As the world bade farewell to the year gone by and ushered in the new year with fireworks, festivities and new year’s resolutions, the nation’s political leaders expressed their wishes for the coming 12 months.
“In the coming year, our government’s goal is to overcome our difficulties and take Taiwan to new heights,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said on Friday at her end-of-year news conference, adding in a video released by the Presidential Office late on Sunday that she wishes everyone in Taiwan happiness and prosperity in 2018.
Premier William Lai (賴清德), in a visit to Taipei’s Longshan Temple (龍山寺) yesterday, wished for the well-being of the nation and its people, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) called for unity in the party and expressed his hope that it would win support in this year’s local elections.
People yearn for optimism at the beginning of each new year. While their lists might differ, the overall sentiment is the same: joy, enthusiasm and hope for improvement in all aspects of daily life.
As the saying goes: “Well begun is half done.” It is therefore encouraging and comforting to see national leaders, with looks of resolute determination, extending good wishes as they paint a rosy picture and pledge efforts to build a better future.
Looking ahead on issues of critical importance, the government, the governing party and the opposition all have their work cut out for them.
One major political event in the coming year is the nine-in-one local elections, which are to be held either on Nov. 24 or Dec. 1, pending a final decision by the Central Election Commission.
The election of new mayors in the six special municipalities and other cities, as well as county commissioners, could redraw the nation’s political landscape and the public is awaiting the candidates’ campaign platforms to see how they promise to serve the public.
On the legislative front, amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and the Organic Regulations for Irrigation and Water Conservancy Associations (農田水利會組織通則), as well as various proposed tax reform packages, economic reforms and other tasks require that lawmakers roll up their sleeves, as these measures are crucial for the nation to remain competitive.
The public is also anticipating progress in implementing the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) that was passed last month.
The law requires that the Executive Yuan set up a nine-member independent committee to implement measures set forth under the act, including investigating human rights abuses under the Martial Law-era KMT regime, rectifying unjust verdicts from that era and retrieving political archives held by political parties and their affiliated organizations.
However, other than an announcement that the Executive Yuan has put Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) in charge of overseeing the formation of the committee, no further progress has been made. Time is of the essence so that justice can be served and the reputations of the victims restored.
An equally important task for the government is to boost the nation’s visibility in the international arena. The Tsai administration should have a strategy on how to increase Taiwan’s international presence while protecting the nation’s dignity.
If even the nation’s own officials shy away from correctly saying “Taiwan” on the international stage to appease China, how does the nation expect others to voice their support?
Hopefully, government officials will practice what Tsai and Lai have preached and translate their pledges into concrete results, as the public welcomes the new year in the hope that it will usher in a new era of growth, progress and development.
US aerospace company Boeing Co has in recent years been involved in numerous safety incidents, including crashes of its 737 Max airliners, which have caused widespread concern about the company’s safety record. It has recently come to light that titanium jet engine parts used by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus SE were sold with falsified documentation. The source of the titanium used in these parts has been traced back to an unknown Chinese company. It is clear that China is trying to sneak questionable titanium materials into the supply chain and use any ensuing problems as an opportunity to
It’s not every month that the US Department of State sends two deputy assistant secretary-level officials to Taiwan, together. Its rarer still that such senior State Department policy officers, once on the ground in Taipei, make a point of huddling with fellow diplomats from “like-minded” NATO, ANZUS and Japanese governments to coordinate their multilateral Taiwan policies. The State Department issued a press release on June 22 admitting that the two American “representatives” had “hosted consultations in Taipei” with their counterparts from the “Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” The consultations were blandly dubbed the “US-Taiwan Working Group on International Organizations.” The State
The Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises, the largest naval exercise in the region, are aimed at deepening international collaboration and interaction while strengthening tactical capabilities and flexibility in tackling maritime crises. China was invited to participate in RIMPAC in 2014 and 2016, but it was excluded this year. The underlying reason is that Beijing’s ambitions of regional expansion and challenging the international order have raised global concern. The world has made clear its suspicions of China, and its exclusion from RIMPAC this year will bring about a sea change in years to come. The purpose of excluding China is primarily
The Chinese Supreme People’s Court and other government agencies released new legal guidelines criminalizing “Taiwan independence diehard separatists.” While mostly symbolic — the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never had jurisdiction over Taiwan — Tamkang University Graduate Institute of China Studies associate professor Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), an expert on cross-strait relations, said: “They aim to explain domestically how they are countering ‘Taiwan independence,’ they aim to declare internationally their claimed jurisdiction over Taiwan and they aim to deter Taiwanese.” Analysts do not know for sure why Beijing is propagating these guidelines now. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), deciphering the