Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Superficial peace is very harmful

Taipei Times Editorial

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) often brags about how much cross-strait relations have improved since he took office in 2008, and how both Taiwan and China abide by the so-called “1992 consensus,” yet the way in which China has treated Taiwan and its envoy at the APEC meeting shows that Ma’s “achievements” are nothing but lies.

Attending the APEC meeting as Ma’s special envoy, former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) was not treated as he should have been at all, and despite the APEC meeting being an international event, Taiwan has been treated as just a part of China.

Labor groups stage ‘Autumn Struggle’

Taipei Times

Protesters in front of the National Development Council in Taipei yesterday burn banners representing policies and practices that are unfavorable to workers, farmers and students.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times

After convening at three rallies held in different locations across Taipei, nearly 1,000 protesters carrying flags and banners swarmed the MRT yesterday to participate in the Autumn Struggle (秋鬥), an annual protest march organized by labor groups, congregating in Ximending (西門町) before marching on to protest in front of the National Development Council.

KMT needs to go for the nation to be reinvented

Lee Min-yung 李敏勇

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has performed poorly during his time in office; his campaign slogan “total government, total responsibility” is nothing but empty words. Ma is a true politician. He excels in taking credit for things that go right and passing the buck when they go wrong.

Ma exploits former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) for his own political benefit, using him to foment ethnic tensions through Chen’s continued imprisonment. As a result, non-violent democratic reforms have been tainted by confrontation between the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and opposition camps. Although Ma named the plaza at Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building the “democratic plaza against corruption,” it should have been called the “corruption plaza against democracy.” What an embarrassment.

HK protests may have cost Beijing Taiwan: academic

Taipei Times

Pro-democracy protesters chat at a protest site in the Mongkok district of Hong Kong yesterday. More than a month after tens of thousands of Hong Kongers took to the streets demanding free leadership elections for the semi-autonomous Chinese city, weary demonstrators remain encamped across several major roads.
Photo: AFP

China may have “lost” Taiwan as a result of its ham-fisted handling of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, a Washington conference was told this week.

“There is no sense on the island now, if there ever was one, to buy into this ‘one country, two systems’ formula,” George Washington University professor David Shambaugh said.

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