From Poland to Washington: How Overseas Taiwanese Build an International Voice for Taiwan?

In this episode, host Stan begins with his summer vacation experience in Poland to explore how overseas Taiwanese use their foreign language skills and professional backgrounds to speak up for Taiwan in international media (such as The Washington Times and The Diplomat), thereby establishing international discourse power. The program also touches upon the visit of Minister Lin Chia-lung to Poland and the progress of the Taiwan Expo, while analyzing the phenomenon of certain pro-CCP individuals and former unemployed U.S. officials being bought off by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

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Listening to the news straight is the most satisfying; I am your host, Stan. Welcome, everyone. Europe is currently experiencing a bit of a heatwave, so Europe is now as thin as President Xi. There is a heatwave; President Xi is very thin, but there is a heatwave. Our circle is still not very large, but I feel that everyone is hot, that kind of very hot feeling, the kind of excitement where it feels like it's about to flow out. It's just that this year is really a bit more dangerous. Including Poland, generally speaking, Poland is usually a bit cooler, slightly cooler than France, Spain, or Italy, but this year many places in Poland have also reached 40 degrees. So today, Tai Tai, our cat Jiu Jiu, and I, since the second surgery was just finished and we are afraid of the heat—the indoor temperature in our home has already reached over 30 degrees—we decided to go to the seaside to escape the heat, just for a few days. I rented a very cheap homestay, and we will stay here. This is also my advice to everyone: if you are Taiwanese friends in Europe, when you encounter such heatwaves, because many places do not have air conditioning—including Germany and Italy, places that are very hot in the summer often don't install air conditioning for you—if you have the chance, you might want to go to places with forests, go to the mountains, or go to the seaside. You might need to take a few days off, especially to avoid staying in the city, because of public transportation; for example, Berlin doesn't have air conditioning, and Paris doesn't have air conditioning. The subway in Warsaw, Poland, has air conditioning, but not every country is as developed as Poland, nor are they as happy as Poland. So everyone must take good care. Even in Gdansk, by the Baltic Sea, which is a big city in Poland, some places are reaching 36 degrees. The place we arrived at is slightly in the middle; it's not the furthest west nor the furthest east, and the sea here happens to be a bit colder. The temperature this year is 25 degrees, which is generally cooling for this area, but when encountering this kind of heatwave across Poland and Europe, going to such a place is better. And this sea is the Baltic Sea, because some people say, 'You Poles don't have a sea, what is this?' Isn't this the Baltic Sea? We have a sea, and we can eat fresh fish, we can relax a little, and it's not that hot. So, if you have to, if you insist on staying in the city, you must pay attention: you can go to places with air conditioning, like department stores, try to go there as much as possible. If you are at home, you must stay at home, and you can draw a cold water bath to lower the overall temperature of your house slightly. Prepare some ice cubes, drink some cold things, because this kind of weather is truly very abnormal. Every year, if you encounter such an exaggerated heatwave, some people unfortunately lose their lives, so you must take good care of your physical health and personal safety. This is the main point I wanted to tell everyone today. During a heatwave, this is not a joke. Some people say Europe is colder, but we have very cold winters and very hot summers, so you must be careful. Recently, more and more people in Poland are installing air conditioning because, regarding those environmental protection things pushed by the left, Poles don't really accept them. Because in reality, the country that is the biggest destroyer of the environment, taking environmental protection as a whole, is China, followed by India and Russia. A small European family running air conditioning will not affect the environment. So, if you have air conditioning at home, don't skimp on it, and don't feel that the polar bears are pitiful. It's not you who is killing the polar bears; it's not your air conditioning. What is really harming the polar bears are the factories in China. If you buy fewer junk products made in China, the polar bears can live healthily and happily. You can still run your air conditioning at home.

So today I want to talk to you about another topic, one that is a bit more relaxed. It's about how to promote Taiwan when you are overseas. What inspired me to talk about this is that recently, Minister Lin Chia-lung was in Warsaw, where he also held a Taiwan image exhibition. Recently, there has been tremendous progress and many breakthroughs in technological and semiconductor development between Poland and Taiwan. I feel that, to some extent, our hard-news reporting probably made a small contribution to this. Recently, because I personally have always placed great emphasis on whether foreign members of parliament, political leaders, and think tanks understand Taiwan, I also try my best—aside from doing my street interviews and my academic-related research—to frequently submit opinion pieces to American media outlets. As it happens, things have gone quite smoothly during this period, with two articles published. The media outlet is one I have known for quite some time, and they place a great deal of importance on cross-strait issues. It is called The Washington Times—not The Washington Post, but The Washington Times. Furthermore, The Washington Times is widely read within the American conservative circle, including many people in the current administration who read it. My first article mainly discussed the issue of Taiwan's defense budget, why the United States must support Taiwan regarding national defense and self-defense capabilities, and provided some policy recommendations to the U.S. government. The second article discussed Zheng Liwen—the chairperson of the Chinese Kuomintang, a chairperson who no longer speaks up for the people of Taiwan at all, but rather acts as a chairperson for a Chinese party and even as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party. During her visit to the United States, I analyzed how the U.S. viewed this matter: Beijing rolled out the red carpet for her, but Washington gave her the cold shoulder because they knew her stance was very pro-China, and every other word out of her mouth was about Xi Jinping. So why would they listen to her when they could listen to the real Xi Jinping? They didn't need to listen to Zheng Liwen, so many of her meetings and appointments with U.S. constitutional officials were canceled. I was analyzing this event, and the response has been quite good. I am very grateful to everyone. If you are interested in this matter, you are welcome to read more of my published pieces in The Diplomat and The Washington Times.

