How fitting that former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) chose Sunday, or April Fools' Day, to announce that he was resurrecting last year's failed campaign to unconstitutionally oust President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) from office.

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By Tseng Tse-fong 曾梓峰
The recent removal of the statue of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from the Kaohsiung City Cultural Center caused a media sensation. The coverage made it seem as if somebody had done something wrong, or that Kaohsiung citizens had deserted the country and turned their backs on history. Is it really that bad?

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By Paul Lin 林保華
Hong Kong's clique-like chief executive election was held between 9am and 11am on March 25. After only half an hour, it was clear Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) had been re-elected. In the final tally he won by 649 votes to pro-democracy Legislator Alan Leong's (梁家傑) 123. It seems that even some pro-democracy electors may have been persuaded to vote for Tsang.

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By Warren Kuo 郭華仁
The problem of plant seed outflows has come into the spotlight once again following China's copying of Taiwan's Black Pearl strain of wax apples. So far, no consensus has been reached on how to deal with this problem.

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The argument was that central bankers could not say what they were doing in clear language, because if investors could understand them then they would force them to follow destructive inflationary policies
By J. Bradford DeLong
"If I seem unduly clear to you," Alan Greenspan said to his political masters in the US Congress, "you must have misunderstood what I said." It was 1987, and the newly confirmed chair of the Federal Reserve was elaborating on how he had "learned to mumble with great incoherence" in the short months since he had "become a central banker."

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After a wave of top party postings, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) appears to be in full command as he grooms a successor to lead the ruling Communists, who are bent on keeping their grip on power.

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The EU must develop a common position on all significant, strategic issues in its foreign relations, especially energy and defense
By Joschka Fischer
As if things weren't bad enough for Europe after the French and Dutch "No" to the EU Constitution, a new divisive issue now threatens to strain Europe's cohesion. The US wants to establish an anti-missile defense system that is supposed to protect the US and parts of Europe against missiles from the Middle East. The US missiles are to be stationed in Poland, with a radar system to be set up in the Czech Republic.

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