Taiwanese people know that today's China has become a haven for Taiwanese gangsters and economic criminals.
For humanitarian reasons and for the safety of air travelers, the government began in the 1990s to send Chinese hijackers seeking freedom back to China, in accordance with international regulations. This has stopped people from using such violent means to escape. However, to this day, Taiwan's efforts to improve cross-strait relations have not been reciprocated by China. On the contrary, Beijing uses Chinese criminals to repeatedly attack the nation, politically and economically.
Today, not only is Beijing not willing to let illegal Chinese immigrants be repatriated in a timely manner, but it shelters many criminals who have committed serious crimes in this country, allowing them to use China as a base and continue their vicious actions against Taiwanese businesspeople and the public. How can such a bad neighbor ever win acceptance from the Taiwanese people?
For example, fugitive Hsueh Chiu (
In terms of the cross-strait relationship, it is all but obvious that Beijing is hoping to indulge these criminals and thereby achieve its goal of destroying Taiwan's economic stability, social order and political harmony. China's use of Chen Yu-hao to launch a fierce attack on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) during the presidential election showed the Taiwanese people that one of the main reasons that these criminals are allowed to hide in China is that China hopes that they can be used as tools with which to attack and vilify Taiwan's leaders.
On the international stage, China has not only sought to prevent Taiwan from gaining observer status in the World Health Organization, but more recently it also sought to obstruct the nation's participation in the International Symposium on Economic Crime hosted by Cambridge University. It was only because the organizers refused to bow to pressure from the Chinese embassy in the UK that Beijing did not achieve its goal. But is there any need for such seminars, which aim to achieve peace, health, safety and happiness for people around the world, to be drawn into such a political whirlpool? China's rulers obviously think so, and they have even sought to drum up blame and criticism over Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's (
Taiwan, with its democracy, freedom and rule of law, stands in stark contrast to the tyrannical ways of China. This is something that all the world can see. Moreover, Taiwanese can now see the ulterior motives behind Beijing's willingness to provide a haven for Taiwan's felons.
This kind of despicable behavior only reveals the true face of the Chinese Communist Party's power. It shows that China's leaders are no better than a pack of thieves and assures that Taiwanese with ideals and aspirations will want nothing to do with them.
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