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Amy Chang Chien
For Amy Chang Chien's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
A replica of the Statue of Liberty in Taipei. There are markers all over Taiwan of its courtship of the United States.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 21, 2024
Taiwan’s doubts about America are growing. That could be dangerous.
Will deepening skepticism about the United States as a trustworthy nation diminish Taiwan’s belief that it could fend off China?
Pedestrians cross a street in the Zhongshan district of Taipei. Many voters on the island, especially those in their 20s and 30s, say they are weary of geopolitics and yearn for a campaign more focused on their needs at home.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 5, 2023
The wild card in Taiwan’s election: Frustrated young voters
Beyond geopolitics, they yearn for more focus on bread-and-butter issues such as rising housing costs, slow income growth and narrowing career prospects.
An advertisement for Lai Ching-te, whose presidential campaign was the target of an audio deepfake, in Taipei on Nov. 14. Ahead of a presidential election in January, Taiwanese fact checkers and watchdogs say they are ready for Beijing. But they are still worried.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 27, 2023
Can Taiwan continue to fight off Chinese disinformation?
Ahead of a presidential election in January, Taiwanese fact checkers and watchdogs say they are ready for Beijing. But they are still worried.
Terry Gou, Foxconn founder and then-presidential candidate (left), former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou (center), Hou Yu-ih presidential candidate of the main opposition Kuomintang attend a news conference in Taipei on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 25, 2023
Taiwan opposition cracks apart, and invites the cameras in
The split over a proposed joint ticket bolsters the governing party candidate’s chances in the coming presidential election. That won’t please Beijing.
A worker uses a vacuum cleaner inside a bullet train at Suseo Station in Seoul on Nov. 13. South Korea is launching a four-week campaign against bedbugs after multiple reports of infestations sparked widespread public anxiety.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Nov 19, 2023
Bedbug anxiety comes for Asia, and the pest killers are here for it
Outbreaks in France and South Korea have people across Asia on high alert for bedbugs. Exterminators in the region say business is booming.
A Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000 jet fighter landing at Hsinchu Air Base in Hsinchu, Taiwan, in April.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 12, 2023
China’s military, ‘chasing the dream,’ probes Taiwan’s defenses
Day by day, the People’s Liberation Army is turning up the pressure, deploying an ever-wider array of planes and ships.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 3, 2023
‘On a tightrope’: How Taiwan’s president navigated the U.S. and China
Known for her quiet pragmatism, Tsai Ing-wen has ushered in a new era of American cooperation as worries about Chinese aggression rise.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 1, 2023
In Taiwan’s waters, a hunt for tiny, wriggling ‘gold’
In the 1980s and ’90s, Taiwan’s eel industry was thriving, fueled by Japan’s appetite for unagi. But those days are gone.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 19, 2023
A shrinking, aging China may have backed itself into a corner
Mounting population pressures may reveal a government that has not done enough to avoid tough choices in coming decades.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 24, 2022
As cases explode, China’s low COVID death toll convinces no one
A country trying to mourn its dead from a COVID-19 outbreak is grappling with a system unprepared for the surge in fatalities, but China's government is painting a less dire picture.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 25, 2022
In a challenge to Beijing, unrest over COVID lockdowns spreads
Protests have broken out in Guangzhou and at an iPhone factory in central China, while online many have raged at authorities after the death of a girl was blamed on COVID-19 restrictions.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 7, 2022
Taiwan’s bomb shelters: ‘A space for life. And a space for death.’
Preparing for war over hundreds of years has left a mark on the island, with its hundreds of bomb shelters. Some are being turned into cultural oases.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 26, 2022
Why people are flocking to a symbol of Taiwan’s authoritarian past
The Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park, housed on the campus of a former military school, is a chilling reminder of the excesses of Taiwan's not-so-distant authoritarian past.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 21, 2022
How Taiwan’s ‘adorable’ and ambitious diplomacy aims to keep the island safe
Even as China's threats on reunification grow more pointed, most recently at the Communist Party congress, Taiwan is working creatively to bolster its alliances.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 6, 2022
Fight or surrender: Taiwan’s generational divide on China’s threats
Conflicting allegiances dominate Taiwan politics, with debates over China breaking down along the lines of age, identity and geography.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 15, 2022
China’s surveillance state hits rare resistance from its own subjects
As China builds up its vast surveillance and security apparatus, it is running up against growing public unease about the lack of safeguards to prevent the theft or misuse of personal data.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 23, 2022
First pineapples, now fish: To pressure Taiwan, China flexes economic muscle
As Beijing has ramped up pressure on the island, Taiwan has moved to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties with friendlier countries, such as United States, the European Union and Japan.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 14, 2022
As China rattles sabers, Taiwan asks: Are we ready for war?
Ukraine's stubborn resistance to invasion, and the help that has poured in as a result, has both inspired Taiwan and made it rethink its own military strategy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 13, 2022
They inhabited separate worlds in Taiwan. Decades later, they collided in a California church.
David Chou — armed with two guns, four Molotov cocktails and a deep-seated rage against Taiwanese people — opened fire inside the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Southern California.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 22, 2022
China holds the line on ‘COVID zero,’ but some wonder for how long
At least 20 million people were under full lockdown as recently as last week, and many more cities across the country have been subjected to partial lockdowns and mass testing.

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