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
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
It is being said every second day: The ongoing recall campaign in Taiwan — where citizens are trying to collect enough signatures to trigger re-elections for a number of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators — is orchestrated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), or even President William Lai (賴清德) himself. The KMT makes the claim, and foreign media and analysts repeat it. However, they never show any proof — because there is not any. It is alarming how easily academics, journalists and experts toss around claims that amount to accusing a democratic government of conspiracy — without a shred of evidence. These
Taiwan is confronting escalating threats from its behemoth neighbor. Last month, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army conducted live-fire drills in the East China Sea, practicing blockades and precision strikes on simulated targets, while its escalating cyberattacks targeting government, financial and telecommunication systems threaten to disrupt Taiwan’s digital infrastructure. The mounting geopolitical pressure underscores Taiwan’s need to strengthen its defense capabilities to deter possible aggression and improve civilian preparedness. The consequences of inadequate preparation have been made all too clear by the tragic situation in Ukraine. Taiwan can build on its successful COVID-19 response, marked by effective planning and execution, to enhance
Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has upheld the core goals of “making America safer, stronger, and more prosperous,” fully implementing an “America first” policy. Countries have responded cautiously to the fresh style and rapid pace of the new Trump administration. The US has prioritized reindustrialization, building a stronger US role in the Indo-Pacific, and countering China’s malicious influence. This has created a high degree of alignment between the interests of Taiwan and the US in security, economics, technology and other spheres. Taiwan must properly understand the Trump administration’s intentions and coordinate, connect and correspond with US strategic goals.
RSS