
J. Michael Cole

Taiwanese, Hong Kongers and Uighurs Not Welcome Near G20
Chinese authorities are making sure that no ‘troublemaker’ will be able to use the gathering of leaders to draw global attention to their causes.

BREAKING: Controversial Mao Concerts Cancelled
The performances glorifying a man who was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese were too much for many Chinese Australian.

OP-ED: China’s Censorship Rules Reach New Level of Absurdity
The CCP’s gradual descent into regulatory madness suggests that it is losing its grip on reality and on the people whom it seeks to control.

OP-ED: Should Mao Enter the Building?
Two scheduled concerts in Australia honoring Chairman Mao have sparked calls for boycotts. Let them sing and dance and spin all they want in his honor. Our job isn’t to silence them, as this would make us no better than the CCP.

OP-ED: The Tsai Administration Needs to Stop Stalling on Marriage Equality
For years the DPP blamed the KMT for stalled efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in Taiwan. Now in control of both the executive and legislative branches of government, the DPP has no valid argument for further delays.

Hong Kong No Longer Has Autonomy on Immigration
In the current environment of uncertainty in Hong Kong, controls over who comes in and who goes out will be used more frequently as an instrument by which to deny individuals contact with Hong Kong’s society.

OP-ED: Rebuild the Dapu Pharmacy
As the Tsai administration mulls updating Taiwan’s antiquated laws on land expropriation, one demolished building serves as a powerful symbol.

OP-ED: Patience, Patience on UN Bid
Taiwan’s inability to join the U.N. under a proper name and as a full member is preposterous. But those are that cards that history has dealt it, and it must use them wisely. Impetuousness will gain it nothing.

INTERVIEW: A Conversation With NED President Carl Gershman
‘Accountability means elections, an independent media that can watch over, a judiciary, and an active, mobilized civil society, which is what you had with the Sunflower Movement. That’s the price of democracy. That’s what makes democracy work.’

China Uses Thousands of Chinese Teachers to Combat Uighur ‘Separatism’
Beijing appears to be accelerating education programs designed to dilute the ethno-linguistic bond that gives Uighurs and Tibetans their distinct identity.