For years, an allegation has circulated that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Vice President Annette Lu (
As absurd as it might sound, under the rule of presidents Chiang Kai-shek (
As a result of a defamation lawsuit filed by Ma on Tuesday against Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (
But given that Ma could be elected president next year, he has a responsibility to come clean on the subject now. Why wait for the result of litigation that could drag on for a long time when a statement for the record could put his supporters at ease?
This country's democracy was made possible by the sacrifices of countless people, including the many courageous overseas students who braved the watchful gaze of "professional students" to take part in protests against the authoritarian KMT regime.
This resulted not only in students being banned from returning, but also in mysterious disappearances. Worse still, there are cases such as Carnegie Mellon University professor Chen Wen-chen (
At the time, the KMT government claimed Chen had committed suicide. A Carnegie Mellon team, however, concluded that the professor had been murdered.
Given the extent of the suffering caused by the KMT's student informers, the public has the right to know if Ma was one of them. Where there is smoke, there is sometimes fire, and this haze has lingered for years. It's time to resolve the matter based on material evidence and sworn testimony.
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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