Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

WikiLeaks trove of secret Taiwan cables may derail Chinese visit to Washington

Michael Richardson

As preparations go forward for the formal state visit of Hu Jintao of the People’s Republic of China to Washington, D.C. later this month, a large cache of secret U.S. State Department memos could upset the Chinese leader’s travel plans.

WikiLeaks has previously disclosed it has obtained 3,456 memorandums and other documents generated at the United States defacto embassy in Taipei, the American Institute in Taiwan. Over a thousand of the State Department cables are marked ‘Confidential’ with another hundred-plus cables classified as ‘Secret’ by the U.S. government.

An inconsistent Presidential Office

Taipei Times Editorial

If futures were built on promises, Taiwan under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would be the envy of the international community — prosperous, dignified and safe from harm.

Sadly for Ma, running a country requires more than slogans designed to meet a moment’s requirements — statesmanship calls for vision, action and consistency, all qualities that our promise-prone president, after more than two-and-a-half years in office, has yet to show us he possesses.

DPP criticizes civil servant perk law

Taipei Times

Retired junior public servants will soon see a nice boost in their savings, as a law increasing the amount of money they can deposit into an 18 percent preferential interest rate account comes into effect this year.

The move, passed by the legislature last year, was criticized by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday as unfair and unnecessary as interest rates in public banks continue to hover below 2 percent, despite a 0.125 interest rate hike announced last week by the central bank.

Referendum proposal likely to be rejected: TSU head

Taipei Times

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) yesterday said the chances that a review committee that has already rejected proposals for a referendum on a controversial trade pact with China would treat a fourth and final bid on the matter any differently were very slim.

Speaking outside a hearing held to determine the legality of his latest proposal to turn the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) over to a public vote, Huang said the committee would likely turn it down when it reviews it tomorrow, despite the fact that referendums are a “basic right.”

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