Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Lu warns on ‘silent annexation’ by China

Taipei Times

Former vice president Annette Lu speaks at the founding ceremony of the Anti-One China Principle Union in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times

Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday described China’s political maneuvers and increasing economic ties with Taiwan as a “silent annexation” and warned of the gradual erosion of Taiwan’s sovereignty.

“The silent annexation is ongoing. The Democratic Progressive Party’s [DPP] loss of power might be tolerable, but the loss of sovereignty in our time would be an irreversible mistake that would jeopardize future generations,” Lu said in a speech during the founding ceremony of the Anti-One China Principle Union.

Congressman Steve Chabot to visit Chen Shui-bian at Taichung Prison

Michael Richardson

Representative Steve Chabot will visit Chen Shui-bian at Taichung Prison

On April 26, Representative Steve Chabot [R-OH] announced his intention to visit Chen Shui-bian at Taichung Prison. The Cincinnati congressman is a founder of the Taiwan Caucus and has followed Chen’s case closely. Representative Chabot is chairman of a House subcommittee on Asia and is making a fact-finding tour of South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan next week.

Academics urge energy liberalization

Taipei Times

National Taiwan University professor Kao Cheng-yan, right, speaks at a forum on the deregulation of the energy industry yesterday.

The liberalization of the energy industry is a likely solution to the nation’s current disputes over nuclear energy, the root cause of which lies in the sector’s monopolization by state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), academics said yesterday.

The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is insisting on raising electricity prices and ensuring the commercial operation of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) “to make up for Taipower’s losses,” National Taipei University economics professor Wang To-far (王塗發) told a seminar.

China Will Have to Learn to Talk to Taiwan's DPP in the Future

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

A touch of despondency seems to be lingering in the air among some Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members. A recent conference in Washington D. C. brought unwelcome news as congressional staffers indicated that Taiwan was falling off the radar of US interest in Asia. Frank Hsieh, former DPP premier and failed presidential candidate (2012) boldly challenged the party to reexamine its "failed" China policy. In a speech to academics at John Hopkins University, Hsieh floated his strange "two constitutions" with different interpretations as a basis of "cross-strait engagement." He intimated that the party needed to change its position vis-a-vis China if it expects to win any future presidential elections. Negativity seemed to reign, but should it? I contend that if one really looks at what has been happening at ground level, it is China that must learn to accept and to deal with the DPP and not vice versa.

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