Taiwan dangling in limbo
The US State Department recognizes 194 states, including city-states such as the Holy See and Singapore and the principalities, or “micro-states,” of Liechtenstein and Monaco.
Excluded from this list is an entity that the State Department says may or may not be considered a country, depending on who you talk to.
The outsider is Taiwan, which meets all requirements for a sovereign country.
That Taiwan meets all criteria of a sovereign country is absolutely indisputable and beyond contention:
1. It has a clearly defined territory with internationally recognized boundaries.
2. It has a permanent population who possess identity cards, passports and home residency certificates.
3. It has a highly organized and advanced economy; it regulates both foreign and domestic trade/commerce. It issues its own currency.
4. It maintains educational institutions at all levels, thus proving itself capable of “social engineering.”
5. It has a highly developed transportation system for moving both people and goods.
6. It has five branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial, oversight and examination), in addition to a police force.
7. It has its own armed forces — army, navy, air force and marines.
8. It has a postal and banking system.
9. It has sovereignty over its defined territory.
10. It is recognized (albeit limited recognition) by other countries.
Tawan’s political problems have their sources in three main areas.
The deluded, megalomaniacal fools who control Taiwan pathetically insist that they have sovereignty over territory that they do not control. They pathetically cling to the chimerical “Republic of China,” which was superseded decades ago by the communist government of the People’s Republic of China across the Taiwan Strait. It is the abysmally wide gap or disjunction between reality and the delusional perceptions of Taiwan’s present rulers that causes so much trouble for Taiwan.
Taiwan’s problems are also a result of China’s incessant bullying, intimidation and meddling.
Lastly, Taiwan’s problems come, in no small measure, from political expediency, hypocrisy and shameful cowardice on the part of other nations — especially the “Great Western Democracies.” As an American, I am forced to admit that the US can be assigned much of the blame in regard to Taiwan’s unfortunate status.
Taiwan’s lonely “outsider” status is the result of dreadfully misguided policies by enemies of Taiwan — both external and internal.
MICHAEL SCANLON
East Hartford, Connecticut
Parking needs to be green
Park your car in downtown Hualien for more than a minute and you’re bound to find a parking ticket fluttering on your windshield.
The city is extremely vigilant about ensuring that drivers pay to park. The city counts on this revenue, and rightly so.
My question is: Why do the parking enforcement officers drive around on scooters while issuing these tickets rather than riding bicycles?
There is a veritable army of enforcement officers patrolling very short “beats” of typically between one and two blocks in the downtown core.
Each officer does nothing but drive back and forth, issuing tickets in his or her short area, covering the same piece of ground literally hundreds of times each day.
The result, of course, is a lot of totally unnecessary pollution, not to mention unwarranted expense.
The environmentally friendly and cost-effective solution seems obvious: Replace these scooters with bicycles.
Selling the existing fleet of scooters could cover the cost of acquiring the bicycles, and the city would immediately realize significant savings by cutting fuel, maintenance and insurance costs.
In addition, locals and tourists alike could breathe easier with this sizable fleet of polluting scooters taken off the roads.
I hope the Hualien City government will recognize the merits of this course of action and do the responsible thing by making the change immediately.
It’s high time to go green!
JASON GRENIER
Hualien
The US Senate’s passage of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which urges Taiwan’s inclusion in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise and allocates US$1 billion in military aid, marks yet another milestone in Washington’s growing support for Taipei. On paper, it reflects the steadiness of US commitment, but beneath this show of solidarity lies contradiction. While the US Congress builds a stable, bipartisan architecture of deterrence, US President Donald Trump repeatedly undercuts it through erratic decisions and transactional diplomacy. This dissonance not only weakens the US’ credibility abroad — it also fractures public trust within Taiwan. For decades,
In 1976, the Gang of Four was ousted. The Gang of Four was a leftist political group comprising Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members: Jiang Qing (江青), its leading figure and Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) last wife; Zhang Chunqiao (張春橋); Yao Wenyuan (姚文元); and Wang Hongwen (王洪文). The four wielded supreme power during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), but when Mao died, they were overthrown and charged with crimes against China in what was in essence a political coup of the right against the left. The same type of thing might be happening again as the CCP has expelled nine top generals. Rather than a
The ceasefire in the Middle East is a rare cause for celebration in that war-torn region. Hamas has released all of the living hostages it captured on Oct. 7, 2023, regular combat operations have ceased, and Israel has drawn closer to its Arab neighbors. Israel, with crucial support from the United States, has achieved all of this despite concerted efforts from the forces of darkness to prevent it. Hamas, of course, is a longtime client of Iran, which in turn is a client of China. Two years ago, when Hamas invaded Israel — killing 1,200, kidnapping 251, and brutalizing countless others
A Reuters report published this week highlighted the struggles of migrant mothers in Taiwan through the story of Marian Duhapa, a Filipina forced to leave her infant behind to work in Taiwan and support her family. After becoming pregnant in Taiwan last year, Duhapa lost her job and lived in a shelter before giving birth and taking her daughter back to the Philippines. She then returned to Taiwan for a second time on her own to find work. Duhapa’s sacrifice is one of countless examples among the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who sustain many of Taiwan’s households and factories,
RSS