No Maokong Gondola, thanks
As a long-term resident of southern Taipei, few things filled me with more anger and frustration than the construction of the Maokong Gondola. When President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was mayor of Taipei, the eight years he spent in office were, in fact, quite benign: nothing attempted and nothing accomplished.
Aside from running around the city in really short shorts, I can’t think of anything truly remarkable that he did. A fawning media helped convince a lazy, bored electorate that Ma was an outstanding civil servant.
During the tail end of his second term as Taipei’s esteemed mayor, Ma managed to cram through Taipei City Hall the construction of the cable car system at Maokong. There was no assessment of the environmental impact or potential effect on the community and no consideration of why a cable car designed for the French Alps should be built in Taipei’s last rural oasis.
Now, on the very spot I used to go hiking, sits the terminus for the cable car. It’s an ugly, hulking, concrete block of a building. In fact, if you had never been to Maokong before, you wouldn’t realize just how visually scarred the whole mountain has become. Where there were once stunning city vistas and mountain views, not a single view has been left unobscured by steel cables and their supporting towers.
Who asked for this ridiculous amusement park ride? We residents of Wenshan district did not ask for the “Disneyfication” of our once peaceful and beautiful city retreat. Nor do we want it now. The thousands of daily visitors do nothing at all for our economy or our community except bring more noise, traffic and congestion to our roads. Sure, a handful of businessmen have made a killing. But that has done nothing to improve the average resident’s daily lot.
The erosion that has occurred under the support pillars following a succession of typhoons came as no surprise. Visit Maokong any time after strong rains and you will see rock and mud slides. The geography is very unstable and I sure don’t want to see what will happen next time an earthquake strikes this area.
It’s not too late to take it all down and give us back our mountain. Tell the greedy businessmen to take the busloads of tourists somewhere else. We don’t need them.
JENIFER HUANG
Taipei City
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, people have been asking if Taiwan is the next Ukraine. At a G7 meeting of national leaders in January, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned that Taiwan “could be the next Ukraine” if Chinese aggression is not checked. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that if Russia is not defeated, then “today, it’s Ukraine, tomorrow it can be Taiwan.” China does not like this rhetoric. Its diplomats ask people to stop saying “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.” However, the rhetoric and stated ambition of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Taiwan shows strong parallels with