Protecting Taiwan
Not only does the Ministry of National Defense have the right to limit and/or curtail any and all visits to China by retired officers, it has the duty and obligation to do so. It is unknown what these retirees discuss or give away in order to curry favor while on holiday.
An officer is sworn to support and uphold the constitution of Taiwan — for life. His obligation does not end with taking off the uniform. Not only do the soldiers of Taiwan deserve better from their superiors, the people of Taiwan should be demanding the same loyalty from the military.
Tom Kuleck
Jordan, Minnesota
Tantamount to racial hatred
Michael Fagan (Letters, page 8, Aug. 30) is apparently not in favor of anything at all, except, very explicitly, racism and, more implicitly, anarchy.
The many things he doesn’t know about the rule of law, “Western enlightenment” and the Chinese people and their history and culture are evident from his revolting diatribe.
Also among them, I suspect, is the fact that in certain Western jurisdictions, which have been served very well by the rule of law (whose origins go back to Plato, and which has been a central feature of English constitutional and political discourse since the Magna Carta in 1215), his letter may in certain circumstances have landed both him and the Taipei Times in the dock for incitement of racial hatred.
Mark Rawson
Taipei
Upholding English standards
Andrew Chard’s letter about a recent contest to find a catchy English slogan for the National Immigration Agency (NIA) (Letters, page 8, Sept. 1) was an important one.
He said he “was astounded to read that a panel of judges had decided on a [Taiwanese] fifth-grade student’s slogan, ‘NIA care what you care,’” adding: “Indeed, it is quite obvious that the panel of judges who chose the winning slogan did not include a single native English speaker.”
Chard further stated: “This sort of thing should never happen. The use of English by any government agency should be thoroughly checked and approved before being adopted — particularly in such a high-profile competition, reported [in] the national news [media].”
Of course, Chard is correct. Someone with a native English-speaking background should have checked the winning slogan before it was made public. I also spotted the news story about the slogan and immediately checked the NIA’s Web site and found a toll-free 0800 telephone number and called the hotline. A Filipina phone operator kindly took my message about the slogan and connected me with an NIA official who said he understood my concerns, appreciated the phone call and gave me his e-mail address so I could send in a corrected version of the winning slogan, which now reads, in English: “NIA cares what you care about.”
It’s good to write a letter to a newspaper editor. It’s also good to get on the phone and talk directly to the agency responsible for issues that concern you.
One nice thing about Taiwan is that government officials usually do listen to advice on English matters, so I recommend using the phone and Internet next time to try correct things you want to chime in on. When expats talk, Taiwan listens.
Dan Bloom
Chiayi City
The government and local industries breathed a sigh of relief after Shin Kong Life Insurance Co last week said it would relinquish surface rights for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) to Nvidia Corp. The US chip-design giant’s plan to expand its local presence will be crucial for Taiwan to safeguard its core role in the global artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and to advance the nation’s AI development. The land in dispute is owned by the Taipei City Government, which in 2021 sold the rights to develop and use the two plots of land, codenamed T17 and T18, to the
Taiwan’s first case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed on Tuesday evening at a hog farm in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲), trigging nationwide emergency measures and stripping Taiwan of its status as the only Asian country free of classical swine fever, ASF and foot-and-mouth disease, a certification it received on May 29. The government on Wednesday set up a Central Emergency Operations Center in Taichung and instituted an immediate five-day ban on transporting and slaughtering hogs, and on feeding pigs kitchen waste. The ban was later extended to 15 days, to account for the incubation period of the virus
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
US President Donald Trump has announced his eagerness to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un while in South Korea for the APEC summit. That implies a possible revival of US-North Korea talks, frozen since 2019. While some would dismiss such a move as appeasement, renewed US engagement with North Korea could benefit Taiwan’s security interests. The long-standing stalemate between Washington and Pyongyang has allowed Beijing to entrench its dominance in the region, creating a myth that only China can “manage” Kim’s rogue nation. That dynamic has allowed Beijing to present itself as an indispensable power broker: extracting concessions from Washington, Seoul
RSS