I was very pleased to read Legislator Cho Po-yuan's (卓伯源) comments on the problem of spam ("Foreign firms blocking HiNet e-mail: legislator," Feb. 24, page 2). Taiwan is often found on top 10 lists due to its great achievements in areas such as the manufacturing of computer products. However, it is also found ranked as the number 7 top spamming country according to the research group Spamhaus. This is one top 10 list that Taiwan should be trying to get removed from.
My group, the Asia-Pacific Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, has been working with government and non-governmental groups in the region on ways to tackle the spam problem. We welcome any efforts made in Taiwan to control the spam problem, and would be happy to provide any assistance and advice as needed. Spam is a serious problem which needs to be solved sooner rather than later.
James Lick
Taipei
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in recent days was the focus of the media due to his role in arranging a Chinese “student” group to visit Taiwan. While his team defends the visit as friendly, civilized and apolitical, the general impression is that it was a political stunt orchestrated as part of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda, as its members were mainly young communists or university graduates who speak of a future of a unified country. While Ma lived in Taiwan almost his entire life — except during his early childhood in Hong Kong and student years in the US —
Prior to marrying a Taiwanese and moving to Taiwan, a Chinese woman, surnamed Zhang (張), used her elder sister’s identity to deceive Chinese officials and obtain a resident identity card in China. After marrying a Taiwanese, surnamed Chen (陳) and applying to move to Taiwan, Zhang continued to impersonate her sister to obtain a Republic of China ID card. She used the false identity in Taiwan for 18 years. However, a judge ruled that her case does not constitute forgery and acquitted her. Does this mean that — as long as a sibling agrees — people can impersonate others to alter, forge
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers on Monday unilaterally passed a preliminary review of proposed amendments to the Public Officers Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法) in just one minute, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, government officials and the media were locked out. The hasty and discourteous move — the doors of the Internal Administration Committee chamber were locked and sealed with plastic wrap before the preliminary review meeting began — was a great setback for Taiwan’s democracy. Without any legislative discussion or public witnesses, KMT Legislator Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩), the committee’s convener, began the meeting at 9am and announced passage of the
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