Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Ching-fang (
Taiwanese ought not be fooled by the double standards of KMT and PFP legislators, who are trying to divert attention from concern over Soong's integrity. On Sunday, Soong accused President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of giving US$1 million to the family of US President George W. Bush as a payoff for the high-level contacts he made during his recent stopover in New York.
We would ask Soong: where is your evidence of this bribe? Will you provide it? When?
Taiwanese still remember an accusation made by former New Party legislator Elmer Fung (
Soong's accusation is troubling because, as Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (
If KMT and PFP legislators really love Taiwan more than they do power, they should demand Soong produce evidence of the payoff. The recent theatrics of KMT and PFP lawmakers were merely the same tired attempts to divert media and public attention.
Soong has denounced the VCD entitled Special Report which lampooned him as "low-class," and announced it to be an act of campaign muckraking by President Chen. We hope that Soong will disclose whatever evidence he has to back up this and every other one of his accusations so that the public might have the opportunity to bring the president to task if he was involved in any such wrongdoing.
If not, then the only reasonable deduction that could be made is that Soong is a liar, and that his cycle of lies may cost him dearly in next year's election.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has offered Taiwan a paradoxical mix of reassurance and risk. Trump’s visceral hostility toward China could reinforce deterrence in the Taiwan Strait. Yet his disdain for alliances and penchant for transactional bargaining threaten to erode what Taiwan needs most: a reliable US commitment. Taiwan’s security depends less on US power than on US reliability, but Trump is undermining the latter. Deterrence without credibility is a hollow shield. Trump’s China policy in his second term has oscillated wildly between confrontation and conciliation. One day, he threatens Beijing with “massive” tariffs and calls China America’s “greatest geopolitical
US President Donald Trump’s seemingly throwaway “Taiwan is Taiwan” statement has been appearing in headlines all over the media. Although it appears to have been made in passing, the comment nevertheless reveals something about Trump’s views and his understanding of Taiwan’s situation. In line with the Taiwan Relations Act, the US and Taiwan enjoy unofficial, but close economic, cultural and national defense ties. They lack official diplomatic relations, but maintain a partnership based on shared democratic values and strategic alignment. Excluding China, Taiwan maintains a level of diplomatic relations, official or otherwise, with many nations worldwide. It can be said that
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) made the astonishing assertion during an interview with Germany’s Deutsche Welle, published on Friday last week, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a dictator. She also essentially absolved Putin of blame for initiating the war in Ukraine. Commentators have since listed the reasons that Cheng’s assertion was not only absurd, but bordered on dangerous. Her claim is certainly absurd to the extent that there is no need to discuss the substance of it: It would be far more useful to assess what drove her to make the point and stick so
The central bank has launched a redesign of the New Taiwan dollar banknotes, prompting questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators — “Are we not promoting digital payments? Why spend NT$5 billion on a redesign?” Many assume that cash will disappear in the digital age, but they forget that it represents the ultimate trust in the system. Banknotes do not become obsolete, they do not crash, they cannot be frozen and they leave no record of transactions. They remain the cleanest means of exchange in a free society. In a fully digitized world, every purchase, donation and action leaves behind data.