Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

November polls and US-Taiwan relations

Nat Bellocchi 白樂崎

Elections are cominG up this month both in the US and Taiwan. In the US, voters go to the polls today, while voters in Taiwan will have an opportunity to vote for the mayors of five special municipalities on Nov. 27.

In both countries the elections are likely to change the political landscape significantly: In the US, the continuing high unemployment rate and dissatisfaction with US President Barack Obama’s stimulus packages have led to the “Tea Party” revolt and a resurgence of the Republican opposition. The Republicans seem set to regain a majority in the House of Representatives and may even gain a majority in the Senate.

Weak defense, poor intelligence

Taipei Times Editorial

Recent news of a plan by the National Security Bureau, the nation’s top civilian intelligence agency, to introduce an award system to address low morale in the intelligence ranks is as a clear a demonstration of the state of affairs under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as we could get.

Amid cutbacks in the defense budget — with the Ministry of National Defense announcing last week that it had no choice but to defer payment on key defense items lined up for purchase from the US — and diminished emphasis on military exercises preparing for potential Chinese aggression, it is not surprising that Ma’s critics have pointed to his apparent lack of commitment to ensuring that Taiwan has the means and skills to defend itself.

Understanding Taiwan’s status

Hoonting

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said last Monday that the sovereignty of Taiwan was returned to the Republic of China (ROC) based on the Cairo Communique (1943), the Potsdam Declaration (1945), the surrender instrument of Japan (1945) and then-US president Harry Truman’s statement on Jan. 5, 1950.

It is nothing new that Ma and his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) tend to ignore the existence of the Treaty of Peace with Japan of 1951, of which Article 2(b) stipulated that “Japan renounces the right, title and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores.”

Naphtha plant must be relocated

Chan Chang-chuan 詹長權

Looking back at major social events in Taiwan over the last century, I believe that late Yilan County commissioner Chen Ding-nan’s (陳定南) decision to not allow Formosa Petrochemical Corp to build the sixth naphtha cracker in his county had a great impact on the environment and the residents in that area. It was an historic event to which some additional thought should be given.

At the time, many officials spoke up in favor of Formosa Plastics Group when the government was making the environmental impact assessment of the plant, but they failed to examine the group’s environmental record both at home and abroad. In addition, they did not review Taiwan’s environmental protection standards to find out if they were perhaps too lax or whether law enforcement was accurate.

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