Michael Turton

Memorial plate for Gottfried Böhm at the gate of a church.

A Tin pyramid.

I am a huge fan of Gottfried Böhms architecture.

And friends of mine just came across the Jinglio "Holy Cross Church" in Taiwan while cycling.

Built in 1960.

A proportion reportedly similar to Special Forces. Not a coincidence.

It's just going to depend on some domestic calculus that we don't have much access to. And it's going to come much quicker than we think. Recently experts have been talking about how quickly they could launch, Will be lucky to get two weeks notice

No I think that was too alarmist, not because the thread isn't there but because all Xi was doing was making the standard invocation to the military to tell them to be ready.

China military flights near Taiwan resume after mysterious seven-day absence The stretch was part of a broader trend this year that has seen far fewer flights compared with the same time period in 2025.

Chinese military flights near Taiwan resumed Saturday after a mysterious seven-day absence, the longest stint since Taipei started releasing regular updates on Beijing’s activities around the democratic island.

It's striking how many of us have come around to that opinion

Colby poses a direct threat to Taiwan's security and has done so from the very beginning.

Well new US weapons systems are expected at the decades close. So PRC planners might move earlier to avoid that. However, Trump is so effectively destroying US power they may hold off for a little while longer just to see how bad things can get.

I am 35 years in Taiwan, so you can imagine how curious i am about that.

2/ This is partly because the PRC is so opaque, and partly because there is always some event in the world that the PRC could plausibly be responding to, so just-so stories about its behavior are easy to construct.

1/ Haha. No. Beijing was taking a break for internal reasons. "Two sessions" meetings. It's always best when assessing the PRC's behavior to put a heavier emphasis on internal dynamics, and to discount events as responses to outside events.

Source

#Taiwan

台南
my favorite city in Taiwan ☺️ (so far)

These used to cluster in their hundreds by my house in Tanzi.

Photo By ANIDA ARIPIN

© franegan / iNaturalist

© Melvyn Yeo / iNaturalist

Todays wasp is the Hübner's Wasp Moth (Amata huebneri)

This intimidating little fellow is found in Northan Australia and the islands above it, all the way up to Taiwan and parts of China!

Wingspan ranges between 3-4cm!

#moths #mothposting

PRC is teaching its drones to mimic aircraft signals. Such spoofing will help hide an attack.

According to a number of observers, PLA air activities drop each year during the "Two Sessions" meetings. This chart from Brian Hart, compiled LAST YEAR.

Taiwan defense firm NCSIST plans to develop an XQ-58 Valkyrie-like collaborative combat aircraft with US defense firm Kratos, sources tell Liberty Times.

The platform is designed for use with the F-CK-1 fighter, with which it is expected to share an engine.

Hit the hills today. State of the world required therapy.

NEW: The PRC is experimenting w/ using aerial drones to transmit false aircraft signals to confuse adversaries’ threat awareness and to disguise malign activities. This cognitive warfare tactic mirrors similar signal spoofing by PRC seaborne vessels around Taiwan & elsewhere. isw.pub/ChinaTaiwanU...

Taiwan’s ‘Social Shield’: The Democratic Stakes Beyond Semiconductors In any scenario where Taiwan loses its democratic sovereignty, Taiwanese women lose first and lose most.

In any scenario where Taiwan loses its democratic sovereignty, Taiwanese women lose first and lose most.

The U.S. imports semiconductors from Taiwan & South Korea, both are dependent on Qatar’s LNG with small reserves.

archive.is/Rilud

With all that is going on, Xi might have greater leverage over Trump on economic issues (as inflation and unemployment both rise in US) as well as Middle East politics (China could be necessary in aftermath of Iran war). Many ways Trump might sell out Taiwan.

Indeed, all of modern PRC is an empire stitched together from invasions/occupations of territory that belonged to the previous Manchu (Qing) empire but never to any Chinese emperor's domain, much as today Putin is attempting to re-assemble the imperial USSR. That includes Taiwan....

China’s Date Debate China’s Date Debate is an in-depth investigation of the Chinese Communist Party’s remapping of China’s World War II timeline from eight years (1937-–1945) to fourteen years (1931–1945). Instead of the...

For those interested in how PRC imperialism and expanionism was constructed....
press.umich.edu/Books/C/Chin...

Intel

For the seventh consecutive day, no Chinese People’s Liberation Army military aircraft have been detected in Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone, marking the longest absence recorded. #Taiwan #PLA

Journalist Melissa Chan (@melissakchan.bsky.social) joins the podcast to discuss her debut graphic novel, "You Must Take Part in Revolution." Created with activist artist Badiucao (@badiucao.bsky.social), the book explores a dystopian future involving Hong Kong, Taiwan, and rising authoritarianism.

Hormuz Is the Hidden Risk to the AI Economy A world where we can cook up AI videos in seconds from the apps on our phones might seem remote from the physical realities of warfare in the seaways of the Persian Gulf. In fact, they’re closely inte...

South Korea & Taiwan have made many bad energy choices favoring fossil fuel over renewables. They're paying the price now, with repercussions for global technology. The Iran war should make them correct their mistake - @davidfickling.bsky.social

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...