On Saturday President Chen Shui-bian (
For a start Taiwan is simply not in a state of "imminent threat." Taiwanese realize the danger that China poses, but they do not think this is a danger that is likely to turn very ugly very quickly. What might turn it ugly, in fact, is Chen's call for a sovereignty vote. Taiwanese are likely to interpret Chen's call as a semantic trick which could put them in very real danger. They will not like this. And the US will conclude that everything it has heard about Chen being irresponsible in provoking China if he can thereby gain some election advantage is, in fact, true. How smart is that?
It is true that Taiwanese will back their leader in a crisis with China, as they did in 1996. But that crisis was brought about by Lee Teng-hui (
The main point of the referendum law, and one which almost nobody has commented on so far, is that the old model for unification which China has long cherished is now impossible. Beijing has thought reunification was possible as an agreement between two ruling cabals -- it has thought party-to-party negotiations sufficient. It has of course been buttressed in this misapprehension by reaching agreements about the return of Hong Kong and Macau with their colonial overlords without even the hint of an attempt to seek the views of the luckless inhabitants of those territories concerning their future.
Now Taiwanese people have been given the right to vote directly on issues of national importance. It is simply absurd for the pan-greens moaning about the "birdcage" referendum law to think that the Taiwanese people will be denied a say on the greatest question of all, however restricted the current law might be.
This means that China has to change its policy. If it really wants unification as much as it claims, it has to persuade Taiwanese that it would be good for them. After 50 years of wielding the stick it now has to try using the carrot. It is quite possible that this hasn't really sunk in in Beijing yet. And given the glacial way policy change occurs there it will be at least two years before we see any evidence that Beijing has mapped out the geography of the new playing field. During this time Taiwan should refrain from doing anything to interfere with this process. It should hold referendums on sensible topics to establish the process in voters' minds. It should leave sovereignty issues well alone.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US