Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

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.

US politicians concerned about A-bian

Taipei Times

Chairman of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, Steve Chabot points to a picture as Congressman Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, center, and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang, right, looks on at the DPP headquarters in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

US Republican Representative Steve Chabot met with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday to discuss former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) condition.

Chabot and fellow US Representative Eni Faleomavaega visited Chen, who is serving a 20-year jail sentence for corruption, in Taichung Prison’s Pei Teh Hospital on Thursday.

More jaw-dropping comments

Taipei Times Editorial

And the hits just keep on coming. Inappropriate and outrageous comments from officials of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration are nothing new, but few have been more jaw-dropping than those from former Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and Control Yuan President Wang Chien-hsien.

At a forum on Sunday, Chiang urged Ma to seek a peace agreement and a pact on military confidence-building measures with China before the end of his term, and called for granting Chinese television stations, such as China Central Television and Phoenix Television, local broadcasting licenses.

Human rights violated

Tiffany Hsiao

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Ray Burghardt, was reported to have said that “he did not buy the scenario” that the human rights situation or democracy within Taiwan had eroded over the last few years (“US has never interfered in Taiwan-China talks,” April 25, page 3). I wish the reporter, William Lowther, had pressed further to get exactly what “scenario” Burghardt was referring to?

Freedom House did tout Taiwan as one of the better countries in Asia with respect to human rights.

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