3 Contexts for #KMT's new chair Cheng Li-wun in #Taiwan, a 🧵: 1. A former DPP activist, Cheng is more mass-movement experienced than most existing KMT leaders, making her more outspoken and presentable than her rivals during the KMT chairperson election. (1/4)

My article "Road Not Taken" has just been accepted by the Journal of Asian and African Studies. Thanks the editor of JAAS Prof. TY Wang for his arrangement and two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments. I will write a summary for it once it is available.

I wrote about some of the highlights from municipal elections in Thailand: coffeeparliament.substack.com/p/highlights...

Hong Kong police arrest father and brother of wanted activist Anna Kwok reut.rs/4k1iKeZ

The trophy drought is over😭😭😭😭😭😭 ⚪️⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️ #hwtl⚫️⚪️

Looking forward to more citations with more new pubs in the future!

Just realized that a fellowship (highly relevant to my current research) I thought had ceased accepting applications (checked multiple times on their web earlier last year but no info) is actually still around but I missed the deadline. What a start for 2025 :/

Hi #polisky, asking for myself, what would be the ANES equivalent survey(s) in Japan and South Korea? For Taiwan, I have been using TEDS very often, and I have always been wondering if there are any parallel surveys beyond ABS for further observation.

Regarding the recent legislative aggrandizement attempt in Taiwan where KMT-TPP majority passed bills by force w/o deliberation, the worst thing I saw is that some lawmakers who drove the whole thing are law scholars: they knew how it hurts more than anyone, & they still did it.

What an achievement! Finally another Taiwan Studies program in the world besides SOAS!

goodauthority.org/news/south-k... by @jeanhong.bsky.social

If you have any works on HK politics, plz consider submitting your abstract to GRAPH’s APSA panel by Jan 15! We are a new related group of APSA and this is our first year hosting our own panels. If u dun study HK, spreading the message would also help! Details: graph-hk.github.io/web/conferen...

Are you planning to attend APSA 2025? I'm putting together a panel proposal on democratic backsliding, democratic resilience, and opposition to democratic backsliding for APSA with Erica Frantz. I'm looking for other authors and discussants with interests in those topics. Thanks in advance!!

1/ 🚨 Yoon is now out of office. What happens (or should happen) now? A thread. www.ft.com/content/12c6...

One thing I can tell: Nobody in the pool is either ‘pro-NK’ or ‘pro-China.’ It’s electorally untenable. Maybe more dovish towards NK than Yoon. Maybe more ‘practical’ with China. But definitely no pro-. 2/5

No autocracy would ever-last... apnews.com/article/syri...

Throughout the years, my presentation slides have degenerated(?) from beamer with lots of fancy pictures and layout to now google slides with minimalist theme that contains no bg photos. I guess I am now more into the meat than I was. Anyways, I am very glad that I am now Microsoft-free!

Just wrapped up my dictatorship class with a debate on whether voters should value competency or democratic compliance when electing a political leader. They brought up what they've learned and we ended with some interesting interactions. Can't end a course better with this.

This is not my first time to encounter this but I still find it hilarious whenever a university wants to hire someone to teach things beyond the US (IR/CP/Area or Global Studies) but would screen out candidates who require a visa sponsorship.

Just surveyed my class and only 1 out of 29 of them have heard about the martial law declaration in South Korea. Expected but still a bit saddened by how hard political news outside the US could penetrate the American public…

I am doing my dictatorship class in less than 2 hrs and I am amending my original slides on democratic backsliding this week to include what just happened in SK. Though it seems that Yoon is fast-forwarding his demise by doing so, ppl should never take the resilience of democracy for granted!

#RPVSky I recently taught a workshop on how we can develop a sustainable writing practice. This is what a sustainable writing practice looks like, for me. I wanted to bring this to your attention as today is December 1st, and we all start making plans for the remainder of the month.

The new NYT piece on China's supply chain strategy reveals how Beijing is rewriting the rules of economic warfare. Trump's claim that "China pays for tariffs" fundamentally misunderstands modern economic power. Here's why: 1/ www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/b...

If you are in London next week, join us in this timely symposium about NSL-era Hong Kong, featuring outstanding scholars in law, economy and society of Hong Kong. We thank SOAS China Institute and Georgetown Center for Asian Law for cohosting it. RSVP here: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

It seems that at the end of the day we just can't get rid of bots and fake accounts on any social media platforms. bsky could have been paralyzed by them in the long run if the tech team didn't take them serious.

My latest: China is reportedly investigating a third successive defence minister on suspicion of corruption. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

We’re looking to expand CongressData to include more historic variables, particularly pre-20th century. Would anyone have any historical datasets on the US Congress to suggest that, ideally, have the district-year or member-session as their units of analysis? Thanks so much in advance!! 🙂

Baseball. Taiwan's historic victory in the WBSC Premier12 Championship has allowed further affirmation for the country on the international stage. This gesture by Team Taiwan's captain Chen Chieh-hsien best encapsulates this breakthrough. You can't see any logo or team name? Try harder. Thread. 1/n

I don't watch baseball but this scene of premier 12 final where the captain of Taiwan framing his chest after hitting a three-run homer against Japan really touches me. Playing the only team in premier12 who was forbidden to have country name on jersey, he is reminding the world of his nation.

Created a Taiwan Studies Starter Pack for folks coming from Twitter. Let me know if you ought to be on here! go.bsky.app/TG2GBbz

1/ Detained pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai is set to testify for the first time in his national security trial on Wednesday. As of 7 am, dozens were waiting in the rain outside West Kowloon Law Courts Building for a seat in the public gallery to witness his testimony. Photos: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Things that moved me strongly over the last 24 hrs: - gloom derived from the HK47 trials - Arendt-esque statement from Gwyneth Ho - blistering crowd in MK stadium throughout the football game against Mauritius - Keir Starmer shaking hands with XJP right after the HK47 trials

Breaking: #HongKong High Court has sentenced former HKU law professor Benny Tai to 10 years in jail, the longest sentence so far under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

Perhaps it's time to (re)introduce myself after the recent migrant influx here. I am a poli scientist studying electoral clientelism, local politics/MLG, and topics on dem/autocracy in E Asia (esp. TW & HK). I am now on the market and open to research collaboration. Feel free to HMU for inquiries :)

As folks resume travel to Hong Kong and enjoy your vacation in the region, please remember the repression that's still happening and what that means for local communities.

Among many in HK who were arrested and sued for not standing up and not facing the pitch during the playing of the PRC anthem, another youngster (19-yo) was charged with insulting the PRC anthem in a Hong Kong national football team game this June. (Source: RTHK)

Silver lining: this will probably bring Americanists even closer to Comparativists in the field of political science.

Elon Musk is creative not only in making EVs and reusable rockets, but also means of legal vote buying. I have mixed feeling towards that as a clientelism scholar (+ve: new research ideas; -ve: decline of democracy)

These are great advices for academics as well

Was asked by EUI what my mother tongue is and I saw this. Seriously? Treating Chinese as a single language? This is a huge disrespect to non-Mandarin Sinitic language native speakers.

GRAPH (Global Research Association of Politics in Hong Kong) is now officially an APSA related group! Thanks to all who helped us along the journey. I also feel so honored to serve as the inaugural treasurer. If you are an APSA member please consider joining us for free: apsanet.org/resources/re...

Cover to share (very happy with it) for new edition of Vigil, just for UK & European markets, with a brand new Foreword by Amy Hawkins & Afterword by Kris Cheng, details TK on various mid-to-late January UK launch events (+ one in Berlin), publishes January 7, available for pre oder now

Paul Schuler and I would like to invite you to submit a proposal for a mini-conference on "Un-Democratic Politics" in Seattle as part of the WPSA annual meeting on April 17-19, 2025. If interested, please send a title and abstract here: www.dropbox.com/request/bMva...) by Monday, November 7. (1/5)

My latest peer-reviewed article "Behind the Pursuit of ‘Frozen Garlic’: Changing Trends of Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) Campaigns in Taiwan" in the Journal of Taiwan Politics is now available online: taiwanpolitics.org/article/9405...

Starting Jan 2024, I will be a TFD dissertation fellow for 4 months. Throughout the fellowship period, I will spend the last semester of my PhD in Taiwan to wrap up my dissertation and conduct fieldwork studies. Here I come again, 牛肉麵! (Still on the market tho…)

My best guess of the U.S. and the Indo-Pacific in a second Trump administration is pretty grim. The upside is, it would probably be less grim than the situation in Europe www.eastasiaforum.org/2023/12/24/t...

Come join us at SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies on Dec 6 (Wed)! I will talk about my dissertation research. Event link: www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...

I am shocked (but perhaps not too surprised) when I can still hear faculties in the US not being aware of the OPT issue when it comes to the timing of graduation for international PhD students.