Green government too blue
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) honestly fulfilled her campaign promise of “not to take away the whole bowl” — meaning her Cabinet ministers and other government officials would not entirely come from her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
However, Tsai and Premier Lin Chuan (林全) have overdone it. Most of their appointees and many government corporation heads are loyal Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members including some retirees. KMT members, especially former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), must feel happy — as if they are still in power. Insiders are not necessarily better than outsiders.
If a KMT flavor is needed, Tsai’s administration should only consider those who have been discharged by the KMT. In general, former officials in former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration are preferred. More young people and women should be considered.
As a result of the strong blue tinge of the green administration, Taiwanese feel blue and Tsai’s and Lin’s approval ratings are lower than their disapproval ratings (the so-called “death cross”). In the recent seven local by-elections, KMT candidates won three, non-partisan candidates won four, and DPP candidates won none. These are warning signs.
Also, there have been numerous unfortunate accidents and scandals in the armed forces as well as transportation and finance sectors. The alleged money laundering by the state-run Mega Financial Holding Co is a “mega” problem.
It is a bad decision that Taiwan will not try to join the UN next month. Some government policies and investigations are often impeded by internal inertia and resistance. The “status quo” is a dynamic state, and should not be misunderstood as a stagnant state.
In celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first direct presidential election by Taiwanese, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) pointed at the long-term Taiwanese wish of making Taiwan a normalized state. As a start, all Taiwanese netizens should sign an ongoing petition to change “Chinese Taipei” to “Taiwan.” Hopefully, Taiwan will try again to join the UN under the name of “Taiwan” — a clear, simple name known and accepted virtually all over the world.
Within 100 days, the Tsai Administration has made some historical breakthroughs that are impressive beyond description and deserve our applause.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
High taxes are not punitive
Martin Feldstein is wrong about universal basic income (“US must aim to reduce poverty, not penalize earned success,” Aug. 28, page 7).
First, “penalizing success” is a code phrase that says rich people should not pay higher taxes. Rich people paying higher taxes is not punishing success. Canada, Europe and Japan all tax their rich more than the US and use that money to give their people generous social welfare benefits such as public transportation, education and healthcare.
Canadians, Europeans and Japanese are all healthier and more educated than Americans and their public transportation is better than the US’.
Second, he says universal basic income is impossibly expensive.
Not true. They already have universal basic income in Canada and are planning it in Scandinavia.
Furthermore, in the future there will be no jobs as humans will be replaced by technology. If we have no jobs, how can we have money? Universal basic income.
Andres Chang
Taipei
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations