enjoyed reading Li Chen-ching’s letter (Letters, page 8, March 29). The great thought-provoking idea that Li proposed has inspired me to point out that Taiwan’s democracy exemplified by this year’s presidential election has shed new light on China. And it is time that the US employed a pragmatic strategy to enforce new trilateral relations by allowing Ma Ying-jeou to visit Washington before he takes office on May 20.
It is obvious that there will be advantages in many areas if Ma’s visit can come true. The visit is going to be the best bridge to repair the strained relations between the US and Taiwan, and mutual understanding and desirable communication could then be enhanced for serving the best interests of both countries.
Moreover, it is feasible and pragmatic for the US to make an indirect and profound understanding of China through Ma’s visit.
On the other hand, by allowing Ma to visit the US the tensions between China and Taiwan will probably be relaxed and better cross-strait relations might be created as a result. In that way, it would not be a “mission impossible” that one day Hu Jintao might offer an invitation to Ma to visit Beijing. In this manner, the US might eventually create a win-win situation for everybody, thereby constructing peace and harmony in the Asia-Pacific region.
Cindy Wang
Taipei
Wherever one looks, the United States is ceding ground to China. From foreign aid to foreign trade, and from reorganizations to organizational guidance, the Trump administration has embarked on a stunning effort to hobble itself in grappling with what his own secretary of state calls “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.” The problems start at the Department of State. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has asserted that “it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power” and that the world has returned to multipolarity, with “multi-great powers in different parts of the
President William Lai (賴清德) recently attended an event in Taipei marking the end of World War II in Europe, emphasizing in his speech: “Using force to invade another country is an unjust act and will ultimately fail.” In just a few words, he captured the core values of the postwar international order and reminded us again: History is not just for reflection, but serves as a warning for the present. From a broad historical perspective, his statement carries weight. For centuries, international relations operated under the law of the jungle — where the strong dominated and the weak were constrained. That
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.
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
RSS