Letter full of prejudice
There are many points to respond to in Pai Po-Hsueh’s letter (“Foreigners need to behave,” March 18, page 8).
Taiwanese are not Chinese, they are Taiwanese.
Both the vast majority of Taiwanese and immigrants behave in an appropriate matter, as evidenced by the fact that violent crime is extremely low in Taiwan. Immigrants are less than 4 percent of the population of Taiwan. Therefore, violent crime, or any crime, in Taiwan would most likely be committed by a Taiwanese person and not a recent immigrant.
Pai gives no statistics to justify his concerns. Pai only cites his own anecdotal experience.
There is no evidence that foreigners are publicly loud, publicly drunk or littering more than Taiwanese.
If Po does not like people loitering at train stations, then Po thinks there are just too many Muslims and Filipinos at Taipei Railway Station on Sundays. Wow. Racist.
Yes, foreign English teachers party on the weekends. So do Taiwanese.
There is no evidence that foreigners party more than Taiwanese. Taiwanese do not party or get drunk on weekends?
Yes, immigrants in Taiwan should learn at least some Mandarin, but enough Taipei people speak English that anyone who only speaks English can live in Taipei.
Andres Chang
Davao, the Philippines
Free nations must unite
Chinese President for life Xi Jinping (習近平) says that democratic Taiwan will “face the punishment of history” for declining association with its totalitarian neighbor.
Xi should know that history has its own way of dealing with tyrants, be they Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Napoleon, Nero or Attila the Hun.
I suspect that Xi will end up exactly the same way they did.
The free nations of the world must stand together against the bullying of China, as a matter of principle.
They should also send a strong statement to China by scrapping the absurd “one China” policy and according recognition to both China and Taiwan.
Gavan Duffy
Edens Landing,
Queensland, Australia
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