End of the innocence
Formosa: Beautiful island. My deepest condolences for the last elections.
Two years ago when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was elected to end eight years of corruption, bribery and vote-buying, I was really glad, till now.
When I read that China pumped a lot of money in the elections and again many members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were caught up in vote-buying, I could see the end of the innocence.
After the horrible comments of the KMT’s Kaohsiung mayoral candidate, Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), and later the greasy apologies of KMT Chairman Wu Den-yi (吳敦義), I thought that the people of Kaohsiung had more backbone and courage, and that the bad times were over.
I am definitely not a friend of US President Donald Trump, but I agree that it is more than necessary to stop the bad influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
It was such a good feeling not to see so many PRC tourists again, who only left their trash, but not their money in this beautiful island.
Serious tourists from Japan and elsewhere came back, but now it is time to stand up again.
During former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) terms, Taiwan became isolated, many Taiwanese patents were stolen and money from the PRC flowed into Taiwanese and US companies.
I really hope that Tsai is doing her job step-by-step and that the serious parties recover from Nov. 24. Maybe a battle is lost, but not the war.
If somebody knocks you down six times, you have to stand up seven times.
Norbert Sladek
Taoyuan
Hypocritical US
The US’ attitude toward Taiwan remains as it always has been: Hypocritical. Its refusal to sell F-35s to Taiwan is an example. The US sells such defense material as is barely sufficient to deter Chinese aggression. US support for Taiwan’s democracy is skin deep. Concern for its trade with China is foremost in US thinking. Taiwan in the end has to rely on itself. If that means development of its own “Force du Frappe,” so be it.
If the US had been sincere in its support for Taiwan’s democracy, it would have accorded diplomatic recognition to Taiwan years ago as a matter of principle. Unfortunately, where Taiwan is concerned, democracies show little principle at all.
Gavan Duffy
Queensland, Australia
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