President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been selected as one of the world’s “gutsiest” leaders in the September-October issue of the humorous US public affairs magazine mental_floss.
The author of the article, Jennifer Drapkin, said all the people in it have had unbelievable lives.
Describing Ma as the “world’s best marriage counselor,” Drapkin said Ma shared a deeply held desire with his former dictator mentor, Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), to “reunite” China and Taiwan.
The so-called “1992 consensus” was “a masterpiece of diplomatic ambiguity” that opened up a dialogue with China and led to increased commerce “between the two nations,” Drapkin said.
It also helped Ma gain a reputation as a savvy politician, which, she said “along with his general handsomeness got him elected mayor of Taipei in 1998. (In a poll of Taipei women, asking which public figure they would most like to father their children, Ma was the resounding winner.)”
After being elected president of Taiwan in March last year by campaigning on the idea of a “Great China market,” Drapkin said Ma reaffirmed his belief in “one China” and Taiwan’s relationship with China improved almost immediately.
“Now, about 3,000 Chinese tourists arrive to invade Taipei’s shopping malls each day,” she said. “And when China offered Taiwan the pandas Tuan-tuan and Yuan-yuan again, President Ma gladly accepted them.”
Improved cross-strait relations also ameliorated ties with Washington, she said, adding that the global economic crisis has unfortunately dealt a blow to Ma’s administration.
“But many economists believe that with money pouring in from both China and the United States, Taiwan may be on the road to recovery,” she said.
Will Ma’s dream of “reuniting” Taiwan and China come true? Drapkin asked.
“Many foreign affairs experts would tell Ma to keep dreaming,” she said. “Today, they are giving each other pandas. Anything is possible.”
The five “gutsiest” world leaders selected by the magazine are Ma, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
A blogger with the nickname Tumwijuke commented on Museveni’s selection as one of the world’s gutsiest leaders as “a laugh,” saying they did not get the magazine in Uganda but he was “itching to read the misinformation contained therein.”
According to the magazine’s Web site, mental_floss is “an intelligent read, but not too intelligent — the sort of intelligence that “you hang out with for a while, enjoy our company, laugh a little, smile a lot and then we part ways.”
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS