The Sino-Japanese relationship has deteriorated lately as a result of Japanese textbooks -- which critics say whitewash its war record last century -- and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. Now, the resulting Chinese nationalism has also infected unification proponents in Taiwan. Afraid of antagonizing China, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma is not the only one influenced by Chinese nationalism. It has now affected independent Legislator May Chin (
By the terms of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, these Taiwanese soldiers -- as well as their fellow Han servicemen -- became Japanese. They died on the battlefield for Japan, and the Japanese government, treating them as the emperor's warriors, included them in the reverence paid at the shrine. There is nothing wrong with that.
Chin's appeals are also understandable. Since Taiwan already has become an independent country, these Taiwanese soldiers in the Japanese army are no longer second-rate colonial citizens of the Japanese empire. Their souls already have a motherland. If their descendants demand that the Japanese government remove their names from the Yasukuni Shrine and return them to their old homeland, the Japanese should not put up obstacles, but help them achieve their wishes.
May Chin's visit to Japan is controversial in Taiwan because everyone here knows that she is simply a pro-unification politician who often hides beneath the cloak of her Aboriginal status. It was director Ang Lee's film The Wedding Banquet that raised her to stardom. The daughter of an Aboriginal mother and Mainlander father, she had always been unwilling to reveal that she was half Aboriginal, and few people knew her background. That changed after the government relaxed the conditions for recognition of Aboriginal decent, allowing it to flow either from the maternal or the paternal line. She took her mother's maiden name to create a double-barreled surname, entered a campaign for the legislature as a recognized Aborigine and got elected with a large majority.
Since May Chin's father is a Mainlander, it's not surprising that she never fails to echo the pan-blue camp's political arguments, but she does this as though she is representing the Aboriginal community. Of course, it's not politically correct to interpret May Chin's actions based on her ethnic background. But in Taiwan, this can often prove quite a objective standard. The question is whether May Chin is qualified to speak for the Aboriginal community.
The absurdity of the situation is that many Aborigines are unaware that their ethnic identity is in danger of being usurped. For example, the Paiwan and Rukai tribes in Pingtung take the hundred-pace snake as their totem. The offspring of Mainlander veterans and Paiwan and Rukai women often opt for Aboriginal status, but when they return home for tribal festivals, the hundred-pace snake has been replaced by the Chinese dragon in their ceremonial regalia.
It is worrying to see that the totem of the Aboriginal people is being replaced by a Chinese symbol. This makes us think of Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan's recent remark that Shanghai women should marry foreigners to help spread Chinese culture around the world. That Chinese are able to advocate interracial marriage as a tool of cultural conquest is really quite frightening.
Is a new foreign partner for Taiwan emerging in the Middle East? Last week, Taiwanese media reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, a country with whom Taiwan has long shared unofficial relations but which has approached those relations cautiously. In the wake of China’s implicit but clear support for Hamas and Iran in the wake of the October 2023 assault on Israel, Jerusalem’s calculus may be changing. Both small countries facing literal existential threats, Israel and Taiwan have much to gain from closer ties. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, President William
Taiwan-India relations appear to have been put on the back burner this year, including on Taiwan’s side. Geopolitical pressures have compelled both countries to recalibrate their priorities, even as their core security challenges remain unchanged. However, what is striking is the visible decline in the attention India once received from Taiwan. The absence of the annual Diwali celebrations for the Indian community and the lack of a commemoration marking the 30-year anniversary of the representative offices, the India Taipei Association and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, speak volumes and raise serious questions about whether Taiwan still has a coherent India
A stabbing attack inside and near two busy Taipei MRT stations on Friday evening shocked the nation and made headlines in many foreign and local news media, as such indiscriminate attacks are rare in Taiwan. Four people died, including the 27-year-old suspect, and 11 people sustained injuries. At Taipei Main Station, the suspect threw smoke grenades near two exits and fatally stabbed one person who tried to stop him. He later made his way to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he threw more smoke grenades and fatally stabbed a person on a scooter by the roadside.
Recent media reports have again warned that traditional Chinese medicine pharmacies are disappearing and might vanish altogether within the next 15 years. Yet viewed through the broader lens of social and economic change, the rise and fall — or transformation — of industries is rarely the result of a single factor, nor is it inherently negative. Taiwan itself offers a clear parallel. Once renowned globally for manufacturing, it is now best known for its high-tech industries. Along the way, some businesses successfully transformed, while others disappeared. These shifts, painful as they might be for those directly affected, have not necessarily harmed society
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