Simon O'Connor: Be prepared

The fraying of the international rules-based order and various conflicts - either happening now or possible in the future - should see New Zealand preparing now. There are no excuses for inaction.

During a recent visit by the US President to Beijing, President Xi of China made it clear that Taiwan must become part of China. Xi has frequently talked of Taiwan as part of China, and that it will eventually be reunited including by military force if necessary.

David Harvey: The China Syndrome

This article addresses the way in which the Chinese Government responded to an opinion piece written by Jonathan Ayling in the Herald. The response is revealing not the least because it maintains an ideological position that is out of touch with reality but as much because of the way in which it reveals the Chinese Government’s mindset, not just about contrary views but also about the way in which those views may be expressed within the boundaries of an independent sovereign state.

Lyle Goldstein: The New National Security Strategy’s Dangerous Language on Taiwan

The Trump administration has released its new National Security Strategy (NSS) and many in the U.S. foreign policy elite have declared it soft on China, downgrading the Asia-Pacific region in order to focus more on the Western Hemisphere.

Dave Patterson: China Ends 2025 With Large Provocation

As the calendar year 2025 ended, China conducted one of its most provocative exercises, threatening Taiwan. In the final days of December, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and the China Coast Guard (CCG) conducted a joint training operation called Justice Mission 2025 in the Taiwan Strait and other waters surrounding Taiwan. This was the second such exercise that year, simulating a blockade of major Taiwanese ports to shut down transportation to the island as a prelude to an invasion. The first was called Strait Thunder-2025A, conducted April 1-2 of last year, and it had similar objectives.

China Is Stepping Up Its Taiwan Blockade Exercises

Peter Dunne: Earthquakes

Taiwan and New Zealand are two small island states with much in common.

Both are vibrant, independent democracies, living in the shadow of an overbearing neighbour. (Admittedly, Taiwan’s overbearing neighbour has far more aggressive tendencies than our at-times overbearing neighbour!) There is a strong free trade agreement between the two countries and a growing cultural link based on DNA evidence that Taiwan’s indigenous people and Māori share a common ancestry.

Barry Soper: Chris Hipkins' Taiwan comments the politics of ignorance

 

Is it the politics of envy or is it simply the politics of ignorance?

Chris Hipkins was kept on in a newly created Ministry handling the Covid-19 response while the Health portfolio was split off for Andrew Little to take care of.

Hipkins was kept in the job essentially because anyone following the Covid cowboy David Clark would look good and sound convincing and he did, that is until he was talking about how Kiwis were obedient sheep compared with other countries.

The other country that's been infinitely better than us is Taiwan, a country of almost 25 million, which took no time to eliminate the virus with just over 600 cases and just seven deaths. It's insisted on mask wearing since February and closed its borders the following month.