On Oct. 25, the Republic of Senegal in West Africa suddenly announced it was severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan. President Abdoulaye Wade even wrote a letter to President Chen Shui-bian (
Taiwan has only 25 diplomatic allies now. Together, their popul-ation is less than 1 percent of the total world population. As China's economy continues to boom, it will inevitably spend even more money to lure our allies over to its side.
At the moment, our diplomatic ties with the Vatican are also shaky. The Vatican has insisted on the "one China" policy and been disrespectful of the autonomy of the people of Taiwan. Meanwhile, the nation's Catholic church has long been dominated by arch-bishops and bishops originally from China. They seldom speak for the nation's sovereignty and the people's autonomy.
Recently, the Vatican cruelly said that it hopes to establish ties with China and that Taiwan is not a problem. It is thus evident that Taiwan-Vatican relations are at risk.
Ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu (
For example, both Taiwan's former representative to Japan Lo Fu-chen (羅福全) and incumbent representative Koh Se-kai (許世楷) have significantly improved Taiwan-Japan relations in recent years.
Moreover, it is hoped that Chen, in the last two years of his presidency, can bravely break through the dip-lomatic deadlock and apply for UN membership in the name of "Taiwan."
Although China will certainly exercise its veto in the UN to block the application in the Sec-urity Council, the repeated rejection of Taiwan's bid to enter the world body will surely cause international attention. It will highlight the willpower and determination of the Republic of Taiwan's government and its people to protect the nation's independent sovereignty. It will also counter Beijing's brutal and ambitious legislation as embodied in its "Anti-Secession" Law.
Only major diplomatic reform can open the door for Taiwan's international survival and development. I hope that Chen can work harder to achieve this and that the public can support and participate in such reform.
William Lo is the secretary-general of the Taiwan United Nations Alliance.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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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