Sunday's article about Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Hasn't Taiwan seeded many Chinese business enterprises?
Aren't the foundations of China's consumer electronics industries founded with the help of Taiwanese and Japanese businessman?
It appears to this reader that Ma once again misses the real issue: the rights of 23 million Taiwanese.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has walked a fine line in balancing international concern about "upsetting China" and the need to protect Taiwan's national identity. I am struck by how the Taiwanese have managed to maintain their cultural core despite occupation by the Japanese and the Chinese. China has responded to Chen's "five noes" and Taiwan's peaceful overtures with threats, missiles and interference in Taiwan's domestic politics.
It is time for Ma to admit that the "status quo" has always been a fiction. And because the "status quo" was a fiction imposed on the people of Taiwan without their consent, it is not the foundation of their free and democratic nation. The nation of Taiwan flows from its people.
A rich culture existed in Taiwan long before the Chinese or even the Japanese colonial period.
Taiwan has always been more than the Chinese icons and symbols former dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) brought with him after losing the civil war in China. Taking a snapshot of the time when Chiang was in exile in Taiwan and then calling that the "status quo" is wrong and disrespects the struggles, history and sacrifices of a nation and its native people.
It is time to drop the fictions that anchor Taiwan to uncertainty and to instead support three objectives for the nation: a defined status; direct participation in the international community; and patriotism.
A defined status means that the people of Taiwan no longer need to live in purgatory. The people should be able to freely identify themselves as Taiwanese without fear of annihilation.
Participation in the international community means that the 23 million inhabitants of Taiwan have direct access to the international organizations that have been established to promote world health and peace. Taiwan operates as a sovereign country. Denying Taiwan access to the UN stifles the voices of 23 million people. It is unacceptable that China, after exporting SARS to Taiwan, continues to block Taiwan's entry into the WHO.
Patriotism does not allow divided loyalty. With China having passed its now infamous "Anti-Succession" Law, codifying its military expansionist goals against Taiwan, all politicians should to be united against this common threat. Sadly, some Taiwanese politicians traveled to China as "private citizens" and provided the Chinese Communist Party with yet another propaganda opportunity. Finally, patriotism also means passing necessary legislation to modernize the military, rather than leaving the country in a weakened state.
Mark Krietzman
California
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
The past few months have seen tremendous strides in India’s journey to develop a vibrant semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The nation’s established prowess in information technology (IT) has earned it much-needed revenue and prestige across the globe. Now, through the convergence of engineering talent, supportive government policies, an expanding market and technologically adaptive entrepreneurship, India is striving to become part of global electronics and semiconductor supply chains. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India” has been the guiding force behind the government’s incentive schemes that span skilling, design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging, and