France Formosa
Our contributions in French and international media
A referendum and the regulator will decide whether Taiwan’s reactors restart. Yet the decisive factors lie elsewhere: uranium markets, foreign suppliers, contracts Taipei never signed under its own name and unresolved waste storage all sit outside the domestic debate.
Read the articleConnecting Kinmen to Fujian’s grid is technically feasible; Taiwanese law forbids it. Behind that refusal lies Beijing’s cross-strait ‘integrated development’ strategy, which uses infrastructure to normalise dependency — and Taipei’s duty to offer islanders a credible renewable alternative.
Read the articleThe Taiwan Energy Security and Anti-Embargo Act offers real support — LNG exports, war-risk insurance. But it entrenches the island’s reliance on seaborne fuel, when genuine security requires domestic generation that no blockade can cut off.
Read the articleTaiwan already imports 97 percent of its energy. Meeting rising demand with more imported gas deepens that dependency, when geothermal and offshore wind offer resources produced at home.
Read the articleTaiwan’s revised energy management law should require renewables for large industrial consumers generating their own power. Allowing imported-gas units merely shifts the point of vulnerability instead of strengthening the island’s autonomy.
Read the articleTaiwan holds roughly 10GW of exploitable geothermal capacity. What blocks it is not the geology but the institutions: exploration risk sits entirely with private developers, in the absence of an inter-agency body with genuine financial and risk-sharing powers.
Read the articleAn interview for the programme ‘Taiwan vs. the World’: where state diplomacy runs into constraints, local authorities open another route. Twinning builds lasting ties through economic, academic and cultural exchange.
Read the articleLacking formal recognition, Taiwan exercises de facto sovereignty through three channels: the TECRO/TECO network of 111 offices across 57 countries, NGO diplomacy, and decentralised cooperation between cities and universities.
Read the articleTaiwanese consumers pay for electricity twice: once through artificially low tariffs, then through the taxes that absorb the public utility’s losses. The problem is less technical than political — it rests on the stability of energy governance.
Read the articleThe arithmetic is straightforward and uncomfortable. By the end of 2025, Taiwan had committed itself to a 50-30-20 electricity mix — half natural gas, 30 per cent coal, 20 per cent renewables. The numbers raise fundamental questions about the island’s energy security.
Read the articleTaiwan’s offshore wind programme is among the most ambitious in Asia outside China. Read alongside the French case, it raises the question every transition faces: who bears the territorial cost of decarbonisation, and by what standard of justice?
Read the articleFormer Polish president Lech Walesa in March landed in Taipei for his seventh visit. His presence underscores a reality that formal diplomacy struggles to acknowledge: city-to-city relations form an indispensable safety net for Taiwan’s international engagement.
Read the articleThe gap between the tariff charged and the real cost is not a subsidy but a debt: Taipower’s cumulative losses reached NT$417.9 billion by July 2025. Under-priced electricity discourages renewable investment just as AI drives demand upward.
Read the articlePolarisation between the presidential camp and the parliamentary opposition is paralysing whole areas of Taiwanese public policy. Those internal divisions hand Beijing leverage that no external pressure could have produced.
Read the articleThe cancelation of President William Lai’s state visit to Eswatini is one more measure of Taiwan’s shrinking executive diplomatic space. Facing Beijing’s pressure, the island is developing alternative channels to maintain its international presence.
Read the articleIn April 2026, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar withdrew overflight clearances for President Lai Ching-te under pressure from Beijing. A new grammar of coercion — silent, distant, delegated — whose precedent Europe would do well to weigh.
Read the articleA policy paper on the KMT’s reorientation under its new leadership. The rhetorical shift of Taiwan’s main opposition party alters the island’s internal balance and, with it, the terms of the cross-strait debate.
Read the articleOn April 21, 2026, Taiwan’s presidential secretariat announced the postponement of President Lai Ching-te’s official visit to Eswatini. Behind this quiet postponement lies a demonstration of Beijing’s diplomatic power, successfully restricting the Taiwanese president’s international room for maneuver.
Read the articleTaiwan’s semiconductor industry consumes electricity at rates that would strain most national grids. But beneath the volcanic island lie untapped geothermal resources that could transform the country’s energy balance.
Read the articleKMT chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s use of ‘imperialist forces’ language during a China visit marks a significant rhetorical shift in cross-strait politics, departing from the traditional ‘1992 Consensus’ ambiguity and reshaping Taiwan’s democratic fault lines.
Read the articleTaiwan’s energy debate is too often reduced to emission trajectories or electricity pricing. In reality, it is a question of national security: the island under pressure must reconcile energy transition, technological ambitions, and geopolitical vulnerabilities.
Read the articleTaiwan no longer wants to merely manufacture the chips that power artificial intelligence. It aims to build the software, platforms and services that run on them. But between vision and execution, structural obstacles are piling up.
Read the articleTaiwan imports 97 percent of its primary energy. LNG reserves counted in days, a reopened nuclear debate and rising semiconductor demand leave the island with compounding strategic exposure in a tense geopolitical environment.
Read the articleAs Taiwan seeks to exit nuclear power and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, geothermal energy remains largely untapped. Yet the island’s volcanic geology offers considerable potential for stable, low-carbon electricity generation.
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