It's unbelievable that KMT Chairman Lien Chan urged his Peking University audience to unite against Taiwanese independence for all the world to see. Living on a democratic and self-ruled island, we can accept different voices, but how sad it is to see an outside power involving itself in our domestic affairs, especially with the help of our biggest opposition party.
What did Lien mean? He has run twice for the KMT in presidential elections, but now he denies that Taiwan is an independent country. What was the name of the post he ran for?
Lien still enjoys a number of ongoing perks from his vice presidency, including a generous "salary" totaling over NT$400,000 per month, paid for by the 23 million people living on Taiwan, Kinmen and Matsu. His "retirement salary" is even higher than that of President Chen Shui-bian.
He claims that his role is a civil one, and not that of a former vice president for this visit. But the talks in China included political issues. Is this a civil role? What he says he is doing and what he is really doing are different things. He has lied too much already.
On March 14, China passed the "Anti-Secession" Law, further threatening cross-strait peace. Hundreds of thousands of people in Taiwan protested the law on March 26. A number of countries also applied pressure on China. But where was the KMT? What did it have to say?
Most democratic countries support Taiwan over this matter. But the KMT echoed communist China. How extraordinarily democratic Taiwan is: It allows an opposition party leader to seek outside assistance to manipulate domestic affairs.
This is a farcical situation, and one that will impact heavily on the nation. But many news reports call Lien's visit a "historic" trip. People are brainwashed.
So, are you clear about what's going on? Then say something! Stand up, and let the world understand our true voice.
Gandalf Liu
Taiwan
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
Liberals have wasted no time in pointing to Karol Nawrocki’s lack of qualifications for his new job as president of Poland. He has never previously held political office. He won by the narrowest of margins, with 50.9 percent of the vote. However, Nawrocki possesses the one qualification that many national populists value above all other: a taste for physical strength laced with violence. Nawrocki is a former boxer who still likes to go a few rounds. He is also such an enthusiastic soccer supporter that he reportedly got the logos of his two favorite teams — Chelsea and Lechia Gdansk —
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
RSS