Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

British minister met with Audrey Tang, reports say

Taipei Times

British Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat on Wednesday met with Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang (唐鳳) to discuss mutual security interests, Reuters cited people with knowledge of the talks as saying.

The meeting broke with the UK’s conventional foreign policy, the report said.

Britain has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Ko a danger to democracy

Taipei Times Editorials

As the presidential candidates of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are occupied with putting out fires — the former with preschool drugging, the latter with sexual harassment allegations — one candidate seems to be above the fray: Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founder, chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).

However, Ko is still in the limelight after a series of diplomatic blunders. He had a spat with American China specialist Bonnie Glaser. During a Brookings Institution forum, Glaser said that compared with New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the KMT, Beijing would be “more comfortable” supporting Ko because he had a track record of handling relations with China. Ko interpreted that to mean that “he is the one most capable of communicating with China and the US.” When Glaser opposed Ko’s misinterpretation, Ko said: “Who gives a damn about her.”

Deterrence better than war: Pottinger

Taipei Times

Taiwan can look to Ukraine and Israel to learn about deterrence, which is a better option than war, former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger said during a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday.

Pottinger, chairman of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is visiting Taiwan at the head of delegation of US and Israeli security experts who are also members of the foundation.

Holding politicians accountable

Chang Yueh-han 張約翰

Social media have for the past two weeks been on fire with topics such as sexual harassment, the alleged drugging of children at a New Taipei City preschool and Taiwanese traffic being a “living hell” for pedestrians.

These issues all concern individual rights and welfare, and affect Taiwanese regardless of their political affiliation, as they are structural issues that can befall anyone. Since the issues are mostly associated with long-term gender inequality, labor, economy and culture, politicians tend to give them a wide berth as they cannot be solved in the short term.

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