Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

A new Cold War looms in East Asia

Taipei Times Editorial

Australian Minister for Defence Stephen Smith last week announced that Canberra would “seriously” consider the possibility of holding trilateral military exercises with China and the US; a move that, in a perfect world, would probably make sense.

However, the world is far from perfect, and Smith’s idea, which Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono purportedly raised with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the ASEAN summit in Bali the week before, fails to take current realities into account.

2012 ELECTIONS: Group calls on lawmakers to change Referendum Act

Taipei Times

Members of People Masters walk past the entrance to Liberty Square in Taipei yesterday at the launch of a campaign urging legislative candidates to push for revisions to the Referendum Act if elected.

Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

People Masters, a civic group advocating amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法), yesterday launched a campaign urging legislative candidates to promise to push for revisions to the law if elected.

Wearing traditional hats made of bamboo leaves and T-shirts with the words “People are Masters,” about 100 volunteers from the organization gathered at Liberty Square in Taipei to go through a brief training session before departing for a march around the city to hand out fliers.

Avoid the China trap, recognize Taiwan

Russell Hsiao

The chorus of opinion leaders and pundits in the US calling for Washington’s “abandonment” of Taiwan is getting louder, a symptom of a growing, but false, perception in the US that China holds the key to all of Washington’s problems. This is not only a dangerous misreading of Beijing’s intentions, but also reflects a lack of public understanding about Taiwan’s sovereign status.

Unification — by force if necessary — with Taiwan is a top priority for Beijing.

KMT campaign turns desperate

James Wang 王景弘

During the previous presidential election campaign, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of playing “dirty tricks.” They published a list of 16 such “tricks,” and even sent it to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).

However, the DPP is a bit cleaner than the KMT, and never used any of the tricks on the list. Ironically, four years later, the KMT has reached a dead-end, and has itself resorted to using the top tricks on that list.

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