Ma blind to ECFA danger
There is a general rule for the political leaders of this world — self interest.
Without self-interest, negotiations cannot be settled, as both sides must feel they have somehow benefited from interaction with the other side. All over the world, it appears, however, that the public’s desires are considered last, even when a minority of people support a government’s egocentric plans, just as those who voted for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) last year — naively, greedily or as a result of manipulation from the media.
People are easily manipulated into believing that they will benefit from these government agendas. US President Barack Obama promised change, just as Ma did with his 6-3-3 agenda. They used attractive campaign slogans to win votes. For those reasons, they both won the presidencies. But why has the approval rate of both leaders dropped so quickly? Obama at least has tried to maintain people’s trust in him, but Ma plays the game inside a closed box with a phone to tell his Cabinet what to do next.
“Anti-war” Obama is now moving the focus away from Iraq toward Pakistan. So the war continues — but on another turf. Similarly, Ma’s “no” promise about unification with China is also crumbling, as have most of the other promises he made.
During an economic crisis, people want governments to do whatever it takes to end the pain. While many developed countries are bailing out those who caused the economic crisis, Ma is using his close relationship with the People’s Republic of China as an excuse to improve Taiwan’s economy by emphasizing the importance of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), whose content remains a mystery.
Should the people fall for it? Will things really improve for Taiwan with this agreement? Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) letter to the Taipei Times (Letters, March 1, page 8) is more convincing than Ma’s repetitive words about why he feels the ECFA is better. Tsai gave more than 10 reasons why an ECFA would have disastrous consequences for Taiwan, while Ma cannot even give half that many reasons as to why it would be beneficial.
ALEX RAYMOND
Niaosong, Kaohsiung County
Prosecute kitten ‘sadist’
If National Taiwan University believes that the student who is suspected of skinning kittens he adopted and throwing them off buildings is responsible, he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law — for the sake of animals and the community as a whole (“University vows to probe abuse, deaths of kittens,” Feb. 25, page 2).
People who think that making animals suffer is “fun” need immediate intervention to prevent their violence from escalating. Animal abusers are cowards who take their issues out on “easy victims” — often including members of their own species. Psychiatrists, criminal profilers and law enforcement officials have repeatedly documented that young people who are cruel to animals often turn that violence against humans. The standard diagnostic and treatment manual for conduct disorders also lists cruelty to animals as a criterion for diagnosis.
People who hurt animals need prison time, counseling and a ban on contact with animals to prevent their sadism from continuing.
JASON BAKER
Hong Kong
228 bias? Think again
I was shocked to learn that a group of so-called “academic historians” has accused the 228 Memorial Foundation of being biased in its interpretation of the 228 Incident (“Academic accuses 228 Foundation of historical bias,” March 1, page 2).
If those historians who are supposed to be experts on Taiwanese history have a non-biased version of the truth, why aren’t they presenting evidence to the public to rebut the so-called biased interpretations agreed upon by academics the world over?
One of the historians even had the nerve to attack former US naval attache George Kerr, claiming that his interpretation of the 228 Incident was the result of Kerr’s support for the independence camp, which sullied the image of the regime of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石). What an outlandish accusation!
It is obvious that those so-called expert historians and their diehard KMT cohorts still do not accept the truth, known around the world, that Chiang and former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) terrorized Taiwan for decades and massacred thousands of innocent people who were critical of their rulings.
Taiwanese should be grateful to Kerr, whose eyewitness account of the 228 Incident and the subsequent arrests and execution of Taiwanese is so well presented in his book Formosa Betrayed, which should be required reading for every college student.
In his book, Kerr wrote that a prominent person told him “he had witnessed the notorious ‘Rape of Nanking’ by the Japanese in 1937, but that this [rape of Formosa] surpassed it, for the Nanking Rape was a product of war, a wild outburst of wartime passion, whereas this was coldly calculated revenge perpetrated by the Nationalist Government upon its own people [in peacetime].”
Despite Ma’s gestures of reconciliation toward 228 victims’ families, the wound of the savage incident will never heal because Ma and his KMT followers continue to exonerate the Chiangs’ crimes by saying they did not do the killing themselves and therefore should not be held accountable.
KRIS LIAO
San Francisco, California
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has prioritized modernizing the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to rival the US military, with many experts believing he would not act on Taiwan until the PLA is fully prepared to confront US forces. At the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress in 2022, Xi emphasized accelerating this modernization, setting 2027 — the PLA’s centennial — as the new target, replacing the previous 2035 goal. US intelligence agencies said that Xi has directed the PLA to be ready for a potential invasion of Taiwan by 2027, although no decision on launching an attack had been made. Whether
A chip made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) was found on a Huawei Technologies Co artificial intelligence (AI) processor, indicating a possible breach of US export restrictions that have been in place since 2019 on sensitive tech to the Chinese firm and others. The incident has triggered significant concern in the IT industry, as it appears that proxy buyers are acting on behalf of restricted Chinese companies to bypass the US rules, which are intended to protect its national security. Canada-based research firm TechInsights conducted a die analysis of the Huawei Ascend 910B AI Trainer, releasing its findings on Oct.
In honor of President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday, my longtime friend and colleague John Tkacik wrote an excellent op-ed reassessing Carter’s derecognition of Taipei. But I would like to add my own thoughts on this often-misunderstood president. During Carter’s single term as president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, despite numerous foreign policy and domestic challenges, he is widely recognized for brokering the historic 1978 Camp David Accords that ended the state of war between Egypt and Israel after more than three decades of hostilities. It is considered one of the most significant diplomatic achievements of the 20th century.
In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, titled “The Upside on Uncertainty in Taiwan,” Johns Hopkins University professor James B. Steinberg makes the argument that the concept of strategic ambiguity has kept a tenuous peace across the Taiwan Strait. In his piece, Steinberg is primarily countering the arguments of Tufts University professor Sulmaan Wasif Khan, who in his thought-provoking new book The Struggle for Taiwan does some excellent out-of-the-box thinking looking at US policy toward Taiwan from 1943 on, and doing some fascinating “what if?” exercises. Reading through Steinberg’s comments, and just starting to read Khan’s book, we could already sense that
RSS