Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Time to diversify away from China

Taipei Times Editorial

China on Sunday announced the suspension of imports of wax apples and custard apples from Taiwan. It was to take effect the very next day.

This caused consternation in Taiwan because of how quickly the ban was to take effect and because many fruit farmers in southern Taiwan rely on the Chinese market, which previously took a 90 percent share of the nation’s wax apple and custard apple exports.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) condemned Beijing’s move, Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) called it unacceptable and the government informed China that it would take the matter to the WTO if it is not resolved by Thursday next week.

Tsai in meeting with Takaichi touts closer cooperation

Taipei Times

Japanese lawmaker Sanae Takaichi, a candidate in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, is pictured on a videoconference with President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday.
Photo copied by Lin Tsui-yi, Taipei Times

Presidential Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has expressed the hope that Taiwan and Japan could cooperate more closely in a conversation with Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker and former Japanese minister of internal affairs and communications Sanae Takaichi, who is vying to become her nation’s first female prime minister.

CNA must stop using ‘mainland’

Hideki Nagayama

Local media reported earlier this month that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) criticized President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for referring to China as a “neighboring country,” saying that this is no different from a “two-state” model and that it amounts to changing the cross-strait “status quo.”

I find it quite impossible to understand why civilized Taiwan continues to tolerate the existence of such a deceitful group that believes its own lies.

The relationship between Taiwan and China is the relationship between two countries, and neither has any jurisdiction over the other — this is the undeniable “status quo.”

Looking for peace means being ready for conflict

Chang Ling-ling 張玲玲

Although 20 years have passed since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, unconventional methods of attack continue to threaten global peace and security. As a woman serving in the armed forces, I sincerely urge everyone to recognize that terror attacks, like war, cannot go away forever. While seeking peaceful solutions, people must also understand the nature of war.

A poll released on Thursday by the Mainland Affairs Council showed that 83.9 percent of respondents support a sentiment that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) posted on Facebook on Aug. 28: “I want to tell everyone that Taiwan’s only option is to make ourselves stronger, more united and more resolute in our determination to protect ourselves.”

Wikipedia fights ‘infiltration’ by Chinese group

Taipei Times

A woman uses the Wikipedia online encyclopedia on an iPad in Cologne, Germany, on Jan. 13.
Photo: EPA-EFE

Seven editors have been banned from Wikipedia in a bid to stop what the US-based Wikimedia Foundation Inc termed “infiltration” by a Chinese group to control the volunteer-edited encyclopedia’s online content, BBC News reported on Friday.

China’s true fears in Afghanistan

Kok Bayraq

With the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, China has remarketed its East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) concerns. Beijing urged the Taliban to make a clean break with the movement and asked the US to blacklist it again.

While some are still debating whether the movement exists, it is not the core of the matter because its existence neither justifies China’s Uighur policy nor sheds light on its concerns after the withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan.

Is China really worried, and if so, is it because of the movement? This question needs to be answered.

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