Long-form features

CNN

How a CIA informant stopped Taiwan from developing nuclear weapons

In January 1988, one of Taiwan’s most senior nuclear engineers defected to the United States after passing crucial intelligence on a top-secret program that would alter the course of Taiwan’s history. Colonel Chang Hsien-yi was a leading figure in Taiwan’s nuclear weapons project, a closely guarded secret between the 1960s and ‘80s, as Taipei raced to develop its first nuclear bomb to keep pace with China. He was also a CIA informant.

CNN

Taiwan faces a flood of disinformation from China ahead of crucial election. Here’s how it’s fighting back

According to a Taiwanese security document obtained and reviewed exclusively by CNN, authorities are investigating an incident in the summer, during which they believed China may be training for a “false flag” operation – one that could be used to justify a future military attack against Taiwan.

REST OF WORLD

Burning threads: How a raucous internet forum became ground zero for the Hong Kong protests

One afternoon this past October, Nick, a university student in Hong Kong, unlocked his smartphone and logged into LIHKG, a website that looked like a Cantonese-language version of Reddit. Nothing about the site’s appearance suggested that it, along with the messaging app Telegram, had become the primary organizing center of protests that had been shaking the city for months.

SCMP

Jaws filmmaker among conservationists in battle to protect Earth’s underwater species

Beneath the shallow blue waters off eastern Australia lies one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems, which is a common “bucket list” travel destination best known for its colourful coral and marine life. However, as much as the Great Barrier Reef is treasured by nature lovers around the world, the coral areas have been steadily declining.

CNN

A weapons stockpile and asymmetric warfare: how Taiwan could thwart an invasion by China – with America’s help

When Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen defied warnings from China to meet with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California, Beijing’s aggressive military response reverberated around the world. But analysts say a recent announcement could prove a game-changer: talks between Taipei and the United States to establish a “contingency stockpile” of munitions on Taiwan’s soil.

CNN

‘White terror’: Why a decades-old deadly crackdown on democracy is becoming more important for Taiwan today

As a young man, Fred Chin spent years imprisoned on a craggy island off Taiwan. He was one of up to 200,000 imprisoned during what became known as Taiwan’s “white terror,” a four-decade crackdown on political dissent imposed by an authoritarian regime between 1947 and 1987.

CNN

A China-Taiwan DMZ? Meet the Kinmen islanders who want a bridge, not a war

As the sun sets over Taiwan’s Kinmen islands, the neon lights of mainland China dazzle in the distance just 2.5 miles away. Yet as striking as the lights on the horizon are the reminders, everywhere, of war. Kinmen’s beaches are lined with anti-invasion spikes, its islands dotted with aging military posts, its streets home to countless bomb shelters – defenses prepared long ago for an invasion that never came. Or, at least, one that hasn’t come yet.

CNN

‘Burn with us’: How a summer of protest pushed young Hong Kongers to the edge

Jim bent over, collapsed and started crying. The 16-year-old didn’t want to abandon the injured man next to him. He applied gauze to stop the man’s eye from gushing with blood, but he still was having trouble walking. Jim tried to carry him, but only made it a few feet. Clouds of tear gas were closing in. Rubber bullets had been flying overhead. The teenager’s hours of first aid work on the front line had taken their toll. Physically he couldn’t carry the wounded man any more. All he could do was cry.

THE GUARDIAN

Screened out? Film charting Hong Kong’s umbrella movement struggles to be seen

As police tear gas rained down on student protesters, Chan Tsz-woon grabbed his Canon 50D camera and raced to the frontline. It was the night of 28 September 2014 and, as the umbrella movement protests erupted on the streets of Hong Kong, the young filmmaker decided it was his mission to make a visual record of the historic political convulsion.

REST OF WORLD

‘Control, Alter, Delete’: Hong Kong activists are hurrying to digitise historical records under threat from creeping censorship

The only museum in the world dedicated to preserving the memory of the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4, 1989, was on the 10th floor of a small commercial building in the Mong Kok area of Kowloon, Hong Kong. Since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, the museum had been racing to digitise its exhibits, creating a comprehensive and searchable online database that could become a repository for banned knowledge about the events of 1989.