Taiwan’s gravest crisis is the lack of a sense of crisis among its people, who are at a crossroads, faced with the choice of being annexed by China and living under a one-party regime or continuing to be citizens of a free and democratic nation, former representative to Japan Koh Se-kai (許世楷) said.
Koh made the remarks in a speech, titled “Taiwan’s Prospects: Seeing from the Taiwan-Japan Ties,” at a public event in Tokyo on Sunday.
“If Taiwanese were to take the wrong path at the crossroad, they may experience the bitter fruit of a new era of totalitarian darkness that their forebears tasted in the past,” Koh said, adding that the nation’s fate depended on whether “its people won the next [presidential] election.”
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration may appear to be leaning slightly toward the US by signing a fisheries agreement with Japan in April to end controversies over fishing in waters surrounding the contested Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), but the president has not abandoned his attempts to bring Taiwan into China’s fold, Koh said.
Former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had both sought to put Taiwan on the road to internationalization, while Ma has not only denied that cross-strait ties were “state-to-state” relations, but also endeavored to turn Taiwan into an internal affair of China, Koh said.
“The Republic of China [ROC] that the Chinese Nationalist Party touts no longer exists, and it is ironic and even preposterous that the Democratic Progressive Party is the one left to shoulder the burden of a fictitious nation,” he said.
Koh also warned against Ma’s and former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung’s (吳伯雄) repeated denials that Taiwan is a country, saying that such remarks would only see the nation and its people reliving past misery.
“At a time when a majority of Chinese people do not wish to be born a Chinese in the next life and hope to escape communist rule, why would anyone who already live in a free and democratic nation like Taiwan be willing to be annexed by China and ruled by a communist party?” Koh asked. “It is just unthinkable.”
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS