Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ros-Lehtinen warns Biden on China

Taipei Times

US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairperson of the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, has issued a stern warning to US Vice President Joe Biden not to discuss arms sales to Taiwan while he is in China this week.

The warning came in a letter that was hand-delivered to Biden just before he boarded a plane to Beijing from Washington on Tuesday.

It followed a firm promise issued earlier in the week by the White House that arms sales would not be discussed and reflected suspicion in Congress that the administration of US President Barack Obama is being unduly influenced by Chinese sentiment on the arms sale question.

DPP delegation meets Aung San Suu Kyi

Taipei Times

Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), Deputy head of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) policy think tank, accompanied by several female politicians from the DPP, led a delegation to Myanmar to visit democratic movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday.

The delegation included Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳), DPP legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), Taiwan Foundation for Democracy deputy head Yang Huang Maysing (楊黃美幸) and special assistant Chang Hsiang-hui (張祥慧).

Biden visit gives Ma a double slap in the face

James Wang 王景弘

For the most part, fans of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) continue to blindly admire him no matter what happens. They only stop short of shouting “long live our heroic leader,” as people did in the bad old days of dictatorship. Ma says that Taiwan’s relations with the US are better than ever, that relations across the Taiwan Strait are more harmonious than ever, and that “the other side of the Strait” (read: China) has shown Taiwan lots of “goodwill.” He tells us that all is well and his faithful followers believe every word of it.

It is ironic that US Vice President Joe Biden has chosen today as his date of arrival in Beijing for his current visit to China. The timing is like a double slap in the face for Ma — one slap from Washington and another from Beijing.

Former president Chen urges DPP to be aggressive

Taipei Times

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been advised by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to reverse a recent slide in public opinion polls by becoming assertive and aggressive, which he said would help the party’s prospects of victory in next year’s presidential election.

“The struggle of DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in recent polls should serve as a warning about her campaign strategy,” Chen, who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year jail sentence for corruption and money laundering, wrote in an article published yesterday.

In opinion polls conducted by the DPP, Tsai’s lead over her main opponent in January’s presidential election, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), slid from 7.5 percent in late April to 0.2 percent last month

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