Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The US rebalances its relations

Taipei Times

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, saying that the US was seeking stronger economic and military ties with India to balance an increasingly defiant China.

“The United States seeks constructive relations with China, but we will not shrink from China’s challenges to the rules-based order and where China subverts the sovereignty of neighboring countries and disadvantages the US and our friends,” he said.

No consensus on ‘1992 consensus’: Lai

Taipei Times

Premier William Lai, left, and Mainland Affairs Council Minister Katharine Chang speak during a question-and-answer session at the legislature in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

The issue with the so-called “1992 consensus” is that there is no consensus about whether it exists or what it actually means, Premier William Lai yesterday told legislators yesterday, adding that the nation needs to address the problem.

Taiwan, democracy and defense

David Brown

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) devoted a considerable portion of her Double Ten National Day address on Tuesday last week to Taiwan’s military. She gave her comments pride of place in the section of the address on “Safeguarding Taiwan’s Democracy and Freedom.”

In doing so, she seemed to be defining the goal of Taiwan’s defense policy as defending democracy. She praised “our brothers and sisters” in the armed forces saying: “All of you are staunch defenders of Taiwan’s democracy, freedom and way of life.”

Independence camp making gains

Taipei Times Editorial

There was a time when the term “pro-independence” was considered a synonym for radicals, outdatedness and irrelevance, similar to most people’s image of the pro-unification camp nowadays.

When former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in power, the “pro-independence” position was hijacked for reasons of political expediency and so heavily propagated that most people became numb to the issue.

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