Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Verges on Being a "Useful Idiot"

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

What is it about the US Military that so many of them seem to be totally ignorant of US commitments and policies as well as of the history and nature of China. Last week it was Admiral Mullen, now the latest faux pas came from no other than their leader, the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Gates claimed knowledge of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA)but then he implied that the new US policy would be to make the US commitments subject to the "sensitivities of China."

Say what? Since when has US policy been determined and influenced by the "sensitivities" of any outside country. During the Cold War did anyone ever worry about the "sensitivities" of the USSR? Even in our dealings with the European Union has anyone suggested that we be concerned about the "sensitivities" of the French or Germans? What is it about China that buffaloes so many military and state officials feel it deserves different treatment? Are there some basic history or policy courses that they are missing?

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.

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