In early December, Taiwan President William Lai Ching-te embarked on his first foreign travel, visiting three Pacific Island nations with stopovers in Hawaii and Guam. Upon his return, China deployed a show of military force to send a clear message that Beijing is intent on ratcheting up its coercion in the region and further squeezing Taiwan’s international space.

Type: Question and Answer

In January of this year, Nauru switched recognition from Taiwan to China, reducing the number of Taiwan’s partners from 13 to 12. It did so two days after Taiwan’s presidential elections produced an outcome that was unwelcome in Beijing: four more years of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taipei.

Type: Analysis

While the Pacific Islands are responsible for less than 1 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions, they face disproportionate impacts from climate change. These impacts are wide ranging: rising sea levels, salinization and dwindling availability of fresh water, increasing and more intense tropical storms, floods, drought, ocean acidification and coral reef bleaching. Already, NASA finds that sea level rise in Tuvalu is 1.5 times faster than the global average — and is expected to more than double by 2100.

Type: Analysis