Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

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.

Evergreen leaned on over Chen: cable

Taipei Times

A cable released by WikiLeaks suggests that Evergreen Marine Corp distanced itself from former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) because of pressure from China.

Chen’s relationship with the company dates back to his time as a legal consultant for Evergreen on several cases. The company’s founder, Chang Yung-fa (張榮發), supported Chen when he ran for president in 2000 and Chang was later named as one of the Presidential Office’s unpaid presidential advisers.

The cable, dated Jan. 1, 2006, was sent from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and said that Chang’s eventual shift of his support to the pan-blue camp might have been caused by the Chen administration’s failure to establish direct cross-strait shipping links.

VP Vincent Siew Bows Out, Saving Face for Himself, the KMT and Ma

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

It has been an accepted fact in Taiwan for the past months that Vincent Siew would not be Ma Ying-jeou's Vice-Presidential running mate in the upcoming 2012 elections. In 2008, Siew had been brought onto Ma's ticket as added value; he helped Ma to keep ties with the old guard Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and he was to give the people economic confidence that Ma's 6-3-3 promise would be a slam dunk affair. His added value dissipated after the elections and Siew was relegated to a minor role. It wasn't necessarily his fault, but it was clear he had no cachet for Ma in 2012. It was either bow out or be dumped.

Referendum laws are in dire need of amendment

Hsu Yung-ming 徐永明

The Penghu gambling referendum on Sept. 26, 2009, is the only referendum that has been passed since the legislature enacted the Referendum Act (公民投票法) in 2003, even though for all practical purposes this particular referendum is not actually applicable to the act. This is an ironic outcome, especially in light of the fact that, at the same time, a social movement launched a referendum demanding that the government renegotiate a beef trade deal with the US. The referendum proposal was eventually killed by the excessively high threshold in the second stage of petitioning, while the Taiwan Solidarity Union’s referendum on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was annihilated in the review process by the Cabinet’s Referendum Commission. Time and again, it has been proven that the Referendum Act is a dead end.

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