Are Taiwan and China two different countries? The answer is yes and no. It is yes when China vows to reunite with Taiwan. It is no when China's parliament plans to enact an "anti-secession" law to prevent the "split" of Taiwan from China.
One cannot help but wonder what has gotten into the minds of Chinese leaders in Beijing. They are not only delusional, but also deranged. Or they are sales geniuses.
In the draft of the anti-secession law, it mandates an invasion of Taiwan if Taiwan achieves a complete "independent" status or if efforts toward peaceful unification are exhausted. The whole draft mentions only Taiwan; the Republic of China (ROC) has completely disappeared.
The pan-blue camp has generally played down the impact of the law or scoffed at pro-independence figures for inviting China's legal warfare. The pan-blues couldn't care less that its beloved ROC has completely disappeared from the mindset and language of China's National People's Congress delegates.
China's enactment of the law is a living testament that even the status quo -- an indefinite delay on unification -- could trigger an attack from China.
China is trying to play a semantic word game using words like "secession" and non-peaceful for its propaganda aims. And China's strategy -- to box in Taiwan under the ROC -- is very clear and clever.
China's marketing and packaging may become more sophisticated, but its sale to the Taiwanese remains a fat chance.
Yang Ji charng
Columbus, Ohio
The government and local industries breathed a sigh of relief after Shin Kong Life Insurance Co last week said it would relinquish surface rights for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) to Nvidia Corp. The US chip-design giant’s plan to expand its local presence will be crucial for Taiwan to safeguard its core role in the global artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and to advance the nation’s AI development. The land in dispute is owned by the Taipei City Government, which in 2021 sold the rights to develop and use the two plots of land, codenamed T17 and T18, to the
Taiwan’s first case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed on Tuesday evening at a hog farm in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲), trigging nationwide emergency measures and stripping Taiwan of its status as the only Asian country free of classical swine fever, ASF and foot-and-mouth disease, a certification it received on May 29. The government on Wednesday set up a Central Emergency Operations Center in Taichung and instituted an immediate five-day ban on transporting and slaughtering hogs, and on feeding pigs kitchen waste. The ban was later extended to 15 days, to account for the incubation period of the virus
The ceasefire in the Middle East is a rare cause for celebration in that war-torn region. Hamas has released all of the living hostages it captured on Oct. 7, 2023, regular combat operations have ceased, and Israel has drawn closer to its Arab neighbors. Israel, with crucial support from the United States, has achieved all of this despite concerted efforts from the forces of darkness to prevent it. Hamas, of course, is a longtime client of Iran, which in turn is a client of China. Two years ago, when Hamas invaded Israel — killing 1,200, kidnapping 251, and brutalizing countless others
US President Donald Trump has announced his eagerness to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un while in South Korea for the APEC summit. That implies a possible revival of US-North Korea talks, frozen since 2019. While some would dismiss such a move as appeasement, renewed US engagement with North Korea could benefit Taiwan’s security interests. The long-standing stalemate between Washington and Pyongyang has allowed Beijing to entrench its dominance in the region, creating a myth that only China can “manage” Kim’s rogue nation. That dynamic has allowed Beijing to present itself as an indispensable power broker: extracting concessions from Washington, Seoul
RSS