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- Jan 18, 202657 min
58. Taiwan-Europe Relations 2026: Matej Šimalčík (CEIAS)
Matej Šimalčík is the Executive Director of CEIAS (Central European Institute of Asian Studies), a think tank that focuses on foreign and security policy issues related to East Asia. Its new report “Partners in need, partners indeed? Tracking Europe-Taiwan relations amidst global disruption” is an updated overview of Taiwan’s relations with 30 European countries. Šimalčík’s research looks at China’s economic and political presence and influence in Central Europe, elite relations, corrosive capital, and the role of European legal instruments in mitigating risks posed by China. In 2022, he founded the China-Europe Academic Engagement Tracker project. In 2025 Šimalčík was a visiting fellow at Taiwan’s INDSR (Institute for National Defense and Security Research).Taiwan and Czechia relations are at an old time high, but results of the 2025 Czech parliamentary election has raised concerns on the future of the relations. Key decisions makers mentioned today include Andrej Babiš (Czech Prime Minister, since December 2025; 2017-2021), Lin Chia-lung (Taiwan Minister of Foreign Affairs, since 2024 ), Miloš Vystrčil (Czech Senate President, since 2020), Zdeněk Hřib (Mayor of Prague 2028-2023), Markéta Pekarová Adamová (President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament 2021-2025), Marek Ženíšek (Czech Minister of Science, 2024-2025), Miloš Zeman (Czech President 2013-2023), Václav Havel (first democratic president of the Czech Republic 1993-2003), Hu Jintao (Leader of China 2002-2012), Xi Jinping (Leader of China, since 2012).The report divides the European countries’ relations with Taiwan into four categories:- “Old Partners” - countries with existing long-term ties with Taiwan: UK, France, and Germany.- “New Friends” - the Central and European countries that are actively engaging with Taiwan: Czechia, Lithuania, and Poland.- “Pragmatists” - countries having concerns with engaging with Taiwan but still enjoying economic benefits with Taiwan.- “Laggards” - countries having underdeveloped relations with Taiwan.Although the engagement between Taiwan and some European countries remains low, Šimalčík has seen a small uptake since 2022. This indicates that Taiwan’s engagement with “old partners” and “new friends” is setting an example for other countries. Link to “Partners in need, partners indeed? Tracking Europe-Taiwan relations amidst global disruption”: https://ceias.eu/partners-in-need-partners-indeed-europe-taiwan-relations/Support us by donating on Patreon http://patreon.com/taiwan Producer: Emily Y. WuResearcher: Zack Chiang, Zoe Hu, Hai-Ahn NguyenEditing: Wayne TsaiFollow and tag us on social media:Ghost Island Media | Instagram | Facebook | TwitterA Ghost Island Media production: www.ghostisland.mediaSupport the show: https://patreon.com/TaiwanSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Aug 19, 202534 min
57. “Zero Day Attack”: a TV show on Chinese invasion of Taiwan
We speak to Hsin-mei CHENG, producer of the 2025 television series “Zero Day Attack” (零日攻擊) - a 10-episode drama that imagines Taiwanese internal divide and cohesion after the Chinese PLA have launched an invasion of Taiwan. She speaks about her experience developing the show and the challenges of censorship and self-censorship in the creative industries in Taiwan.Hsin-Mei CHENG (鄭心媚) is an award-winning screenwriter of television drama that often tell stories of Taiwanese society after WWII. She began her career as a print journalist covering national disasters and crises, most notably the 921 Earthquake in 1999 and the SARS outbreak in 2003.The episode was recorded on August 3, 2025, one day after the release of the first episode. The term Zero-Day (Z Day) that’s used to describe the notional date of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan was first used by American security analyst Ian Easton in his 2017 book, “The Chinese Invasion Threat”. He laid out the Zero Day scenario: first by blockade, then amphibious landing, then a total takeover of Taiwan. In computer terms, Zero-Day (0-Day) is a security flaw of the software, hardware, or firmware that’s unknown to developers, thus creative a vulnerability against cyberattacks. CHENG explains that for Taiwan, the most vulnerable period would be the four months between a presidential election (January) and the inauguration of a new president (May). And this is exactly the setting for “Zero Day Attack”.Each episode is about a different aspect of society: military, media, cyber attack, religious and business communities, etc; to imagine how Chinese infiltration would affect the mindset of the Taiwanese public. Developing the series was not an easy task. CHENG discusses how self-censorship in the creative industries have typically prevented political stories from being developed, funded, and produced. In her decade-long experience as a screenwriter, it had been a common experience to receive contracts requiring cast and crew to not make public statements on political issues, for fear of jeopardizing a production’s distribution in China. Potential funders shied away from the “Zero Day Attack” project. Many actors - or in some cases, an entire acting agency - refused participation. To this day, half of the crew members have stayed anonymous. Since the release of the series on August 2nd, rumors have spread that crew members who participated in the show are now blacklisted from work with some production houses. “Zero Day Attack” (2025, 10 episodes) premiered on Public Television Service in Taiwan on August 2, 2025. It’s available for streaming in Japan through Amazon Japan; and in Taiwan on PTS+, Line TV, MyVideo, and Hami Video.(Global premiere for Episode 1 was in May 2025 at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit.) Research and editing by Wayne Tsai, Zack Chiang, and Vera Wu.Support The Taiwan Take by donating on Patreon http://patreon.com/taiwan Follow and tag us on social media:Ghost Island Media | Instagram | Facebook | TwitterEmily Y. Wu | Twitter @emilyywuA Ghost Island Media production: www.ghostisland.mediaSupport the show: https://patreon.com/TaiwanSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Jul 16, 202534 min
56. The Great Recall of 2025: Nathan Batto “Frozen Garlic” (Academia Sinica)
On July 26th, a third of Taiwan will vote on recall referendums (大罷免) for 24 legislators throughout Taiwan.Our guest is Nathan F. Batto, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica. Taiwan watchers also know him as the writer of Frozen Garlic wordpress on Taiwanese elections. We discuss how we got here: the KMT/TPP coalition in the legislature, the passionate activists who have been organizing the nation-wide movements; how the recall threshold was lowered in 2016 after the Sunflower Movement; the social cost of participating in recall bids, and how that affected the success rate of bids in cities versus in rural communities; And the impact of a perpetual election cycle. Facts & figures: This recall will affect 24 legislators, ie: more than a quarter of elected seats. (Taiwan’s legislative assembly is made of 113 seats. 79 are elected directly by constituents in districts. Another 24 are composed of party seats as decided by proportion of party votes.) All 24 legislators up for a recall on July 26th are from the Kuomingtang (Nationalist Party, KMT). To meet the recall threshold, number of votes in favor of removing a lawmaker must exceed the number of votes against; and surpass 25% of eligible voters in that district. By-elections will be held in the fall. If the DDP gains six seats in the legislature as a result, they will gain majority. Support Ghost Island Media by donating on Patreon http://patreon.com/taiwan Follow and tag us on social media:Ghost Island Media | Instagram | Facebook | TwitterEmily Y. Wu | Twitter @emilyywuA Ghost Island Media production: www.ghostisland.mediaSupport the show: https://patreon.com/TaiwanSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Jun 19, 202538 min
55. How China's reshaping the global cybersecurity and digital norms (Article 19)
Michael Caster (Head of Global China Programme) and I-Chen Liu (Asia Programme Officer) are researchers from the international non-profit organization ARTICLE 19, whose report “Cybersecurity with Chinese Characteristics” (2025) outlines PRC’s influence over cybersecurity norms in 3 Indo-Pacific countries: Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam; and with a Taiwan alternative. The Digital Silk Road is an umbrella concept that includes policies, priorities, tools, technologies, and tactics of a digital nature under the larger Belt and Road Initiative. Launched in 2015, it’s how PRC promotes its cybersecurity and digital governance norms and technical standards across the world.It does this through public and private partnerships with Chinese tech companies that provide capacity-building initiatives: 5G cyber security test labs in Malaysia, mobile payment in Thailand, data centers in Nepal, surveillance cameras in Phnom Penh and Kathmandu, submarine cables in Cambodia, and satellite systems for Thailand. While receiving such technology, recipient countries have also adopted PRC-style censorship and regulations into their legal framework. Examples include Vietnam’s 2018 cybersecurity law, which regulates aspects including content moderation and data localization. The PRC is now pushing for multilateral cooperation through institutions like the UN, ASEAN, and other state-led forums. It has established additional bodies like the Global Security Initiative, Global Development Initiative, and Global Civilization Initiative to further the standardization of PRC-style norms. The researchers warn of the impact on democracy and freedom of speech this could have on the recipient country. “When China talks