The nation’s development in the past was guided by many wrong policies regarding environmental, cultural and ecological issues, poet and presidential adviser Wu Sheng (吳晟) said yesterday, urging the government to speed up its reforms next year.
Lack of self-confidence is a major crisis in Taiwan, Wu said, adding that when a nation’s subjective consciousness is not strong it cannot resist the incursion of foreign cultures.
Taiwan used to be home to many lovely things, but politicians have ruined them with policies that were created to please people, he said, adding that it takes more effort to amend past wrongs, but Taiwanese should be patient, as reform cannot be achieved overnight.
The nation faces a risk similar to that once faced by its indigenous trees, Wu said.
Once, there were many indigenous trees in Taiwan, but they were encroached upon by foreign species introduced by government agencies misguided, he said.
The so-called “global perspective” is shaped by larger nations’ viewpoints, Wu said, adding if Taiwan accepts this view, it could become a rootless nation that gradually loses its traditions and heritage.
Therefore, the government should boost national confidence and empower people to resist the cultural or economic influence of other countries, he said.
Meanwhile, film director Wu Nien-jen (吳念真) yesterday expressed optimism about the changes prompted by younger artists.
Wu Nien-jen and art critic Hsieh Li-fa (謝里法) were yesterday honored with the 37th National Cultural Award.
“Directors and creators from younger generations have manifested their resolution to break new ground,” Wu Nien-jen said.
“This is what an old man aspires to see,” he said, adding that younger artists are looking to create “styles that are rooted in this place, yet belong to the new era.”
Wu Nien-jen said he hopes the new energy can spread, given “it is already here and will not retreat, just like Taiwanese democracy.”
Additional reporting by Chen Kuan-pei
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods