Sunday's article about Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Hasn't Taiwan seeded many Chinese business enterprises?
Aren't the foundations of China's consumer electronics industries founded with the help of Taiwanese and Japanese businessman?
It appears to this reader that Ma once again misses the real issue: the rights of 23 million Taiwanese.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has walked a fine line in balancing international concern about "upsetting China" and the need to protect Taiwan's national identity. I am struck by how the Taiwanese have managed to maintain their cultural core despite occupation by the Japanese and the Chinese. China has responded to Chen's "five noes" and Taiwan's peaceful overtures with threats, missiles and interference in Taiwan's domestic politics.
It is time for Ma to admit that the "status quo" has always been a fiction. And because the "status quo" was a fiction imposed on the people of Taiwan without their consent, it is not the foundation of their free and democratic nation. The nation of Taiwan flows from its people.
A rich culture existed in Taiwan long before the Chinese or even the Japanese colonial period.
Taiwan has always been more than the Chinese icons and symbols former dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) brought with him after losing the civil war in China. Taking a snapshot of the time when Chiang was in exile in Taiwan and then calling that the "status quo" is wrong and disrespects the struggles, history and sacrifices of a nation and its native people.
It is time to drop the fictions that anchor Taiwan to uncertainty and to instead support three objectives for the nation: a defined status; direct participation in the international community; and patriotism.
A defined status means that the people of Taiwan no longer need to live in purgatory. The people should be able to freely identify themselves as Taiwanese without fear of annihilation.
Participation in the international community means that the 23 million inhabitants of Taiwan have direct access to the international organizations that have been established to promote world health and peace. Taiwan operates as a sovereign country. Denying Taiwan access to the UN stifles the voices of 23 million people. It is unacceptable that China, after exporting SARS to Taiwan, continues to block Taiwan's entry into the WHO.
Patriotism does not allow divided loyalty. With China having passed its now infamous "Anti-Succession" Law, codifying its military expansionist goals against Taiwan, all politicians should to be united against this common threat. Sadly, some Taiwanese politicians traveled to China as "private citizens" and provided the Chinese Communist Party with yet another propaganda opportunity. Finally, patriotism also means passing necessary legislation to modernize the military, rather than leaving the country in a weakened state.
Mark Krietzman
California
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS