Although Taiwan and South Korea have managed to implement democratic systems, neither country has as yet achieved "quality democracy," a former Taiwanese foreign minister said at a forum in Taipei yesterday.
"Quality democracy tends to be kinder and gentle, and accountability, responsibility and transparency should be integral parts of the political system ... But in both cases we witness political confrontations all the time," Fredrick Chien (錢復) said in an address to the 16th Taipei-Seoul Forum yesterday.
Chien was speaking in his capacity as chairman of the Cathay Charity Foundation.
The two-day forum was co-sponsored by National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations and the Seoul Forum for International Affairs.
Political freedom
Chien, who has served as foreign minister under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration and later as head of the Control Yuan under the Democratic Progressive Party administration, said that when an electoral democracy is transformed into a liberal democracy, a nation's citizens will be politically free and equal to each other before the law, while elected officials will not only be law-abiding, but also accountable and responsible to the electorate.
"There are considerable hurdles we need to overcome before reaching that desirable goal," Chien said.
US assistance
He said that the democratization process in both countries was driven by the affluence brought about by economic development, as well as generous assistance from the US.
"Increased affluence brings people more opportunities for contact with the outside world, through travel, business, study or even subscriptions to foreign publications," he said.
"People begin to realize that a democratic system is far better than authoritarianism, and calls for changes inevitably follow," Chien said.
The difference between the two countries' democratization processes was that the South Korean student movement had played a much more significant role than had been the case in Taiwan, he said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai