The US claims to want to maintain the "status quo" across the Taiwan Strait, yet what the US has been up to recently is helping China degrade Taiwan. Many people consider Taiwan to be the levee of the Western Pacific. If this levee is breached through negligence, the "Red Storm" will be more catastrophic than Hurricane Katrina.
Of course the US needs to look after its national interest, but it should not do so at the expense of Taiwan, or any other country. Small nations have dignity too. China will take a foot for every inch you give it. No matter how much the US may compromise, the US will never satisfy China or get what it wants in return.
The US' rejection of President Chen Shui-bian's (
When Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) visited the US, he was treated as if he were the president of Taiwan. The Bush administration wants China to negotiate directly with the government of Taiwan, yet the US refused Chen's request to land in New York or Los Angeles, as if he were a terrorist.
The reason for this is that China asked the US not to let Chen go to Washington.
The US is fighting hard in Iraq to promote democracy, yet at the same time it is unintentionally pushing Taiwan away from democracy and toward communism by trying to please China.
The "one China" policy adopted by former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger must be critically reviewed by the State Department. It is a bad policy for Taiwan, the US and China.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
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