Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Japan sets an example for others

Chang Kuo-tsai 張國財

At 1:57pm on June 4, a gift from Japan arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Japan Airlines Flight JL809 was carrying a donation of 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

This moment stuck me for its historic importance, and I could not stop myself from saying out loud: “Good for you, Japan. Thank you.”

Germany, by contrast, has opted to dance to the tune of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle, despite the fact that Germans feel the CCP breathing down their necks when they handle political issues involving Taiwan.

Hold PRC to account for genocide

Irwin Cotler, Yonah Diamond

Parliaments around the world are increasingly declaring that the mass atrocities against Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region constitute genocide — a determination resoundingly supported by an overwhelming body of evidence and international law.

Absent a competent international body, state parties to the 1948 UN Genocide Convention have a responsibility to prevent and hold China accountable for this crime of crimes, securing justice for the victims and ending impunity for the perpetrators.

The convention defines genocide as any one of five acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a [protected group], as such.”

Stay put, help out

Taipei Times Editorial

As the Dragon Boat Festival long weekend nears, there is a sense of uneasiness that there might be a travel frenzy that would exacerbate Taiwan’s COVID-19 outbreak.

From President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) plea: “If you love your hometown and your family, please stay put,” to the popular Internet post: “If you go home to worship your ancestors this year, you’ll be the one worshiped next year,” public figures and other Internet users have expended a great deal of effort persuading people not to travel during the holiday.

In remembrance of Huang Tien-lin

Lu Shih-Hsiang 盧世祥

Twenty-one years ago, I telephoned former Presidential Office adviser Huang Tien-lin (黃天麟) to invite him to write an opinion piece for the Chinese-language Economic Daily News.

At the time, Huang had just retired as chairman of First Commercial Bank and I had just been hired by the newspaper. Huang later told me that the invitation marked the beginning of a new chapter in his life as a writer.

I met Huang in 1979, when he was a manager in the bank’s overseas department and I was a journalist at the Chinese-language United Daily News.

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