While there are many overt and covert suggestions about what President Chen Shui-bian (
Needless to say, as the re-elected president of Taiwan, he should keep the interests of Taiwan first in his mind when he is preparing this important speech.
Obviously, topping the list of Taiwan's interests are its sovereignty, security, prosperity and democracy. And China, with its nationalistic call to annex Taiwan, is a threat to all these interests.
Chen's conciliatory tone in the last four years proved to be only futile when it came to the diehard Beijing leadership.
Therefore, Chen should refrain from reiterating the futile and humiliating "five noes" policy again. Instead he should call for the respect of democracy. And no one should put a straightjacket on Taiwan or stop its practice of democracy.
Taiwan's democracy is a dagger threatening the heart of Chinese communist rule. And it is a recipe to win American hearts and support.
In the aftermath of the March 20 election, Taiwanese people have shown their wisdom and maturity to protect and nuture their democracy. No countries or individuals should continue to ignore the choices and conciousness of these people.
The times have changed. Taiwan has made its choice and moved foward. Will others do the same?
Yang Ji-charng
USA
Before 1945, the most widely spoken language in Taiwan was Tai-gi (also known as Taiwanese, Taiwanese Hokkien or Hoklo). However, due to almost a century of language repression policies, many Taiwanese believe that Tai-gi is at risk of disappearing. To understand this crisis, I interviewed academics and activists about Taiwan’s history of language repression, the major challenges of revitalizing Tai-gi and their policy recommendations. Although Taiwanese were pressured to speak Japanese when Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895, most managed to keep their heritage languages alive in their homes. However, starting in 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) enacted martial law
Chinese agents often target Taiwanese officials who are motivated by financial gain rather than ideology, while people who are found guilty of spying face lenient punishments in Taiwan, a researcher said on Tuesday. While the law says that foreign agents can be sentenced to death, people who are convicted of spying for Beijing often serve less than nine months in prison because Taiwan does not formally recognize China as a foreign nation, Institute for National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said. Many officials and military personnel sell information to China believing it to be of little value, unaware that
“Si ambulat loquitur tetrissitatque sicut anas, anas est” is, in customary international law, the three-part test of anatine ambulation, articulation and tetrissitation. And it is essential to Taiwan’s existence. Apocryphally, it can be traced as far back as Suetonius (蘇埃托尼烏斯) in late first-century Rome. Alas, Suetonius was only talking about ducks (anas). But this self-evident principle was codified as a four-part test at the Montevideo Convention in 1934, to which the United States is a party. Article One: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government;
The central bank and the US Department of the Treasury on Friday issued a joint statement that both sides agreed to avoid currency manipulation and the use of exchange rates to gain a competitive advantage, and would only intervene in foreign-exchange markets to combat excess volatility and disorderly movements. The central bank also agreed to disclose its foreign-exchange intervention amounts quarterly rather than every six months, starting from next month. It emphasized that the joint statement is unrelated to tariff negotiations between Taipei and Washington, and that the US never requested the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar during the
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