Something to be proud of
With the non-event centennial of the exiled state of the Republic of China (ROC) fast approaching, now would be a perfect time for this government and president to seize the opportunity to catch the attention of the world and raise Taiwan’s profile as a truly progressive Asian republic. To this end, may I humbly suggest the following five policies:
First, Taiwan could ban the catch, sale and consumption of all shark meat and fins. Second, it could abolish the death penalty. Third, it could legalize, regulate and tax the production and sale of most currently illegal narcotics. Fourth, Taiwan could scrap the Referendum Review Committee and radically lower the 50 percent threshold for passing a referendum. Finally, Taiwan could abolish the practice of keeping any animal more than 5kg in weight in zoos or aquariums.
These policies would have the world’s journalists immediately rushing here to see what an empathetic and humane country looks and feels like.
Of course, there is no chance any of those ideas can become realities, which I think speaks volumes for the real “achievements” of the ROC thus far in its 100 years of despotic, corrupt, environmentally destructive and inhumane existence.
If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) wants Taiwanese to identify with and be proud of the ROC, perhaps it might first think about achieving something truly inspiring for Taiwanese to be proud of.
Ben Goren
Greater Taichung
Insult to human intelligence
I am happy to see that Bo Tedards kept fighting his battle with the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) over his demotion (“TFD fined for violating labor laws,” Oct. 1, page 3).
He has done so much through the foundation for democracy all over Asia, including Taiwan and China, but also through his long stint at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Research and Planning Committee, where he worked hard on to help turn two UN covenants on human rights into national law, assisting former deputy minister of foreign affairs Michael Kau (高英茂) in establishing the foundation and doing so many things to set up the World Forum on Democracy in Asia, arguably one of the foundation’s largest flagship projects. And this is not to mention his years working at the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.
I will pass over the rest of what he did and does, such as having articulated for the foundation the recently internationally piloted Asia Human Rights Award.
As Albert Camus once wrote, “life is sometimes nothing but an insult to intelligence” (my translation from French).
The KMT proved Camus right when it chased out a number of top TFD people when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took power, not to mention the thousands of contractual employees more or less associated with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at any level of government in less than two years. So much for Ma’s “Taiwan Cheers, Great” slogan.
Politics in Taiwan is becoming more like in the US, with extreme polarization that leads nowhere. It is high time for the KMT and DPP alike to face the inevitable need for a certain degree of consensus, which workers from all walks of life desperately hope to see for the sake of not only the economy, but life in general in Taiwan.
Good luck Tedards and don’t give up.
Again, the misguided political judgement that led to your secretive demotion during your parental leave is like what Camus said: an insult to human intelligence.
Name withheld
Taipei
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS