Negotiation, not supervision
After reading Hsu Yu-min’s letter about parents’ rights to supervise their children (Letters, Oct. 28, page 8), I, as an assistant professor who needs to guide students with their learning activities, have a different take on the issue.
There is certainly a new conflict of interests between parents and their children. Parents pay for their children’s tuition and would be informed of their academic performance. However, students would like to gain full autonomy and freedom without having to report to their parents because they have been granted full citizenship over the age of 18. Both parents and children must take full responsibility.
Parents do not have to take control of their children’s performance by demanding to look at their academic reports. They have to respect their children’s right to privacy. Thus, I recommend that parents learn to control their emotions to improve their communications skills so that their children would have more willingness to discuss matters related to their studies if needed. Second, parents must use efficient negotiation skills to help their children solve any problems related to the payment of their education and other administrative matters.
When children agree to enter university, they should take full responsibility to go to class regularly, complete their assignments on time and fulfill their promise to graduate. Children should communicate with their parents when they ask reasonable questions regarding their studies. As parents have invested a large sum of money for their children’s study, it is the parents’ rights to ask questions to be informed about their children’s schooling situation. Nevertheless, children should provide a reasonable excuse if they do not want to provide information to their parents.
Thus, the job of parenting is not an easy one as their children have gained awareness about their rights. There is no discussion needed when everything goes smoothly. Parents and children only need serious discussions when problems crop up. It is thus imperative that both parents and children develop good communication skills to solve problems efficiently. That way, children would agree to provide relevant information to their parents regarding their academic performance.
David Blasco
New Taipei City
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS