Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) president Mark Kao (高龍榮) on Friday criticized President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for “surreptitiously moving Taiwan towards closer political linkages with China.”
In a strongly worded statement, Kao said that FAPA and 31 other Taiwanese-American organizations wrote to Ma last month about the renaming of the Overseas Compatriots Affairs Commission (OCAC) and they had received “no adequate response.”
Kao said he was “deeply concerned” about the direction in which Ma was taking Taiwan, adding that Ma was pushing Taiwan into “unwelcome closer economic integration” with China.
Kao said that under Ma, Taiwan had experienced “an erosion of the judicial and democratic institutions.”
He said changing the name of the OCAC to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission without any consultation with the Legislative Yuan or overseas organizations was “stepping back into the dark days of Martial Law.”
Kao objected to inclusion of the word “Chinese” in the new name and said that an appropriate new name might be the Overseas Taiwanese Affairs Council.
By not responding to the original letter sent by the organizations, Kao said Ma had shown “disdain” for democracy.
“We urge the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan to let its voice be heard and make it clear to the Taiwan government that its actions are not in line with international democratic principles and practices,” he said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
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Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard