‘Disgrace’ in Geneva
After a banquet for World Health Assembly (WHA) delegates at a restaurant in Geneva on Saturday, Department of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) was greeted by a group of Taiwanese students who confronted him with tough questions and demanded to know if Taiwan’s sovereignty had been compromised in exchange for being an observer at this year’s WHA conference.
The volley of questions annoyed the minister so much he practically told the students to get lost, calling them a disgraceful bunch. Yeh uttered words that were not befitting someone of his status.
Perhaps realizing that he had behaved childishly and anticipating an inevitable media onslaught, Yeh later held a press conference and shed tears while saying “no one loves Taiwan more than I do.”
The whole melodramatic episode deserves a closer reading. The first question is why the minister lost his cool.
The answer is that Taiwan’s sovereignty has ceased to exist since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office. Yeh knows this and he expected the students who heckled him to be likewise informed.
The second question is why Yeh held a press conference.
On the surface, it was a pre-emptive measure against inevitable criticism from the pan-green camp and the media.
But it could also be read as a child’s cry for a pacifier. This need was satisfied when Ma sent words of support. The pan-blue media also rallied in support, giving Yeh an enormous binky by portraying the students as a reckless and disgraceful bunch.
YANG CHUNHUI
Salt Lake City, Utah
Taiwan’s fall would be “a disaster for American interests,” US President Donald Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday last week, as he warned of the “dramatic deterioration of military balance” in the western Pacific. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is indeed facing a unique and acute threat from the Chinese Communist Party’s rising military adventurism, which is why Taiwan has been bolstering its defenses. As US Senator Tom Cotton rightly pointed out in the same hearing, “[although] Taiwan’s defense spending is still inadequate ... [it] has been trending upwards
There is nothing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) could do to stop the tsunami-like mass recall campaign. KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) reportedly said the party does not exclude the option of conditionally proposing a no-confidence vote against the premier, which the party later denied. Did an “actuary” like Chu finally come around to thinking it should get tough with the ruling party? The KMT says the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is leading a minority government with only a 40 percent share of the vote. It has said that the DPP is out of touch with the electorate, has proposed a bloated
In an eloquently written piece published on Sunday, French-Taiwanese education and policy consultant Ninon Godefroy presents an interesting take on the Taiwanese character, as viewed from the eyes of an — at least partial — outsider. She muses that the non-assuming and quiet efficiency of a particularly Taiwanese approach to life and work is behind the global success stories of two very different Taiwanese institutions: Din Tai Fung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). Godefroy said that it is this “humble” approach that endears the nation to visitors, over and above any big ticket attractions that other countries may have
A media report has suggested that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was considering initiating a vote of no confidence in Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) in a bid to “bring down the Cabinet.” The KMT has denied that this topic was ever discussed. Why might such a move have even be considered? It would have been absurd if it had seen the light of day — potentially leading to a mass loss of legislative seats for the KMT even without the recall petitions already under way. Today the second phase of the recall movement is to begin — which has