[ LETTER ]

KMT disdains young people The voting age in most countries is 18. It is becoming clear that the Republic of China Constitution is far behind the international democratic mainstream, and the issue of civic rights has become a hot topic in the ongoing debate over constitutional amendments between the ruling and opposition parties. According to a public opinion poll by the National Policy Foundation, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) think tank, a majority of respondents oppose lowering the voting age to 18 and also think that talk of constitutional amendments is due to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) directing the political agenda. Deep-blue media personality Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) said on his TV show — aimed at KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) — that “if you do not want to let young people’s votes, how about just not letting them vote? Everyone between 18 and 20 supports the DPP. Are they going to vote for you?” Jaw also said that the KMT should insist on preconditions for lowering the voting age to 18. Jaw’s guest on the show, KMT Legislator Sandy Yeh (葉毓蘭), chimed in, saying “that’s exactly what we’re doing.” This dumbfounding exchange is certain to make younger Taiwanese dislike the KMT even more, and the party will surely lose even more of the few young supporters it might still have. As a member of the young generation, I can only say that the if the pan-blue camp political media outlets do not work to win the recognition of the younger generation, but instead maintain their arrogant attitude and continue to declare war on them by telling them that “if you do not vote for us, we are not giving you the right to vote,” they are in effect saying that “if you do not like us, we are going to destroy you.” It is regrettable

EDITORIAL CARTOON

EDITORIAL CARTOON

California’s future hinges on managing megafires

California’s historic wildfires have served up astonishing scenes of destruction that have claimed several dozen lives, incinerated huge tracts of land and caused dystopian orange skies to loom over a populace choked by toxic smoke — but in time, the sort of destruction and anguish suffered this year might seem routine, even mild. The record scale of the flames, which have consumed an area larger than the state of Connecticut, is bringing scientists’ expectations of the climate crisis into reality. Rather than merely entering a new, but stable era, the US west is on a moving escalator to further extremes. “In 20 years from now, the current circumstances will feel more normal,” former NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati said. “It’s not that we are all screwed, but it’s too late to put a stop to it. We can slow it, but we can’t stop it now.” Fire is a natural feature of the US west — hundreds of thousands of hectares used to burn each year and some trees require it in order to propagate — but conditions are becoming unmoored from modern lived experience. The number of days of extreme wildfire weather has doubled in California since the 1980s, with the retreat of dousing autumnal rains and snowfall expanding the traditional fire season into a year-round battle. “The trees are like a bunch of matches out there, ready to go,” said Mike Eliason, a veteran Santa Barbara firefighter. Crews from Israel to Australia have arrived to support exhausted local firefighters. “These fires have been unbelievable, but also numbing because you’re kicked in the head by one fire and then have another one,” Eliason said. “Every year we tell people this was the worst year, which then gets beaten by the next year and then by the next. It’s disheartening and demoralizing.” A century

By Oliver Milman

Johnson’s charm runs out with EU deal close to edge

At 3:30pm on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sat down for a 90-minute interrogation in parliament, but there was one question he could not answer: Whether a top UK government law officer had quit. Scotland’s advocate general Richard Keen had resigned because he could not reconcile his role as a lawyer with Johnson’s explosive plan to rewrite the Brexit deal and break international law. The Internal Market Bill had already provoked storm at home and abroad that the prime minister — with all his charisma— his aides — with all their cunning — could not contain. The prime minister and his team tried all day to persuade Keen to change his mind, and were still trying when Johnson arrived to give evidence to the British House of Commons Liaison Committee. When he was asked if Keen was still in his post, Johnson was forced to admit he did not know. “All I can tell you is that, as far as I know, conversations on that matter are still continuing,” he said. Later that evening, Johnson was forced to concede defeat, and accept Keen was going. Despite his record of charming his way out of trouble, Johnson’s magic touch had found its limits. It was an extraordinary glimpse into the chaos that has engulfed the British leader as a result of his proposal to renege on the exit treaty with the EU signed in January. Adding to the sense of disarray, the whole row was a mistake rather than a deliberate negotiating tactic, according to one British official. Many Conservatives already feared their leader was losing his grip even before the blunder over the bill. Now Johnson’s strategy for a free-trade pact with the EU before the end of the year is in tatters. trust at rock bottom The two sides are miles apart, publicly trading

By Tim Ross and Alberto Nardelli

EDITORIAL: Bird group avoids China’s snare

The Taipei-based Chinese Wild Bird Federation on Tuesday announced that it was expelled from the England-based international bird conservation group BirdLife due to pressure from Beijing. The federation, which represents conservation groups nationwide, was established in 1995 and joined BirdLife in 1996. BirdLife, which was founded in 1922 as the International Committee for Bird Protection, has partner organizations around the world. BirdLife does not list any mainland China-based groups among its partners — although the Hong Kong Birdwatching Society is — so China’s basis for pressuring it is unclear. However, BirdLife has required the federation to change its name three times over the past 20 years, the federation said, adding that it had always complied until the most recent request, which required it to declare that it does not support Taiwanese independence. Numerous migratory bird species pass through Taiwan each year and the federation has taken action to conserve several species, including the black-faced spoonbill and the Chinese crested tern. Last year, a count of migratory birds conducted by Kenting National Park found a record number of birds, meaning that conservation groups are a vital buttress to regional efforts. BirdLife’s willingness to expel the federation — an active partner for two-and-a-half decades — shows that it values global politics more than its charter mission to protect bird species. It is not surprising to see Taiwan subjected to such treatment by an international organization that champions a benevolent mission, but bows to Chinese pressure — likely in exchange for some benefit, monetary or otherwise. This also demonstrates that as long as Taiwan is largely unrecognized as an independent nation, it will always face pressure from China, as well as unscrupulous international organizations. This is why Taiwan must take the lead and establish its own organizations. Taiwan has numerous experts in many fields. For example, its investigative agencies are highly

Mask quality control needs review

A factory belonging to a member of the government-approved “national team” of surgical mask manufacturers was earlier this month found to have surreptitiously supplied Chinese-made masks for the official mask distribution system. This revelation caused consternation among the public. Hanging on the office wall of the president of the company concerned was a series of “secret tips” about how to make money from the COVID-19 pandemic. The tips said that when an illness breaks out, you should stop delivering to your old customers and start selling your products at high prices to new customers. Then, when the breakout is over and those customers stop buying, you can go back to your original customers. As long as you offer low prices and soothe them, you can start bonding with your old customers again. Apart from investigating and prosecuting dishonest manufacturers such as this, the government should also review the shortcomings of the “national team” system. It should turn words into action by proposing a set of measures to improve the system in response to the case. The core members of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) are experts in medicine and public health. Although they devote themselves wholeheartedly to fighting COVID-19, they might not be very proficient regarding the quality control and quality assurance of masks made by the “national team.” Until now, when shortcomings have arisen in the production, distribution and sales of masks, the CECC generally tackles the symptom rather than the cause. Consequently, there are still many loopholes that have not been exposed. These hidden loopholes pose a threat to Taiwan’s disease-prevention efforts. The CECC could set up one or more distribution centers that would be responsible for inspecting deliveries from “national team” factories and for managing inventories. It could outsource the job of transporting and distributing “national team” masks

By Leon Liu 劉斶

CCP’s second century of shame

For the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China’s “century of humiliation” is the gift that keeps on giving. Beijing returns again and again to the theme of Western imperialism, oppression and exploitation to keep stoking the embers of grievance and resentment against the West, and especially the US. However, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that in 1949 announced it had “stood up” soon made clear what that would mean for Chinese and the world — and it was not an agenda that would engender pride among ordinary Chinese, or peace of mind in the international community. At home, Mao Zedong (毛澤東) launched radical social and economic initiatives that led to domestic disasters of unfathomable proportions. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution together accounted for as many as 60 million Chinese deaths, eclipsing by an order of magnitude the losses sustained during the Japanese invasion and occupation, which the CCP is happy to invoke at a moment’s notice. Aside from the tragic toll in Chinese lives lost to the revolution, the destruction of China’s cultural, artistic and spiritual heritage was colossal, exceeding anything perpetrated during 14 years of brutal occupation by Imperial Japan. Beyond China’s borders, war against the world was the Chinese communists’ calling card. Within months of its creation, China joined North Korea’s invasion of South Korea, for which it was branded an aggressor state by the UN. At the same time, it invaded and occupied the autonomous states of Tibet and East Turkestan. It prepared to do the same to Taiwan until the US intervened to prevent an even wider war in Asia. In subsequent years, China invaded parts of India, Vietnam and the Soviet Union, and fomented “wars of national liberation” throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. At home, the communist regime instituted one grotesque cruelty after another, such as its

By Joseph Bosco

Taichung police acts tone-deaf on social media

On Aug. 24, a day before Lovers’ Day, or the Qixi Festival, a picture was posted on the Taichung Police Department’s Facebook page showing an officer in sunglasses slapping a civilian for calling it “Lovers’ Day” and declaring that it is the birthday of the “Weaving Maid” (七娘媽). The picture sparked controversy and even complaints from a city councilor and it was removed, although the text remains. Global media have been paying attention to police violence in Hong Kong over the past year. The social media editor at the department must be aware of this. That the editor of a social media account for law enforcement would post such an image over such a trivial issue — the post’s intention seemed to be to ask people to avoid public displays of affection — when so much attention is on police violence is insensitive. It contained no information about laws and regulations, and was not an attempt to enhance public relations. It was purely about using Lovers’ Day to attract clicks, which was completely unnecessary. When a professional social media editor pushes buttons to increase traffic, there should be a good reason for it. The goal should be to increase the exposure of an advertisement or a brand, or to promote an idea. It should not solely be about what makes the editor feel good. As their salaraies are paid through taxes, they should be more sensitive to the public interest and social responsibility, pay more attention to issues such as gender, religion, ethnicity and culture. They should have enough common sense to know what they cannot say, so even if they do not do any good, at least they will do no harm. The image was adapted from a well-known Batman Internet meme. In the picture, Batman slaps Robin, who is telling Batman not to

By Chang Yueh-han 張約翰

EDITORIAL CARTOON

EDITORIAL CARTOON

All must come aboard for a smooth ride to a carbon-neutral future

From Britain, Denmark and New Zealand to Myanmar, Senegal and the Marshall Islands, more than 120 countries, rich and poor, have set their sights on the same goal to avoid the worst impacts of climate change: cutting their emissions to net-zero. Some have put the target into law with a 2050 deadline while others are discussing ways to formalize it. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that global greenhouse gas emissions need to be slashed to “net-zero” by mid-century to have a 50 percent chance of keeping warming to 1.5?C above pre-industrial times, the lowest goal in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The discussions on how to get there often overlook a crucial aspect — how to do it in a way that is fair, said Niall Mac Dowell, a professor at Imperial College London. Mac Dowell cited France’s “yellow vests” movement, which began in November 2018, as an example of what can go wrong. Named after the fluorescent jackets all French motorists carry in their cars, it started as a protest against a levy on fuel. The tax was one of the ways the French government hoped to implement the Paris accord, by making it more costly to drive petrol and diesel vehicles, and boost clean alternatives. “But if you’re like most people in France who don’t live in Paris and don’t have access to good or any public transport, [the tax] is just a punitive, regressive, unfair measure,” said Mac Dowell, who leads the Imperial College Clean Fossil and Bioenergy Research Group. “It’s really important that the way in which these agreements and ambitions are implemented are — in fact and in perception — progressive and fair,” he added. Mac Dowell co-authored a paper arguing that current approaches to decarbonizing energy focus too much on costs and technologies, and not enough on “a socially equitable

By Thin Lei Win

To curb the rise of zoonotic diseases, we should eat less meat

The industrial meat system is out of control. Not only does it contribute to the destruction of the climate, biodiversity, soil and forests, but it also poses a direct threat to human health. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO’s warnings about zoonotic diseases — caused by pathogens that are transmitted from animals to humans — were largely ignored. The same is true of antibiotic resistance — another global health threat closely connected to meat production. The World Organization for Animal Health estimates that 60 percent of all infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic. According to a research paper published last year in Nature, this number will likely increase as the world population rises and consumption patterns change. Changes in land use, such as deforestation and conversion to farmland, are also key factors influencing the transmission of zoonotic diseases. Human activity affects 75 percent of Earth’s land surface, with agricultural land — fields, pastures, or meadows — covering more than a third of the planet, and these numbers are growing rapidly. By intervening in and unbalancing natural ecosystems, and shrinking wildlife habitats, we are disrupting the symbiotic relationship that has existed between humans and nature for thousands of years. We know that the reduction of habitats, an ever-larger human presence, and the skyrocketing number of farm animals increase the possibility of infectious-disease transmission from animals to humans. Research published in Nature Sustainability showed that agricultural factors can be linked to more than 25 percent of all infectious diseases and more than 50 percent of all zoonotic infectious diseases in humans. These figures will likely worsen as intensive agriculture and factory farming continue to expand, and as monoculture and intensive animal husbandry shape future agriculture systems. Another major reason for global changes in land use is the production of animal feed. For example, soy — an

By Inka Dewitz and Christine Chemnitz

EDITORIAL: Environmental laws need teeth

A day ahead of yesterday’s opening of the new legislative session, a coalition of environmental rights groups called on lawmakers to keep global warming in mind when reviewing bills, including infrastructure proposals and amendments to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act (溫室氣體減量及管理法). Their call came just over a week after Greenpeace Taiwan urged the government to focus on climate change by setting carbon reduction goals and being more aggressive about energy transformation, citing the higher-than-average temperatures in Taiwan and the serious coral bleaching under way off the coast of Pingtung County, the worst in two decades. Both calls fall short of what is really needed. The nation’s lawmakers and the central government are certainly crucial to efforts to combat global warming and protect the environment, but so are local governments and the general public. As is so often the case in Taiwan, too much attention is put on the passage of new laws or amending old ones, as doing so gives lawmakers and the government a track record they can point to come election time. Urgently needed, though, is ensuring the implementation and enforcement of laws already on the books, and enacting meaningful penalties for those who contravene them. The average person has shown time and again that they prefer convenience over meaningful change to their lifestyles, as attested by the ever-growing number of beverage shops with their plastic cups and straws, and packaging required for all the meals delivered via Foodpanda and Uber Eats. Another example of how Taiwan fumbles its transition to becoming more environmentally friendly is 5.2 hectares of Dalin Borough (大林) farmland in Kaohsiung’s Cishan District (旗山), that the owner allowed to be excavated to create a massive, about 20m deep pit, designated for burying 1 million tonnes of furnace slag from China Steel Corp. The depositing started in May

PLA drills might be a system check

In the past few months, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has increased the frequency of military maneuvers close to Taiwan, with the PLA last week conducting joint naval-air exercises for two successive days. This included multiple waves of PLA Air Force aircraft crossing into Taiwan’s southwestern air defense identification zone on Thursday last week. According to the Ministry of National Defense, Chinese aircraft took off from bases within China’s Eastern and Southern Theater Commands. The exercises represent an increased level of coordination and complexity, spread across separate commands and two branches of China’s military. It is highly likely that the purpose of the exercises was to test the capabilities of China’s new BeiDou-3 satellite navigation system. In a report delivered to the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Congress in October 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) stated: “By 2020, the PLA will have essentially achieved the important step of mechanization, and by 2035 China’s military and defense structures will have achieved fundamental modernization.” Of central importance to Xi’s military modernization plan is the “data-ization” of the military, which has been achieved through the successful completion of BeiDou-3. On July 30 Xi attended a commissioning ceremony for BeiDou-3. The constellation of 55 individual satellites that comprise the system is the world’s fourth complete satellite navigation system after the US’ GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and the EU’s Galileo. However, BeiDou-3’s data and wireless capabilities still require repeated testing and calibration to ensure that they can provide accurate information to aircraft, ships and guided missiles before the system can be used in a war by China’s military command structure. The PLA might have been using the joint-military exercises to compress the testing and calibration for BeiDou-3, and to bring forward the completion date for the system’s certification by the military as “combat ready.” Achieving full integration of the navigation system into China’s military ahead of

