Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
At first Chen condemned Lien's trip, but later changed his attitude and gave his blessing to both Lien's travel plans and those of People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
Both men uphold the "one China" principle and the so-called "1992 consensus." Both will receive high-profile receptions by their Chinese hosts. Behind all of this is Beijing's "united front" strategy, which aims at cozying up to the opposition parties, dividing Taiwan and forcing the government to accept "one China" and the alleged consensus.
On April 21, former president Lee Teng-hui (
Although both Lien and Soong are acting without explicit government authorization, Chen has given his blessing. This will give people in this country and abroad the wrong idea that Lien and Soong represent government opinion. The president had only just taken part in the March 26 protests against China's "Anti-Secession" Law when he turned around and gave this blessing. He said he hoped they would pave a new path for cross-strait relations. But what about the arms procurement bill, which continues to languish in the legislature? If the people of Taiwan care so little about their own defense, who will believe us in the future if China steps up its military threats?
Lien's visit could mislead the international community into believing that Taiwan is indifferent to the Anti-Secession Law and does not care about threats made against it. If Lien wants to call his trip a "journey of peace," he should inform Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Lien has said that resolution through negotiation should "respect what is real, what is actual and what is current." The reality is that the Republic of China is a sovereign and independent entity, each side of the Strait administers its territory separately and Taiwan's sovereignty is held in the hands of its 23 million people. China should take the first step by respecting this situation.
Dialogue between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party may be significant in historical terms. However, as long as Taiwan's political parties cannot agree on the basic principles of national sovereignty and policy toward China, then these two trips may turn out to be not a glorious beginning to better times, but the first step toward disaster.
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
Last week, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) unveiled the location of Nvidia’s new Taipei headquarters and announced plans to build the world’s first large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer in Taiwan. In Taipei, Huang’s announcement was welcomed as a milestone for Taiwan’s tech industry. However, beneath the excitement lies a significant question: Can Taiwan’s electricity infrastructure, especially its renewable energy supply, keep up with growing demand from AI chipmaking? Despite its leadership in digital hardware, Taiwan lags behind in renewable energy adoption. Moreover, the electricity grid is already experiencing supply shortages. As Taiwan’s role in AI manufacturing expands, it is critical that