National defense and diplomacy are two major issues under the president’s authority, according to the Republic of China Constitution, but recent moves by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) show that he considers them as stages for his personal show.
Yesterday, Ma, accompanied by a media delegation, visited Penjia Islet (彭佳嶼) — about 30 nautical miles (55.5km) north of Keelung and 76 nautical miles west of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea, and is the de facto northernmost territory of Taiwan — to attend a ceremony to unveil a landmark claiming the islet as Taiwanese territory and to reiterate his “East China Sea peace initiative” as Taiwan, Japan and China dispute over the sovereignty of the Diaoyutais.
However, the move has no real effect except for spending more taxpayers’ money to show that Ma is no lame-duck president, as he once declared after president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) won a landslide victory in the Jan. 16 presidential election.
In January, Ma traveled to Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) in the South China Sea. Several nations in the region claim sovereignty over it.
The move was seen as provocative by the international community, as well as the opposition.
Last month, as the Philippines filed for international arbitration over China’s claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea, saying that Itu Aba could not be a basis for a sovereignty claim because it is not an island, Ma invited a foreign press delegation to visit the island to prove that it really is an island.
The target of the Philippines’ request for arbitration is China, not Taiwan, and it might be odd for Ma to be so eager to prove that the Philippines’ claim is false while China’s is correct, especially after China said that it is the shared responsibility of “Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait” to defend China’s sovereignty over the South China Sea.
Therefore, Ma’s move is very dangerous, as it might be seen as a response to China’s call, and therefore a declaration to the world that Taiwan and China are part of the same nation.
Moreover, a decision by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee last week to abolish a short-lived clause in the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act (護照條例施行細則) that bans any modifications to Taiwanese passports is another slap in Ma’s face, as his administration was so eager to stop a campaign to put “Republic of Taiwan” stickers on passport covers.
While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not think it was a problem for people to place stickers on their passport covers, it suddenly became a serious issue when pro-independence activists launched a campaign to place “Republic of Taiwan” stickers on passport covers.
Although people who placed the stickers on their passport covers risk being denied entry when entering foreign nations, it was ironic that the majority of problems at border controls happened in Taiwan and only a few cases occurred abroad.
The clause was proposed in November last year and adopted by the legislature in January.
Although the ministry previously said that the move was serious and dangerous, it suddenly softened its stance at a legislative committee meeting on Wednesday, with officials saying that the clause was only added as a “friendly reminder.”
Whether it is a friendly reminder or not, the ministry’s change of attitude shows that the proposal and passage of the clause were more political than practical, and amounted to another reckless move by the Ma administration.
Fortunately, there are just 40 days left before Ma’s term ends and hopefully he can focus more on a smooth transfer of government in the remaining days instead of making more reckless moves.
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
A recent scandal involving a high-school student from a private school in Taichung has reignited long-standing frustrations with Taiwan’s increasingly complex and high-pressure university admissions system. The student, who had successfully gained admission to several prestigious medical schools, shared their learning portfolio on social media — only for Internet sleuths to quickly uncover a falsified claim of receiving a “Best Debater” award. The fallout was swift and unforgiving. National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and Taipei Medical University revoked the student’s admission on Wednesday. One day later, Chung Shan Medical University also announced it would cancel the student’s admission. China Medical
Construction of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) started in 1978. It began commercial operations in 1984. Since then, it has experienced several accidents, radiation pollution and fires. It was finally decommissioned on May 17 after the operating license of its No. 2 reactor expired. However, a proposed referendum to be held on Aug. 23 on restarting the reactor is potentially bringing back those risks. Four reasons are listed for holding the referendum: First, the difficulty of meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets and the inefficiency of new energy sources such as photovoltaic and wind power. Second,
RSS