Latest Events
Online Forum: China, BRI and Implications on Digital Governance, Authoritarianism and Future of Human Rights
This online discussion invites scholars and activists from the Global South to critically examine China's digital footprint and its implications for human rights. It explores how digital technologies are reshaping logistics, infrastructure, and governance mechanisms, such as Smart Cities and CCTV surveillance systems, and considers how cyber networks and data collection enhance social control in a complex environment.
Screening and Discussion: Clement Town 舒適小鎮
舒適小鎮（Clement Town）命名自當時受到台灣政府經濟支持，在今日印度北安查爾邦（Uttarakhand）建造的隱密小鎮，這個小鎮是擁有1970年代最先進的供水及供電設備的印度城鎮之一，由為台灣工作的當地情報人員設計、建造，據當時一份政府出版品的紀錄，類似的小鎮在與中國接壤的印度領土上曾多達二十多個，後來得以來台就學的孩童，或多或少與這些城鎮的居民有關在這次的計畫當中，我自當年的檔案中篩選出三組透過擺拍所完成的影像，分別是在相館拍攝的紀念照、在基隆港拍攝的合照，與少女們抵台就學前所拍攝的照片。我邀請表演者與當年參與或間接參與接運計畫及邊境上特殊行動的人們見面，試圖透過交談與詮釋，重新創造出這些照片被拍下前的樣貌，部分在當時的拍攝地點，如基隆港西側二號碼頭、今已成為停車場的特殊學校等地，還原照片被拍攝前所發生的事件。
Hsinchu City, Taiwan 300 Taiwan
Screening and Discussion: The Link (2024) [Report]
The Link is a short documentary directed by Musquiqui Chihying and Lou Mo. It explores the connections between migration, slavery, forced labor, extraction, and control techniques in the Global South, with a particular focus on Mauritius. The film also highlights the ties between the 19th century Western colonial period, and 21st century China's "World Digital Brain" ambitions, as pursued by Chinese multinational corporations through submarine cable connections.
Hsinchu City, Taiwan 300 Taiwan
Latest Publication, Book & Podcast
Understanding the International Labour Organization Indicators of Forced Labour: Practical Guide for Taiwan’s SMEs
This is an SME-friendly policy guide in Chinese (traditional) on the International Labour Organization Indicators of Forced Labour. It covers all the indicators and aims to improve SME awareness on international standards concerning these indicators in Taiwan. The guide is a source of authoritative reference materials of continuous learning on forced labour risks in the Taiwanese supply chain. While the guidebook specifically addresses the SMEs, the materials on international standards and Taiwan-specific analyses are relevant for all stakeholders.
Joyce C.H. Liu | Cyber Slavery, Port Cities and Systemic Cruelty
This article presents a theoretical analysis of the logistics of neoliberal slavery in the 21st century, focusing on the role of the port cities as the hinge in the supply chain through the case of the cyber scam industry of the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone. The hinge, in a metonymic and metaphorical way, connects a complex mobile networking system with a multi-dimensional and topological dynamism. The overlaid networks consist of a tripartite operation—the production, the market, and the law—and explains the persistence of human interest in profiting from surplus values through human labor extraction, and the violence and cruelty inherent in this. The logic of circulation no longer follows Marx’s analysis of M-C-M or M-M+, but the formula of V-M+. Through void with no cost, and violence with no law, there is no limit to the multiplication of capital.
Jonathan S. Parhusip | The Making of Freedom and Common Forms of Struggle of Runaways in Taiwan
Local labor laws in Taiwan push migrant workers to run away from contracted employment arrangements and become undocumented. This article examines the common forms of struggle pursued by runaway Indonesian migrant workers with a focus on the informal organizational structures that support their daily survival. To open space for maneuver within nation-state borders, runaway migrant workers utilize their agency and negotiate state and nonstate structures such as recruitment companies, NGOs and civil society organizations, migrant communities, illegal agency services, and taxi drivers.
Joyce C. H. Liu & Brett Neilson | Introduction: Migration Struggles, Colonial Legacies, and Pandemic Shifts
We title this Against the Day section “Migrant Struggles in East and Southeast Asia” with appreciation of this predicament. Our intention is not to enclose experiences of migrant life and struggle within a strict regional frame. Rather, in bringing together contributions that engage with migrant struggles across locations in contemporary Asia, we seek to mark a dissonance and resonance with migrant projects in other parts of the world.
Mei-Lin Pan | Neither compatriots nor refugees: Status discrimination of exiled Tibetans and the contradictory faces of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
Taiwan’s ambiguity of identity pushes the government neither to treat Tibetan refugees in Taiwan as compatriots nor accept their status as refugees. Placed under double liminal status, exiled Tibetan refugees in Taiwan have been discriminated against and denied their entitled human rights. This paper provides two cases to reveal the very real difficulty of their situation in Taiwan. Both stories present the kind of dilemma the exiled Tibetans face in Taiwan due to this double liminality.
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