If former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Shih Ming-teh (
Shih should also stage a massive demonstration against China for deploying some 800 ballistic missiles in an attempt to destroy Taiwan and for diplomatically isolating Taiwan from the rest of the world.
If Shih sincerely opposed greediness and corruption, he would not keep quiet about the KMT's possession of questionable "partisan assets" worth nearly US$20 billion, as reported in Wealth Magazine in 1998. Shih has not raised any questions about Ma having sold some US$200 million of these assets. As a wild hunter, Shih tries to shoot at the cat but leaves the tiger alone.
If Shih truly cherished democracy, he should let the Constitution and the judiciary decide President Chen Shui-bian's (
A one-day silent sit-in is reasonable. A prolonged, round-the-clock, noisy sit-in or nationwide strike is an abuse of democracy and a nuisance to the general public. Let the Constitution do its job. If it does not do the job, let's amend it or scrap it and make a new one.
If Shih honestly respected ethnic harmony, he would not add a pan-red camp to the existing pan-green and pan-blue camps in Taiwan. Also, Sept. 8, the anniversary of the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, would have been a better choice than Sept. 9, the anniversary of Mao Zedong's (
One should be smart enough "to scratch the itchy skin and not scratch the non-itchy skin to bleeding," as a Taiwanese saying goes.
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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