Taiwan Research Hub

Fearful Summitry: Xi Jinping’s Meeting with Donald Trump and Implications for Taiwan and Cross-Strait Relations
Written by Jacques deLisle.

This article argues that though Taiwan avoided the worst imagined outcomes from the Trump-Xi summit, the uncertainty and, in turn, the fears yielded by the meeting reflect, and are likely to worsen, the challenges Taiwan faces in cross-Strait and international relations. For Taiwan, all of this means deepening challenges in evaluating risks and making difficult policy choices.
https://taiwaninsight.org/2026/06/04/fearful-summitry-xi-jinpings-meeting-with-donald-trump-and-implications-for-taiwan-and-cross-strait-relations/

This week Dr Chun-yi Lee Director of the Taiwan Research Hub, joined the Taiwan-US Europe Next Generation Working Group in Taipei.
1. Taiwan-US Europe Next Generation Working Group at Legislative Yuan Building
2 Visit to MOFA, for the US-Taiwan-Europe Next Generation working group, organised by Institute of East Asia Studies, UC Berkeley
3. Visit to Human Rights Museum in Taipei with former Prime Minister Su Tseng-Chang

After Beijing: Taiwan and the Summit Calendar of Constructive Strategic Stability
Written by Percy Yixuanchen Yu.

This article argues that the Beijing summit between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump revealed a harder and more unprecedented form of great-power coexistence with multiple areas operating at once. Taiwan is becoming one of the key battlegrounds on which Beijing and Washington seek long-term advantage amid risk management.

https://taiwaninsight.org/2026/06/01/after-beijing-taiwan-and-the-summit-calendar-of-constructive-strategic-stability/

Beyond the Hype: a holistic view of Taiwan’s national passion – Baseball, is our system healthy?
Written by Yenting Lin.
Image credit: 賴清德/ Facebook.

Amid baseball’s rise to national prominence in Taiwan, this article assesses whether the baseball system is truly healthy. While the system can produce popularity and results, the issue is structural – fragmented governance, weak development systems, and shallow industry. This article argues that Taiwan should improve its long-term investment and development.
https://taiwaninsight.org/2026/05/22/beyond-the-hype-a-holistic-view-of-taiwans-national-passion-baseball-is-our-system-healthy/

Island: My Encounter with Emma Teng’s Taiwan’s Imagined Geography
Written by Jo-Tzu Huang.
Emma Teng’s Taiwan’s Imagined Geography has inspired the author to rethink Taiwan through settler-colonial and imperial frameworks. Teng’s analysis of Qing travel writings reveals how geography and identity were constructed. It challenges Western-centric colonial theories and prompts reflection on Taiwan’s layered colonial histories within global human geography discourse.
https://taiwaninsight.org/2026/05/21/reorienting-taiwan-on-turtle-island-my-encounter-with-emma-tengs-taiwans-imagined-geography/

Taiwan Research Hub PhD Scholarship (2026/27)
is now live at https://jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=SOC585
Please help us to spread this opportunity as wide as possible.
All information in the link and
The deadline for applications is 5pm on 26 June 2026.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email
[email protected]

An Old Book of Taiwan Studies: On Leo T.S. Ching, Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation
Written by Yu-Han Huang.

Image credit: Cover of Becoming Japanese, published by the University of California Press.

Reflecting on formative undergraduate experiences, the author traces how studying Japanese colonial Taiwan and reading Leo Ching’s Becoming “Japanese” shaped his academic path. Ching’s analysis of colonial identity formation, despite criticisms, offered a framework to understand Taiwan’s complex identity and revealed how colonial legacies continue to influence Taiwanese self-consciousness.

https://taiwaninsight.org/2026/05/19/an-old-book-of-taiwan-studies-on-leo-t-s-ching-becoming-japanese-colonial-taiwan-and-the-politics-of-identity-formation/

Old Books in Taiwan Studies: Chou Wanyao’s “The kōminka movement: Taiwan under wartime Japan, 1937-1945”
Written by Catherine Tsai.

Image credit: Cover of A New Illustrated History of Taiwan (2020), published by SMC Publishing Inc.

This article examines Chou Wan-yao’s study of kōminka policies in colonial Taiwan. The author argues that Chou’s work on the relationships between assimilation, identity formation, and wartime mobilisation has served as foundational to Taiwan-centred historiography in both Sinophone and Anglophone contexts.

https://taiwaninsight.org/2026/05/18/old-books-in-taiwan-studies-chou-wanyaos-the-kominka-movement-taiwan-under-wartime-japan-1937-1945/

Bridging the Gap: How Walking, Healing, and Gardening Connect Universities with Migrants
Image credit: Provided by Yun-Chi Lee, Tzu-Chi Ou, and Zi-Yu Agnes Hu

Written by Tzu-Chi Ou.
Traditional migration studies in Taiwan often treat migrants as mere statistics, leaving students feeling socially disconnected. To bridge this gap, a professor moved beyond the classroom through three hands-on experiments: student-led walking tours, art therapy to process emotional guilt, and a communal “immigrating garden.” These initiatives transform “the other” into a neighbour, fostering genuine empathy and mutual worth.
https://taiwaninsight.org/2026/05/15/bridging-the-gap-how-walking-healing-and-gardening-connect-universities-with-migrants/

Today Dr Chun-yi Lee, Director of the Taiwan Research Hub, at the Annual Oxford Taiwan Studies Conference 2026, Taiwan and Its Neighbours: Indo-Pacific States in a Changing World Order, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford. She presented on ‘Middle Power or Smart Power? Taiwan’s Semiconductor Diplomacy’.