Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Fire spreads in Tibet – Monk self immolates in Kardze

Sherab Woeser

DHARAMSHALA, October 25: Phayul is receiving confirmed information from Tibet that another Tibetan monk self-immolated in an apparent protest against China’s occupation today.

According to sources in exile, Dawa Tsering a 38 year-old monk from Kardze Monastery in eastern Tibet set himself ablaze at around 9.30 am local time.

Making Taiwan an end in itself

Taipei Times Editorial

Despite the occasional suggestion by a handful of US academics that Washington should “abandon” Taiwan to its “inevitable” fate of unification with China, a good number of experts and officials maintain that the nation of 23 million cannot simply be willed out of existence and must therefore be dealt with.

Welcome though this defense of Taiwan may be, a surprisingly large number of such proponents, often in the same breath, add that democratic Taiwan is useful because it serves as an example for China, encouraging the incremental democratization and liberalization of the authoritarian giant next door.

Seeing through Ma’s gimmicks

Chen Mei-chin 陳美津

On Oct. 17, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) discussed the idea of a peace treaty with China within the next decade. He said that Taiwan would consider moving in the direction of such an agreement if it had strong public backing, met the genuine needs of the country and could be carried out under the supervision of the legislature.

In another press conference on Thursday, Ma tried to make the idea of a peace treaty more palatable to the voting public by saying that a referendum on the issue could be considered.

Ambiguous Ma won’t win any votes

Taipei Times Editorial

Last year, when the government prepared to sign the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rejected the idea of a referendum on the pact.

Ma said a referendum on the ECFA would be time--consuming and a waste of money. The KMT--controlled legislature also blocked a bill calling for the referendum.

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