The World Health Organization (WHO) still shuts the door and hasn't sent anyone over to Taiwan to help deal with the latest epidemic. The child of an American diplomat stationed in Vietnam is possibly infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The health authorities of Taiwan immediately extended a helping hand to this American boy.
Director-General of the Department of Health Twu Shiing-jer (
As a result, Twu had to explain that when an infected person travels back to Taiwan by plane, he or she exposes the crew and passengers to the risk of infection. However, the boy in question took a chartered plane. As a consequence, risk of widespread contamination was significantly lower.
The opposition lawmakers may have sounded like they were speaking on the behalf of the ill Taiwanese businessmen, when in reality they were simply grasping at straws in yet another attempt to besmirch the government. They need to remember that on Tuesday the PFP had made a proposal for direct cross-strait charter flights for Taiwanese businessmen, so that they wouldn't have to make transit stops in Hong Kong and Macau where the epidemic is serious. The PFP proposal triggered an uproar. Everyone thought that the PFP must have gone mad over its love for China to the point where it had no regard for people's lives. China is precisely where the epidemic is most serious. No wonder some people have commented that those charter planes would have become "flights of death."
This indicates that the opposition camp is not only using the issue to take jabs at the government, but also to warm up to China. They couldn't care less about the life and death of Taiwanese businessmen. Their dearly beloved China is precisely the one standing between Taiwan and the WHO.
During an interview with CNA, American Institute in Taiwan Director Douglas Paal praised Taiwan for its exceptional and timely measures in stopping further spread of the SARS epidemic. This is worlds apart from the way China has been lying to the WHO and the world about the epidemic. Too bad most countries sit idly by and allow the barbaric China to muscle Taiwan out of the WHO. When right and wrong have been distorted by blurring the line between them in international health policy, the people of Taiwan can only pray to God for a better future. Despite paying frequent lip-service to "international justice," some world leaders seem to have no concept of what that is when it comes to Taiwan's bid to join the WHO.
Under the circumstances, the arrival of two officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in particularly warms one's heart and tells people who Taiwan's true friends are. The WHO openly admits that its decision to refuse any direct contact with Taiwan was made out of political considerations. The political reason to which it referred was of course Chinese pressure and the fact that Taiwan is not a WHO member.
Although the US does not have diplomatic ties with Taiwan and faces similar pressure from Beijing, it has spoken out on the behalf of Taiwan on a number of sticky issues. Based on the principal of reciprocity, it is understandable that Taiwan has accepted the American boy for medical treatment.
The opposition lawmakers' behavior has simply exposed their obsession with China and indifference to Taiwan. Unfortunately for Taiwan, value judgements are made based on ideology, even those involving life and death.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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