If former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Shih Ming-teh (
Shih should also stage a massive demonstration against China for deploying some 800 ballistic missiles in an attempt to destroy Taiwan and for diplomatically isolating Taiwan from the rest of the world.
If Shih sincerely opposed greediness and corruption, he would not keep quiet about the KMT's possession of questionable "partisan assets" worth nearly US$20 billion, as reported in Wealth Magazine in 1998. Shih has not raised any questions about Ma having sold some US$200 million of these assets. As a wild hunter, Shih tries to shoot at the cat but leaves the tiger alone.
If Shih truly cherished democracy, he should let the Constitution and the judiciary decide President Chen Shui-bian's (
A one-day silent sit-in is reasonable. A prolonged, round-the-clock, noisy sit-in or nationwide strike is an abuse of democracy and a nuisance to the general public. Let the Constitution do its job. If it does not do the job, let's amend it or scrap it and make a new one.
If Shih honestly respected ethnic harmony, he would not add a pan-red camp to the existing pan-green and pan-blue camps in Taiwan. Also, Sept. 8, the anniversary of the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, would have been a better choice than Sept. 9, the anniversary of Mao Zedong's (
One should be smart enough "to scratch the itchy skin and not scratch the non-itchy skin to bleeding," as a Taiwanese saying goes.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
It is employment pass renewal season in Singapore, and the new regime is dominating the conversation at after-work cocktails on Fridays. From September, overseas employees on a work visa would need to fulfill the city-state’s new points-based system, and earn a minimum salary threshold to stay in their jobs. While this mirrors what happens in other countries, it risks turning foreign companies away, and could tarnish the nation’s image as a global business hub. The program was announced in 2022 in a bid to promote fair hiring practices. Points are awarded for how a candidate’s salary compares with local peers, along
China last month enacted legislation to punish —including with the death penalty — “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.” The country’s leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), need to be reminded about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has said and done in the past. They should think about whether those historical figures were also die-hard advocates of Taiwanese independence. The Taiwanese Communist Party was established in the Shanghai French Concession in April 1928, with a political charter that included the slogans “Long live the independence of the Taiwanese people” and “Establish a republic of Taiwan.” The CCP sent a representative, Peng
Japan and the Philippines on Monday signed a defense agreement that would facilitate joint drills between them. The pact was made “as both face an increasingly assertive China,” and is in line with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s “effort to forge security alliances to bolster the Philippine military’s limited ability to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea,” The Associated Press (AP) said. The pact also comes on the heels of comments by former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, who said at a forum on Tuesday last week that China’s recent aggression toward the Philippines in
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