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.
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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