Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The decades-long struggle of Siraya and other Pingpu (plains indigenous) people to be recognized as official indigenous groups saw a major breakthrough last week, as the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously in their favor.

Unanimous rulings are quite rare, and the government has three years to facilitate their recognition. The Pingpu groups have suffered heavy cultural and population loss due to their proximity to Han settlers over the centuries, compared with the 16 recognized indigenous groups who mostly occupied mountainous areas that were technically off-limits to the Han until the late 1800s.

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite technology has once again grabbed international attention after Apple in September introduced a feature allowing iPhone 14 users in the US and Canada to send emergency messages from remote locations through satellites. This comes as Space X’s satellite service, Starlink, plays a key role in providing Internet access in Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion.

In Taiwan, the big-three telecoms have been preparing to launch satellite broadband services. Although Taiwan has relatively good 4G and 5G network coverage, along with an extensive fiber-optic network, some mountainous and remote areas still have spotty Internet service.