The 2026 ANU Taiwan Update will take place on 8-9 September 2026.
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Since 2022, the ANU Taiwan Update has attracted significant interest by providing a platform for academics, public servants and the engaged public to consider current issues in Taiwan and their implications for the region.
Building on the strengths of recent ANU Taiwan Updates, the ANU has partnered with Victoria University of Wellington/Te Herenga Waka to co-host the Taiwan Update in Wellington from 2025 to 2027.
This 1.5-day program takes place in early September each year and includes presentations by leading scholars in their field followed by a film screening.
Supported by the Australian Centre on China in the World, the ANU Taiwan Update is an initiative under the ANU Taiwan Studies Program — a unique collaboration between The Australian National University (ANU) and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
2026
2025
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2025 has seen Taiwan enter a period of increased uncertainty and instability. Along with the rest of the world, Taiwanese leaders have attempted to navigate the capricious whims of Donald Trump as he attempts to remake trade and international relations. The activities of China—both overt and covert—continue to threaten Taiwan’s sovereignty. And internally, the conflict between the Presidency and executive branch held by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and the Legislature held by the Nationalist Party (KMT) and their allies in the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), has led to legislative gridlock, an attempt at what some analysts have called a ‘constitutional coup’, challenges in the Constitutional court, and a mass recall of KMT member of the legislature. In this year’s Taiwan Update, four international experts will address these, and other, issues facing Taiwan.
2024
The 2024 ANU Taiwan Update examined three issues at the forefront of modern, changing Taiwanese society. The keynote speaker, Tayal scholar Dr Wasiq Silan, focused on social programs run by and for Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, Brian Hioe will discuss the connection between the Sunflower Movement and the recent Bluebird Movement, and we also screened the multiple prize-winning documentary And Miles to Go Before I Sleep, which concerns the police shooting of a Vietnamese migrant worker. Finally, one of Australia’s foremost Taiwan experts, Dr Craig Smith discussed how the various images of Taiwan in the west — exotic island, oppressed colony, capitalist factory, progressive society — have been shaped and propagated.
2023
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In the 2023 ANU Taiwan Update, scholars and commentators grappled with the place of Taiwan in the world, how the Taiwanese government, media, and people deal with the actions of their vast neighbour hovering to their west, the internal challenges of a vibrant, complex, and changing country, and what the future may bring for, arguably, Asia’s most progressive democracy.
January 2024 saw elections for Taiwan’s presidency and for Taiwan’s parliament, the legislative yuan. Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party president, is coming to the end of her two terms, so in May 2024, a new president will be inaugurated. Whether that election will see a second DPP president, or a return to KMT rule, or perhaps the first president from the Taiwan People’s Party, Taiwan’s politics will change. Apart from the cross-strait relationship, the new president will have to face economic issues, some of which resonate with Australia’s experience: that of a slowing from the post-pandemic mini-boom, Chinese trade boycotts, and an aging population. At the same time, Taiwan continues to flourish culturally with writers, filmmakers, musicians, and artists of all kinds engaging with Taiwan’s present and the sometimes overwhelming legacy of colonialism and authoritarianism.