Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

‘FT’ source said to be from White House

Taipei Times

The “senior official” in Washington who tried to undermine Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) presidential campaign last week was almost certainly from the White House and not the US Department of State, analysts in the US say.

The official called the Financial Times to claim that Tsai had left US President Barack Obama’s administration with “distinct concerns” about her ability to maintain stability in the Taiwan Strait.

The resulting story has been seen as particularly damaging to Tsai and a clear attempt to influence Taiwan’s Jan. 14 presidential election in favor of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

No F-16C/Ds in US arms deal

Taipei Times

The administration of US President Barack Obama began the long process of briefing the US Congress on Friday about a new arms sales package for Taiwan that does not include desperately needed F-16C/Ds, sources said.

It is not clear exactly what is included — one source said it amounted to US$4.2 billion worth of materiel — but almost certainly does contain upgrades for the existing fleet of aging F-16A/Bs.

No official announcement has been made, but the full arms package is likely to become public next week when the White House formally sends it to Capitol Hill.

A Taiwanese democracy

Jerome Keating

I enjoyed Gary Rawnsley’s recent piece saying that the Taiwan Academies are a poor strategy and agree with him on most of his points such as the need for soft power, the need to make culture more of a holistic strategy and the ambiguity of competing with China’s Confucius Institutes (“Taiwan Academies a poor solution,” Sept. 14, page 8). However, there is one point that he and most of the world have not yet gotten past to achieve the appropriate paradigm shift and perspective. That is his statement that Taiwan is the first Chinese democracy.

Taiwan was not the first Chinese democracy, Taiwan is the first Taiwanese democracy. This may seem like word play, but behind it lies the continuing misunderstanding and misinterpretation of Taiwanese history in which the island or parts of the island have been ruled by various colonial powers, including the Dutch, Spanish, fleeing Ming diaspora, Manchu Qing, etc. Japan of course it must be noted was the first colonial power to rule and control the whole island of Taiwan.

China sentences four to death in Xinjiang

Phayul Stringer

DHARAMSHALA, September 15: Two Chinese courts in the restive north western region of Xinjiang sentenced four members of the ethnic Uyghur minority to death in connection with a series of mass uprisings in July, Chinese state media reported today.

The men were found guilty of murder, arson and running a terrorist organisation according to a report published on www.tianshannet.com.cn, a news website run by the Xinjiang government.

Two others were jailed for 19 years for their roles in separate incidents in Kashgar and Hotan in July.

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