Are you going to today's protest march? Or are you going to be a couch potato and witness it at home? At this time in Taiwan's history, the citizens of our country need to step up to their responsibilities and show up at the protest. Sitting in our cozy homes watching the protest on television will not be enough. With a huge participation rate at the protest, the world will see that Taiwan's fate lies in the peaceful decisions of the peaceful Taiwanese -- in contrast to the "non-peaceful" means China has just formally authorized against Taiwan.
Statistics have shown that more than 80 percent of the Taiwanese population opposes the Anti-Secession Law. How can the Taiwanese verify the accuracy of this poll? The solution is to show up at the protest. Do not allow opinions of political parties to hinder you from attending such an important event. In fact, up to 88.1 percent of the Taiwanese population think that political parties should stop fighting each other and unite.
The protest, although put together by the pan-green camp, is not a propaganda event for the Democratic Progressive Party, but instead is a protest to reveal the dissatisfaction of Taiwan as a unified country towards the Anti-Secession Law.
Maybe you are one of the few who are still ambiguous on your opinion of the law. Why then should you attend the protest? Just think about it. The law gives China full authority to unilaterally determine the future of your homeland. Shouldn't the decision be based upon the votes of you and your neighbors who actually live in Taiwan? Or is it okay for the few elite people of the Chinese Communist government to decide your future?
Even if you are pro-"one China, two systems," you should be voicing your opinions from within Taiwan, not from across the Taiwan Strait. Joining the march does not necessarily mean you are pro-independence, it simply shows the world that you want the future of Taiwan to be decided by the Taiwanese themselves.
Many people say that businesspeople won't attend the protest. Why? Because they fear their prosperity invested in China will diminish if they go against the Chinese government.
These days, money means the world to everyone. But now, I ask the businesspeople to put aside their selfish desires and think about the well-being of the Taiwanese people as a whole. What will really benefit us? The answer is democracy and peace, which are platforms that are going to be supported at the march.
Love Taiwan? Come to today's protest march and join your fellow Taiwanese in a peaceful demonstration against the unjust Anti-Secession Law.
Show the world that the nation of Taiwan is worth supporting. Show the world that Taiwan actually cares about its future by being an active participant in the march for peace, democracy and Taiwan.
Erica Wu
Taipei
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
RSS