Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he would not attend the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics. Mr Tusk is the first head of a government in Europe to make such a declaration.
"My decision is very clear: The presence of politicians during the inauguration of the Olympics seems inappropriate," Tusk said. He also said it would be a "great honor" for him to meet the Dalai Lama if he visited Poland following an invitation by Polish Speaker of the Senate Bogdan Borusewicz.
These are not the only steps the Polish government has said it will take to show its displeasure at Beijing's repression of Tibet. Deputy Foreign Minister Ryszard Schnepf said government representatives would undertake a diplomatic initiative to increase interest on this issue among other EU states. In response, the Chinese ambassador to Poland said that such a boycott and an invitation to the Dalai Lama to visit Poland could have negative repercussions on Polish-Chinese relations.
Having suffered more than 40 years of a communist-imposed regime during the Cold War, the initiatives of the present Polish government are a sign of solidarity with Tibetans who are victims of Chinese communist oppression.
Hanna Shen
Taipei
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry gives it a strategic advantage, but that advantage would be threatened as the US seeks to end Taiwan’s monopoly in the industry and as China grows more assertive, analysts said at a security dialogue last week. While the semiconductor industry is Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” its dominance has been seen by some in the US as “a monopoly,” South Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University academic Kwon Seok-joon said at an event held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In addition, Taiwan lacks sufficient energy sources and is vulnerable to natural disasters and geopolitical threats from China, he said.
After reading the article by Hideki Nagayama [English version on same page] published in the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Wednesday, I decided to write this article in hopes of ever so slightly easing my depression. In August, I visited the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan, to attend a seminar. While there, I had the chance to look at the museum’s collections. I felt extreme annoyance at seeing that the museum had classified Taiwanese indigenous peoples as part of China’s ethnic minorities. I kept thinking about how I could make this known, but after returning
What value does the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hold in Taiwan? One might say that it is to defend — or at the very least, maintain — truly “blue” qualities. To be truly “blue” — without impurities, rejecting any “red” influence — is to uphold the ideology consistent with that on which the Republic of China (ROC) was established. The KMT would likely not object to this notion. However, if the current generation of KMT political elites do not understand what it means to be “blue” — or even light blue — their knowledge and bravery are far too lacking
Taipei’s population is estimated to drop below 2.5 million by the end of this month — the only city among the nation’s six special municipalities that has more people moving out than moving in this year. A city that is classified as a special municipality can have three deputy mayors if it has a population of more than 2.5 million people, Article 55 of the Local Government Act (地方制度法) states. To counter the capital’s shrinking population, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) held a cross-departmental population policy committee meeting on Wednesday last week to discuss possible solutions. According to Taipei City Government data, Taipei’s