Yesterday at about nine in the morning, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
These legislators say that the trip was made to protest Japan's unreasonable expulsion and detention of Taiwanese fishing vessels. It was even more surprising to hear Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
What is also perplexing is that Ma described Wang's boarding of a navy frigate protecting Taiwanese fishing boats as "an impulsive action." Ma, like Wang, is a contender for the chairmanship of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and his comments suggest that there is more than meets the eye regarding Wang's actions to protect Taiwanese fishermen. It would seem that Wang's trip is as much about raising his profile in the chairmanship campaign as anything else -- and that this has led Ma, who missed out on this effective electioneering, to express sour grapes.
Wang must be condemned for endangering national security for the sake of his election campaign. If such a protest accidentally sparked a conflict which resulted in casualties or even death, it would not matter who was at fault. Taiwan would be faced with a dilemma over whether or not to go to war with Japan. China is already looking hungrily at Taiwan, so is there really any need to use a naval deployment to force a conflict with Japan?
The more serious problem is that Wang, as the legislative speaker, has set a terrible example of direct interference by the legislature in the affairs of the executive branch. While it is permissible for the head of the legislature to visit a neighboring country for peaceful exchanges, for him to board a naval vessel in the company of the Minister of Defense to participate in a quasi-military protest action against a neighboring country is highly unusual and quite insolent. The procedures of constitutional government have been disrupted by Wang's infringement of the rights of the executive, and his stunt is an affront to the president's role as the commander-in-chief of the armed services. Wang's fault is compounded by the fact that the trip was tainted with accusations of electioneering. How can the Japanese take such actions seriously?
For this reason we strongly criticize PFP Legislator Lin Yu-fang (
Taiwan simply cannot afford to make more enemies, and it has no need to echo China's anti-Japanese sentiments. Japan is Taiwan's friend, and apart from a small section of society that leans toward China, every one believes this to be the case. We must ask Wang not to let his political ambition get the better of him. We also ask President Chen Shui-bian (
Before 1945, the most widely spoken language in Taiwan was Tai-gi (also known as Taiwanese, Taiwanese Hokkien or Hoklo). However, due to almost a century of language repression policies, many Taiwanese believe that Tai-gi is at risk of disappearing. To understand this crisis, I interviewed academics and activists about Taiwan’s history of language repression, the major challenges of revitalizing Tai-gi and their policy recommendations. Although Taiwanese were pressured to speak Japanese when Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895, most managed to keep their heritage languages alive in their homes. However, starting in 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) enacted martial law
“Si ambulat loquitur tetrissitatque sicut anas, anas est” is, in customary international law, the three-part test of anatine ambulation, articulation and tetrissitation. And it is essential to Taiwan’s existence. Apocryphally, it can be traced as far back as Suetonius (蘇埃托尼烏斯) in late first-century Rome. Alas, Suetonius was only talking about ducks (anas). But this self-evident principle was codified as a four-part test at the Montevideo Convention in 1934, to which the United States is a party. Article One: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government;
Chinese agents often target Taiwanese officials who are motivated by financial gain rather than ideology, while people who are found guilty of spying face lenient punishments in Taiwan, a researcher said on Tuesday. While the law says that foreign agents can be sentenced to death, people who are convicted of spying for Beijing often serve less than nine months in prison because Taiwan does not formally recognize China as a foreign nation, Institute for National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said. Many officials and military personnel sell information to China believing it to be of little value, unaware that
The central bank and the US Department of the Treasury on Friday issued a joint statement that both sides agreed to avoid currency manipulation and the use of exchange rates to gain a competitive advantage, and would only intervene in foreign-exchange markets to combat excess volatility and disorderly movements. The central bank also agreed to disclose its foreign-exchange intervention amounts quarterly rather than every six months, starting from next month. It emphasized that the joint statement is unrelated to tariff negotiations between Taipei and Washington, and that the US never requested the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar during the
RSS