ROC as relevant as the dodo
Changing the names of Taiwan's businesses to erase references to China is a great idea that should have been done long ago. Who, apart from locals would know or believe that China Airlines does not even fly to China? It is both ridiculous and confusing. These companies are an unwelcome reminder of the post-civil war era when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) still harbored foolish dreams of one day returning to its beloved motherland. Pan-blue politicians and supporters will inevitably complain that this is President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) latest maneuver in his independence-by-stealth campaign. But this is just the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) way of gradually erasing the fallacy that is the Republic of China (ROC) from the view of the world and it should be congratulated.
Who but the pitiful KMT and their supporters could deny the Taiwanese people the chance to assert some form of identity for themselves and their nation, after a century or more of repression and imposition from different peoples? Those who still believe in a ROC and that Taiwan is a part of today's China should be given the chance to move back to their homeland across the Taiwan strait. There they will realize that apart from economic growth, things are not as rosy as they seem -- especially if they practice Falun Gong, protest against social justice, set up a labor union, or try to run as a candidate for democracy in China's sham local elections. They are more used to authoritarian rule, where money talks, loyalty is rewarded over talent, and you do as we say, or you go to prison. They are still finding it hard to adjust to the hard-won democracy that the people of Taiwan have achieved.
The ROC is about as relevant today as the dodo. And those who endlessly carp on about it are living in denial. Does Mexico still consider itself the legitimate government of the western part of America? Does Germany still lay claim to Austria and the other lands it conquered during the course of World War II? Of course not. Wars are won and lost, governments fall, and (some) people admit defeat.
No wonder KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Richard Hazeldine
Xindian
Aussies not on China's side
The Taipei Times does its credibility a disservice by publishing Yang Chih-heng's article ("Australia siding with China in the Pacific," Dec. 8, page 8).
Australia, as the donor of relatively large amounts of foreign aid, has its own very real and genuine concerns as to how Vanuatu is be governed, and ensuring that such liquid aid is being allocated with probity and transparency. The timing of her actions in the South Pacific were no doubt dictated by the increase in instability in the island nation's political scene -- an instability that Taiwan itself has utilized to attain recognition from yet another a foreign nation.
While the two moves may have been synchronous, and the triggers identical, the motives would appear poles apart. It could well be argued that Taiwan itself has been the political agitator in this instance, as your motives for gaining recognition are not arguably altruistic. Rather than "helping China interfere," it is a statement of fact that Australia has made no conditions on the supply of aid relative to Vanuatu's relationship with Taiwan. Its "interference" is the action of a donor nation ensuring that welfare given in good faith is delivered to those it was intended for, nothing more.
As for Australia "shifting the focus from Europe to Asia," Yang again misleads your readership. Under the Howard government, Australia has in fact turned its focus back toward the US, and to a lesser degree, the UK, shunning the pro-Asia advances made in the early 1990s under former prime minister Paul Keating's labor government. Military support, political support, and the creation of a free-trade agreement are bonds that have been recently forged among the "coalition of the willing" -- the US, the UK and Australia.
Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohammed told the world this week that we [Australians] are "Europeans... who have nothing to offer the ASEAN pact." Hardly a focus on Asia. It may come as a disappointment to your readers to learn that Australians are relatively uneducated about the Taiwan-China impasse. Right or wrong, our local economy, interest rates, illegal immigrants and homeland security form the nucleus of our immediate concerns. Our big businesses see China as a market for our natural resources -- and hopefully our skilled labor -- but to suggest that we would be either wanting, or needing, to act as a puppet for China in Oceania is to create a specter that simply does not exist.
Wayne Kerr
Taipei
With each passing day, the threat of a People’s Republic of China (PRC) assault on Taiwan grows. Whatever one’s view about the history, there is essentially no question that a PRC conquest of Taiwan would mark the end of the autonomy and freedom enjoyed by the island’s 23 million people. Simply put, the PRC threat to Taiwan is genuinely existential for a free, democratic and autonomous Taiwan. Yet one might not know it from looking at Taiwan. For an island facing a threat so acute, lethal and imminent, Taiwan is showing an alarming lack of urgency in dramatically strengthening its defenses.
As India’s six-week-long general election grinds past the halfway mark, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s messaging has shifted from confident to shrill. After the first couple of phases of polling showed a 3 percentage point drop in turnout, Modi and his party leaders have largely stopped promoting their accomplishments of the past 10 years — or, for that matter, the “Modi guarantees” offered in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) manifesto for the next five. Instead, making the majority Hindu population fear and loathe Muslims seems to be the BJP’s preferred talking point. Modi went on the offensive in an April 21
The people of Taiwan recently received confirmation of the strength of American support for their security. Of four foreign aid bills that Congress passed and President Biden signed in April, the bill legislating additional support for Taiwan garnered the most votes. Three hundred eighty-five members of the House of Representatives voted to provide foreign military financing to Taiwan versus only 34 against. More members of Congress voted to support Taiwan than Ukraine, Israel, or banning TikTok. There was scant debate over whether the United States should provide greater support for Taiwan. It was understood and broadly accepted that doing so
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US