Two months ago, one of our staff members sent a document to the Taiwan Representative Office (TRO) in the UK to be notarized for use here in Taiwan. The office managed to put the necessary chop on the document, but forgot the validating countersignature. When the document was returned it was useless, and the process had to be gone through all over again.
We retell this admittedly trifling anecdote only to point out that when it comes to doing the most basic task properly, the TRO in London leaves a lot to be desired. The many procedural lapses involved in the issuing of a passport to the wife of fugitive arms dealer Andrew Wang (
But it seems a remarkable coincidence that whenever Wang or one of his family members seems to need the aid of Taiwan's authorities abroad, they receive it, including a power of attorney certified in Geneva in 2001 and another certified in London last year. Are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its employees overseas really this incompetent, or is there a darker motive behind MOFA's acting as Wang's fairy godmother? Is this facilitation of Wang's evasion of justice deliberate? And to what extent is it seen as expedient?
Let us remember that, though it is in connection with Yin Ching-feng's (
This vast sum is enough to buy an entire government, and perhaps that is just what it did. Given that many of those still in the bureaucracy are still the retainers of the KMT ancien regime or are beholden to such patrons, it is reasonable to wonder if these oversights regarding the peripatetic Wang are not just the visible tips of a vast conspiracy.
The Control Yuan last week said that diplomats Lily Hsu (
We remember that when Chen Shui-bian (
At least one reason for this lack of progress might be that on coming to power Chen learned of the scandal's true extent, and also that it involved figures which it was in his political interest to protect.
We are not making any accusations here; rather, we are saying that, given the huge extent of the corruption, as suggested by the enormous US$400 million figure, this is one obvious interpretation of what we see.
Our message to the president is: Persuade us it isn't so.
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