Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

China military has Taiwan in its sights

Taipei Times

A major new Pentagon report on the Chinese military says China is on track to build a modern military by 2020 and that despite improvements in relations across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan remains the principal focus of the Chinese military.

Fueled by its booming economy, China’s military growth in the past decade has exceeded most US forecasts.

Its aircraft carrier program, cyber warfare capabilities and anti-satellite missiles have alarmed neighbors and Washington, the long-delayed comprehensive 84-page report says.

Threat of war is not an election tactic

Taipei Times Editorial

Are Taiwanese easily scared? Apparently so, at least in the minds of some politicians, who think they can secure public endorsement simply by trying to appeal to voters through creating an atmosphere of fear.

That appears to be the case in remarks made on Tuesday by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) cross-strait policy guidelines, which do not recognize the existence of the so-called “1992 consensus.”

Defending the consensus as the basis for maintaining the “status quo,” Ma said that discarding it “would create uncertainty … and would have a huge impact on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, especially in Taiwan.”

WIKILEAKS: US rules for contacting Taiwanese revealed

Taipei Times

US diplomatic staff are required to abide by strict guidelines when making contact with Taiwanese authorities and representative offices “on all occasions through the year” and “especially in the weeks prior to the Oct. 10” anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China (ROC), a cable released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday said.

The cable, dated Sept. 5, 2008, showed that then-US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice issued a directive to overseas diplomatic missions detailing the guidelines, which the cable said did not apply to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).

The cable was meant to ensure that the unofficial relations between the US and Taiwan, which began in 1979 when the US recognized the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, were upheld.

The US has to bring Taiwan in from cold

Nat Bellocchi 白樂崎

When I was a young man, I served as an infantryman in the Korean War. Many of my fellow soldiers died around me, but in the end we prevented the unification of Korea under a totalitarian dictatorship because we fought for democracy.

That war was the result of aggressive behavior on the part of North Korea, which was subsequently joined by the newly established People’s Republic of China under then-Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東). China entered the war in October 1950, leading to a major conflict with pitched battles that lasted until the armistice in July 1953.

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