On Monday, we heard reports that a political commentary program hosted by independent Legislator Sisy Chen (
Sisy Chen knows that for an elected official to conduct political commentary on television is unethical. If the TV station no longer wants to carry her program, or if her viewership ratings have fallen, then termination of the program is quite natural. It has nothing to do with a conspiracy. Power News (
Many Taiwanese appear to have forgotten that the freedom of speech we enjoy today did not fall from an empty sky. This right we enjoy was something won for us through a sacrifice of blood by many of our forebears. Remember that it was only fourteen years ago that a democracy fighter ended his own life to protest against the suppression of freedom of speech and to safeguard the dignity of intellectuals when he was surrounded by cordons of police and military troops.
Nylon Deng (
On Monday, the 14th anniversary of his death, more than 200 people from around Taiwan braved the heavy rain to attend a memorial service for him at Taipei County's Chinshan County, to remember the sacrifice and contribution he made to freedom of speech in Taiwan. It is a tragedy that Taiwan has a number of officials hosting one-sided, ideologically driven political programs in the media, while others still blatantly interfere in media operations, thereby abusing our hard-won freedom of speech for their own gain. This is a shameless violation of political ethics.
We would do well to remember Deng's admirable character. We believe that people holding public office, from both the ruling and opposition parties, should cut the umbilical cords which link them with the media. Politicians should cease their prevaricating. The reformation of our political culture should begin with self-reform within the media. This is the only way to ensure that the people of Taiwan receive fair, objective and independent perspectives.
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers