Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Untangling ‘one China’ and its two ideologies

HoonTing 雲程

On May 20, former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan Richard Bush and the head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, Jason Yuan (袁健生), hosted a seminar during an academic conference to mark the centennial of the October 1911 Revolution in the Republic of China (ROC) at the Brookings Institution in the US capital.

Bush took the opportunity to remind those people in attendance that the US had broached the prickly issue of Taiwan and the Republic of China back in the 1950s and 1960s with the concepts of “New Country” (the founding of a new country) and “two Chinas.”

He then said that the concept of “two Chinas” that was proposed by the US government decades ago could still be applied to cross-strait relations today, but this would only be possible if Beijing would accept it.

College students organize vigils to mark massacre

Taipei Times

Hundreds of college students assembled in Taipei last night to mark the 22nd anniversary of China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre, joining the candlelit vigils held in Hong Kong and Macau to honor the victims of the bloody crackdown and call for a spotlight on Chinese rights abuses.

Speaking at the event at Liberty Square, Wang Dan (王丹), a student leader of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, said the problems facing China today, including corruption, high unemployment, unequal distribution of wealth and moral failings, were a result of the crackdown on the movement.

“The crackdown snuffed out an opportunity” for China to peacefully transform into a democracy, he said.

Taiwanese must end presidential planking

Joe Doufu 醜豆腐

“Planking,” or the act of lying face down for a photo op in weird and wonderful places, has actually been around for a number of years. It carried on largely unnoticed until recently, gaining popularity in Australia and New Zealand. Since then it has rapidly become the latest Internet craze.

Dedicated Web sites have been springing up online and newspapers have been awash with stories of young people planking in ever more bizarre and dangerous locations.

The young people of Taiwan have also jumped on the bandwagon, with Reuters recently running a feature on Karren and Jinyu — two Taipei women who have made a name for themselves “planking” around Taiwan — that was picked up by newspapers around the world.

June 4 — in memoriam

Taipei Times Editorial

Twenty-two years ago today, several hundred students and civilians were killed by the People’s Liberation Army to suppress the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in China. They were shot and mowed down by tanks as Beijing’s leadership moved to end the seven-week “social chaos” that was challenging their autocratic rule.

Twenty-two years later, much has changed in China — but one thing remains the same: The callous and ruthless determination of the Chinese leadership to maintain its grip on power, to the detriment of the people in whose name they rule.

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