Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan will prevail against China

Taipei Times Editorial

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday delivered a forthright New Year’s Day address, her first major speech since her party’s poor showing in the local elections. Her speech contained tough words for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平):

“Here, I would like to call on China to face squarely the reality of the existence of the Republic of China on Taiwan,” Tsai said, adding that China “must respect the insistence of 23 million people on freedom and democracy, and must use peaceful, on-parity means to handle our differences.”

Tsai needs resolution over China

Taipei Times Editorial

While China’s bullying and obstruction of Taiwan’s international space is nothing new, the nation this year is expected to face accelerated aggression from Beijing as its haughtiness has been emboldened by the China-friendly Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) gains in the Nov. 24 local elections.

With numerous KMT winners endorsing the so-called “1992 consensus,” Beijing will take it as a sign that pro-China sentiment is rising, despite cross-strait affairs clearly not being the focus during campaigning. Its increasing arrogance is apparent.

DPP must remember Sunflowers

Michael Lin 林子堯

On Dec. 18, former premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) returned to his alma mater and former employer, National Taiwan University (NTU), to give a talk at the Department of Political Science. However, students who tool part in the 2014 Sunflower movement protested his presence and the event was abandoned. Meanwhile, a former NTU professor who opposed Jiang’s talk was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant and narrowly avoided being killed. These incidents show that there is still a serious rift in society, despite it being four years since the Sunflower movement. Students and the wider public are clearly unable to put the events of 2014 behind them.

A new setting for independence

Chris Huang 黃居正

The failure of the referendum for Taiwan to apply to participate at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games under the name “Taiwan” stunned its supporters into silence, while some media talk about the demise of radical independence forces.

It might be true that losers should refrain from talking too loudly, but the referendum result implies an unprecedented generational shift among independence advocates, and they are still trying to absorb the impact of the shock.

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