MOFA will follow up with a wide range of activities next year, such as sending performance groups on cultural diplomacy tours throughout the region, according to the director-general. 

An electoral pummeling for Taiwan’s pro-Beijing ruling party and a new spike in prodemocracy protests in Hong Kong have delivered a reality check to Chinese President Xi Jinping just when he was riding a wave of high-profile diplomacy. 

China is using "soft power" in order to overcome decades of confrontation with Taiwan, encouraging the island to reunite with the mainland.

In Kinmen's farming villages, old cottages have been restored and turned into bed-and-breakfasts for visitors to experience traditional architecture and the rhythms of rural life. Crowds are sparse in the off-season, but tourism is the best hope to supplement agricultural incomes now that the soldiers are gone.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou wants to lock in a legacy before leaving office in 2016. He will be remembered for opening talks with Taiwan’s arch-rival China in 2008 after six decades of chill that hobbled the half trillion-dollar economy and sparked threats of war. 

Napoleon Bonaparte once said of China, “Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.” A spate of articles and books has appeared on the rise of China and its possible domination of the world.