Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

US officials seek to reassure Taiwan

Taipei Times

Pro-Taiwan protesters on Tuesday shout during a rally in Seattle, Washington, as Chinese President Xi Jinping attends an event at the Westin Hotel nearby.
Photo: Reuters

US officials are reassuring Taiwan that no matter what Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) says about it during his summit with US President Barack Obama this week, Washington will not change its current policies.

“It is normal for a Chinese leader to raise Taiwan,” US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel told a media briefing on Tuesday.

NPP only ‘third force’ likely to win seats: poll

Taipei Times

The New Power Party (NPP) is the only “third force” party likely to be awarded at-large legislative seats, according to a new poll released yesterday by the Taiwan Thinktank, which also showed that a large majority of the party’s supporters come from the “pan-green” camp.

The poll results show that the NPP has a support rating of 5.6 percent for voters’ at-large legislative seat ballot, compared with 4.3 percent for the People First Party (PFP), 3.7 percent for the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), 2.3 percent for the Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance (Green Party-SDP Alliance), 1.6 percent for the Free Taiwan Party and 0.7 percent for the Republic Party (Minkuotang, MKT).

Taiwan’s sole ruler is the public

James Wang 王景弘

Chinese Youth Party member and modern Chinese historian Shen Yun-lung (沈雲龍), when he was teaching in the 1960s, always warned students that they could not believe anything written in history books after 1919 and the May Fourth Movement, and that he could not talk about anything that happened afterward.

The statement has two meanings. First, during the Martial Law era there was no academic freedom or freedom of expression; second, any analysis of important historical events after the May Fourth Movement — including the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the War of Resistance Against Japan and the Chinese Civil War — were deliberate fabrications and acts of obscurantism by the government.

Playing politics with people’s lives

Taipei Times Editorial

The central government under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has never had a good reputation for protecting the lives of the public since Typhoon Morakot in August 2009. However, its reputation for ineptness appears to have hit new heights with its negligence in the dengue fever outbreak centered in Tainan.

While much of the blame for the administration’s long list of failures can be attributed to basic ineptness, inter-agency and central/local government turf wars and the political patronage games, sometimes it is just pure gutter politics.

More Articles...