Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ros-Lehtinen to seek enhanced TRA

Taipei Times

US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairperson of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, will introduce new legislation over the next few days to strengthen and enhance the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).

This move is aimed in part at pressuring the administration of US President Barack Obama into providing more support to Taipei.

A senior committee aide confirmed to the Taipei Times on Friday that Ros-Lehtinen planned to introduce a bill soon after the US Congress reconvenes on Tuesday — it is currently on break to celebrate the Labor Day vacation — and would quickly call a hearing on Taiwan policy.

Chen Chih-chung to run in election

Taipei Times

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), who was recently sentenced to three months in jail for perjury, yesterday announced his decision to run in the January legislative elections.

“Chen Chih-chung will not be absent from the legislative election in the district of Cianjhen [前鎮] and Siaogang [小港],” he told supporters outside his office in Kao-hsiung yesterday morning.

Chen Chih-chung’s participation in Greater Kaohsiung’s ninth district as an independent candidate would make the election a three-way race and could take support away from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Kuo Wen-cheng (郭玟成).

Environmental activists protest coral reef damage

Taipei Times

The coral reefs off the nation’s eastern coast, especially near Taitung County’s Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣) and Jihuei Fishing Port (基翬漁港), are rapidly being destroyed by construction development along the shore, environmental organizations said yesterday.

The groups made the statement as they publicized an annual report documenting findings on the health of the nation’s major coral reef habitats.

This year’s report was the third annual investigation of the nation’s coral reefs. Among the seven areas targeted this year were the northeast coast, Shanyuan Bay and Jihuei Fishing Port, Green Island (綠島), Orchid Island (蘭嶼), Dongyuping (東嶼坪) in Penghu County and Siaoliouciou (小琉球).

Taiwan must have ‘strike back’ capability: US report

Taipei Times

Although former premier Tang Fei (唐飛) said on Aug. 17 that Taiwan’s indigenous Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile would be like a mosquito’s bite on an elephant, a new report by a US think tank argues that Taiwan must have “some means of hitting back against Chinese military targets.”

“The ability to hit back at Chinese military targets may not have profound operational effects, but when an inferior force takes on a superior one, the ability to strike back has a nontrivial strategic and psychological impact on an attacker,” said the 38-page Asian Alliances in the 21st Century report, released on Tuesday by the Washington-based think tank Project 2049 Institute.

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