For years, an allegation has circulated that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Vice President Annette Lu (
As absurd as it might sound, under the rule of presidents Chiang Kai-shek (
As a result of a defamation lawsuit filed by Ma on Tuesday against Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (
But given that Ma could be elected president next year, he has a responsibility to come clean on the subject now. Why wait for the result of litigation that could drag on for a long time when a statement for the record could put his supporters at ease?
This country's democracy was made possible by the sacrifices of countless people, including the many courageous overseas students who braved the watchful gaze of "professional students" to take part in protests against the authoritarian KMT regime.
This resulted not only in students being banned from returning, but also in mysterious disappearances. Worse still, there are cases such as Carnegie Mellon University professor Chen Wen-chen (
At the time, the KMT government claimed Chen had committed suicide. A Carnegie Mellon team, however, concluded that the professor had been murdered.
Given the extent of the suffering caused by the KMT's student informers, the public has the right to know if Ma was one of them. Where there is smoke, there is sometimes fire, and this haze has lingered for years. It's time to resolve the matter based on material evidence and sworn testimony.
On Sept. 3 in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rolled out a parade of new weapons in PLA service that threaten Taiwan — some of that Taiwan is addressing with added and new military investments and some of which it cannot, having to rely on the initiative of allies like the United States. The CCP’s goal of replacing US leadership on the global stage was advanced by the military parade, but also by China hosting in Tianjin an August 31-Sept. 1 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which since 2001 has specialized
In an article published by the Harvard Kennedy School, renowned historian of modern China Rana Mitter used a structured question-and-answer format to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China. Mitter highlights the differences between the repressive and authoritarian People’s Republic of China and the vibrant democracy that exists in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan and China “have had an interconnected relationship that has been both close and contentious at times.” However, his description of the history — before and after 1945 — contains significant flaws. First, he writes that “Taiwan was always broadly regarded by the imperial dynasties of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will stop at nothing to weaken Taiwan’s sovereignty, going as far as to create complete falsehoods. That the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never ruled Taiwan is an objective fact. To refute this, Beijing has tried to assert “jurisdiction” over Taiwan, pointing to its military exercises around the nation as “proof.” That is an outright lie: If the PRC had jurisdiction over Taiwan, it could simply have issued decrees. Instead, it needs to perform a show of force around the nation to demonstrate its fantasy. Its actions prove the exact opposite of its assertions. A
A large part of the discourse about Taiwan as a sovereign, independent nation has centered on conventions of international law and international agreements between outside powers — such as between the US, UK, Russia, the Republic of China (ROC) and Japan at the end of World War II, and between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since recognition of the PRC as the sole representative of China at the UN. Internationally, the narrative on the PRC and Taiwan has changed considerably since the days of the first term of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic
RSS