Telling it like it is
In support of Dan Bloom, (Letters, March 26, page 8), I would like to add the following comments. Yesterday I received an e-mail from the BBC Global Minds asking me to join its viewers’ panel. While completing the survey I came across a perturbing part and sent the BBC the following e-mail.
“I have just completed your online questionnaire and have found one part extremely disturbing which I am going to report to the British Trade and Cultural Office, Taipei. Under the section ‘which country do you live in,’ you have listed Taiwan as ‘Taiwan, Province of China.’ I have previously written to you about this on two occasions but you still persist with this title. Once again, TAIWAN HAS NEVER BEEN A PROVINCE OF CHINA and, for the sake of all Taiwanese people in general and my wife in particular, I hope it never will be. Yours sincerely, Michael Wise, Taiwan, ROC.”
I have also found this to be the case in most UK government Web sites and also the Halifax, Plc Web site.
It is getting harder to know what the name of this beautiful island is and what its people are called, not only for anyone living abroad, but also for those of us who have chosen to live here and call it home. Especially when we read the following quotation from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九): “Let’s begin today and work toward ethnic and social harmony, and peace in the Taiwan Strait,” he said. “Let’s work together so the Chinese people can pursue progress and world peace in an amicable atmosphere” (“Kuo’s articles discriminatory, Ma says,” March 25, page 1).
I’m happy that Ma is preaching to the Chinese people about world peace or anything else, but I’m also confused, so my question to him is: “Do only Chinese people live in the Taiwan Strait?”
MICHAEL WISE
Tamsui
A failure by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to respond to Israel’s brilliant 12-day (June 12-23) bombing and special operations war against Iran, topped by US President Donald Trump’s ordering the June 21 bombing of Iranian deep underground nuclear weapons fuel processing sites, has been noted by some as demonstrating a profound lack of resolve, even “impotence,” by China. However, this would be a dangerous underestimation of CCP ambitions and its broader and more profound military response to the Trump Administration — a challenge that includes an acceleration of its strategies to assist nuclear proxy states, and developing a wide array
Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), former chairman of Broadcasting Corp of China and leader of the “blue fighters,” recently announced that he had canned his trip to east Africa, and he would stay in Taiwan for the recall vote on Saturday. He added that he hoped “his friends in the blue camp would follow his lead.” His statement is quite interesting for a few reasons. Jaw had been criticized following media reports that he would be traveling in east Africa during the recall vote. While he decided to stay in Taiwan after drawing a lot of flak, his hesitation says it all: If
Twenty-four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers are facing recall votes on Saturday, prompting nearly all KMT officials and lawmakers to rally their supporters over the past weekend, urging them to vote “no” in a bid to retain their seats and preserve the KMT’s majority in the Legislative Yuan. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which had largely kept its distance from the civic recall campaigns, earlier this month instructed its officials and staff to support the recall groups in a final push to protect the nation. The justification for the recalls has increasingly been framed as a “resistance” movement against China and
Much has been said about the significance of the recall vote, but here is what must be said clearly and without euphemism: This vote is not just about legislative misconduct. It is about defending Taiwan’s sovereignty against a “united front” campaign that has crept into the heart of our legislature. Taiwanese voters on Jan. 13 last year made a complex decision. Many supported William Lai (賴清德) for president to keep Taiwan strong on the world stage. At the same time, some hoped that giving the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) a legislative majority would offer a
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