about multilateralism, they're doing it as a renouncing multi-stakeholderism approach; Denying civil society, the tech sector, academia, other independent actors. They're denying them a seat at the table”, says Caster.The PRC-style of digital government becomes a toolkit for the authoritarian actor on how to use cybersecurity laws in the name of promoting safety or national security; but it’s actually introducing potentially humanitarian disaster laws that will impact the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy.Notable is the upcoming United Nations Cybercrime Convention in Vietnam, dubbed The Hanoi Convention, which has been rescheduled from July to October, 2025. The Cybersecurity with Chinese Characteristics report ends with Taiwan’s democratic model of defending cybersecurity, which ensures the participation of civil society, as an alternative model to curb digital authoritarianism. This report follows “The Digital Silk Road: China and the Rise of Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific” (2024) which includes case studies from Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, and Thailand. To access this report: https://www.article19.org/resources/china-taiwan-cybersecurity/Support Ghost Island Media: http://patreon.com/taiwan Follow and tag us on social media:Ghost Island Media | Instagram | Facebook | TwitterEmily Y. Wu | Twitter @emilyywuA Ghost Island Media production: www.ghostisland.mediaSupport the show: https://patreon.com/TaiwanSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- May 29, 202543 min
54. On classical music and healing: Mimi Yu (cellist, author of “The Unforgetting Body”)
Mimi Yu (尤虹文) is the author of three memoirs, including the 2019 title “The Unforgetting Body” in which she details her recovery from depression. Yu is a cellist who has worked with musicians like Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Katz, and Robert Levin. She played cello while at The Juilliard School and has a B.A. in economics from Harvard University. Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Mimi Yu went to the U.S. at age 15 to study at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In her mid-twenties, Yu was impacted by severe depression and had to stop performing.We discuss her path to healing; finding Buddhism, Taosim, the importance of eating well and listening to your body, trailing spouses. She’s now a public speaker, a music healer, and a coach on mental wellness.“There’s a beauty in every person we meet, and when they come to me, there must be a reason, and I am just here to support and to love, and sometimes that love awakens the deep love they have for themselves inside. And when that happens, then healing happens.”“The Unforgetting Body” 因為身體記得：告別憂鬱症的療癒之路 (尤虹文 / 天下文化 / 2019) ：https://bookzone.cwgv.com.tw/book/BBP445Her podcast at Global View Magazine (in Mandarin)【尤虹文的療癒時光】：https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16bG3gZ12o/Support Ghost Island Media by donating on Patreon http://patreon.com/taiwan Follow and tag us on social media:Ghost Island Media | Instagram | Facebook | TwitterEmily Y. Wu | Twitter @emilyywuA Ghost Island Media production: www.ghostisland.mediaSupport the show: https://patreon.com/TaiwanSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- May 8, 202551 min
53. Jimmy Lai is China's most feared critic: Mark L. Clifford (author of "The Troublemaker")
Jimmy Lai, the 77-year-old media tycoon of British citizenship, has been detained for over five years, mostly in isolation. He is one of over 1,500 political prisoners in Hong Kong.Today's interview contains a clip of a conversation between Jimmy Lai and Natan Sharansky from November 20, 2020, one month before Lai’s arrest. Sharansky is a former Soviet dissident who spent nine years imprisoned as a refusenik during the 1970s and 1980s. “... What you said about physical survival is not important. Spiritual survival is very important. Never back down. The peak of your life is when you were in prison. I totally understand, and that is very important; because I take up the responsibility of imagining myself influencing so many people as an example. If I don’t back down then they won’t back down. So that is a responsibility that is also uplifting spirit for me. And I really thank you so much for inspiring me on this.” - Jimmy Lai in November, 2020. (Transcript)Mark L. Clifford is the author of “The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong's Greatest Dissident, and China's Most Feared Critic” (Simon & Schuster, 2024). He first met Lai in 1993. Jimmy Lai was born in Guangdong, China. At age 12, he cramped into a fishing boat and arrived in Hong Kong as an illegal immigrant. The year was 1961. Hong Kong was still a British colony. In two decades Lai became a leader in the city’s fashion and textiles industry, then became a newspaper publisher. He launched Next magazine in 1990 then Apple Daily newspaper in 1995, both quickly became Hong Kong’s top-selling publications.In 2001, Next opened its Taiwan offices. In this interview, Clifford recounts the importance of the Taiwan operation. It was supposed to have been a stepping-stone to publishing in China, Clifford explains.Jimmy Lai stands out as a business tycoon who is an outspoken advocate for pro-democracy causes.In 1989 Lai sent aid to students protesting at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. In 2014 he joined protesters at the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, and again in 2019 as million-plus residents marched against China for what became the largest series of demonstrations in the history of Hong Kong. Hong Kong, a special administrative region of People's Republic of China since 1997, implemented its National Security Law on June 30, 2020. Months later, on December 31, 2020, Jimmy Lai was arrested.Apple Daily printed its final edition in Hong Kong on June 24, 2021. Five additional editors were jailed.Our guest today is Mark Clifford, author of the new biography on Jimmy Lai. Clifford spent 28 years in Hong Kong before leaving the city in 2020. Clifford had been a director of Next Digital - publisher of the newspaper Apple Daily, executive director of the Asia Business Council, editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post, and publisher and editor-in-chief of The Standard. Clifford left Hong Kong in 2020 and now serves as the founding president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation, a U.S.-based NGO established in 2022 to fight for Hong Kong and its people in the wake of China’s national security crackdown.Recent updates on the Jimmy Lai trial: March 6, 2025: Lai wrapped up his testimony. March 10, 2025: Lai’s son, Sebastien, wrote to the U.S. President Trump in an op-ed in the New York Post, “President Trump, we need your help to get Hong Kong to release my dad, Jimmy Lai — before he dies in solitary confinement”. (Trump’s commitment was stated on the Hugh Hewitt Show in October 2024. March 11: Closing argument is set for August 14, 2025 (RTHK) April 1: A bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. U.S. lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to rename the street next to Hong Kong’s Washington D.C.
- May 3, 202550 min
52. Borders, politics, and identity through nature writing: Jessica J. Lee (author of "Dispersals") (Live on April 11, 2025)
British-Canadian-Taiwanese writer Jessica J. Lee (李潔珂) is the author of three books of nature writing, Dispersals (2024), Two Trees Make a Forest (2019), and Turning (2017), the children’s book A Garden Called Home (2024), and co-editor of the essay collection Dog Hearted (2023). She has a PhD in Environmental History and Aesthetics and is the founding editor of The Willowherb Review. She teaches creative writing at the University of King’s College in Canada. She lives in Berlin.This episode was recorded live on April 11th, 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan. The evening was co-organized by the Czech Hub in Taiwan, and moderated by Korean-American writer, Esther Kim. About Czech Hub in Taiwan - Launched in 2023, this gathering space in Taipei hosts monthly forums on policy, security, and business. It’s curated by the European Values Center for Security Policy and the Czech-Taiwanese Business Chamber. Sign up for its newsletter, Indo-Pacific Currents:https://europeanvalues.cz/en/newsletters/About the Moderator - Esther Kim is a writer living in Taiwan. She is the first and former Digital Communications Manager of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, a major literary nonprofit in NYC. She joined the Workshop as a magazine editor. Before that, she worked on staff at book publishers with an international perspective and received her Masters degrees at SOAS, London and at Edinburgh. She writes a column for The Korea Times and is working on publishing a family heirloom into an art book.About the Conversation - Two Trees Make a Forest is a memoir on Jessica’s journey searching for her family roots in Taiwan. The latest title, Dispersals, is a collection of fourteen essays on the interconnectedness of the lives of plants and the human world. This evening, Jessica and Esther spoke about soy, swimming, nature writing and its relations to politics and anthropology, and writing for the diaspora community. Jessica is interested in investigating the gaps in the identity of plants and their cultural significance. While soy - a plant she writes about in Dispersals - is valued by her family as a source of food while growing up in Canada, she often heard anti-soy narratives outside of home.Jessica discusses the significance of addressing political and societal issues in natural writings. “We're living in this moment of biodiversity crisis, climate change,” she says. “And these are things that disproportionately impact the people who have contributed to those problems the least… So it doesn't really make sense for nature writers who purport to be writing about those crises and the sort of fallout from them, to not also address the human cost, the cultural framings that get us to that place.”Jessica cites Taiwanese writer Wu Ming-yi and American anthropologist Anna Tsing as writing influences. Ghost Island Media first interviewed Jessica J. Lee in August 2020 for the podcast Waste Not Why Not. Check out this episode here: https://ghostisland.media/zh/shows/waste-not-why-not/jessica-j-leeJessica J. Lee’s publication links:Dispersals (2024) - https://www.jessicajleewrites.com/dispersalsMandarin as《離散的植物》 - https://www.cite.com.tw/book?id=100902Two Trees Make a Forest (2020) - https://www.jessicajleewrites.com/two-treesMandarin as《山與林的深處》 - https://www.cite.com.tw/book?id=91572Support The Taiwan Take by donating on Patreon http://patreon.com/taiwan Follow and tag us on social media:Ghost Island Media | Instagram | Facebook | TwitterEmily Y. Wu | Twitter @emilyywuA Ghost Island Media production: www.ghostisland.mediaSupport the show: https://patreon.com/TaiwanSee omnystudio.com/listen
- Mar 21, 202523 min
51. Former Prime Minister of Denmark, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, on collective weakness and a new world order
Anders Fogh Rasmussen is former Prime Minister of Denmark (2001-2009) and Secretary General of NATO (2009-2014). He’s Chairman of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation.We sat down with Rasmussen this week at Yushan Forum, the annual summit organized by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation. This conversation was recorded on March 17, 2025.Rasmussen is worried about a new world order “where might makes right… a world order with three power centers: one in Washington, one in Beijing, and one in Moscow. That's what concerns me the most, and I will devote the rest of my life to counter that world order.”In Asia and in the Indo-Pacific, he’s looking to see more multilateral approaches on security and trade. “I would also like to see a bigger investment in your own defense,” he says, referring to Taiwan. “That's what we have concluded in Europe, and I think the same conclusion goes for Asia, that each individual country must demonstrate a clear commitment to its own security by increasing defense investment and by cooperating closer together.”He warns of the consequence of a collective weakness if democracies don’t support each other. “If Putin gets success in Ukraine because of our weakness, it would send an extremely dangerous signal to autocrats in other parts of the world: Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un…” He spoke of the need for a reform of the United Nations. “The United Nations reflect the world as it was in 1945 with the United States as really, a dominant power. But since then, other powers have risen, like Germany in Europe, like Japan in Asia, like Brazil in South America… In the current [UN] Security Council, Russia and China have so called veto, right? So they can block all decisions in the United Nations that go against their interest, and that makes the United Nations useless, because we cannot pass any resolution. So I think we need a reform of the United Nations, but as it requires the consent of both Russia and China, it's more or less impossible in the short term. So yes, long term, we should reform the United Nations. Short term, we have to deal with what we do have.”In the last 5 minutes of the episode we play Rasmussen’s full speech at Yushan Forum. To see the full opening ceremony, see here. This includes speeches by Taiwan’s President Dr. Lai Ching-te, former Prime Minister of Denmark Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Prime Minister of Slovenia Janex Janša, Member of the Japanese House of Presentatives in the Diet Keiji Furuya, Director of the American Institute in Taiwan Raymond Greene, as well as Chairman of the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, Dr. Michael Hsiao: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ2qq_dLmn4Support us by donating on Patreon http://patreon.com/taiwan Follow and tag us on social media:Ghost Island Media | Instagram | Facebook | TwitterEmily Y. Wu | Twitter @emilyywuA Ghost Island Media production: www.ghostisland.mediaSupport the show: https://patreon.com/TaiwanSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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About The Taiwan Take
A current affairs podcast on Taiwan and the world. Every episode, we invite a journalist to a conversation with an expert to get the big picture context of what we need to know. These are global issues, and this is The Taiwan Take. Nominated for Best News Podcast at 2020 Excellent Journalism Award in Taiwan. Produced by Ghost Island Media in Taipei, Taiwan.2020年台灣卓越新聞獎 Podcast 新聞獎入圍者．這是一個專門討論臺灣時事的訪談性英文節目， 以「縱觀世界議題，以臺灣觀點論述」為主軸，由記者採訪跨領域專家、名人與來賓等，第一手將臺灣的故事推向國際．鬼島之音製作播出．
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