Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan, Understanding an Identity in Process, Part I

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

What is Taiwan's identity? What does it mean to be Taiwanese? At a recent conference in Taiwan, "Democracy Building in Interesting Times" a speaker spoke accordingly, "Here we don't have the issue of one China, two systems; we have the problem of one China and two Taiwans." Mixing humor with reality he succinctly presented the current challenge of Taiwan's identity between its growing pro-independence minded democrats and the leftover unificationists of its one-party state days.

US-Taiwan FTA moving up list

Taipei Times

The US Congress is expected to consider a new proposal for a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan this year, a US-based organization has said.

While it remains unlikely that a bill will pass this year, the tactic is to create enough momentum to give it a fighting chance next year.

Taiwanese identity arises from unique past

Jerome Keating

In these troubled times, Taiwanese know they are different, but they might not always be able to verbalize how different they are. From the Japanese colonial era on, Taiwanese began to gain a unified sense of their difference.

At that time, unlike under the Qing Dynasty’s rule, the Hoklo, Hakka and Aboriginal people realized that they should not let outside rulers play one group against the other. They became united in forging an identity.

Stand up to China, think tank urges

Taipei Times

The Taiwan Thinktank yesterday urged political parties to pay attention to China’s democratic development and refrain from falling into an “economic diplomacy” trap, which it said has replaced human rights with money power.

In a report published yesterday, the think tank said China has launched “global economic diplomacy” in the attempt to expand its global domination. It has increased its investment in the eurozone and hopes to salvage the European economy and has done the same in Africa in a bid to expand its influence on that continent.

More Articles...