Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Signing the death warrant for Taiwan

Chiu Hei-yuan 瞿海源

Last month, three days after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) received 15 members of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP) steering committee, the Ministry of Justice executed six criminals. It is very likely that, when Ma was meeting the coalition’s committee members, he was aware that the executions were due to take place three days later.

After the meeting with the president, the committee members visited the ministry, which had clearly already resolved to execute the six individuals.

Documents shed light on Nixon’s ‘betrayal’

James Wang 王景弘

Former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) is said to have strongly resented his US counterpart, then-president Richard Nixon, for having “betrayed” him by going to Beijing and shaking hands with then-Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來). However, declassified US diplomatic documents show Nixon was a complex strategist who was concerned about Taiwan.

Chinese drones pose threat: experts

Taipei Times

With a direct eye on Taiwan, the Chinese military may be moving into the large-scale deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones.

The Associated Press reported over the last few days that Chinese aerospace firms had developed dozens of drones, that its technology was maturing rapidly and that they were “on the cusp” of widespread use for surveillance and combat strikes.

“Taiwan should be concerned about China’s development of large numbers of sophisticated military UAVs,” Ian Easton, a research fellow at The Project 2049 Institute, told the Taipei Times.

Taiwan's Challenge in Living Next to a Covetous Giant

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Hsieh's effort at formulating a new China policy for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) may deserve an "A" for effort and even a "B" for creativity, but bottom line, it still falls far short. Granted his suggestions certainly come closer to reality than the other world, pipe dream fantasies presented by Ma Ying-jeou, yet they still miss the mark. The problem of course does not lie with Hsieh or even Ma but with those on the other side of the equation of cross-strait dialogue, the rulers of China. Taiwan’s misfortune like that of several smaller Asian countries is that it borders a state what can be likened to a 4000 lb. gorilla whose myopic leaders so far insist on only seeing Asia and the world through their covetous prism.

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