Amid the waves stirred up by President Chen Shui-bian's (
Why can't the people of Taiwan openly say who they are? Why can't they say that the emperor has no clothes? Why should "one country on each side" statement be labeled "Taiwan independence?" Perhaps this is an example of what former president Lee Teng-hui (
Everything has its positive and negative effect. Chen has been slammed by a minority in Taiwan for being what they call a big sinner, but if we look at the positive side, his "one country on each side" has forced the people of Taiwan to think about who they really are, where they are going and what they want for their future. Lee gave people a similar shock when he redefined cross-strait relations as being "special state-to-state" in nature.
The people of Taiwan have grown used to living comfortably. They only care about making money, never thinking about the future of their country or about what kind of government may rule them one day. Is this part of the depravity of a people with a history of being colonized? Can they make compromises to the point of not caring who will rule their country as long as they have food to eat?
People in Taiwan suffer from a serious disease -- the disease of ignorance. It takes guts for those in government to apply shock therapy in a bid to rouse the people of Taiwan from their comfortable stupor. Only such shock therapy can bring about a "revolution of consciousness."
In some countries, progress is brought about by a "revolution of consciousness" that may force their peoples to reject their past, thoroughly subvert their traditional values and gain a new understanding of their way of living and the future of their countries. The transition of Eastern Europe's communist countries to democracy is a good example.
The people of Taiwan have been too lucky. Even democratization was endowed on them from the top down. They did not have to rely on their own efforts or shed blood for democracy. It's because democracy came to us too cheaply that we are seeing endless chaos.
Since the people of Taiwan have not paid the due price for democracy, we must have a bloodless "revolution of consciousness." Otherwise the people of Taiwan will never know who they are and will always need someone else to define them. Is there anything under the sun more sorrowful than this? The people of Taiwan, bravely and loudly say who you are and what you are!
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Next week, the nation is to celebrate the Lunar New Year break. Unfortunately, cold winds are a-blowing, literally and figuratively. The Central Weather Administration has warned of an approaching cold air mass, while obstinate winds of chaos eddy around the Legislative Yuan. English theologian Thomas Fuller optimistically pointed out in 1650 that “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” We could paraphrase by saying the coldest days are just before the renewed hope of spring. However, one must temper any optimism about the damage being done in the legislature by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), under
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