Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

When It Comes to National Identity, Taiwanese Can Be Their Own Worst Enemy

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Most visitors to Taiwan leave with good impressions. They say Taiwanese are friendly, helpful, kind etc. In business Taiwanese have proven themselves to be hard-working, adaptive and entrepreneurial. So why then do these same congenial people have trouble working together for one nation in politics? Why can't they develop, expand and solidify the freedom and democracy that they and their ancestors took so long to win and sacrificed so much to achieve? Why do Taiwanese, particularly in their nation's identity and sovereignty become their own worst enemy?

Restricting freedom of expression in Taiwan

The Alliance for Democracy and Human Rights

The Chinese government arrested one of the originators of Charter 08, dissident and Tiananmen pro-democracy movement veteran Liu Xiaobo, on the grounds that he was instigating the overthrow of the government. We find it very upsetting that China, which keeps talking about its “peaceful rise,” would employ such measures to deal with an unarmed academic.

There's still no transparency

Taipei Times

Since the first round of cross-strait talks under the Ma Ying-jeou presidency last year, the pace of developments in the Taiwan Strait has some unnerved, and others — mostly those eyeing investment opportunities — delighted.

Were the government’s high-speed pursuit of economic opportunity rooted in democratic processes, there would be less room for criticism. But cross-strait reforms — regardless of their potential effect on Taiwan’s independence and the livelihoods of Taiwanese — are being decided behind closed doors, and with no public or legislative oversight.

Why the Name of Democracy Memorial Hall Should Not Be Changed Back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Part II

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

This is the continuation of the letter of K.W. Dowie. It is one more testimonial on the brutality imposed on Taiwanese by the late dictator Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It is not an isolated incident but rather one of continued, innumerable cases of suffering and murder from that time. Despite that, there are still those who want to change the name of Taiwan Democracy Hall back to that of the dead dictator. Only the sickest of authoritarian minds would want to do so, but those sick minds still exist in Taiwan. For those Taiwanese who have short memories just scroll down to my entries of March 13 on about Kuo Kuan-ying, Diane Lee and the KMT leech that has always been at Taiwan's throat. (The letter continues here.)

Why the Name of Democracy Memorial Hall Should Not Be Changed Back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

The following letter of April 14, 1947 was written by K.W. Dowie at the request of George William Mackay to Mackay's daughter Margaret in Canada. Mackay (the son of famed missionary George Leslie MacKay) wanted to get out news of what was happening in Taiwan after 2/28. Dowie had been a missionary in Taiwan 1913~1924 and was the architect of Tamsui Middle School; he was visiting Taiwan in the service of the US Navy after World War II. Not wanting to risk censorship Dowie wrote and mailed the letter after he left Taiwan. It is another first hand account of the murders after 2/28 and another reason why the name of Democracy Memorial Hall should never be changed back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. The letter follows.

KMT's policy leaves it flat-footed

Chih-yu Shih

The director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), Wang Yi, has given Taiwan the jitters by suggesting the opening up of the Taiwan Strait median line. Such discussions had always been held behind closed doors and bringing it out into the open challenges the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) policy of avoiding discussion of unification, independence or armed conflict.

The KMT has only itself to blame because it has taken satisfaction in its ability to maintain cross-strait peace since it returned to power last year and it feels it should receive full credit for the international acclaim over the detente across the Taiwan Strait.

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