Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen eliminated a major hurdle to a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the United States when she eased restrictions on U.S. pork and beef imports on Friday, a move that carries significant political risk and has sparked concerns among health experts.

Observers of Taiwan’s foreign relations are well aware of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) perennial efforts to isolate Taiwan from the international community. Under the ‘One China’ policy, establishing diplomatic ties with Taiwan is tantamount to breaking up with the PRC.

Recently, Taiwan has been under the spotlight in international media for three main events: passing a same-sex marriage act in May 2019, Tsai winning a reelection in January 2020, and the outstanding performance in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The statehood of Taiwan, however, is not as clear as the above achievements. While numerous international media outlets tend to Taiwan as a self-ruled island-state, others often avoid using the term “country” to describe Taiwan due to the chagrin of Beijing. The duality of reporting exemplifies the dilemma of Taiwan’s statehood.

Chancellor Angela Merkel began her March 18 speech to the German people by acknowledging their pain.

Pew Research Center, an American polling agency, released results of a one-point poll on Taiwanese people on the 12th. The study found that Taiwanese people's favorability with the United States and China is 68% to 35%, which is close to Two to one; the people especially hope that the United States and Taiwan will strengthen bilateral political interaction.

The relationship between the two largest economies in the world has returned to investors' radar, with American accusations about the laboratory origin of the new coronavirus.

Within a month of taking office, KMT Chairman Jiang Qichen initiated a series of reforms within the party, hoping to "redesign" the KMT to regain public recognition. He said at the inauguration ceremony of the new chairman in March: "I hope he can play a role of succession in the future and promote understanding and cooperation between different generations of the party."

Independent theatre producer Lin Chihyu, 29, originally planned to travel to Vietnam with her maternal grandfather to attend a friend's wedding ceremony before Taiwan held general elections in January.