Five Myths about “One China”
By John J. Tkacik
President-elect Donald Trump sparked a brushfire of commentary a few days ago (December 2) when he took a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan’s president, Ms. Tsai Ing-wen, known officially in her home country as “The...
August 11, 2016 - 12:40
The Emperor’s Mysterious Map and the South China Sea
Is China censoring ancient clues to the secret history of the Spratly Islands?
By John J. Tkacik / Contributing reporter
Monday, Jun 27, 2016 - Page 12
Within the imperial chambers of the Wanli Emperor (萬曆), sovereign of...
June 13, 2016 - 11:56
TAIPEI TIMES
The bedrock of the ‘six assurances’
By John Tkacik /
Mon, Jun 13, 2016 - Page 8
On the evening of July 14, 1982, at a secret meeting at then-president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) spartan “Seven Seas Residence” in suburban Taipei, James R....
June 13, 2016 - 11:59
Half a ‘consensus’ worse than none
By John J. Tkacik /
Sat, May 28, 2016 - Page 8
The first test of the cross-strait understanding that many call the so-called “1992 consensus,” by which Taipei and Beijing agreed vaguely (never in writing) to a...
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