I want to tell everyone one thing: if you have foreign language skills and some professional background and literacy, I strongly recommend that, in addition to making content like our hard-news programs—because we also have an English channel, a Chinese channel, and all sorts of content to let more people understand what is happening in Taiwan—you should also try to write about Taiwan if your English proficiency or other language skills are sufficient and you have a professional background. This is because experts who understand Taiwan overseas are few and far between. Moreover, many of them originally had no background in Taiwan studies; they might have had a Sinology background, originally understanding and studying China, and only later started reading content related to Taiwan or taking a trip to Taiwan. Most people are still relatively unfamiliar with Taiwan. Therefore, at this time, I hope the voices of the Taiwanese people can be heard. So if you are a Taiwanese scholar, please try to write more content about your observations of Taiwan's politics, and submit to all kinds of media outlets. It doesn't have to be a major media outlet; medium-sized media or local media in various countries are also fine. Just try to submit, try to write your analysis, and try to let more people understand and know about Taiwan. This is a suggestion I have for everyone. Of course, after writing an article, try to find a native speaker to help proofread it and check how the content is before submitting it. Basically—because some fan friends have written to me saying, "I wrote this submission, but it never gets published, you know?"—well, I write a lot, and most of them don't get published either. So that is completely normal. You just have to keep writing, keep writing continuously. Sometimes a topic happens to connect with current events or fits the editorial direction of the media, and that's when it might have a chance to be published. But you just have to keep writing; the more you write, the higher your chances of getting published in the media.

However, in Taiwan, there are certainly some foreigners who leech off Taiwan, suck up to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and are pro-China. They eat Taiwan's food, drink Taiwan's water, live in Taiwan, but cannot stand to see Taiwan do well, and make a living by cursing Taiwan every day. What I want to talk about is that recently, this person—I feel like this person is truly harboring a secret crush on me, writing cynical and sarcastic posts about me almost every few days. Some people are truly like fungus, acting as fungal parasites on Taiwan. Some of them even run a fan page with 200,000 followers on platforms like China's Jinri Toutiao. One look and you can tell where these people truly stand and who they are speaking for. Most of these people do not critique your arguments or points; instead, they look at your identity and attack you based on your identity or political stance, ignoring the actual content you wrote. These people simply cannot stand to see Taiwan do well, yet the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) love to hire these people as their consultants, analysts, or self-proclaimed lawyers. Putting it that way—now, as for this matter, my previous video is one I strongly recommend you watch because I spent a considerable amount of time doing research, analysis, and reading various think tank reports to piece together how the CCP is currently using recruitment websites to find more spies, among other things. Part of that link will be placed in the live chat, and you can check it out. This video is extremely important, but because the algorithm heavily suppresses this type of content, the traffic isn't great right now. Therefore, I highly recommend that everyone share this video with your friends and family. The main point is that former U.S. government officials, after leaving office, sometimes struggle to find jobs and will put their personal information on websites like LinkedIn, where they get approached by CCP spies. The largest scale of this probably occurred around 2024 to 2025 with Musk's DOGE, which is the Department of Government Efficiency. A huge number of people working for the U.S. government became unemployed and lost their jobs, leading to a lot of people being approached during that time. But basically, apart from that period, every time the U.S. government undergoes a regime change—shifting from Democrats to Republicans, or Republicans to Democrats—many new administration officials lose their jobs. After losing their jobs, not all of them succeed; some might fail at entrepreneurship and keep waiting for any other opportunity to make money, and those individuals are bound to be approached by the CCP. Because when it comes to overseas propaganda, the CCP has money to spare, so it will co-opt and buy out these people. If you sometimes wonder why someone is clearly American yet suddenly starts speaking for the Chinese Communist Party, there is a very high likelihood that there is a story like this behind the scenes. So, I really recommend watching that video, because some experts might have genuinely worked in the U.S. government in the past, might truly have had academic credentials, and might actually have done legitimate, proper research before. But as time goes on, they find no foothold, and other than sucking up to the CCP, they have no career trajectory left. The CCP gives them everything, so they sell out their conscience and their past achievements to speak against the enemy's regime. Therefore, one must be extremely careful around such people. I see there are a few in Taiwan—people who leech off Taiwan and are Taiwanese, but make a living by cursing Taiwan, which is quite despicable.

Today, my sharing is mainly to encourage everyone to speak up more for Taiwan. If you have a professional field or foreign language skills, please do so frequently overseas. Minister Lin Chia-lung, when he was in Poland, told Taiwanese students there that each and every one of you is an ambassador and a staff member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Because when you are abroad, your identity as a Taiwanese person represents your country and represents Taiwan. I strongly agree with Minister Lin Chia-lung's statement, so we must each play our part as a small Taiwanese ambassador, helping people where you are located understand Taiwan better. Now, during this heatwave, please pay attention to not spending too much time outside. If you have the opportunity, try to turn on the air conditioning as much as possible and find cooler places. Going to the beach is of course best, but not everyone's conditions allow for that, so you must take care of your physical health and personal safety. Thank you everyone! See you next time! Bye-bye!