Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ma still confusing values and action

Taipei Times Editorial

In the six years that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been in office, the political situation has deteriorated into turmoil and instability. The economy is weak, the wealth gap has expanded, and both Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and opposition legislators, as well as the public, are complaining.

Many of the reforms Ma pledged to implement during his presidential election campaigns have never been fulfilled. Here are a few examples of his broken promises: divesting the KMT of all its ill-gotten party assets, reforming the civil servant pension system, 6 percent economic growth, an all-volunteer military, a defense budget that amounts to 3 percent of GDP and streamlining the government.

Ukraine’s regrets now Taiwan’s frustration

Kengchi Goah 吳耿志

By this time, Ukraine must have many regrets. Among those, two stand out as the most regretful — the sale of the aircraft carrier Varyag to China in April 1998 and the handover of its nuclear weapons to Russia in 1996.

In retrospect, Ukraine would wish that both actions had not been taken, but the damage has been done.

Exploiting the name of Taiwan

Taipei Times Editorial

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been at the center of attention and criticism for the creation of 20,000 stickers with the slogan: “I am Taiwanese. I am from Taiwan” in Vietnamese and English, which it sent to Vietnam, hoping it would help anti-China protesters distinguish Taiwanese from Chinese.

The property of hundreds of Taiwanese businesses and the lives of thousands of Taiwanese were at risk after the protests broke out in southern Vietnam last week which later devolved into riots against foreign companies and factories, in particular those from Taiwan because, according to the ministry, Vietnamese had trouble differentiating Taiwanese from Chinese.

Activists sue AEC over Taipower tests

Taipei Times

Activists gather in front of the Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday after filing a lawsuit against the Atomic Energy Council for allowing the Taiwan Power Co to conduct heat testing at its dry cask nuclear waste storage facility.
Photo: CNA

A group of antinuclear activists yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Atomic Energy Council for allowing Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) to conduct heat testing at its dry cask nuclear waste storage facility.

Gathering in front of the Taipei High Administrative Court, the activists — joined by several residents living in the nation’s northern coast, where the nation’s first and second operating nuclear power plants are located — shouted slogans such as “Power plants should retire when spent fuel pool is full” and “First confirm the removal schedule or temporary storage will become the final disposal site.”

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