Michael Turton
@michaelturton
Boardgamer. Cyclist. Taipei Times feature writer every Mon & Thurs with Notes from Central Taiwan. Taiwan's status under int'l law remains unresolved. It isn't part of China. Starter pack for Taiwan:
Taiwan is not a province of China. Its status is unresolved under int'l law. The current government administrates, but does not own it. The PRC has no claim whatsoever. The ROC government during its own colonial occupation was well aware of the int'l status of Taiwan....
The vast majority of people on Taiwan don't want to be part of China. They choose "status quo" because it is the closest thing to independence they can get. In two-item polls independence overwhelming -- 70+% www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/a... Annexing Taiwan to China is a fringe position.
A friend posted this to FB: Dakeng in east Taichung last night before the typhoon arrived.
Hahaha. Can't wait for the pro-PRC symps, shills, and morons to tell us how if only Manila had given "assurances" that Batanes would not suffer "permanent separation" from the PRC and what Manila should do is find a "diplomatic off-ramp".
Have been writing about this possibility, which I expected. Arguments for it appeared two decades ago Selling out Taiwan won't bring peace, but a future of constant warfare. www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar...
on X: @mtn_urbanite I don’t usually encounter snakes on the trail, but last weekend I was lucky enough to see a Maki’s keelback (Hebius miyajimae), one of only two snake species in Taiwan listed as Class I Endangered. Feeling truly blessed to have crossed paths with such a beautiful snake.
Dafydd Fell@DafyddFell Taiwan's Semiconductor Miracle: By Tain-Jy Chen, Chin-Tay Shih was published in the Taiwan Book Series I edit back in November 2025, but somehow I just received my copy this week! One of the authors, Chin-Tay Shih featured in the 蕭菊貞 documentary Chip Odyssey
Orchid Island off the coast of Taiwan. One of Earth's beautiful places.
#Taiwan from Ted Huang on the Hellsite: In 1895, Qing China ceded Taiwan & Penghu in perpetuity to Japan. Residents were given 2 years to decide whether to stay or move 99.8% stayed as they had no real choice. Facing survival together in this place they called home, the Taiwanese identity was born
an important commentary on the PRC's extraterritorial Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law that came into force on July 1.
On the left, a statue of Mary, on the right, an earth god shrine. This area of Pingtung is where the iconography of Mary mixes in indigenous and Han folk religious elements. That's a mural of Mary near the Basilica in Wanjin.
From the Hellsite: TaiwanADIZ@adiz_tw (Translated from Chinese) At present, Chinese Communist Party drones are loitering off the coast of Taitung, confirming our earlier statement that Chinese Communist Party drones intend to intrude into the southeastern airspace.
CCP also trying to link with DSA. Code Pink has close ties to the CCP as well. PRC influence activities in the US are thick and strong, very scary. x.com/JacquelineND...
Want to know about left positions on Taiwan? The first writer is an ideological pro-China writer who follows the PRC party line and makes numerous errors and omissions in the presentation. It is crap. After that come several good ones. positionspolitics.org/what-is-a-le...
Meanwhile our hopeless tourism authority promotes... eggs. Scores of peaks over 3000m, some of the world's best cycling, but it is still food promotion because the higher-ups like it. Help! The stoopid, it burns! #Taiwan www.facebook.com/story.php?st...
Formosa TV reporting on Twitter it is suspended. I suspect this is a coordinated bot attack.
Why do we have to keep correcting this, year after year, story after story? When does it stop? The US "acknowledges" but DOES NOT recognize the PRC claim to Taiwan. AP is wrong here (and in the next sentence as well). apnews.com/article/taiw...
@ngoo_u on Twitter: "In 1723, the imperial censor on a tour of inspection of Taiwan, Huang Shujing, already complained that when Taiwanese people Liu called for "liu" and Chen called for "tan," he couldn’t understand a word they were saying." See less