Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

ECFA follies put an end to oversight, consensus

I-Ming Lu

None of the nine agreements signed in the three meetings between Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin since June last year have been reviewed by the legislature. Instead, they automatically came into effect.

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng has repeatedly suggested a cross-strait affairs committee be established, but his efforts have not been recognized by President Ma Ying-jeou, who thinks there is no need to set up a new organization.

The legitimacy of ROC rule

Ming-Chung Chen

The recent protest against the detention of former president Chen Shui-bian has brought up an issue relating to the fundamental question of the legitimacy of the Republic of China (ROC) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule in Taiwan.

Before 1987, Taiwan was under Martial Law for 38 years, otherwise known as the White Terror, which was inflicted on the population by an authoritarian regime that legitimized its rule of Taiwan on the Cairo Declaration and on the suppression of protests and revolts by Taiwanese against corruption and discrimination against Taiwanese.

Democracy regressing

Sally Wu

“Well, look at Taiwan, look at [South] Korea, different places,” US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said recently. (“PRC stalling on human rights: House speaker,” June 7, page 1). While Taiwanese joined others in discussing the slow progress of human rights in China on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protest, how many of us noticed that democracy in Taiwan is moving backwards?

Is Ma oblivious to China’s abuses?

Taipei Times

Prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has been formally arrested on charges of subversion after being held under “residential surveillance” for half a year. Investigations against Liu may last for as long as seven months. China has drawn criticism from around the world for subjecting dissidents to such dubious legal procedures, and on such absurd grounds.

How Many Protests Must Be Made Against the KMT Abuse of Justice in Taiwan?

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Justice continues to be abused in Taiwan; human rights are ignored on a regular basis; transitional justice never happened; the Legislative Yuan has always been controlled by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and yet Ma Ying-jeou (whose reputation as the "phony pony" grows by leaps and bounds) wants us to believe that all is well in his lah-lah land. Ma preaches the deceit of "Peace in Our Time" with the rapacious country to the west of Taiwan; to cover his deceit he must distract and orchestrate the circus trial of Chen Shui-bian.

Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society Active in June

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Taiwan abounds with the multiple histories of its complex past. This June has proved to be a typical example, for it was an active month for the Taiwan Prisoner of War (POW) Camps Memorial Society. On June 6, we dedicated the Toroku Prison Camp Memorial at the Gou-ba Elementary School in Douhlio. Then on June 20, we dedicated a memorial to fourteen American airmen who were executed at the former Taipei Prison on June 19, 1945. Both memorials were part of the society's on-going campaign to never forget those who suffered imprisonment in Taiwan. In the complexities of history, these men had fought in World War II for the freedom of their own countries, and they had in their own small way contributed (directly or indirectly) to the eventual democracy that Taiwan enjoys today.

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