Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The KMT is blocking more than just policy

Gerrit van der Wees

After its severe defeat in the presidential and legislative elections in January last year, the once proud Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) now seems to have damaged its reputation even further by resorting to obstructionist tactics in the Legislative Yuan, as well as in the streets.

Two articles in the Taipei Times about the role the KMT intends to play in Taiwan’s democracy concerned me.

The sacred and profane in Taiwan

Jerome Keating

The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) commemoration of the July 7, 1937, Marco Polo Bridge Incident once again highlights the party’s schizophrenic personality, as well as the doublespeak that such identification constantly creates for party members.

At heart, the KMT remains a party that cannot decide where to find its home and soul. It struggles to balance past and present self-images amid other conflicting perceptions of 21st-century reality. Each different perception has what it considers most sacred in the world. And so to sustain identity, the KMT must resort to its mixed discourse.

Activists seeking Taiwan treasure in US, UN files

Taipei Times

Excerpts of a document uploaded by a member of the Taiwan National Treasure project to its Facebook page are shown in an undated photograph.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan National Treasure

A group of US-based activists has started searching the official archives of the US government and the UN for Taiwanese historical materials to publish them for free on the Internet.

HK is a money laundering machine

Paul Lin 林保華

According to Chinese media reports, last year a total of nearly 1 trillion yuan (US$146.78 billion) mysteriously disappeared from China after it was remitted into Hong Kong without first being converted into yuan deposits, and instead directly converted into US dollars and Hong Kong dollars. What is the truth behind these transfers?

The international financial crisis of 2008 hit Chinese exports badly. In the second half of that year, the value of China’s exports dropped sharply and then-Chinese premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) launched a 4 trillion yuan emergency plan, consisting of 10 measures to expand domestic demand.

US port calls might unsettle China

Taipei Times Editorial

A move by the US to renew naval port of call visits to Taiwan might serve as the greatest challenge to the “one China” policy since the 1972 Shanghai Communique that led to its inception.

Although US President Donald Trump called the policy into question when he spoke with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) by telephone last year, he later accepted it and on Feb. 9 reiterated the US’ commitment to upholding it.

Achievements threatened by China

Huang Tien-lin 黃天麟

In last year’s presidential and legislative elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) swept to victory with not just the presidency, but the party’s first-ever legislative majority. Eighteen months on, despite a slump in the opinion polls, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) government has already done three things that should please the public.

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