Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Vaclav Havel, the brilliant playwright, heroic political dissident and visionary first president of liberated Czechoslovakia, consistently emphasized the moral element in international relations.

They were lessons he learned from his country’s painful history of invasion and occupation, first by Nazi Germany, then by the Soviet Union.

China on Monday announced the latest in its efforts to open its markets for Taiwanese companies and investment, saying new 26 measures would more closely reach its ideal of equal treatment between Chinese and Taiwanese “compatriots.”

The 26 measures are basically an extension of the 31 incentives introduced in February last year, and — like those — are clearly an attempt to prime Taiwan for the “one country, two systems” model.