When the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) took a sudden turn for the worse last week, resulting in Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital being sealed off, bickering between political parties temporarily came to a halt. But now that the government has the situation better under control, symptoms of political discord have begun to re-emerge.
Yesterday, President Chen Shui-bian (
The disease is a national security issue because of its effects on businesses and the stock market and the collective paranoia it has caused across the country.
In such trying times, everyone, regardless of which party they belong to or which part of the country they are from, must cast aside their differences and cooperate to combat this epidemic. Sadly, while everyone claims to be cooperating, some politicians just can't help being themselves
For example, neither KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Some members of the opposition camp are not so clueless. KMT Vice Chairman Liu Chao-hsuan (
Liu is of course right. The KMT's inaction in this regard and Lien's refusal to attend the meeting with Chen reinforce the impression that the opposition is being uncooperative for political reasons.
The Chen administration, in contrast, is doing a better job about showing unity. After Vice President Annette Lu (
Today, the Legislative Yuan will vote on a draft bill designed to tackle the SARS epidemic. Although the opposition and ruling camps have fought over how to fund the NT$50 billion bill and how to ensure that the media produce accurate reports about the disease that do not engender panic, the two sides eventually reached a tentative agreement yesterday afternoon.
Whether the bill can be passed today without a hitch will be a key indicator of whether the parties are truly able to cast aside their old grudges for the sake of the country. Everyone should keep their fingers crossed.
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
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
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