During a meeting yesterday with foreign scholars and politicians, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen made the remarks during a meeting with attendees of the Asia-Pacific Democratic Cooperation Forum, which ended on Tuesday. Scholars from 11 countries participated in the event.
China's threat toward Taiwan is a major irony to democracy, Chen said during the meeting, adding that the establishment of a democratic-cooperation mechanism in the Asia-Pacific region would help to promote democracy and human rights and bring prosperity to the region.
Attendees at the forum included former US assistant secretary of defense Frank Kramer, Brookings Institute Vice President James Steinberg, Indian parliamentarian Krishna Bose and Thailand's Asian Forum Planning Department Director Kamol Kamoltrakul.
Discussions at the conference focused on the general development of democratization in the Asian-Pacific region.
Presenters of papers listed at the conference included Odina Desrochers, a member of the Canadian parliament; Senator Somkiat Onwimon from Thailand; and Celia Layus, a Philippine parliamentarian.
The conference was jointly sponsored by the World League for Freedom and Democracy, the Asian Pacific League for Freedom and Democracy, Tamkang University and Shih Hsin University.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
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