This is my last show for Rti, but I am keeping the show going on a new feed! If you want to keep listening to the show, you can find it at https://shows.acast.com/the-strait-up-podcast

Most people are probably aware that Taiwan has an aging population. In fact, Taiwan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. According to the National Development Council, Taiwan’s fertility rate in 2022 was 0.87. That makes it either the lowest or nearly lowest in the entire world, with similar rates to South Korea, Hong Kong, and Puerto Rico. Thus, one can see how government policies that support working children are also tied to Taiwan’s fertility rates. 

Today we tackle an issue that is unavoidable if one lives in Taiwan, which is road safety. And I don’t just mean road safety for drivers on the road, but also for pedestrians on the sidewalk. However as you will discover in this episode, Taiwan often lacks sidewalks on many roads. Roads in Taiwan thus must share their narrow spaces among pedestrians, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and everything else that needs to move. Taiwan’s chaotic streets are well known to residents, but most...

Today, I am very honored to have on the show Alicia Kearns, Chairperson of the U.K. House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. Alicia’s committee released a report a few weeks back which contained some very strong language regarding Taiwan’s sovereignty and how the U.K. government should handle the Taiwan issue moving forward. We talk about that along with a few other issues such as the government’s still-classified China policy, the expansion of Indo-Pacific defense arrangements, and the...

Today I bring you another episode focusing on what is, on its face at least,  a domestic issue in Taiwan, but I bring it to you with a comparative international perspective. That issue is Taiwan’s minimum wage, and why is it so low compared to other developed countries? 

Hello and welcome to the Strait Up Podcast, a show about international affairs with a focus on East Asia and of course Taiwan. That focus on Taiwan will be much tighter in the next several episodes including today, as I take a look at several issues that affect Taiwan, but which have an international component. And today, that topic is Taiwan’s upcoming 2024 presidential election. 

Today I bring you a conversation with Ian Chong, associate professor at the National University of Singapore and Nonresident Scholar at Carnegie China, which is part of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC. Ian’s research has focused on topics such as the international relations of Northeast and Southeast Asia, and important for our discussion, Taiwan politics and cross-strait relations. 

In the 2022 U.S. National Security Strategy, the U.S. refers to China as “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge.” Certainly, the confrontation between the two sides has played out on numerous fronts, most notably regarding Taiwan. But is America taking its diplomatic rhetoric and policy changes too far in attempting to address the challenge of China? Is it missing opportunities to improve its relationship with China that could lead to more long-term stability? Is it overstating...

Hello, welcome to the Strait Up Podcast, the show where we talk about international affairs with a focus on East Asia and of course Taiwan. I’m your host Chris Gorin, coming to you from Taipei, Taiwan. 

Well, today we have a very special guest indeed. My guest is none other than Richard Bush. Bush has had a long and storied career. Bush served as the chairman and managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the unofficial US embassy in Taiwan, from 1997-2002. He is currently a nonresident senior fellow in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies (CEAP) and the John L. Thornton China Center, both at Brookings Institution. Prior to his stint at AIT, he served as an advisor to a...

Hello and welcome to the Strait Up Podcast, the show about international affairs with a focus on East Asia and of course Taiwan.

Hello and welcome to the Strait Up Podcast, the show about international affairs with a focus on East Asia and of course Taiwan.

This week, I bring you the last of my interviews conducted during a recent trip to Washington DC. This time we have the President of FAPA (Formosan Association for Public Affairs) Minze Chien (簡明子). FAPA is a DC-based organization whose mission is to educate US policymakers about Taiwan, with the goal of establishing official diplomatic relations between the US and Taiwan. They also advocate for full Taiwanese independence. We interviewed Chien in-person at FAPA’s Washington office. Given the...

This week, we have another interview recorded during a recent trip to Washington DC. This time, we have Russell Hsiao, executive director of the Global Taiwan Institute, a DC-based think tank focusing exclusively on Taiwan related issues and research. Russell is also a senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, and adjunct fellow at Pacific Forum. This interview was conducted in their offices, which is in a very nice historic building near Dupont Circle. 

This weekend, the G7 meeting will be held in Hiroshima, Japan. In light of that, in this episode of the podcast I bring you another interview with a top expert in Japanese security policy, this time we have Yuki Tatsumi of the Stimson Center in Washington DC. This is another in this podcast's DC series of interviews conducted in person during a recent trip to Washington. This interview was conducted at the Stimson Center’s office, where Tatsumi-san was nice enough to lend both her time and a...

As tensions have heated up in the Taiwan Strait the past several years, public conversations about Taiwan, its defense and the various scenarios arising from a military conflict remain focused on the militaries of China, the US, and Taiwan. However, one topic which is of great interest to me is how other neighboring countries would get involved. Japan and increasingly the Philippines, may have a role to play in a Taiwan contingency, and clearly have skin in the game in any conflict in the...

In our premiere episode, host Chris Gorin has a conversation with Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies (lower house of the Czech parliament) Markéta Pekarová Adamová. This conversation was recorded just after her return from her trip to Taiwan where she led a delegation of more than 150 people from government, academia, and business. She discusses why the Czech Republic is stepping up its engagement with Taiwan, and how the war in Ukraine has affected how Europe sees Taiwan.

Food journalist Clarissa Wei shares what makes Taiwanese unique and different than Chinese cuisine.

President Tsai Ing-wen will transit in the US and meet with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.  Natalie Tso speaks to Tamkang University Professor Alexander Huang about how China may react to the plan to meet in California and whether these high profile meetings benefit Taiwan.

The US has approved US$619 million worth of arms sales to Taiwan including missiles for its F16 fighter jets, and will be sending more troops towards Taiwan.  Natalie Tso speaks with military strategist Tamkang University Professor Alexander Huang about the significance of these packages.

Natalie Tso speaks with Belize Ambassador Candace Pitts and Taiwan's ambassador to the United States Hsiao Bi-khim about their work and their insights for women today.

Oriana Skylar Mastro, Center Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, believes that Japan can help avert a war in the Taiwan Strait.  Join Natalie Tso as she speaks with Mastro about why she think Japan should do more to deter China from attacking Taiwan.

Japan should help avert a war in the Taiwan Strait. That's what Oriana Skylar Mastro, Center Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, thinks. Natalie Tso speaks with Mastro about how Japan can help deter China from attacking Taiwan.

In the wake of recent mass shootings in Asian American communites, Natalie Tso speaks with Grace Huang, Director of Policy at the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence about the prevalence of domestic violence against Asian women and its relevance to mass shootings.