228 Incident was a massacre
Kudos to Ketty Chen for her “Remembering Taiwan’s Tragic Past” piece, (Features, Feb. 28) and an extra round of applause for her consistently referring in the article to the “228 Massacre” instead of the “228 Incident.”
I recommend the Taipei Times and all of us adopt the same nomenclature when discussing this horrific episode in Taiwan’s history.
Why?
In early March 1770, British military presence in Boston led to a tense situation that came to a head when British soldiers fired into a crowd of US patriots.
Three US civilians were killed at the scene of the shooting. This “incident” in would go into history as “the Boston Massacre” and foreshadowed the outbreak of the US Revolutionary War also known as “The American War of Independence.”
In comparison, about 28,000 people were killed in Taiwan from Feb. 28, 1947 and during the subsequent White Terror era.
My point is: If we can refer to the March 1770 event in the US as a massacre, we can certainly refer to the 1947 happenings in Taiwan as a massacre.
We must not downplay this tragedy.
Coen Blaauw
Washington
Fracking not the answer
The article, “US ‘shale revolution’ a positive step”, (Feb 26, pg. 8) is just another overly optimistic and somewhat misinformed opinion about this latest purported panacea to solve the world’s energy crisis.
First, it completely ignores the environmental catastrophe that shale fracking represents.
In the process of releasing shale natural gas, a witch’s brew of more than 250 known carcinogens is released into the freshwater aquifers of the US, potentially polluting the entire US drinking water supply.
In 2005, amendments to the US Safe Drinking Water Act were passed at the behest of former US vice president Dick Cheney and his Halliburton minions, preventing the US Environmental Protection Agency from investigating the safety of this process, and a tsunami of corrupt, corporate cash prostitutes any rational discussion within individual states.
Second, the ability of these natural gas wells to sustain high levels of production is already shown to be ephemeral.
Older wells are already showing signs of collapse even though these are themselves relatively recent. The chance of restoring production in these is nil.
A natural gas glut is undermining prices in the US and starting to cause ripples in the investment community.
Continuing a public relations campaign to keep up the hoopla is a necessity to maintain a current financial bubble in the industry and your article may be an inadvertent spinoff of this effort.
However, no sane person would contemplate permitting the continuing environmental devastation that is being reeked by fracking. Not unless one has a black-hearted financial stake in allowing it to continue.
John Hanna
Taoyuan
Trying to force a partnership between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Intel Corp would be a wildly complex ordeal. Already, the reported request from the Trump administration for TSMC to take a controlling stake in Intel’s US factories is facing valid questions about feasibility from all sides. Washington would likely not support a foreign company operating Intel’s domestic factories, Reuters reported — just look at how that is going over in the steel sector. Meanwhile, many in Taiwan are concerned about the company being forced to transfer its bleeding-edge tech capabilities and give up its strategic advantage. This is especially
US President Donald Trump’s second administration has gotten off to a fast start with a blizzard of initiatives focused on domestic commitments made during his campaign. His tariff-based approach to re-ordering global trade in a manner more favorable to the United States appears to be in its infancy, but the significant scale and scope are undeniable. That said, while China looms largest on the list of national security challenges, to date we have heard little from the administration, bar the 10 percent tariffs directed at China, on specific priorities vis-a-vis China. The Congressional hearings for President Trump’s cabinet have, so far,
For years, the use of insecure smart home appliances and other Internet-connected devices has resulted in personal data leaks. Many smart devices require users’ location, contact details or access to cameras and microphones to set up, which expose people’s personal information, but are unnecessary to use the product. As a result, data breaches and security incidents continue to emerge worldwide through smartphone apps, smart speakers, TVs, air fryers and robot vacuums. Last week, another major data breach was added to the list: Mars Hydro, a Chinese company that makes Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as LED grow lights and the
The US Department of State has removed the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence” in its updated Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, which instead iterates that “we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait.” This shows a tougher stance rejecting China’s false claims of sovereignty over Taiwan. Since switching formal diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China in 1979, the US government has continually indicated that it “does not support Taiwan independence.” The phrase was removed in 2022
RSS