Project

The Silent War

With democracies around the world under siege from a wave of anti-establishment populism, Xi Jinping's "China Model" is being promoted as a viable alternative. When Beijing imposed a new national security law in Hong Kong, the city’s ensuing crisis marked a crucial turning point of the New Cold War between the United States and China. Taiwan and Hong Kong now find themselves at the heart of a geopolitical fault line of this era-defining clash between two superpowers ──the new West Berlin and East Berlin of the 21st century.

Amber Lin, the Pulitzer Center’s 2019-2020 Persephone Miel fellow, investigates such tensions in her project “The Silent War” and how interactions between China and its periphery are reshaping Chinese-speaking societies in Asia. In particular, she explores Beijing’s growing economic and political influence campaigns advocating their “Chinese dream” over Taiwan; and how the self-ruled island’s vibrant democracy has responded.

Will Kinmen, Taiwan’s Frontline, Become the Next Crimea?

Kinmen, the closest island territory of Taiwan to China and once a part of the international anti-communism battlefront, has today become part of China’s “unification” plan for Taiwan. While "one country, two systems" is facing an unprecedented challenge in Hong Kong, the propaganda for Taiwan continues. Meanwhile, a referendum on a "one country, two systems experimental zone" has been quietly unfolding on Kinmen.