Being in Hong Kong, I can view KMT Chairman Lien Chan's upcoming trip to China with detachment, so I am amused by the controversy surrounding the trip.
Since Lien is neither a government official nor a legislator, he can only represent his party.
To pretend to speak for the government or the Taiwanese people will only reinforce the perception that he and his party still ignore the fact that they have lost two presidential elections, yet believe that they rule Taiwan.
Negotiating with Lien other than as KMT chairman would prove that Beijing is stuck in a time warp, is yet to come to terms with Taiwan's democratic changes and is still peddling the fiction that Taiwan is ruled by refugees of the civil war.
What can Lien discuss with his counterpart in the Chinese Communist Party? The only issue that remains open is the the civil war. The world has long accepted the CCP's victory in the civil war, but the KMT seems unable to grasp this reality.
Because the KMT has never formally admitted defeat, Beijing has been denied the closure it needs in this historical chapter.
So, Lien should use the opportunity to admit that his party lost.
Removing this old obstacle will permit both sides of the Strait to move ahead.
This will be the greatest contribution Lien can make and will help establish the legacy he seeks.
Instead of condemning a "so-called journey of peace," the ruling party should urge Lien to make the trip a true journey of peace.
Kenneth Choy
Hong Kong
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