I wanted to take a moment and comment on the protest against China's "Anti-Secession" Law today in Taipei and encourage people of all nations to attend this important event in the history of Taiwan. Also I wanted to make it clear that many of us at Aletheia University's Foreign Languages and Literature department will be participating.
As someone who has lived in Taiwan for the last five years teaching university students, it's very inspiring to see people on all sides of the political divide in Taiwan coming together to support this demonstration of liberty and practice the freedom to assemble and voice their dissent. It sends a powerful message to the world.
I'm sure everyone here, Taiwanese and foreigners alike, appreciates the democratic freedoms we all enjoy in Taiwan and realizes how important it is to exercise those freedoms in the face of oppression and military threat -- especially since the threat comes from a country to which such freedoms are anathema.
As a foreigner who is often confused by the tensions in this society, everyone coming together peacefully to support this issue really leaves a strong and positive impression about Taiwan, a truly amazing and inspiring country.
Michael Loncar
Taipei
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
In response to a failure to understand the “good intentions” behind the use of the term “motherland,” a professor from China’s Fudan University recklessly claimed that Taiwan used to be a colony, so all it needs is a “good beating.” Such logic is risible. The Central Plains people in China were once colonized by the Mongolians, the Manchus and other foreign peoples — does that mean they also deserve a “good beating?” According to the professor, having been ruled by the Cheng Dynasty — named after its founder, Ming-loyalist Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功, also known as Koxinga) — as the Kingdom of Tungning,
A retired elementary-school teacher surnamed Lai (賴) said that, after retiring at the age of 50, he earned a monthly pension of over NT$60,000. Since retirement, he has earned over NT$10 million (US$306,457). If the government does not allocate more funding, the pension funds would soon go bankrupt. There is an urgent need for reform. If his monthly pension were lowered to NT$50,000, it would still be enough to cover basic life expenses, he said. In response, Taipei School Education Union president Lee Hui-lan (李惠蘭) said to Lai: “What do you mean by using your own pension as an example?”
RSS