By Huang Wei-ping 黃惟冰

Hard questions KMT must answer

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Sept. 6 finished its annual national congress. However, if Taiwan wants to have a viable opposition party in its democracy, the results were far from satisfying. The KMT again seems to be caught in a time loop, like that one in the 1993 film Groundhog Day. Yet, unlike the protagonist in that film, the KMT seems unable to learn from past experience and change for the better. Instead, it remains locked in its never-ending cycle of repeating the past. To borrow from a different artistic genre, the KMT echoes Pete Seeger’s song Where Have All the Flowers Gone? that includes the lines: “When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?” This is not to say that there was not any good and a little progress in the congress, but the final conclusions remained lacking. First, look at the good. The theme was admirable: “Protect Taiwan, safeguard democracy and fight for the future.” What Taiwanese could argue with that? Who would not sign up under those words? Next, it was proposed that no fewer than 15 percent of KMT Central Committee members be under the age of 40. Again, that was good news for a party dominated by too many “old members with old thinking.” While many of those old members had fled to Taiwan with their families between 1945 and 1949, their hearts have remained in the China of 1947. The requirement to include younger members would benefit those born in Taiwan after the pro-democracy Kaohsiung Incident. It was only a proposal, but still a good one. However, the devil soon came out in the details, and that is where everything went south. The KMT has always lacked someone to not just ask the tough questions, but also to answer them, someone who can put Taiwan first. Start with

By Jerome Keating

Students have much to contribute to society

A new school year is beginning and the COVID-19 situation remains serious in many countries — Taiwan is lucky that its students and staff can return to school. After the frustration of not being able to study normally, students will surely value the opportunity of returning to school so that they can stop squandering their youth. Over the past few years, universities have shifted from simply being ivory towers of academic knowledge to cooperating with industry. Having gradually broken down departmental barriers, they stress adaptive, student-oriented education, and encourage students to explore studies across domains, learn from experiences outside school and develop their own unique skillsets. Students need to do more than absorb the knowledge and skills of an individual department. They must abandon the mistaken idea that general education classes are simply a way to pad their credit total, and instead make a deliberate effort to explore various academic fields and use that fundamental knowledge to nurture cross-domain understanding. General education classes often include basic Chinese and English requirements that are easily overlooked by students. A student who understands expert knowledge, but does not know how to express their ideas in an article, might fill their writing with misused expressions and faulty logic. A student who cannot communicate an understanding of their own society to foreign students places a limit on human development. Evolving scholarship and technological advancement causes new knowledge to quickly age, but people capable of combining ideas and skills across the domains of general education can use the new ideas to establish their own niche in their chosen career. Students find themselves in a difficult environment, but those who are lucky enough to be studying at university should make an effort to listen to what other people have to say. They should be capable of “resetting” themselves: Rather than being quick

By Chen Fu 陳復

EDITORIAL CARTOON

EDITORIAL CARTOON

Secret Tibetan military force raises stakes in India-China clash

At a funeral last week in the mountains of northern India, one of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s top aides paid respect to a Tibetan soldier killed on the front lines of deadly clashes with China. Surrounded by troops waving the flags of India and Tibet, Ram Madhav laid a wreath before the coffin during a ceremony that gave the deceased man full military honors. In a now-deleted tweet, the national general secretary of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that he hoped the soldier’s death would lead to peace along the “Indo-Tibetan border.” The rare recognition of a secretive Indian military unit with Tibetan soldiers by itself threatened to escalate a border dispute that has killed dozens since May and tanked economic ties between the world’s most-populous nations. Even more significant was the suggestion that India questioned China’s sovereignty over Tibet — a red line for Beijing, which sees separatism as a cause also worth fighting for in Taiwan, as well as Xinjiang and Hong Kong. “The Indians are sending a message — a very strong message, which they probably have not sent for decades,” said Robbie Barnett, who headed Columbia University’s Modern Tibetan Studies Program until 2018 and has written about the region since the 1980s. “The involvement of exiled Tibetans and the use of exiled Tibetan icons, images and flags, is hugely significant for China’s interpretation.” While India and China’s foreign ministers agreed on the need for restraint during a meeting in Moscow last week, tensions along the border remain higher than at any point since hostilities resumed. Both sides continue to ramp up forces in the disputed area, which is key to controlling vital Himalayan mountain passes, with warning shots fired this month along the Line of Actual Control for the first time in more than four decades. In the past

By Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Archana Chaudhary