Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Attributing blame for the F-16 fiasco

Taipei Times Editorial

“We are so disappointed in the United States,” a Taiwanese defense official said over the weekend, reacting to confirmation that Taipei would not be sold the F-16C/D aircraft it has been seeking from the US since 2007.

While the sense of disappointment with Washington is perfectly understandable, another actor in the saga deserves equal condemnation, if not more: the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It was the KMT, enjoying a majority in the legislature during then--president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration, that blocked the budgets that would have allowed Taiwan to continue modernizing its armed forces.

Pakistan let China peruse crashed US ‘stealth’ helicopter

Taipei Times

Pakistan gave China access to the previously unknown US “stealth” helicopter that crashed during the commando raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May despite explicit requests from the CIA not to, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The disclosure, if confirmed, is likely to further shake the US-Pakistan relationship, which has been improving slightly after hitting its lowest point in decades following the killing of bin Laden.

During the raid, one of two modified Blackhawk helicopters, believed to employ unknown stealth capability, malfunctioned and crashed, forcing the commandos to abandon it.

Geography is not fate; Taiwan still has options

Nat Bellocchi 白樂崎

Over the past few months, we have seen several articles by US academics advocating that the US back away from its commitments to Taiwan (Charles Glaser, et al) and others who suggested that the US “rethink” its relations with Taiwan. I have taken strong issue with these suggestions (“Charles Glaser’s fallacious arguments,” March 7, page 8 and “There’s no need for US to ‘rethink’ on Taiwan,” April 14, page 8).

Now comes Bob Sutter, of George Washington University, who argues that Taiwan’s freedom of action is diminishing, as Taiwan has gravitated into China’s orbit because of three sets of factors: one, China’s rise and its ever-growing economic, military and political leverage over Taiwan; two, Taiwan’s relative weakness as a result of its decreasing importance and its internal divisions; and three, eroding US support.

Ma Ying-joke Government Passes the Buck Again

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-joke likes to brag that he has reduced tension in the Taiwan Strait and that he has opened Taiwan up for tourism etc. If there are problems with the Chinese tourists of course Ma Ying-joke does not take responsibility for the Pandora's Box that he opened. One of the past examples of Ma letting Taiwanese pay for what he boasts that he did was that Chinese tourists wanted to come on the cheap. Rather than offend the cheap Chinese, Ma's government let the Taiwanese travel agents and companies bear the extra burden of cost for finding cheaper places that had extra transportation requirements because they would be much out of the way.

Again, if Chinese tourists jumped ship and broke off from the tours to remain illegally in Taiwan, Ma did not take responsibility; he passed the buck to the travel agents. They now had to be the policemen and be responsible for illegal entries.

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